Metres vs Yards

[Tubby]

When I played in the 70's and 80's it was definitely the 25 yard line, the change to lines every 10 metres seems relatively recent in my decrepit mind.

[Gomersall]

44 minutes ago, BadlyOverdrawnBoy said:

The Aussies changed to metric in 1970, yet the commentators still say things like "Dominic Young is six foot seven."

But still chuck in that he weighs X kilos. 

[Gomersall]

45 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

IIRC, they serve ale in pints in some pubs.

If you’ve never been, Australia will blow your mind David. They can’t make up their minds which measure to use for serving beer. Midi, schooner, pot, pint Weirdos the lot of ‘em.

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

But still chuck in that he weighs X kilos. 

Just went to the NRL stats page and clicked on the first clickable name.

All details metric.

https://www.nrl.com/players/nrl-premiership/rabbitohs/latrell-mitchell/

I'm assuming commentators using feet for tall players is very similar to the British media rolling out 100F for hot days here when most people couldn't contextualise the rest of the Fahrenheit scale.

[Gomersall]

11 hours ago, DoubleD said:

Commentators and pundits often mention yards rather than metres. Is there a reason for this? Have pitch dimensions ever been measured in yards?

At least in your thread title you managed to spell metres correctly

[The Masked Poster]

5 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

At least in your thread title you managed to spell metres correctly

When COVID kicked in, in more than one place I saw "please stand 2 meters apart". I often used to ask if it was Gas meters? Water meters? What? 

Mostly the spelling wasn't even seen as wrong. 

[JonM]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Genuine sign apparently

Same thing on crossing the Irish border, of course. No politically controversial 'welcome to northern Ireland' sign, just one that says speed limit now in mph.

[redjonn]

11 hours ago, MZH said:

I have no idea about metres and yards in terms of rugby league history, but the UK went to the metric system in the 60s, so it stands to reason that before that yards were probably the preferred measurement.

it was voluntary to go metric,  that is it was supported by government but not compulsory.  Then in late 70's the Metrication Board was setup and started introducing orders to make metrication mandatory to certain industries.  This was scrapped in the 80's and again was voluntary. Of course in the 90's further regulations introduced for specific area's to regulate use of metric units in retail use - although supplementary units could still be displayed and this was changed in 2009 then again in 2010 allowed to continue if retailer wanted.

Confusing for sure...  mind you 1849 the florin was introduced as 10 florins to one pound - a first step towards decimal currency.

Anyway to add to those comments on where we still apply imperial.... we still say so many inch TV e.g. 43 inch TV.

 

[Blind side johnny]

1 hour ago, David Shepherd said:

IIRC, they serve ale in pints in some pubs.

British pints or American?

[Blind side johnny]

1 hour ago, David Shepherd said:

I think feet and inches for someone's height are pretty standard throughout the Anglosphere.

But try referring to stones rather than pounds in the USA.

[Big Picture]

13 hours ago, DoubleD said:

Commentators and pundits often mention yards rather than metres. Is there a reason for this? Have pitch dimensions ever been measured in yards?

Originally the field measurements were in yards, though I'm not sure when the Aussies changed over.  From the old Aussie matches I've seen it was during the 1980s at the latest, the commentators on those referred to the 22 metre line rather than the 25 yard line.

In Britain is was 1993, before then you can clearly see in old matches at venues like Central Park and Headingley which had full-length fields of play that the distance between the 10 and the quarter-line was half again as much as the distances between the other lines.  From 1993 on it was the same as the distance between the other lines.

2 hours ago, David Shepherd said:

I think feet and inches for someone's height are pretty standard throughout the Anglosphere.

Anglos do seem to be the odd holdouts against a measurement system so good that it's spread around the world and swept everyone else's primitive measuring systems away.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Big Picture

[Big Picture]

13 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

But try referring to stones rather than pounds in the USA.

Ditto Canada.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, Gomersall said:

But still chuck in that he weighs X kilos. 

Yeah it's weird how older people in Aus still use imperial for height 

[redjonn]

I live in the country and some of the locals talk about hectares of land... they interchange hectares and acres not fully realising they are interchanging between metric and imperial.... 

Mind you a cricket pitch is... one chain = 100 links  or more normally expressed as 22 yards.

[Big Picture]

6 minutes ago, redjonn said:

I live in the country and some of the locals talk about hectares of land... they interchange hectares and acres not fully realising they are interchanging between metric and imperial.... 

Mind you a cricket pitch is... one chain = 100 links  or more normally expressed as 22 yards.

And 22 yards is just a smidge over 20 metres, 20.1168 metres to be exact.

[David Shepherd]

42 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

British pints or American?

TBH, when I was in Toronto I was too “refreshed” to notice. I’d assume it was the 16 ounce version. I noticed that our Canadian cousins are just as poor at boozing as their noisy neighbours.

[Gomersall]

3 minutes ago, David Shepherd said:

TBH, when I was in Toronto I was too “refreshed” to notice. I’d assume it was the 16 ounce version. I noticed that our Canadian cousins are just as poor at boozing as their noisy neighbours.

That’s because they won’t put in the hard metres like us Brits.

[Saint Toppy]

1 hour ago, redjonn said:

I live in the country and some of the locals talk about hectares of land... they interchange hectares and acres not fully realising they are interchanging between metric and imperial.... 

Mind you a cricket pitch is... one chain = 100 links  or more normally expressed as 22 yards.

The 'chain' was the standard unit of measurement in the construction industry for centuries, In fact its only largely been phased out over the last few decades. I was still taught to use a 'chain' as part of the surveying module on my degree course and my first site job as a summer student was as a 'chainman'. 

[gogledd]

5 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

Does anyone say "I'm going to the game in Hull, it's 85 Km down the M62" though? I don't imagine anyone over a certain age does and would be surprised if even someone aged 25 didn't say "it's X miles" or "my new car can do 110 miles per hour". 

Metric is the more logical system but certain things still hangover from the past. And let's not forget, America still use the imperial system. I have to have tools in both as I often go to US companies whose machines are all in imperial. 

It depends...if I'm cycling I always use kilometres ...... cos it sounds further!

[wilsontown]

Cyclists do tend to talk in kilometres, possibly because of the continental influence on the sport.

Railway distances are still normally given in miles and chains.

[JonM]

31 minutes ago, gogledd said:

It depends...if I'm cycling I always use kilometres ...... cos it sounds further!

I do exactly the same for running - measure pace and distance in km.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, JonM said:

I do exactly the same for running - measure pace and distance in km.

It's an even mix at the running club I saunter around Hastings with - although it does tend to skew that my age and younger use kms and slightly older and above use miles.

I'm doing the Rye 10 mile on Sunday and break it down by kilometre sections because I have no concept of running in mile sections even when that is the race format.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

4 hours ago, Gomersall said:

If you’ve never been, Australia will blow your mind David. They can’t make up their minds which measure to use for serving beer. Midi, schooner, pot, pint Weirdos the lot of ‘em.

Even weirder, they can't agree on how big those sizes are from state to state.

Order a pint in Adelaide and if you're from Melbourne you won't be happy when it turns up... maybe that's why they got rid of the Rams, 'cos the pitch was 10% too small? A bit like Cas 

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Hull Kingston Bronco
Typo

[DavidM]

6 hours ago, BadlyOverdrawnBoy said:

The Aussies changed to metric in 1970, yet the commentators still say things like "Dominic Young is six foot seven."

Thank goodness they do

[DavidM]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

I do exactly the same for running - measure pace and distance in km.

I use furlongs