How metric are you?

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DP and I are in our mid-60s. We lived in the EU for many years and ended up thinking about almost everything in metric. The hardest things to switch to were people's heights and (especially) weights. Even after getting a bathroom scale in kilos we would talk about people weighing 10 stone, 12 stone, etc. But otherwise we're metric all the time. I haven't used the "inches" side of a tape measure since the 1980s.

Nowadays it feels strange if we're around Americans and have to translate Celsius temperatures to Fahrenheit for them, or convert 100 metres into 328 feet. (Americans use feet, not yards, for most distances less than a mile. They only seem to use yards for gridiron football.) And don't get me started on "ounces" as a measure of liquids and not weight.

But... I still say "couple of inches" or "about a foot" for short distances, to the dismay of our DC who grew up 100% metric in France, and I can still envisage 4 ounces of flour in a dual metric/imperial recipe or a pound of onions at the shop. I don't think these things ever quite leave you.

I use feet, inches for my height and miles for distance, stones and pounds for my weight, inches for measurements (waist, hips, carpets, curtains etc). Food & drink metric but that’s only because the shops don’t offer alternative pounds and ounces. I’m 59.

I'm early 60s and I can switch between metric and imperial interchangeably for most things.

I exclusively use Celsius for temperature though, I'm rubbish with Fahrenheit, other than knowing that 28 degrees Celsius is the same as 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

Feet and inches, stones and lb, miles, celsius. Im 47.
Im actually not sure what the "norm" is for the UK - kg and cm?

I'm in my 40s and this is me except for food where its always been metric in g/ml for me.

I am the same as you and I am 39.

Feet and inches, stones and lbs, miles, Celsius.

I would normally use cm for measuring but can use inches if needed. Apart from height, that is feet and inches.

Weighing baking ingredients etc has to be grams.

But weighing babies is definitely lbs ! I had to ask for all my babies weight in pounds when they told me in grams.

I'm 35.

I’m 50. I learnt metric at school but it was imperial at home and as a teen I worked in a fabric shop that used imperial and it stuck. I’m definitely more comfortable with imperial than metric. I use it for most things, unless it’s smaller than half an inch, then I’ll use metric.

My Dr told me what my weight was in kg last week and I had to go on line to convert it. And if you told me your height in cm, I wouldn’t be able to visualise it the same way I’d be able to with feet & inches. Wouldn’t have a clue what you meant if you gave me a temperature in Celsius.

My DH has recently gone on a diet and keeps telling me how many kg he has lost. I have to keep reminding him that this means NOTHING to me and he needs to report sensible stones and pounds.

I'm 40 and also do feet and inches, miles, pints, ounces.

Late 50s, brought up in the UK.

Distances - miles not km but metres not yards

Smaller measurements - tend towards inches but have to remember to use cm if measuring up for eg new furniture. A foot is still a useful measurement but I know it's 30cm.

Height and weight - totally imperial, haven't got a clue in metric

Cooking - grew up with imperial, switched to metric about 15 years ago to teach DCs to cook in metric and as imperial was disappearing from recipes. But I still mentally do the "100g that's about 4oz" thing when baking.

Shopping - I find it really awkward to say "250g of bacon" instead of half a pound in the butchers or wherever. If the person serving looks my age-ish I'll probably still say half a pound but if they are younger I'll use imperial or say "8 sausages" instead

Temperature - haven't used Fahrenheit for years but know that 16C = 60F

The UK is officially metric for everything except:

• Road distances and speed limits (it was decided that it would cost too much to change all the signs, although Ireland managed it)
• Beer and cider sold on draught in pubs, which must be sold in pints (or fractions thereof)
• Milk in returnable bottles, which may be sold in pints.

All of this was passed by the Major (Tory) government in 1994, with a 5-year transition period. When it finally became law in 2000, at the time of the Blair (Labour) government, you had the "metric martyrs" (often market stall holders) refusing to implement it. Amusingly, but perhaps inevitably, some of the Tory MPs who stood in solidarity with them against "creeping socialism", "the nanny state", "EU interference", etc., had been cabinet ministers when it was passed and had personally voted for it in the House of Commons, when they could of course have resigned in protest at the time. 🙄

I remember being at primary school in 1970 and learning everything in metric. We were assured that the country would be fully metric by 1973, once decimal currency had been sorted out.

I am mid sixties. My early schooling was in imperial and then switched to SI. As a result I am bilingual and can work equally well in metric or imperial if I have to. Day to day I generally use imperial, except for temperature.

That said, human height or weights given in metric units leave me mystified. I struggle to visualise how tall or heavy somebody might be.

