# BBC America and the show Top Gear **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612 "2008-07-15T22:53:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/21 "2008-07-16T03:12:50Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Virtually all Americans know yards perfectly. American football fields are 100 yards long and almost everyone knows that. Football fields are sometimes used as a measure as well. Wooden yard sticks are very common and everyone has seen one as well and they are sometimes used to measure height. Yards aren’t always used as descriptive measures but that doesn’t mean that Americans don’t use them commonly. [/QUOTE] Fair enough. I forgot about football, and that should have clued me in. But now you mention it, my (American) wife knows about yards. Actually, on British highways, the signs would most likely read something like “Lane ends 1/2 mile”, then “500 yards” and so on. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/22 "2008-07-16T03:20:59Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] There are metric units scattered all over the U.S. as well. Metric tools are common. People take drugs in milligrams and the sciences use metric units. One bright spot is [inner city youth understand metric units quite well.](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28768) It just seems like the frequency of use for most people is too low for them to internalize it. Referring to something in meters is not a big problem because it is very similar to a yard. However, bragging about the length of your penis in centimeters is going to leave people confused about how impressive it really is. [/QUOTE] I did know about the scientists using metric, and my wife also knows that a yard is about the same as a metre. Since she is generally clueless about metric (she’s not a scientist) I kinda guessed that this information would be reasonably common. Strangely, in my teenage pot-smoking days, I bought the stuff in ounces. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/23 "2008-07-16T03:59:59Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead] Strangely, in my teenage pot-smoking days, I bought the stuff in ounces. [/QUOTE] Me too, except an eighth was "defined "as 3.5 grams, a quarter as 7. Methinks I was getting ripped off that extra .35g per ounce. ☹ The Onion article reminds me of the old word problem, “If Johny and his buddies can take on 3 unarmed guys when they’re each wielding nunchucks, and 1 guy with a machine gun can take on 7 guys with nunchucks, how many unarmed guys does it take to bring down a machine gunner?” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/24 "2008-07-16T06:50:04Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] ETA: _Top Gear_ is definitely not “produced for an American audience”, as you’ll see if you watch the episode where they took a road trip through southern States in “decorated” cars… [/QUOTE] Which I watched on YouTube, laughed my ass off, and then completely got into the show. Imagine my surprise when I later saw that episode available On Demand on BBC America and excitedly showed it to a friend of mine, and several of Jeremy’s funniest lines about hating America (like his rant on “you want cheese with that” and his line one morning about how rude we are) were **removed**. I don’t watch it on BBC America anymore. ETA: I see they’re doing an American version with Adam Carolla. Barf. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/25 "2008-07-16T06:58:02Z")
Interesting fact: In Top Gear, even though they talk about “0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds” they’re really taking that time from “0 to 100kph”. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/26 "2008-07-16T07:29:51Z")
[QUOTE=SmackFu] I think it’s because of the constant “America is the only country that hasn’t converted to Metric and thus sucks” noise you hear. Does the UK get the same criticism? [/QUOTE] Not as far as I know, because while the UK hasn’t fully converted to metric, most people in the UK are happy to work with it - and I think generally, if they encounter examples of foreign units, they’ll find their own way to convert them. I try to be as universal and explicit as possible with the ingredients lists for my (very simple) recipes - I still get bewildered requests for conversions - but only from Americans. That’s not really a complaint - just an observation. I continue to try to accommodate everyone, but it now means, for example, that I have to say “175g of butter - that’s about 6 ounces or 1.5 sticks”, and someone else will come along and want me to tell them what that is in _cups_. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/27 "2008-07-16T07:37:06Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead] Could I just add the nitpick that it’s really the US _pint_ that differs. A US gallon is 8 pints, just the same as an imperial gallon. But a US pint is 16 fluid oz, while an imperial pint is 20. [/QUOTE] That’s correct, but it’s not only that. US fluid ounces are about 29.5ml UK fluid ounces are about 28.4ml Not a massive difference, but it’s another confounding factor when dealing with multiples. ---
**Author:** ![pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pretend_my_name_is_witty)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/28 "2008-07-16T07:47:51Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead] Could I just add the nitpick that it’s really the US _pint_ that differs. A US gallon is 8 pints, just the same as an imperial gallon. But a US pint is 16 fluid oz, while an imperial pint is 20. [/QUOTE] I _knew_ I wasn’t imagining it. Had a visit to the girl’s native town, Glenwood Springs, recently where we went to the _Brewpub_, famed for brewing its own ales. I ordered a pint, and questioned why I got what I said was a 3/4 size version, only to be shot down by my girlfriend. So pints here really are bigger. Good. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/29 "2008-07-16T08:21:59Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] Convert them all to International Standard Handfuls. Easy. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Annnnd… for your viewing pleasure, I present: [http://www.sensibleunits.com/](http://www.sensibleunits.com/) Some of those I think should be immediately standardised across the world. