Dear imperialists,
have you ever realized that you have so many different units to measure the same thing, i.e. lenght ? Take a look at the unbelievable stupidity of the imperial system.

How high is Mount Everest ? (Pick out the right answer)
29035 feet ?
4863 fathoms ?
9683 yards ?
5.5 miles ?
1761 rods ?
440 chains ?
44 furlongs ?
1.83 leagues ?
48.63 cable's lenghts ?

Hm.. which one should I pick...

In Metric World, it's exactly 8850 metres (or 8.85 km which is still recognizable, indeed).

I'm tempted to respond, but I shall leave it to others. Thank you.

Conrad,

At what maximum height did you fly on your last flight? (be honest)

Tony, you know that they always show both metric and imperial on those info screens, right ?

Ralf

Conrad, my friend wants to know what sort of skunk you smoke!

I measure the height of things in feet, thats it!

What do you use?

km
m
mm
dm
cm

?

Oops, I think I just inhaled what you just puffed out!

I would use either m or cm, depending on the context. The recomendation by the National Physical Laboritory is to chose one'e units so that the numbers concerend lie between 0.1 and 2000.0.

On my last flight (London Stansted to Bilbao), the pilot told us over the intercom: 'We'll be flying at 35,000 feet'. There was no translation into metric.

P.S. How many metres must you have been, above mean sea level, to be eligible to join the 'mile high club'? Is there a metric equivalent?

All of Conrad's values expressing the height of Mount Everest are correct, thought not all of equal precision.

Which one to choose depends upon what you're using the measurement for, what level of precision is required, what other units you desire easy compatibility with, and what units the audience of your project wish to use.

Pick the right tool for the job, rather than pretending that one tool is good for everything.

"Pick the right tool for the job, rather than pretending that one tool is good for everything."

What's the use of having five different hammers if you can knock in all sorts of nails with just one ?

You're kidding, right?

You've got a claw hammer for normal nails, tack hammers for small nails, sledge hammers for pounding metal, post hammers for fence posts...

Using a post hammer, which may weight over 20lbs, to hammer in a nail is quite dangerous.

Of course, Conrad would be perfectly content to hammer nails with a screwdriver.

Dammit! Someone beat me to it!

(P.S. A 2lb hammer is best for "uncrashing" a PC)

Gentlemen,
Conrad's question and your answers represent the most effective demolition of the case for metric that we have seen on these threads.
Let us savour this defining moment.

Rotclar: "Of course, Conrad would be perfectly content to hammer nails with a screwdriver."

Steveh: "P.S. A 2lb hammer is best for "uncrashing" a PC"

OK, I admit it was not exactly what one should call "a striking comparison"... (grinning)

While reading your posts, I couldn't hold back my laughter.

...or handbag

Hmm.. your previous post was better, SteveH !