How metric are you?

[samarrange]

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 sometimes convert body weight from kilos to stones and pounds as a sanity check

I say “about a ruler” rather than a foot or 30cm

cakes I do say 4 4 4 2 or 8 5 5 3 which is ounces based ( the last digit being eggs and the first the flour)

strangely for fruit cakes I would be using ounces for the flour sugar and eggs and kilos for the fruit ….

A bit of both. My weight in st and lb, but the dog in kg. Measure interchangeably in inches and cms. Distance always in miles though.

I am 70 and DW 71 we have no trouble at all with the metric system in spite of never having lived outside the UK.

The one exception is temperature. I cannot get my head around Degrees Celsius. I have no idea if 17 degrees C (say) is hot or cold. Every device I have with a thermometer in it is switched to Degrees Fahrenheit.

Some industries like the oil industry and aviation still are dominated by imperial (or sometime other weird units) because they are largely founded on American development/tech.

The dimensions of many European plumbing fittings are expressed in fractions of a pouce or a pulgada. Probably more a historical British influence, rather than American.

I am early 60s. We were taught metric at school while the rest of the world around us worked in Imperial. My mother taught me to cook in ounces and my father used to get angry that I didn't know how many pints in a quart.

I cannot see in metric at all. Metres are a stupid measurement and don't adequately describe height.

Imperial measures are based on the body and much easier to estimate if you don't have an actual measure handy.

I’m mid-50s and use Imperial for height and weight, miles for distance.

I’ll happily use metric to cook but not for cake because that’s 4,4,4,2 and the metric equivalent is so much harder to remember or scale up.

Metric for volume, temperature, and smaller distance and measurements.

Born in the 80s and I use metric for everything except pints of beer, and road distances in the UK. I don’t think I have any concept of what a pound of something is, and no idea what a yard is.

This fascinates me to as I was born in 75 so after we had gone metric. I really still use imperial. Weight height baking. Temp in celcius. I can measure in both. What's interesting though is I teach maths and students in the main still measure height in feet and inches, and weight in stones. If they cook they do probably use g and kg. They would measure in cm and meters. However most have no idea how to measure!

I love the quirky measuring we have in the U.K. And would support any measure to retain it as long as possible.

I use stones and lbs for weight of people, but metric for baking.

Feet and inches for height.

I will measure most other things in metric, but guesstimate certain things (like room sizes) in feet and inches.

I would run in km but walk in miles.

Car efficiency is in MPG but I buy fuel in litres.

Temperature is in Celsius (centigrade!). Fahrenheit means nothing to me.

Most measurements for groceries is in grams and kg, except milk which is in pints.

Beer/lager in pints and half pints, whereas spirits are in mls.

Obviously roads are in miles.

You aren’t imagining that. I was a child in the 70s/80s and for a big chunk of it, weather was always given in both centigrade and Fahrenheit with the circle with the line down the middle as you remember.

I’m retired and quite comfortable with most metric weights and measures, distances in km or miles, recipes in ounces or grams, weights in Kilos or stones.
But heights (of people) still give me pause. 6 feet two inches or 6’2” is much easier for me to visualise than 190 cm

I think in Imperial and am constantly doing arithmetic in my head to convert to metric but Celsius to Fahrenheit is the easiest. Just multiply by 2 and add 30.

I think it is embedded deeply in our DNA. For some reason even the quite young have a better idea of inches.

As far as buying fabrics are concerned, since so much of our lovely cloths are woven and printed in America, why bother to learn metric?

I'm fine on metric or imperial but I absolutely hate fahrenhient. I also hate cups. I don't hate Americans but they need to get rid of this shit.

I am 70, and use a mixture.

I cook and shop mostly in grams, but recipes from my younger days are lbs and oz, and I also use cups for some, from living in the US. I have a milkman so my milk comes in pints, but I measure it out in ml and litres.

Human weight and height I use imperial, other measurements metric, although I visualise in imperial more accurately.

Miles, not km. Centigrade not Fahrenheit.

I'm in my 50s. Totally metric weight, height , fruit weighing but quite happy to order a pint ???

Ounces are a measure of weight...

Americans use volume in baking (standardised cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, etc). They use lbs instead of stone or kilos in everyday life to convey weight of individuals.

I use Fahrenheit as I'm in the US, and all the rest of the US measures of weight or volume. Like pretty much all other residents of the US, I give driving distance in driving time. I'm about 12 hours from Washington, DC, for instance.

I switch easily to metric when I'm back in the EU and out and about, though when im with my DM and the topic comes up, its stone, ounces, lbs, miles, etc. I always use the 24 hour setting on my watch regardless of where I am. I still need to use Fahrenheit in my head though, as for some reason that feels more real or accurate to me.

Why?

They work, after all...

I’m 46 and very mixed. I calculate distance in miles and had to turn my Apple Watch to miles as km means nothing to me, I measure in inches, weigh myself in stone and lbs, use grams and ml for cooking, use Celsius as it’s easy 0 freezing 100 boiling, fahrenheit is mental.

My mum can tell you a weight in lbs/oZ just by holding something as she worked in a butcher shop for years.

That would explain why Fahrenheit feels more real to me as a gauge of temperature. I spent my formative years hearing Fahrenheit and then moved to the US.

It possibly explains why I prefer a thermometer in Fahrenheit too.

I don't bother with either Imperial or Metric ever since I read an article on the BBC's website about recycling and rubbish.

'The latest figures available show that UK households produced just under 27 million tonnes of waste in 2017.

That's equivalent to 409 kg per person - roughly the weight of four adult giant pandas.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49827945

Now I measure everything based on animals or inanimate objects.

(I've been waiting about seven tin-openers to use this extract from the BBC!)

I was six in 1971 when we went decimal ‐ l remember it well. I have long thought that we should have gone metric in one fell swoop in the same way we went decimal. At school, maths was metric as well as athletics but cookery and needlework were in imperial. In the shops, everything was imperial, although there were some cursory nods to metric and petrol was sold in gallons. Body temperature was Fahrenheit but weather forecasts used Celsius (called centigrade then) for low temperatures and Fahrenheit for high temperatures. Over the years, l have tried to use metric as much as possible, especially as most things are metric, but still think in feet and inches for adult heights and stones and pounds for adult weights. Children's clothes are sold as metric measurements and were when my children were small. I haven't got a clue about Fahrenheit - Celsius for me all the way.

"the size of wales" for large areas such as icebergs and deforestation.

"the olympic sized swimming pool" for quantities of water.

"the double decker bus" for both length and mass.

Feet and inches for height, miles for travel and lb and ozs for cooking normally, although occasionally I will use grams. Sewing all feet and inches. Weight in in and ozs

Ounces are a measure of weight...

In the UK, always, yes. But the US English that I read (which, to be fair, is typically biased towards recipes and drinks) very often uses ounces to mean fluid ounces (which are a measure of volume), e.g., a 12-oz can of Coke, a 2-oz shot of gin in a cocktail, etc. You can fit 6 of those 2-oz shots into the Coke can but it will weigh quite a bit less than when it's full of Coke.