In reply to G8TMV:
I knew the length of a chain, but I must rebuff the shame Colin as I much prefer watching paint dry as a spectator sport. 
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G8TMV:
I bet our American participants are smiling at this turn of the thread (not that theyāve got much to laugh at, considering how they accept short measure in pints and gallons!) Anyway, latching onto an earlier point, although all my older inch to the mile maps have been superseded I still navigate in miles - and I donāt measure bearings in radians!
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
I navigate in kilometres when on foot - it sounds so much more impressive when telling others about how far Iāve walked. I do still have some imperial OS maps, but they rarely see the light of day. All the mapping that I now use is courtesy of Bing maps, even for the local walks that I organise.
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
Yes it will remain in the memory for ever - if I can remember for ever is a different matter.
Rod, I had a few other hills as extras but when I drove past them the cloud base was below 300m and it was chuckinā it doon so you didnāt miss any. I will be back sometime to get the rest on Knapdale to the north of Kintyre.
As for the OT of measurements - what about the Culicoides Impunctatus measurement of time and motion, when the guid Scottish midgie governs the time one dauners along and the motion one takes to avoid the wee beasties.
73 Neil 2M0NCM
In reply to M0LEP:
In continental EU, we express cars fuel consumption in litres consumed in 100Km.
In the US and the UK, you expressed such consumption in Miles per gallon and you did so, logically, until the gas station pumps were switched from gallons to litres and you still keep counting miles because your car counters still count miles and your roads and highways still have milestones, although they wonāt yet always be made of stoneā¦
Replacing all milestones by kilometerstones and all road signs to express distances in Km instead of miles requires a huge amount of money, so itās easy to understand why thatās not yet done.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Theyāre not taught imperial units nowadays.
That will make kids life a bit easier at school.
Maybe some day we all will speak a common language, will use the same measurement unitsā¦
Some dayā¦
In reply to EA2IF:
Using the same measurement units is achievable, but I doubt that a common language is, for the reason that living languages evolve, and will evolve differently in different locations. If we nominate or fabricate a common language it will immediately become subject to divergent evolution.
Brian G8ADD
In reply to EA2IF:
Replacing all milestones by kilometerstones and all road<
Interestingly Guru, in speaking to one of my friends who is a road engineer, UK roads are recorded in Kmās which was done many years ago. And indeed the Motorway (Autoroute) markers are located at 100M intervals. So if you breakdown on the Motorway and you can see the nearest marker number the breakdown services know where you are located to the nearest 100M. We hang on to Miles just in case the Romans fancy invading us again (though they would have to adjust for their shorter mile) - those crazy Italians (:>)
73 es ābona fortunaā
Jack(;>J
GM4COX
In reply to GM4COX:
Indeed interesting, Jack. I didnāt know (or at least didnāt remember) UK Motorway markers are located at 100m intervals.
It sounds weird to me because all motorways have surely been made in the UK over the 20th and the 21st centuries and the mile had probably been in use long before. There must be some reason for doing so in the 20th century.
Anyone knowing it and wishing to ilustrate us will be welcome.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to EA2IF:
Mobile phones: that is the reason.
Before everybody had a mobile phone, when you broke down on the motorway you called for help on the emergency phones which are every mile ISTR. The emergency services knew where you were because they knew which phone you called from.
Now when you breakdown, you call on the mobile and the emergency services ask where you are and nobody knows. So now there is a post no more than 50m from your car with a number identifying where you are and which side of the motorway.
Mark the poles in miles or kms doesnāt matter, you quote the number to someone. But if you buy in the software to manage the system it may already work FB in kms in which case why pay more to have it modded to miles.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
That makes sense. Thanks for the info.
73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Mobile phones: that is the reason.
I must contradict that. Small numbered distance marker posts have always been on UK motorways. They have been there since long before the mobile phone was invented. I well remember counting them and working out the sequence of colours to while away boring journeys half a century ago.
Originally they were at half furlong intervals and numbered in miles. They changed to 100m (which is almost the same distance) and numbering in km in the 1970s.
The larger blue ādriver location signsā were added for the benefit of the mobile phone user. Curiously, the distance in km shown on these signs is still referred to as āchainageā.
