Metric to English Units on Geocaching page map

[+Denali41]

On the map featured on all cache pages when I click to "enlarge" the elevations are presented as metric.  I'd like to change the topo elevations from metric to English (feet).  How do I do this?  Thanks.

[+Viajero Perdido]

A given map does it only one way.

 

On the so-called "Browse" map (has a "Search" button at top), switch to "Leaflet" under Preferences if not already there, and select Esri WorldTopoMap.

 

That's the only map I know of in Groundspeak's stable that supports feet in contours.  EDIT:  ...but apparently only for USA parts of the map!

 

Give metric a try.  I started climbing mountains in feet, but got my head switched around eventually to think in metres (meters in USA).  Our whole country switched.

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Viajero Perdido

[+ecanderson]

@Viajero Perdido

I'm pretty sure Denali isn't going to be able to make that conversion.  He's climbed most if not all of the "14ers" in Colorado, and climbing "4267ers" just doesn't scan as well.

 

[+Goldenwattle]

7 hours ago, Denali41 said:

from metric to English (feet). 

I thought England (along with the rest of the UK) was now officially metric.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Goldenwattle

[+Viajero Perdido]

You can be multi- ... uh, what's the word?  Multi-unitarian?  In grade school, they taught us metric (the country was switching to metric) because that was the future.  Then I went to engineering school, where they taught in both metric and imperial, because that was the reality.  And since then, over decades imperial has pretty much faded away, so now we can't even find a map with contour lines in feet.

 

If the OP is looking for UK maps, there are more outside Groundspeak's stable (eg Ordnance Survey) that can be hacked into the website, and some caching phone apps, eg Locus Map (Android) have access to a pretty huge variety; Europe in general is rich in map choices.

[+colleda]

For a quick, rough, mental, calculation think of metres as yards then multiply by three. Close enough?

[yrcko]

@Goldenwattle: I was told :Britain goes metric, inch by inch.

[+The Jester]

18 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I thought England (along with the rest of the UK) was now officially metric.

You'd think, but we were there in '16 and the speed limit signs were in miles throughout the UK.  When we crossed into Ireland the jump from a 50 limit to 80 caught us by surprise (we didn't know we'd crossed the border).

[+cerberus1]

On saturday a friend stopped over to see what I was up to.

He went for a 10km hike on a new trail , as per the park pamphlet.  

I asked "since when is 6 miles a hike".  

 

I disregard that "other" ring on the speedometer, and the bottom of all beverage containers too.   

Unlike some, didn't have it in school, but have learned to deal with it on machinery n stuff.  John Deere, Ford, and metric.  Sad...

I see it as just another way to force us to buy new tools.

[+Goldenwattle]

16 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

Unlike some, didn't have it in school,

Neither did I, but when Australia converted, I converted. I was in the last year in high school when imperial was allowed. After that teaching was in metric. That's how it's done. Road signs all changed in a month too. No half measures, and it worked.

[+colleda]

11 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Neither did I, but when Australia converted, I converted. I was in the last year in high school when imperial was allowed. After that teaching was in metric. That's how it's done. Road signs all changed in a month too. No half measures, and it worked.

In my high school days imperial was the go except in science classes.I was working in a bank when the money changed 14/2/66. L s d one day $ & c  the next. Lsd was not the hallucinatory kind but; pounds=L, shillings=s and pence=d.

Weights and measures were easily picked up. The trick was not to try and relate it to the old system. We used to be weighed in stones, something I could never get used to, kilograms is so much easier. I weigh 85kg but have no idea what that is in stones - or pounds.

[+Goldenwattle]

8 minutes ago, colleda said:

I was working in a bank when the money changed 14/2/66.

My father was a bank manager and we were living in the bank house (in Nimbin) attached to the bank when the money changed. The day before the changeover he brought the new money into the residence for us all to have a look at. I was a child and so I don't know how the adults went with the money, but it wouldn't have been hard, as the metric money was much easier to use than the old money. As a child, only handling low amounts of money, coins mostly, I had no problem. People travel and use different currency. It was easier than that often is, as the language on the money didn't change. There was a change over period, when both lots of money were used. But only metric money was given out from the bank.

[+The Jester]

2 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

2 hours ago, colleda said:

I was working in a bank when the money changed 14/2/66.

My father was a bank manager and we were living in the bank house (in Nimbin) attached to the bank when the money changed. The day before the changeover he brought the new money into the residence for us all to have a look at. I was a child and so I don't know how the adults went with the money, but it wouldn't have been hard, as the metric money was much easier to use than the old money. As a child, only handling low amounts of money, coins mostly, I had no problem. People travel and use different currency. It was easier than that often is, as the language on the money didn't change. There was a change over period, when both lots of money were used. But only metric money was given out from the bank.

