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Ever since the 1960s, imperial has been ignored in schools. Students in all of the sciences, maths and DT subjects are forced
to use metric measurements irrelevant of what is more comfortable for them.
Some would say that metric (SI) is preferable because it matches the physics formula f=ma (force equals mass times acceleration).
Little do people know that there exists a veriant of imperial called FPS, or foot-pound-second, which also works for this
formula. Within that system one slug of mass is that which needs one poundforce of force to accelerate it to 1 foot per second
per second.
For measuring temperature students are taught to use the Kelvin scale, which is identical to the Celcius scale except
for the fact that it starts at absolute zero (-273C). However there also exists a temperature scale called Rankine. This is
the Fahrenheit version of Kelvin. It shares Fahrenheit's advantages - namely the smaller and therefore more precise degree.
As the situation stands at present there is no provision at all for students who prefer to use the imperial system. This
is not only unfair but counter-productive to learning for such students - to that end I have begun to set up a page on this
site to aid GCSE and A level students wishing to use the imperial system.
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