In reply to M1MAJ:
In reply to MM0FMF:
Mobile phones: that is the reason.
I must contradict that. Small numbered distance marker posts have
always been on UK motorways. They have been there since long before
the mobile phone was invented. I well remember counting them and
working out the sequence of colours to while away boring journeys half
a century ago.Originally they were at half furlong intervals and numbered in miles.
They changed to 100m (which is almost the same distance) and numbering
in km in the 1970s.
This is true. I went out with an engineer to look at a patch of subsidence on the hard shoulder of the M1 a few weeks after it was opened, and whilst we waited for the digger to open a trial pit I got the engineer to explain the chainage post system to me. My clearest memory of that day, though, was hearing Moggy Minors approaching from miles away and having them pass at about the ton with the engines screaming in agony! Imagine - being beside the M1 and seeing cars passing at a rate of about one a minute in mid afternoon!
I think its ironic that on our most high tech roads the posts were metricated forty years ago but all the road signs remain in miles to this day, and meanwhile a PROW sign has miles one side and km the other!
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Minorā¦ ton? 1959 when the M1 opened, these would be the 848cc Minors that could do 63mph. Just! Still 60mph on skinny crossplies, lever arm dampers and drum brakes would feel rather fast.
Thing is Iād swap my car for a Minor 1000 Traveller in an instant. I always wanted my dad to get one when I was a kid. Instead he got a Viva HA. Oh, the shame of a Luton rotbox. Do I win a prize for remembering the reg. no. from 47 years ago, it was a mint green Viva HA Deluxe with a dark green waist stripe with the Liverpool reg JLV 195D?
EDIT: looking at the picture on Wikipedia it must have been a SL and not a deluxe model, as the SL had the side stripe.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
63 mph? Before I decided that my eye defect made driving too dangerous I bought a moggy to learn on, a black split windscreen job that had been exported to Malaya and then re-imported, reg VLN 63. It drove like a tank and needed something like a motorway to get up to full speed but it could reach 80 given long enough. There was a huge amount of space under the bonnet, you could have fitted a full-size suitcase each side of the engine, and it was easy to change engines for something more pokey, lots of other mods were known amongst the local petrolheads, too, though at this distance in time Iām darned if I can remember them! I was never a petrolhead, myself, but some of my mates were. In a moment of weakness I let one of them put a 1000cc engine in the car, I wasnāt bothered but he was salivating for the challengeā¦those were the days! A few years later I got my G8 followed by two of the gang, and we soon found at what speed a 70 cm halo blew away!
Memories!
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Indicated speed != actual speed.
In reply to MM0FMF:
Do I win a prize for remembering the reg. no. from 47 years agoā¦
Yes Andy, second prize Iām afraidā¦ 
D reg was just before they moved the letter change date from 1st January to 1st August to avoid the rush for new vehicles during a holiday period. It always seemed daft that it was changed to another holiday period - something like 1st October would have been far more logical.
Back in '67 my brother had a blue mini BRR 801C and my mother drove a willow green minivan 543 OHT of '62 vintage. I can remember quite a few of the plates from my fatherās cars back in the late 50ās. Being an area sales manager he had a new car every year and thankfully they were Wolseley 1500ās or Austin Cambridges. Never had a Minor. Even though motorways were not around then and the A roads passed through village after village, he still managed to travel 25,000 miles a year. Unfortunately he died in a road accident in '64ā¦ on one of those notorious 3 lane roads.
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
Oh yes. Thatās another year the time-burglar has stolen from me. You know youāre getting old when you no longer know how old you are without thinking about it. Then find you need to think about it for a while to work it out. Then you give up and use a calculator.
This could explain why I canāt my trivial bit of C# / SQL code to workā¦ onset of senility!
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
why I canāt my trivial bit of C# / SQL code
.
Actually Andy, senility is when you leave out words, eh?
Elliott, K6EL
The Oops Guy
In reply to MM0FMF:
Sure, thatās what the mile phone and a wristwatch is for! That, incidentally, is how I know our current car has a speedo that reads 5% fast - but I havenāt told Pauline that, she has a heavy foot!
Brian G8ADD