The British and Kilometres

I still haven't embraced the Metric system. I can visualise feet and inches but not centimetres. I weigh out my baking ingredients in pounds and ounces and pints. My weight is in stones.
I know I'm not the only one because I watch the craft channels on tv and mostly the measurements are in Imperial.
 
Lavinia said:
I still haven't embraced the Metric system. I can visualise feet and inches but not centimetres. I weigh out my baking ingredients in pounds and ounces and pints. My weight is in stones.
I know I'm not the only one because I watch the craft channels on tv and mostly the measurements are in Imperial.
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I was taught in grade school that the word inch originated in England with the idiom "within an inch of his life" and the English measured standing-up things (mostly livestock) using their hands, and lying-down things (i.e., the length of a room) using their feet. And a stone-weight is a stone that's neither large nor small....you know, for accuracy.
 

Lavinia said:
I still haven't embraced the Metric system.
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I understand, its kind of like learning a new language as an adult, you may understand it but it just doesn't feel the same.

As and engineer I worked in both metric and English (Imperial) my whole career, so I am pretty good at quick conversions. But like you I still think in feet, inches and pounds...

I believe the world would work better if we all, especially the US, would convert to metric, but making people comfortable with it would take a generation or two.

I always try to use the system I think people are most familiar with. Recently I was talking with a Canadian woman and using metric, she asked me not to...
 
At several times during my life, both when in school and out of it, I have been led to believe that American conversion to the metric system was imminent. I could dig it, but many apparently could not, so like many Americans, I keep wrenches around tooled to both Imperial and metric standards, and am forced to do an occasional conversion.

It’s not that I don’t understand the appeal of things English. For kicks, I sometimes set my auto gps device to a British speaker’s voice, so I can be advised to “turn right onto the motorway.” Makes my whole day! 😸
 
I understand metric and can switch back and forth, but given my disregard for the individual who introduced it to Canada in 1970 I retain a penchant for miles/pounds, etc. ;)
 
In the early grades, and I think even in high school, we were taught how to convert to metric and back to American Standard measurements. It's not a very helpful way of learning the system. Most of the modern world is metric, because it simply makes so much sense. Americans have too much pride to recognize the value of someone else's system. The way children should be taught to learn metrics would be to measure everything in metrics and get rid of the antiquated system we now have. It's would be easier to teach children metrics than our own, anyway. Although the parent's would be left out of the loop, and unavailable to help with homework.
 
As a Canadian, I've been subject to the metric system since I was 15 years old, and still convert metric to imperial to visualize weights and measurement. Temperatures are easier. Calculating gas consumption is strictly miles/gallon, metric doesn't even compute, never could be bothered to make the conversion, guess it wasn't necessary.
 
Lewkat said:
We use the metric system in medicine.
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I almost mentioned in my post that our scientific community in America does most everything in metrics. In high school chemistry way back when, we used only metrics. It would seem strange to calculate the outcome of chemistry experiments in ounces. I'm not even sure how we would do that. That thought never even occurred to me until now.
 
iksentrik said:
As a Canadian, I've been subject to the metric system since I was 15 years old, and still convert metric to imperial to visualize weights and measurement. Temperatures are easier. Calculating gas consumption is strictly miles/gallon, metric doesn't even compute, never could be bothered to make the conversion, guess it wasn't necessary.
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Same here, pretty much. I still think in Imperial. My Wunderground page is set to Fahrenheit.

My car shows gas usage in "km per 100 liters." If I want to know what the heck it means, I look up the conversion (miles per gallon) on the Internet. And so on.

However, I'm in touch with people from all over the world. So when reporting weights, distances, etc., I usually look up the conversion and give both, or whichever one is appropriate.

The Internet makes it possible!
 
iksentrik said:
As a Canadian, I've been subject to the metric system since I was 15 years old, and still convert metric to imperial to visualize weights and measurement. Temperatures are easier. Calculating gas consumption is strictly miles/gallon, metric doesn't even compute, never could be bothered to make the conversion, guess it wasn't necessary.
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I still measure myself in imperial. When I look at someone’s data on Wikipedia, it’s metric and I find myself converting. For example, 6 feet is 1.82m.; I just don’t visualize it.

The weather I’m fine with in Celsius, though I do covert for conversing with those from other countries. The thermostat in our house was set in F and we’ve never changed it.

Our food flyers advertise food prices in pounds and then are in kilograms on the package in the store. IMO, this is just for their own benefit.

Considering most of our entertainment comes from the US, it’s hard to give it up Imperial.

If you want to be confused about gas consumption, throw in Imperial gallons to US liquid gallon. It’s 1 to 1.2.
 
Lavinia said:
I still haven't embraced the Metric system. I can visualise feet and inches but not centimetres. I weigh out my baking ingredients in pounds and ounces and pints. My weight is in stones.
I know I'm not the only one because I watch the craft channels on tv and mostly the measurements are in Imperial.
Click to expand...
I'm the same... I measure everything in imperial, and then change it to centimetres or metres... I weight everything in pounds and ounces still... .

My daughter who is coming up to 47 can't deal in Imperial at all.. it has got to be Metric for her.. and oddly it has to be that for my husband too.. who is in his 60's..the difference is that I was already 16 when we changed to decimilisation.. whereas he was 5 years younger.. and so he learned Metric from the age of 10 at school...

That video was 45 years ago..obviously speaking to people in the East end of London.. for those who don't know, they were the salt of the earth working people, most of whom hadn't travelled out of the country back then.. Most of them will be dead by now..
 
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I started skiing when I was 20, and it was my first practical exposure to everyday metrics (beyond doing those conversions in grade school and learning chemistry). Skis and poles were all measured in centimeters. I don't know why that one thing, a recreational one at that, would be in metrics, back then we skied on longer skis, and ski length and poles rather depended on your height. It was easy to start thinking in centimeters. I began to picture skiing equipment in centimeters. No problem at all. It just seemed odd that one thing, skiing, Americans were so European and global about.

It was for everyone. Back then there was a period of time during the hippy era where the first question to be asked when meeting the opposite sex seemed to be, "What's your sign?" In the world of skiing the frequent question was, "What length are your skis?" If you didn't answer in centimeters, you were an outcast.
 
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