Do non-Americans actually still refer to "miles" a lot?
       |           

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 29, 2024, 02:27:27 AM
News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more

  Talk Elections
  Forum Community
  Forum Community (Moderators: The Dowager Mod, YE, KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸)
  Do non-Americans actually still refer to "miles" a lot?
« previous next »
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: Do non-Americans actually still refer to "miles" a lot?  (Read 1564 times)
they don't love you like i love you
BRTD
Atlas Prophet
*****
Posts: 112,714
Ukraine


Political Matrix
E: -6.50, S: -6.67

P P
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« on: November 19, 2015, 12:16:36 PM »

I ask because I've noticed the word gets used in a lot of metric countries. A French hardcore band had a song titled "A Million Miles Away", I know of an Australian hardcore band called "Miles Away" and found this Dutch band called 18 Miles, meaning it's not even speaking figuratively. (Also unless it's a different band [which is entirely possible], the singer appears to be wearing the shirt of an Iowa post-rock band...wow.)

But even for non-scene music there's that infamous Proclaimers song. So what gives?
Logged
🦀🎂🦀🎂
CrabCake
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 19,192
Kiribati


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2015, 12:42:03 PM »


Inperial lengths are used in British regulations of:

the mile, yard, foot and inch for road traffic signs, distance and speed measurement.
the imperial pint for the dispensing of draught beer and cider, and for the sale of milk in returnable containers,
the acre for land registration
the troy ounce for transaction in precious metals.

And it is generally not allowed to use (solely) imperial units in official contexts beyond that. Newspapers vary in their style guides, but if they target older, more traditional demographics they use imperial. Habitual use of metric is common, but it's very random. I for one, know my height in feet and my weight in stones, but my waist and hips in metric. I would estimate short distances with metres, but long distances with miles (just sounds more descriptive than kilometres). In my studies I always use metric (obviously) but if I was talking to my grandma I would flip to imperial. I only use Celsius for Temperature - I have a better understanding of Kelvin than Fahreinheit. And so on.
Logged
they don't love you like i love you
BRTD
Atlas Prophet
*****
Posts: 112,714
Ukraine


Political Matrix
E: -6.50, S: -6.67

P P
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2015, 12:45:29 PM »

Wait road signs in the UK use miles? Are speed limits also in MPH instead of KMPH?
Logged
🦀🎂🦀🎂
CrabCake
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 19,192
Kiribati


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2015, 12:48:16 PM »

Yes, speeds are cited in mph. The authorities often muse about changing them, and I think a lot of modern railways and tramways use metric, but it's all a big mess:

http://www.metric.org.uk/the-mess-we-are-in
Logged
angus
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 17,423
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2015, 12:56:21 PM »

There's a porn actor/director named Miles Long.  How cool is that?  He doesn't get referred to much, though.  Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, gets referred to quite a bit, even outside this forum.

Seriously, though, miles were around long before the USA was around.  Romans, Greeks, and Arabs all had a mile long before the English had one.  And since the Brits are too cheap to change road signs, they still use miles quite often for directions and posted speed limits.  Australians and Canadians of course know what a mile is since their source of language is the same as ours, but they are less likely to use them in descriptions of driving distances.

For an actual measurement I don't you'll see it much south of the border.  When I've rented cars in Latin America with unlimited mileage, the agreement always referred to "kilometraje ilimitado" rather than "milaje ilimitado."  

For poetic use, in which clunky terms like parsecs, kilometers, and astronomical units just don't have the right meter--pardon the pun--miles is a good choice.  (Given your penchant for long user names, you might appreciate the poetic value of a song entitled "One point six times ten to the sixth power kilometers apart" but I don't think most people would.)  

Light years also works well for poetic expression, I might add.  I often see disparate political views described as being "light years apart."  
Logged
Chunk Yogurt for President!
CELTICEMPIRE
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,235
Georgia


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2015, 01:44:31 PM »

I occasionally hear the word "miles" used in British songs.
Logged
angus
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 17,423
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2015, 03:06:03 PM »

I think you're reaching a little far for your pop culture reference here.

Well how about this guy?  Surely he gets referred to by "non-Americans" from time to time.

Logged
HagridOfTheDeep
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 8,720
Canada


Political Matrix
E: -6.19, S: -4.35

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2015, 03:19:22 PM »

Only figuratively. Road signs in Canada are all in kilometres per hour.
Logged
Yeahsayyeah
Jr. Member
***
Posts: 787


Political Matrix
E: -9.25, S: -8.15

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2015, 03:32:08 PM »

In Germany it's mostly in bywords like meilenweit - "miles wide", actually a far distance or circumcircle, or for lyrical value. Of course, we also know the Meilenstein and the Siebenmeilenstiefel ("seven league boots", the Bannmeile, and Meile meaning "long street" or "boulevard". Nobody would use it as an exact distance. And we have Bonusmeilen à la "miles and more".

And nautical miles of course, but the average German is not a captain or sailor. And as others already have stated, Jazz fans do quite often. ;-)
Logged
Joe Republic
Atlas Legend
*****
Posts: 40,044
Ukraine


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2015, 03:44:11 PM »

Wait road signs in the UK use miles? Are speed limits also in MPH instead of KMPH?

You seriously didn't know this?
Logged
they don't love you like i love you
BRTD
Atlas Prophet
*****
Posts: 112,714
Ukraine


Political Matrix
E: -6.50, S: -6.67

P P
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2015, 05:55:10 PM »

I think you're reaching a little far for your pop culture reference here.



edit: lol, Vevo actually marks that video as "explicit."

Not sure what you mean.

Also that entire 18 Miles EP is AWESOME: https://youtu.be/LW3hcXWj0dE
Logged
Intell
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,817
Nepal


Political Matrix
E: -6.71, S: -1.24

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2015, 06:24:08 PM »

Everything here is used in the metric system, from my experience anyway, but people still use the word miles to refer to an unknown distance. "It's like miles away."
Logged
True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
Moderators
Atlas Legend
*****
Posts: 42,157
United States


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #12 on: November 19, 2015, 09:26:11 PM »

I wonder, in France is Jules Verne's famous work now called 80,000 Kilometres Sous Les Mers?
Logged
they don't love you like i love you
BRTD
Atlas Prophet
*****
Posts: 112,714
Ukraine


Political Matrix
E: -6.50, S: -6.67

P P
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2015, 09:11:50 AM »

...and I mentioned it in the OP.
Logged
Ban my account ffs!
snowguy716
Atlas Star
*****
Posts: 22,632
Austria


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2015, 02:03:40 PM »

Do canadians still refer to feet when measuring snow?

Probably not..."the line at Tim Hortons was goin oot the door an' there's 31 centimeters of snow oot there eh!"
Logged
Alcon
Atlas Superstar
*****
Posts: 30,867
United States


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2015, 02:15:37 PM »


Haha, oops.  Sorry.
Logged
Tender Branson
Mark Warner 08
Atlas Institution
*****
Posts: 58,173
Austria


Political Matrix
E: -6.06, S: -4.84

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #16 on: November 20, 2015, 03:25:14 PM »

Yeah, especially in the Louisiana-related threads.
Logged
Pages: [1]  
« previous next »
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Terms of Service - DMCA Agent and Policy - Privacy Policy and Cookies

Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Page created in 0.052 seconds with 12 queries.