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Old 05-19-2010, 06:32 PM   #291 (permalink)
VEGANGELICA
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Where people kill 30 million pigs per year
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger View Post
Why do Americans seem to think Brits use the metric system?

I've come across this about 4 times in the past couple of weeks.
I always thought Brits used the metric system, too, not just officially but all the time. One reason is that I hear about "how bad U.S. students are at math and science" compared to, well, almost everyone, and so I assume Europeans are wiser than we are about science issues and shed the old English units long ago.

I wish everyone used the metric system! It is so logical and easy to remember. Also, the U.S. customary system (that we use) differs from the Imperial system (that you use in shops, you say) and creates a horrid mess. Look:

Quote:
The Imperial system uses a stone of 14 lb., a long hundredweight of 112 lb. and a long ton of 2240 lb. The stone is not used in the U.S. and the hundredweights and tons are short being 100 lb. and 2000 lb. respectively.

Where these systems most notably differ is in their units of volume. A U.S. fluid ounce (fl. oz.) c. 29.6 millilitres (ml) is slightly larger than the Imperial fluid ounce (28.4 ml). However, as there are 16 U.S. fl. oz. to a U.S. pint and 20 Imperial fl. oz. per Imperial pint, these Imperial pint is about 20% larger. The same is true of quarts, gallons, etc. Six U.S. gallons are a little less than five Imperial gallons.
Systems of measurement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See? A mess.

Quote:
Originally Posted by right-track View Post
Two cows in a field. One cow says to the other; "Does this mad cow disease worry you?
The second cow replies; "I couldn't give a fuck...I'm a Parrot!"
Ha ha! That's quite a good joke, right-track. I'll remember that one.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neapolitan:
If a chicken was smart enough to be able to speak English and run in a geometric pattern, then I think it should be smart enough to dial 911 (999) before getting the axe, and scream to the operator, "Something must be done! Something must be done!"
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