Thanks guys, it’s been interesting and informative reading your varied responses. It seems that there is the same sort of variation in the US as here. Richard was spot on with his comment about the older members of the British woodturning (or any other) fraternity resisting metric (or SI as Bill correctly comments) units.
I agree with John that it’s easier to divide 7/16 in half than 27mm, but now try dividing them by three instead. He’s right though that it makes sense to choose whichever units are most convenient. Rules here often have inches (subdivide usually into eighths, sixteenths and sometimes thirty-seconds) on one edge and centimetres, subdivided into millimetres on the other edge. If something happens to be exactly three inches wide (say) then that’s what I’d use, not 76.2mm.
For the record Britain changed to a decimal currency in 1972 From 240 pennies to the pound we moved to 100 ‘new pennies’ (imaginative name, or what) to the pound. By now the ‘new’ has been dropped and they are just simple pennies again. Surprisingly there was enormous resistance to the new system - again mostly from the elderly (I wasn’t in 1972, but might fall into that category now). We also had a currency unit called a guinea which was one pound and one shilling (1 shilling = 12 old pennies = 1/20 of a pound). Oddly its still sometimes used but now is one pound and five new pence (I/20 of a pound). Incredibly people worried that decimal currency might be too complicated!
As an ex-schoolteacher I have to disagree with the sentiment behind Charlie’s comment about kids today (‘kids today cannot add, subtract, divide, multiply without some type of devise....I need pencil and paper’). I doubt that American kids are so very different from British kids, and I think he’s mistaken to cast doubts on their abilities. Sure, they might reach for a calculator - and why not - that’s what calculators were invented for. If they didn’t have one I’ve no doubt they’d figure it out. On the whole the majority of teenagers today are just as well educated as most people now in their sixties, but with different knowledge and skills.
(I can get into a rant about putting down young people. Over here I frequently see signs in shops saying ‘no more than two schoolchildren allowed in at a time’. The implication is that if you can’t watch them they are going to steal everything in sight that’s not bolted down. As a group I refuse to accept that schoolkids are any more inherently dishonest than any other identifiable group of people - there are villains at all ages. I’m waiting to see a sign that says ‘no more than two pensioners (or woodturners, or gardeners, or…) allowed at a time.’ Rant over…phew…deep breaths…calm…calm…Sorry Charlie!)
It’s been an interesting read. Thanks
Bob