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/30 "2008-07-16T08:29:06Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Virtually all Americans know yards perfectly. American football fields are 100 yards long and almost everyone knows that. [/QUOTE] To add…any golfer will definitely understand what 50 yards or 150 yards means. And people who shoot guns or practice archery are keenly aware of what, say, 25 yards means at the range. And in general, I don’t find it uncommon at all to hear everyday distances of a few hundred yards described as just that. I think many people find that when you’re somewhere between a lot of feet and a quarter mile or so, yards are the handiest unit. ---
**Author:** ![Deflagration](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ab097/32.png) [@Deflagration](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deflagration)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/31 "2008-07-16T08:50:19Z")
Another idea for unit standardisation can be found here: > **[So, what's the velocity of a sheep in a vacuum?](https://www.theregister.com/2007/08/24/vulture_central_standards/)** > > Plus, the size of Wales in cubic furlongs ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/32 "2008-07-16T09:14:14Z")
I’m bilingual in units for the most part, but I think in the US, yards are reserved for distances that you don’t intend to project yourself over, while miles and feet are for distances that you do intend to project yourself over. Or something like that. Yards are used for sport and looking over something. Trap shooters, golfers, riflemen, and footballers talk about yards. When in a car, or walking someplace, yards are never mentioned. I might say, whilst sitting on a deck, that the property line in 800 yards away, but if we were in so much as go-cart, I’d say the property line is 1/2 a mile away. How tall are buildings in London? I measure buildings in feet; do you guys do yards? And, I must second (or third) that weight in stones is as unheard of here as rods and hogsheads. We’ve also done big-ass soda bottles in liters for at least 20 years. A big ass soda bottle is 2 liters. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/33 "2008-07-16T09:23:12Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] And, I must second (or third) that weight in stones is as unheard of here as rods and hogsheads. [/QUOTE] It is just a matter of familiarity though. In the other direction, I’ve encountered _bushels_ - and this draws a similarly blank stare from people over here (although I’m sure this occurrence is not so common as the mention of stones). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/34 "2008-07-16T09:32:44Z")
[QUOTE=pretend my name is witty] I _knew_ I wasn’t imagining it. Had a visit to the girl’s native town, Glenwood Springs, recently where we went to the _Brewpub_, famed for brewing its own ales. I ordered a pint, and questioned why I got what I said was a 3/4 size version, only to be shot down by my girlfriend. So pints here really are bigger. Good. [/QUOTE] Hilarious name ;). Even I, as a dual citizen of New Zealand and Australia, countries that are both fully metric, still think in imperial units for a few select things. I am, and will always be 5’ 11". I know intellectually that someone who is 180cm is about 6’, but I can’t picture metric height at all. If I’m told someone is 175cm then I have to take that from 180cm (6 foot) and convert 5cm to 2" to arrive at an answer of 5’ 10" that I can then say is slightly shorter than me (depending on shoes and time of day.) As well as that, I always used to think in stone for human weight, however I’ve gradually converted to kg to the point where I no longer no my weight in stone. The reason I’ve quoted you, **hilarious user-name** , is to say that there are many places in Australia where you may ask for a “pint” of beer (even Guiness or Killkenny) only to find that it means “biggest glass you’ve got.” Most places that sell Guiness will have actual pint glasses but some don’t and will just give you something that’s about 2/3 of a pint. As those who’ve actually _had_ a pint would know, a pint is quite a large glass, quite daunting to those who’re used to drinking half pints. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/35 "2008-07-16T11:07:24Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Is there some context British people can give to make it easier to remember? [/QUOTE] I mentally picture a large stone. More like a rock, I suppose. A very weedy guy might be described as a “seven stone weakling” (98lb). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/36 "2008-07-16T11:29:08Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] How tall are buildings in London? I measure buildings in feet; do you guys do yards? [/QUOTE] I don’t think I’ve ever heard yards used as a measure of height. Buildings are measured in feet (but usually metres in the media, often with height in brackets). ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/37 "2008-07-16T11:44:29Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Interesting fact: In Top Gear, even though they talk about “0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds” they’re really taking that time from “0 to 100kph”. [/QUOTE] Is that right? I thought most manufacturers still produced 0-60 times and 0-62 times, but perhaps this has changed. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/38 "2008-07-16T13:31:43Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] When in a car, or walking someplace, yards are never mentioned. [/QUOTE] FWIW, my car’s built-in navigation tells me to turn in so many yards for any distances less than a half mile or so. “Turn left in 300 yards” Then again, it’s German, so they probably thought it was the most sensible conversion from meters for the US market. Honestly, though, I’m not sure anything else would make more sense. “100 yards” is just the handiest way to describe a distance of 100 yards… 1/16 of a mile? Awkward. 300 feet? Not worse, but not any better. It would be funny to get my car to say, “Turn left in one and a half furlongs.” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/39 "2008-07-16T13:52:59Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Cat] Is that right? I thought most manufacturers still produced 0-60 times and 0-62 times, but perhaps this has changed. [/QUOTE] It may only be for [European tested](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_to_sixty) cars. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/40 "2008-07-16T16:30:45Z")
Thanks for the answers, and color me educated. I had assumed that the UK was mostly metric, and as **SmackFu** said, it’s because of the “America is so backwards, they don’t use the metric system” messages we hear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612.md?page=3)