What is a kil'ometer?

[Jock Scot]

As the arch Ludite,we should have stuck to the Imprerial system! I still use yards,chains and furlongs as well as rods, poles and perches as measurements!

[Bugbear]

In American Conversational English, the vowels are somewhat interchangeable; it is a form of schwa. The Americans speak using the back of the throat much more than the English who tend to pronounce words more with the front of the mouth. That makes it easier to do this vowel swopping etc.

[vmac3205]

As the arch Ludite,we should have stuck to the Imprerial system! I still use yards,chains and furlongs as well as rods, poles and perches as measurements!

The one I can't figure out is a "stone" weight.

[starbkjrus]

Besides, anyone who has spent time in the military knows that neither pronunciation is correct. The proper term is "klick."

Dave beat me to it.

Amen to that. 16 ounces in a pound and 14 pounds in a stone and however many stone in a tonne.... what a palaver!


But it IS a kilo of something, it is a kilo of metres, same as a kilobyte is a kilo of bytes (almost!), a kiloHertz is a kilo of Hertz and a kilogram is a kilo of grams
T.

Ahhh, but does that automatically make you a member of the #1 Gold Club?

As a mileometer in my old car measured miles then the new fangled device for km surely should be a kilometerometer. The KilOmeter sounds like some gory battlefield device

Perhaps for Dr. Doofenshmirtz it would be a kilometerometer -inator?

[A Hay]

What a fun thread!
To throw my 2 cents in, I was trained as a Civil Engineer, with a couple of surveying courses thrown in in the USA. For the last 20+ years I've worked on a military base in Germany. So I've learned English inch, foot, yard, mile, Surveying chains, rods and furlongs, and metric millimeters, centimeters, meters, etc.

I have tape measures with both metric and english and I have to say that doing small projects around the house I use metric exclusively! I'll never go back to inches and fractions.

However, when talking to Americans over here I use english measurements and with Germans I use metric. It is almost automatic by now. Just like I use my fork in the right hand eating on-post, but in my left hand off-post.

Multi-culturism is wonderful. I can have a "Senior Moment" in 3 languages and 3 measurement system!

[Jock Scot]

The one I can't figure out is a "stone" weight.

16 ounces(oz.) to the pound(lb.)--------14 pounds(lbs.) to the stone(st.).

[meinfs]

... because we use miles, thanks to the English/British/Imperial system of measurement.

NOW what if:

The Scots won all of their battles and took over the British Empire,

then perhaps with these Scottish units of measurement :

your real estate might be measured in

Scottish rood (ruid in Lowland Scots, ròd in Scottish Gaelic)
Scottish acre = 4 roods

or
oxgangs (Damh-imir) = the area an ox would plow in a year (about 20 acres)
ploughgates = 8 oxgangs
Daugh (Dabhach) = 4 ploughgates

your taxes in:

Groatland or Còta bàn, a groat is a coin
Pennyland (Peighinn) = 2 groatlands
Quarterland (Ceathramh) = 4 pennylands (8 groatlands)
Ounceland (Tir-unga) = 4 quarterlands (32 groatlands)
Markland (Marg-fhearann) = 8 Ouncelands (varied)
Farthingland (Feòirling) – equal to half a pennyland.

Your alcohol in

Gill
Mutchkin
Chopin
Pint (Scots)/Joog
Gallon

Your weight in

Drop/drap
Ounce
Pound/Poon
Stone/Stane






Oh and your Tartan fabric in:

Ell – Elbow, 37 Scots inches, 94.50 cm

I'd like an 8-ell kilt, please.





Source: en.wikipedia.org

[Smayniac]

Down with metrics, we don't want a foreign ruler.

Join the fight against the metric system. Don't give an inch.

Sorry couldn't resist.

Adam

But wait, isn't an imperial foot based on the lower extremity of a foreign ruler?

Bob

[Nervous Jock]

As the arch Ludite,we should have stuck to the Imprerial system! I still use yards,chains and furlongs as well as rods, poles and perches as measurements!

IIRC is a cricket pitch a chain long?

[BEEDEE]

As Churchill once remarked:

Two great nations separated by a common language

Brian