Mechanical aptitude test

Indeed. Under 32 is cold, over 100 is hot is about as far as I go in
Farenheit.

Phil.

 

when the thermometer you are using only has a fahrenheit scale?

 

and four denarii in a groat.

 

Yep, with mental arithmetic converting Km to miles when abroad.

Yards. Metres are either "a bit over a yard" or "around 40 inches" or "1.1
yards" depending on mood.

Tape measure - fractions of an inch, vernier caliper - mm

Whatever's on the feeler gauge

Tons, cwt, stones, lbs, oz etc. Kg sort of, if it's stuff I've only ever
dealt with in Kg. 1Kg = 2.2lb, which means that the 25Kg bags of gravel
from the garden centre are actually 55lb, which is near enough half a
hundredweight, a measure I've been familiar with for over 40 years.

Acres - can't visualise hectares.

AOL

 

Centigrade means 0=freezing, 20=comfortable room temperature,
40=non-colourfast cottons, 100=boiling water. I would have no idea what
these temperatures were in Fahrenheit. Weather forecasters exclaim about
"90 in the shade", which translates as "kinda hot" to me.

 

CT says...

You fucking lightweight

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE
Suzuki SV650 K3
Honda CBR600 F-W
Suzuki GSX-R750L
Yamaha SR250 SpazzTrakka

 

Champ says...

That's bollocks. When I was 6 or 7 years old and at Elmbridge Infants in
Gloucester, I had to be taught the Imperial system because I only knew
the Metric one, having just moved back to the UK from Singapore. IIRC
you were either at the same school or one close by at the same time as
me, possibly a school year lower.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE
Suzuki SV650 K3
Honda CBR600 F-W
Suzuki GSX-R750L
Yamaha SR250 SpazzTrakka

 

If you'd been there, you'd understand that the (tm) is entirely
warranted.

 

I was in the same school year as Champ. My experience is similar to that of
Ace. Imperial only until the last few years of primary school, when we got
new metre long rulers and currency. At high school we only used metric and
by the time I did A levels we were on SI.

 

I watched while the boy child did it and was quite impressed that I
worked out about 15 answers. I really wish physics and maths weren't
as much of a closed book as they are. Particularly now I have no idea
about youngest's homework.

So what would 30% get me in a GCSE now? Would it beat my O level
grade F followed by an unclassified at resit?

[1] 78% because 'I can't remember pulleys and know nothing about how
cars work'

 

I do this too. I have to think to work out height and weight quoted in
metric.

I think this is a lot to do with using imperial measurements with my
parents and grandparents around the farm and home. Thinking about it, at
Xerox a lot of the US drawings were in inches, although that was less
common once most of the designs were bought in from the Fuji Xerox
collaboration.

I measured a window for curtains the other day and did it in inches. When
looking in the curtain shop the packets had imperial measurements on them.

 

And mid to late thirties

It feels hotter in the summer if it is 70 odd rather than 20 odd.

 

Well, insofar as the concept of suction exists, it would be said to be
the action of a gas at a higher pressure filling a space where the gas
is at a lower pressure, so yes, it could.

Or do you have some alternative definition of suction?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
`\|/`
`

 

Surely that's the other way round?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
`\|/`
`

 

It's a mystery to me too. Simple application of logic, just like the
gearwheel questions.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
`\|/`
`

 

<complete thread change.>

What is it expected to do now then? What do you think it does?

 

Lady Nina says...

From my recent experiences, schooling alone doesn't teach much.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE
Suzuki SV650 K3
Honda CBR600 F-W
Suzuki GSX-R750L
Yamaha SR250 SpazzTrakka

 

Sucking his keyboard for inspiration, platypus typed:

And capacity - liquids now always in litres (except for beer) but
consumption always in mpg.

I don't think I could even visualise an acre, TBH.

 

That just about sums it up. A real mishmash of unit systems. It's not
just about schooling either, "crap" or otherwise. It's about the world
we grew up in and the 80s, like the 70s, was still an imperial decade as
far as practical measurements were concerned.

Maybe the lost generation is a little wider than our resident cultural
arbiter thinks.