The signs, such as the ones that count down distance to road works do say “yards”, but they are placed at intervals measured in metres. The 800 yard sign will be placed exactly 801m from the works datum. The longitudinal lane markings on a UK road where the speed limit is greater than 40mph comprise of a 3m white line followed by a 6m gap, etc… (Diagram 1008.1, Traffic Signs Manual, Chapter 5). The cone gang will count the lines and gaps from the datum. The “800 yards” sign comes after 89 lines and gaps. All signs and cones for major roadworks are set out this way.
Isn’t eight-by-four still the common trade size for plywood?
[quote=“Enola_Straight, post:21, topic:699370”]
[/QUOTE]There should be an automatic warning for YouTube links with no description ;). Anyway, it’s some sci-fi cartoon and the relevant bit is at at 1:14, which by the way you can link to directly by right-clicking the video progress bar:
Huh. Neat trick.
Actually, I should apologise Enola Straight because they say “megametres” close to the start too.
Litres go from kilo to mega to giga…
e.g. A dam that supplies my city now has a 76 gigalitre capacity.
http://www.actew.com.au/Our%20Projects/Enlarged%20Cotter%20Dam.aspx
Interesting features on the Sun are often in the range of 10^6 meters in length, and solar physicists do indeed refer to them in megameters. But then, the kilometer is usually a pretty useless unit in solar physics.