Telegraph wants to return to imperial

[Pickman's model]

I ask for mine in metric, but have been amused to see others ordering in various combinations - "2.4m of four by two".

I never get confused. And, anyway 4x2 was never actually 4x2, because that was the size of the unplaned timber, so it was more like 98x44mm

Yeh just a mite less than 2x4

 

[JimW]

They tried introducing metric to horse racing, but not furlong.

 

[og ogilby]

I ask for mine in metric, but have been amused to see others ordering in various combinations - "2.4m of four by two".

Timber lengths are in metric. You can't get an eight foot piece off the shelf but the width and thickness is still in old imperial, even if it can be converted to metric.

Asking for a 2.4m four by two is probably the most common way of asking for that size of timber and I also know both the customer and myself know what we are talking about.

It gets complicated when people ask for a 2.4m ten by five. Then we have to have another conversation as to whether they mean inches or centimetres.

 

[existentialist]

Yeh just a mite less than 2x4

A metric mite, or an imperial one, though?

 

[Pickman's model]

A metric mite, or an imperial one, though?

Babylonian

 

[existentialist]

Babylonian

Phew.