Metric / Imperial / English

[Benjamin]

> So if I call mileage "mileage," British people will know what I'm 
> talking about?  I was just thinking, since you call 
them "kilometers" 

This is the one that really gets on my nerves: It should be 
Kilometres.  Not kilometers. A metre is a unit of length, hence 
kilometre, micrometre etc; a meter is something you measure things 
with eg voltmeter, parking-meter (time) and micrometer.  The main 
problem is the last one, which can cause hideous confusion. 

And for a further two penn'orth: I think it's metres for short 
lengths (or centimetres for shorter ones) but miles for distances 
between towns, or down the road, also feet and inches for height of 
people (and occasionally other stuff, like font size).  Weight 
generally in pounds and ounces (try going to a supermarket and asking 
for 100g of cheese) and stones.  Though why a stone is 14lb, and is 
it 8 stone to a hundredweight (cwt)? Why?

Builders at my old school were having similar problems with metric 
and imperial - one length was measured as, "six metres, eight inches 
and a little bit" they wonder why the drafts come though the walls.  
And the draughts. 

-Ben, who works in SI units, and is working, honest, just not that 
quickly.