Is the decimal system likely to be more biological than logical? Hands and feet being the guide?
You mention hands and feet so we are dealing with measurement of length based on the physiology of an average human being. That seems not just illogical but also bizarre. Measurement based on the natural physical world i.e. the thing you are measuring, makes infinitely more sense than physiology (there's no such thing as the average human being and the yard for example is based on the belt or girth of a man!) - and that's the metre (one ten millionth of the distance from the north pole to the equator).
So the metre is physical rather than biological - makes sense to me.
As an 11 year-old, it was the worst day of my life. I used to be able to get 12 sweets in the tuck shop for my shilling and overnight, I could only get 5 for the one shilling equivalent of 5p #WhatALiberty
Is the decimal system likely to be more biological than logical? Hands and feet being the guide?
You mention hands and feet so we are dealing with measurement of length based on the physiology of an average human being. That seems not just illogical but also bizarre. Measurement based on the natural physical world i.e. the thing you are measuring, makes infinitely more sense than physiology (there's no such thing as the average human being and the yard for example is based on the belt or girth of a man!) - and that's the metre (one ten millionth of the distance from the north pole to the equator).
So the metre is physical rather than biological - makes sense to me.
I wasn't clear. I didn't mean feet being akin to a foot in length, I meant a hand or a foot has five appendages, toes, fingers and thumbs. Used in counting not in measuring.
It's not about dumbing down, well not entirely. It's about using a universally understandable metric. Anyone can come to the country and understand the currency system. Can you imagine going abroad and being told that'll be £3, 5d & 2s? Weird.
It's also why many countries use kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres. Can you imagine measuring something requiring fine precision in inches & feet? If you need to cut something 7 & 1/16th of an inch or 180mm?
Personally I think it's a bit weird that we haven't moved entirely to that too. I measure all distances of running, walking and driving in miles, except the short distance runs.... If I am doing DIY I use millimetres or centimetres. I mean I use them interchangeably and maybe that's best?
Ah but it is dumbing down to the internationally accepted base 10 when as a country we were taught to think to the base 12 (duodecimal) and base 20 (vigesimal) in addition to the standard decimal system. It helped tremendously with understanding of binary and also hexadecimal (base 16) concepts used in computing and helped the country in development of computer software. Other countries lagged behind because they only thought to the base 10. The concept of chain and furlong is know alien to a lot of people even though it remains in use today. However, how many can still understand Rod, Pole and Perch, which were explained on the back of my Kent County Council school exercise book.
Average prices on this day House: £5,378 Council rent: £5 a week Pint of lager: 12.5p Gallon of petrol: 34p 20 cigarettes: 25p
The average weekly wage was £30.98
The average wage, at 3.5 times earnings, could get you a mortgage big enough to buy the average-priced house without a deposit, and 2,400 pints of beer.
prices rocketed straight after decimalisation day .. here are a couple of interesting decimalisation facts .. The Russian ruble was the first decimal currency to be used in Europe, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system for at least 2000 years.[1] Elsewhere, the Coinage Act of 1792 introduced decimal currency to the United States, the first English speaking country to adopt a decimalised currency. In France, the decimal French franc was introduced in 1795. from Wiki of course
I knew quite a few of the market trade stall holders on Lewisham market.....they shamefully ripped of customers and prices went up as much as 50% almost overnight!
Price rises have averaged at 5.6% since 1971 A pound then had the buying power of £14.46 today The highest year-on-year inflation rise in the past 50 years was 24% in 1975 & the lowest was 0.53% in 2009.
I remember it well. Also how ripped off a lot of the population were. People can handle inches feet and yards even today. Can't they? The old system simply used different number bases and led to an arithmetically sophisticated population.
I left school in 1980 and up to that point I had never used feet or inches at school. The first day at work,(engineering), it was all inches and remained that way for me way with the exception of college for r many years. Even today you will find many of the machine tools with imperial graduations, we actually bought a new lathe about 5 years ago which has dual measurement. What catches me out is when someone gives me a sketch in cm. I work inches or mm. As for the money I remember decimal day well, although I was only 7 years old at the time. My gran used swear blind prices went up because of it.
We were brought up with quite a varied system of weights and measures and currency. Even now nobody seems to think twice about the concept of a 'pint'. The currency was a big incentive to be agile with mental arithmetic. It astonishes me even now when paying £1 for something costing 64p that people in shops can't work the change out in their head without a calculator. Can anybody do a simple sum like £2 3s 11d plus £1 18s 7d and then convert it into decimal currency?
Answer below.
£4 2s 6d Which today would be four pounds twelve and a half pee.
My favourite is when something comes to say £5.10, you give them a £10 note and 10p and watch the look of utter confusion on their faces. Happens at The Valley kiosks quite regularly.
Yes, it was also a Monday. I had been employed by the Bank of England for a grand total of 5 months and was tasked, with many others, to work the weekend of 12/13 February manually converting all the Bank's stock ledgers to decimal. The pubs in the City were doing a good trade that weekend. :-) (The Banks computers in those days were rudimentary with punch cards. It was not until, maybe the late '70s, early '80s that its financial ledgers were converted to a basic computer-based system made by NCR. Until that time the ledgers were still handwritten using a dip pen which needed to be dipped in indelible ink every few words. And woe betide you if you made a mistake.)
When I left school in 1985 my first job was in the B of E Issue Office. I remember having to use hand written ledgers to record the withdrawal of the £1 note so things obviously had not moved on much from 1971.
There were public information films produced in preparation for changeover to decimal currency including one called 'Granny gets the point' that was shown quite often.
Wonder which famous footballer, now manager, has watched this?
I remember it well. Also how ripped off a lot of the population were. People can handle inches feet and yards even today. Can't they? The old system simply used different number bases and led to an arithmetically sophisticated population.
Decimilisation saw the start of the horrendous inflation that we saw in the seventies and eighties. Nearly everything went up in price overnight as new prices were mainly rounded up.
Comments
So the metre is physical rather than biological - makes sense to me.
With decimal, you can only divide by 2, 10, 20, 50 and 100.
It made hiring staff by the day or hour a lot easier.
just to see tourists perplexed looks when trying to buy anything over here.
House: £5,378
Council rent: £5 a week
Pint of lager: 12.5p
Gallon of petrol: 34p
20 cigarettes: 25p
The average weekly wage was £30.98
The concept of chain and furlong is know alien to a lot of people even though it remains in use today. However, how many can still understand Rod, Pole and Perch, which were explained on the back of my Kent County Council school exercise book.
A pound then had the buying power of £14.46 today
The highest year-on-year inflation rise in the past 50 years was 24% in 1975 & the lowest was 0.53% in 2009.
Let's get a UK Gov Petition going to introduce the UK unit of measurement as 'Cricket Pitch'.
Wonder which famous footballer, now manager, has watched this?
Crazy that (old) people think this system and metric are better. If i had my way i would decimalise time.