Reading the "Blair, Living in the Past" thread, I started wondering:

What do you do when you record weights, say in an Excel spreadsheet, to later access the total wieght, average weight, the variation, trends etc. ?

In metric it's obvious, you just use the normal "number" cell format, enter the weight in kg or g, and then later use the standard methods.

But what in Imperial ?
There is no "weight" cell format (I checked).
Do you convert it into decimal before you enter it, eg 6 lbs 3 oz = 6.1875 lbs ?

Honestly wondering,
Ralf

I bet they convert to metric...

IMHO, one of the reasons for the decline of science and engineering in Britain is that we have lumbered ourselves with two systems of measurement. As Ralf so rightly points out, the problems of entering one's weight on a spreadsheet and then manipulating those results is sufficiently difficult when using imperial measures that many people do not even try. Iti si this attitude that is causing this decline.

I live in the real world and find that "excell" has little to do with how I weigh myself!

Oh and " one of the reasons for the decline of science and engineering in Britain " ????

That's a classic!

Because men and women weigh themselves in UK measures this is what happens!

Perhaps 9/11 happened becasue the UK still don't use metric?

Jeesh!

SteveH,

"Jeesh". I'm not talking about you lifting yourself up onto your bathroom scale and writing it on some scrap paper.
I'm talking about accountants, whose job it is to record the transactions of their company (bulk volume, hieight and weight), nurses who have two write down the weights and heights of their patients and of new-born babies, etc. etc.
Those people will have to enter it into a computer and later on produce statistics from that data, the total, the average, variation, trend charts...

What do those people do ?

Ralf

There are 16 ounces to the pound. Thus each ounce is 1/16th of a pound. To enter pounds and ounces into Excel, you change the cell format to fractional showing in 16ths. Thus to enter 2lbs. 5 oz. you would enter 2 5/16 and it would then sum all columns correctly showing the output in pounds and fractions thereof in 16ths which happen to be ounces.

Where there is a will there is a way. Do not forget that fractions are as good as decimals.

True, it is obvious that there *had* to be a way, after all that program comes from the US.
Nevertheless it is definitely more cumbersome to handle that way (you always have to enter the "/16", and by default it shows decimal) and I can imagine managers saying: "Why don't we just record everything in metric?"

Ralf

Actually, since almost all scales here read decimal pounds, they would record it out in decimal pounds. For example. When I go to the grocery store, I ask for 1/2 a pound of ham at the deli. The scale reads out 0.5 pounds. If it's measured in pounds, then the number requested, or made is to the pound and the fraction thereof. Similarly, if it's measured in ounces, then the ounce is given. It's not often that pounds and ounces are mixed.

So if the accountant is doing work, he's libel to have a list of weights in pounds and fractions thereof, and if he's doing work in ounces; the same thing.

Ralf speaks of it being 'more cumbersome' not to use the metric system.

I suggest therefore that we free ourselves of our cumbersome system of time measurement, and switch to the modern, simpler, forward-looking, progessive [add other positive adjectives ad nauseam] decimal system and abandon the outoded 60-minute hour, 60-second minute etc.

Railway timetables could be made less cumbersome:

'The 9.79 from Paddington will arrive at Swindon at 11.97'

Athletics meetings could be made less cumbersome:

'She ran the marathon in 2.087 hours'

Holiday leave entitlement could be made less cumbersome:

'Your annual leave entitlement is 0.0712 years'

Parking meters could be made less cumbersome:

'£1 for evey 0.333333333333333333333333333333 hours'

Whatever, Tony.
Matt had some interesting arguments.

Ralf

The use of decimal time has been proposed form time to time. In fact the French Revolutionary calendar was based on decimal time, but it was found to be impractical (10 day weeks, so every tenth day off , not every seventh) and there was never any impetus for it to be promoted.

<<
Parking meters could be made less cumbersome:

'£1 for evey 0.333333333333333333333333333333 hours'
>>


Many countries adopt this principal, except that they would publish the rate as being £3 per hour. In such countries you deposit whatever coins you wish into the parking meter and you get a ticket for the appropriate amount of time. Thus, if the parking rate was £3/hour and I deposited 10p into the parking meter, I would get a ticket for 2 minutes parking. (I have seen this concept in Germany and in South Africa).

Don't forget the humble pocket calculator.

The inconvenience of working with non-decimal weights and measures is even greater.