I’m metric for temperature- Celsius

but imperial for most other things

50-50 on cooking as it depends on what recipe I’m following

Same here.
I know my own weight and height in metric, and measurements of less than 100 m I would give in metric, apart from vital statistics.

Temperatures are in metric. under 10 cold, over 24 warm.

I'm fairly bilingual, but it depends on the measurement.

I have an idea of what an acre is, no idea about hectares (grew up on a farm, so it was probably something we talked about more than many might.)

I can do liquids in pints or litres - but would like car stuff to talk about miles or km per litres, not gallons, because I buy it in litres.

Distance I can do inches or cm, but mostly do cm. Human height and I am comfortable with either. I tend to walk in km and drive in miles. I notice that Google maps can flick between miles and km on the same journey, which is just weird. Sometimes I think I should go into settings to see if I need to adjust something...

Temperature I am mostly Celsius now. I do have an idea of Fahrenheit, having grown up with it, but I have to do some mental conversion these days.

Cooking I can do in metric or imperial, and have recipe books, some of which are only imperial, others only metric, some have both, or even American cups. My scales can also do both. I often do cakes by eye unless it's a new recipe, anyway. I have learnt by experience that if I am measuring, it's not often good to mix measurements (I was distracted...)

Human weight - I know my weight in either (though st & lb, not just lbs.) But I am much better at getting an idea of knowing someone else's size if I'm told their weight in stones than kilos. I have an idea with kilos, but it's another I need to mentally convert.

The only imperial measurement I use is miles for the car. Everything else is metric. I refuse to use imperial when someone tries to. Why complicate matters with such a confusing system.

I move seamlessly between KG and pounds for weighing out ingredients, same for Feet and metres for lengths.

Struggle with KGs for bodyweight so Stone and pounds it is. Same for height, needs to be feet and inches !

Driving its mpg and mph.

Drinks its pints.

Early 60's, fairly interchangable for weights of eg flour but not human weight, I can't do Fahrenheit and think of height in purely feet and inches. Odd, really.

Might have to think a bit about old money pounds, shillings and pence but would get there.

38 and fully metric. Grew up in the UK with the mix of measurements but moved to Finland when I was 20 and quickly switched to fully metric.

I’m metric for everything except miles while driving - I’d use km while walking, cycling etc. I never learnt imperial in the first place (I’m 30) so I’m never really sure how many inches in a foot etc. No idea how much a stone or ounce is in the same way I have no idea how much a bushel is. I know a pint is 568ml, but would never use it as a measurement outside of a pub - even my milk comes in 1L cartons rather than pints.

I'm 59 and almost entirely metric. I would give my height and weight in metric measurements and I always cook in them. And I don't really understand Fahrenheit. I think 80F would be a hot day but I can't imagine what it feels like in the same way as I know what 25C is like.

The only time I use imperial measurements regularly is miles/miles per hour and even then it's only in my car and because that's what road signs and my car speedo are in. If I'm on my bike or walking I measure distance in km, speed in kph and elevation in metres. The metric system is infinitely more logical and is the language of science. I'd hazard a guess that my American colleagues don't calculate drug doses in grains per stone no matter how much the rest of the country adheres to imperial measures!

Very metric. Also used to live in the EU. I'm a few years younger than you.

I do understand imperial measures and might casually talk another something being around 2 inches wide. But when I am actually doing proper measurements, I always use metric, even for weighing myself.

Fully metric. So are my kids. I was in hospital recently and was being weighed daily for water retention and noticed they were metric for weight but still imperial for height.

I have to turn the sat nav to metric, I just don’t have a concept of miles.

i’m mid 40s, lived in the ME for a few years as a teen and kind of switched then.

Everything in metric except for the human body (height, weight, waist size etc), and travel (distance, speed).

I'm 49.

I'm mid 40s, and I use a mixture:

Miles for distance, exception is watching/talking F1 or road cycling, in which case I think and talk in km along with broadcast.

Feet and inches for general measurements, and people, but cm and mm for very small ones or doing something precise.

Celsius for cooking. Grams for cooking weights, but stones and lbs for body weights. I can't visualise what a person/tapir might look like if described in kilos. I would say 'a 20 kilo sack of flour' though.

I am early 50's and was taught metric at school.

Weight (as in my own) I think in stones/llbs but ingrediant weight I would think in Kgs.
Height measurements I am 5ft 3 but I know that is around 160cm - same as measurements 30cm = 1ft so most things are easy to work out between the two.
Long distances I'd think in miles, but short distances metres - I'm not sure I don't know how much a yard is without looking it up.

Celsious for both weather and cooking, no idea on Fahrenheit anymore.