Gasoline

[Paranoid Marvin]

Those ratings are very odd... My dad used to get around 40MPG for motorway journeys out of a Ford Mondeo (Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique to you, apparently) estate with a 2 litre petrol engine and 160k on the clock. I don't believe that a modern Honda civic wouldn't beat that, being a smaller, lighter car, with a smaller, more modern engine. Even my old Peugeot 205 petrol gets about 45MPG, and although it's a small engine (1.1 litre), it's carburated, and modern EFI small cars are much better. Modern large diesels (like the new Passat) are capable of a very real 50MPG+, which is not at all bad for a car with 170bhp in it's top trim with the 2.0 PD engine

 

My Dad has a 2.0L TDI Bora and it is really nippy, yet he uses diesel at about 60MPG average (he travels on motorways most the time).

He used to commute 60 miles every day to work and then 60 miles back, now he gets the bus and is saving about a grand a year! (and his car's value and his stress!)

[FUKKU]

Those ratings are very odd... My dad used to get around 40MPG for motorway journeys out of a Ford Mondeo (Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique to you, apparently) estate with a 2 litre petrol engine and 160k on the clock. I don't believe that a modern Honda civic wouldn't beat that, being a smaller, lighter car, with a smaller, more modern engine. Even my old Peugeot 205 petrol gets about 45MPG, and although it's a small engine (1.1 litre), it's carburated, and modern EFI small cars are much better. Modern large diesels (like the new Passat) are capable of a very real 50MPG+, which is not at all bad for a car with 170bhp in it's top trim with the 2.0 PD engine

you're reading that wrong because of what you assume a "gallon" to be.

 

1 british gallon = 4.54 liters

1 AMERICAN gallon = 3.78 liters (yes one place where americans don't go bigger than the rest of the world )

 

by american standards, your dad's car gets about 33mpg highway. my mazda gets about 35 highway on a 2.0l engine with 115k miles, civics and corollas tend to push 40 since their engines are smaller (1.5-1.8l).

[Azurael]

D'oh! I forgot American gallons are smaller than ours

Never mind

[Alessandro17]

If you used litres instead, no misunderstanding would be possible

And besides you can't buy petrol by the gallon in Britain.

[Azurael]

No, but we still measure speed and distance in miles and measure miles per gallon rather than litres per 100km like everybody else. Crazy, ain't it?

 

Strange thing is, I've grown up in a metricised Britian, yet somehow, it always seems to be 2' or 6" which is the sensical measurement, not 60.96cm or 152.4mm...

 

Metric measurements are easy to add up, but they're always the 'wrong' length

[Alessandro17]

Indeed, you should make up your mind whether you want to use Metric or Imperial

Trying to use both is a mess.

[Paranoid Marvin]

If you used litres instead, no misunderstanding would be possible

And besides you can't buy petrol by the gallon in Britain.

 

Crazy, isn't it?

We buy by the litre and use by the gallon!

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

Indeed, you should make up your mind whether you want to use Metric or Imperial

Trying to use both is a mess.

Imperial is garbage. Why America still uses it is beyond me.

[socal swimmer]

Indeed, you should make up your mind whether you want to use Metric or Imperial

Trying to use both is a mess.

 

agreed. using both in ap physics = love. NOT!

 

what about degrees/radians?

 

metric makes more sense. why can't we switch?

[OryHara]

Imperial is garbage. Why America still uses it is beyond me.

 

Why the world uses that other garbage is beyond me.

[Paranoid Marvin]

Why the world uses that other garbage is beyond me.

 

Are you kidding?

Imperial is the most illogical system ever invented.

 

Counting in tens is the easiest way - we have ten fingers.

Also, metric is better with computers, I am assuming, since it's not made up of stupid, incomprehensible 12s and 14s...

 

I guess there is a reason why America is one of the most disliked countries in the world.

Perhaps it's just George Bush.

Perhaps it's the fault of retards like you.

 

Not that I really care, at least I don't have to live in that wretched country.

[FUKKU]

seriously if metric vs imperial bothers you that much you should probably find other things to do with yourself, calculators are cheap and conversion is easy

[Alessandro17]

seriously if metric vs imperial bothers you that much you should probably find other things to do with yourself, calculators are cheap and conversion is easy

 

I can understand Paranoid Marvin's frustration. Many years ago I had a Scottish friend, the same age as him now. He used to tell me that at school he had studied nothing but Metric, thus he didn't understand Imperial. And yet he had to use Imperial in daily life. That is a bit schizophrenic to say the least.

[FUKKU]

I can understand Paranoid Marvin's frustration. Many years ago I had a Scottish friend, the same age as him now. He used to tell me that at school he had studied nothing but Metric, thus he didn't understand Imperial. And yet he had to use Imperial in daily life. That is a bit schizophrenic to say the least.

I can understand the confusion if you live somewhere where both systems are used interchangably. Here in the US it's pretty standard to use the metric measurements for scientific use and to use imperial for everything else (and both systems are taught in school, usually by the time one gets out of primary school they know the difference and simple conversions), so unless you're a chemist you just don't use both systems that often.

[Alessandro17]

Here in the US it's pretty standard to use the metric measurements for scientific use and to use imperial for everything else (and both systems are taught in school, usually by the time one gets out of primary school they know the difference and simple conversions), so unless you're a chemist you just don't use both systems that often.

 

In the UK they have to use both on a regular basis.

What used to annoy me most was distances and speed in miles, so I had to make a quick conversion in my mind.

[OryHara]

Are you kidding?

Imperial is the most illogical system ever invented.