On our trip to the UK, we'd stopped in Toronto, ON (Canada), Iceland and most of the British Isle's - so I had US dollars, Canadian Dollars, Icelandic Krona, British pounds and Euro's in my pocket by the time we were done.  I kept having to remember which pocket to reach in too...

[+cerberus1]

3 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Neither did I, but when Australia converted, I converted. I was in the last year in high school when imperial was allowed. After that teaching was in metric. That's how it's done. Road signs all changed in a month too. No half measures, and it worked.

 

My last year in high school, a kid proudly showed all of us primitives the first LCD calculator.  Mail.  Stores didn't have 'em yet.  

 

We never really converted to metric.  Supposedly gonna happen in '75.  It's simply added to everything now.  

IIRC changeovers right when manufacturing was growing was gonna be big bucks and TPTB said "forget that".    

It really bugged me for a while when the other 2/3rd's Harley was found to have a lot of metric parts. 

 - Used to be you only had two wrenches in the toolkit.  No more. On a bike, that added space/weight's gotta be factored into the ride.

[+barefootjeff]

3 hours ago, colleda said:

Weights and measures were easily picked up. The trick was not to try and relate it to the old system. We used to be weighed in stones, something I could never get used to, kilograms is so much easier. I weigh 85kg but have no idea what that is in stones - or pounds.

 

Tons, stones, pounds and ounces were bad enough, as were miles, furlongs, yards, feet and inches, but it was those dang rods, poles and perches that really did my head in. Thankfully metric arrived when I was in late high school so I didn't have to carry that imperial baggage into university.

[+niraD]

In 1977, I went to the National Scout Jamboree. They tried to make everything metric, without Imperial backups. Distances were in kilometers, recipes were in grams and liters, etc. I developed a decent sense for how big/far/heavy everything is. It comes in handy in the soft drink aisle, where the big bottles are measured in liters rather than quarts.

[+Lynx Humble]

12 hours ago, The Jester said:

You'd think, but we were there in '16 and the speed limit signs were in miles throughout the UK.  When we crossed into Ireland the jump from a 50 limit to 80 caught us by surprise (we didn't know we'd crossed the border).

Even when I visited in 2019 speed limits and distance were still in Imperial on roads. I was expecting to see both or just metric.

 

Here in Canada it's mostly metric except for human weight and height that are still using imperial. So yeah I can convert in both systems even if I was born after the conversion.

[+IceColdUK]

I honestly wish we'd gone the whole nine yards (8.23 m) in the UK, but we're left with a horrible mishmash of imperial and metric measures, and that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

I measure lengths in metres (or mm, cm, etc.), but geographical distances in miles, and my own height in feet and inches.  Similarly, I can tell you my own weight in stones and pounds, but my baggage allowance in kg.  I drink pints of beer but buy my fuel in litres; fuel economy is meaningless to me unless it's measured in miles per gallon.

 

Decimalisation came in when I was six, so thankfully I didn't have to deal with £, s and d (pounds, shillings and pence) too much, but of course everybody knew that a sixpence was worth 2 and 1/2 p!

[+The Jester]

4 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

I honestly wish we'd gone the whole nine yards (8.23 m) in the UK, but we're left with a horrible mishmash of imperial and metric measures, and that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

I measure lengths in metres (or mm, cm, etc.), but geographical distances in miles, and my own height in feet and inches.  Similarly, I can tell you my own weight in stones and pounds, but my baggage allowance in kg.  I drink pints of beer but buy my fuel in litres; fuel economy is meaningless to me unless it's measured in miles per gallon.

 

Decimalisation came in when I was six, so thankfully I didn't have to deal with £, s and d (pounds, shillings and pence) too much, but of course everybody knew that a sixpence was worth 2 and 1/2 p!

We had to replace a vehicle on vacation a few years ago (hitting a moose in Maine while towing a trailer, doesn't leave much leeway about vehicles) and ended up with a Canadian Subaru.  It shows Liters per 100 Km - an inverse number to the old Miles per Gallon.  Someone sent me a chart to compare, but I never did fully figure out the differences.  A low value in the Canadian Subaru, a high value in the US Subaru.

 

It also use Km for distance and speed, so I've gotten pretty good at converting Km to miles (not so good the other way).  It's a good thing the Nuvi GPS can change units when needed.

 

[+Viajero Perdido]

I occasionally use smoots as a unit of measure, as in, "two or three smoots from ...".