 

Counting in tens is the easiest way - we have ten fingers.

Also, metric is better with computers, I am assuming, since it's not made up of stupid, incomprehensible 12s and 14s...

 

I guess there is a reason why America is one of the most disliked countries in the world.

Perhaps it's just George Bush.

Perhaps it's the fault of retards like you.

 

Not that I really care, at least I don't have to live in that wretched country.

 

Have fun with your spy cams on London's streets. And remember. Big Brother Brown loves you. The EU is your friend.

[Paranoid Marvin]

Have fun with your spy cams on London's streets. And remember. Big Brother Brown loves you. The EU is your friend.

 

Yeah, that's all well and good - except I am closer to Norway than I am to London.

 

The EU can suck my appendage, and you, can stop talking rubbish as if you have lived here for 40 years and be violently oppressed - which you haven't.

 

Stop trying to reflect your jack ass political views on countries that have no such problems

[Alessandro17]

The EU is your friend.

 

The EU can suck my appendage

 

Can somebody (possibly a Brit, I can see by myself why Americans don't like the EU) tell me with well reasoned, logical argumentations what is so bad about the EU? As far as I can see it is a free, voluntary association of countries who get more benefits than disadvantages from joining. Else there is no explanation why so many countries wanted and still want to join so badly.

Unless of course I am blind and there is something obvious that others can see and I can't.

[Paranoid Marvin]

Can somebody (possibly a Brit, I can see by myself why Americans don't like the EU) tell me with well reasoned, logical argumentations what is so bad about the EU? As far as I can see it is a free, voluntary association of countries who get more benefits than disadvantages from joining. Else there is no explanation why so many countries wanted and still want to join so badly.

Unless of course I am blind and there is something obvious that others can see and I can't.

 

Britain has a unique culture and way of life, and doing things like changing our currency and making us adhere to farm and fishing crushing agricultural policies is ruining this.

 

Europe is a great place - let's just keep it on that side of the Channel/North Sea

 

Also, countries like Romania etc that are so desperate to join the EU would take more than they give, so British, French, German etc tax payers would be paying for it.

[Alessandro17]

Britain has a unique culture and way of life, and doing things like changing our currency and making us adhere to farm and fishing crushing agricultural policies is ruining this.

 

Every country has a unique culture, but wherever I have been it didn't look as if they had changed it because of the EU.

 

Also, countries like Romania etc that are so desperate to join the EU would take more than they give, so British, French, German etc tax payers would be paying for it.

 

It doesn't look as if we are paying more taxes because Bulgaria, Romania... have joined.

Here in Italy we pay a lot because we have had dishonest and incompetent governments for 60 years.

[bofors]

[FUKKU]

Can somebody (possibly a Brit, I can see by myself why Americans don't like the EU) tell me with well reasoned, logical argumentations what is so bad about the EU? As far as I can see it is a free, voluntary association of countries who get more benefits than disadvantages from joining. Else there is no explanation why so many countries wanted and still want to join so badly.

Unless of course I am blind and there is something obvious that others can see and I can't.

economic partnerships usually favor those who bring less to the table initially

[Paranoid Marvin]

 

:)

 

I bet that's a punishable offense somewhere in the world!

[Alessandro17]

economic partnerships usually favor those who bring less to the table initially

 

That is probably true. But as you rightly say, "initially". The EU is a long term project. The Treaty of Rome was signed on March 25, 1957, that is, more than 50 years ago.

[gwprod12]

I can kinda understand the anti-EU perspective. It's kinda like the different state perspective here in the US. Washingtonians pay taxes that get distributed to other states like Mississippi more than Washington. Etc and so forth. My state is almost entirely self-sufficient, as it produces all the electricity it uses, as much food as is consumed by it's people, etc.

 

We don't want to be dictated to by the rest of the nation. We hate it. That's why I support Ron Paul.

 

 

As for Imperial vs Metric... Imperial height measure (E.G. 6'2") seems more elegant to my point of view than Metric height measure (1.9587 meters). I find that inches are much easier to estimate than Meters. When I see someone who's a little bit taller than me, I assume they're 6'1 or 6'2. I don't think maybe they're 1.9465 to 1.9587 meters. Metric measure and Customary measure exist in seperate uses, and very rarely do they need to be converted from one to another. Customary measures are good when you want to estimate something and describe it in an elegant way, such as cooking or speaking. Metric is good for math and science. I can't imagine trying to live daily life by the metric system, but I probably could if I needed to.

 

This puts me in mind of someone who complained about US money. I think he was from australia, but he threw a huge fit about US money. Because he claimed that money should be different sizes and shapes, and US money is all the same size and shape, therefore US money was stupid. Because in Australia, it's apparently too much trouble to look at the number on a piece of paper to see what it is before handing it over. LOL. Different places, different customs.

 

Now, I would agree to an argument in favor of money being metric. Penny, Dime, Dollar, Ten, 100, 1000. Etc. But I don't think the Euro is in metric denomination, and I know Canada doesn't use a metric denomination. (IIRC, Canada uses pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, ones, twos, fives, tens...). or Metric time. If Metric is the ultimate system and should be used for everything, at least start with stuff that matters, and poses problems of calculation in actual life; not how tall someone may or may not be, or how much they weigh, or about how far you walked for exercise. When a recipe calls for one cup of flour, that is easily estimated as I know what one cup of flour looks like. If it calls for 5 deciliters of flour, I'd probably have to measure it. Though I'm sure you metric peeps know what 5 deciliters looks like without needing a measuring scoop ;-p