To think it's time the UK went truly metric.

[complexnumber]

Partially inspired by another thread about the size of tv's being quoted in inches.

I know that is a trivial example, but isn't it time we finally dropped the imperial measurements completely?

Just about every other country in the world has managed it. Why can't we?

We (the UK that is) have been dithering since 1965, that's pathetic.

(However, I do confess to wanting my beer served by the pint.)

I've realised I use centigrade for cold temperatures, because I was in the UK for those and Fahrenheit for hot ones, because I was abroad. Barking.

I'm 23 and I learnt metric in school but find it easier to use imperial as in the real world that's what everyone else is using.

How is metric more precise?

AND, if they do want to change everything into metric then charge accordingly. 500ml is not equal to 1 pint of milk, so don't charge me for a pint when you're selling it in ML!!

AND, I do not want a pint of beer served in a 500ml glass, it won't fit and I do not want to be charged for a full pint, understand beer festival!!

Another 23 year old here, imperial all the way. Metric makes my head hurt despite being doing both at school.

If it weren't for the US,I suppose we'd be fully metric by now.

American here, once I "got" the metric system when we lived in Germany, I never wanted to go back. Seriously, dividing in metric for recipes etc is so much easier than trying to deal with liquid ounces versus weight ounces, how many ounces are in a pound, how many whatevers in a whatever. In metric it's all in tens. It's so very simple it's painful that I wasted a year in early years of school just memorising all of our silly imperial units.

I live in the UK now, I appreciate at least that most recipes are in metric. I still have recipes from the US, of course, but I've weighed out the ingredients and made notes in them for metric. Using a digital scale makes all the difference.

I love metric.

That's right, imperial makes much more sense. 16 oz in a pound, 14 lb in a stone, 1760 (?) yards in a mile.

I don't see why we should change something just to be the same as everyone else though.

Look what happened to marathons when they were changed the name to snickers, they've not been the same since

And at least a litre is the same everywhere (any beer drinkers are in for a disappointment in the US if they ask for a pint!)

I'm in Sweden which is totally metric - apart from tvs which are still quoted in inches!

But CrystalQueen it is not that random - the 1760 years is made up of 8 furlongs, each of which consists of 10 chains of 22 yards. Perfect sense.

*yards

Yes. We've been in this confused half-way house too long. Metric is the international standard and we should be using it for everything.

I work for a business that makes things with LCD & plasma panels (the 'screen' part of the flatscreen TV). We import them from China and South Korea mainly which is where the vast majority are made. The whole of the industry, worldwide, still states panel size diagonal in inches, it's not just the UK. That's despite the height, width and depth of the panel being specified in cm!

That's right, imperial makes much more sense. 16 oz in a pound, 14 lb in a stone, 1760 (?) yards in a mile.

And don't forget 3ft to a yard, 22 yards to a chain, 10 chains to a furlong and 8 furlongs to a mile.

Perfect sense (it probably did before the agricultural revolution).

And of course it matters if you are an engineer or a scientist. If you are a peasant, probably less so

That's because the biggest market for display screens is the US, and they hate metric because it's NIH - "not invented here".

Keep the mm of metric but dump the rest (I'm 32)

OK, here's my confession. I started the thread but still use imperial on a day to day basis. I know my height in ft and inches, my weight in st and lb. If you ask me some distances, I will tell you in mile. Other distances I will estimate in km.

My excuse is that I am 50+, but that does not really hold as I have been a maths teacher for nearly 30 years.

My worry is that increasingly children are coming out of school with no system at all.

And I really do think that it matters, it matters a heck of a lot.

If not, we will be seen as some sort of anachronism.

(Another little aside, I recently asked a class of mine how tall they were, virtually all of them gave me a ft. inches answer, despite them being from all over the world (european kids did not))

i am only just on the right side of 50 and was taught "old money" at school...just as i "got it" the fucking bastards changed it all!

I never recovered.

i still talk about pound notes too.......

so blame me and blame my age (i am the one with the 19" telly)

I am 49 and in that generation that suffered a few years in the 1970s at Primary school that had to learn both. My sister just 18 months younger cant use Imperial at all much beyond feet and inches.

My father is a farmer and uses both and hence I still use both and then when I worked in the oil industry there where all sorts of Imperial (UK), metric and US measures that are used interchangably according to tradition. We also used nautical miles, miles and kilometres to check the position of ships. Dont even get me started on cooking where cups, tsp, tbsp, oz, lbs, grams are scattered around like confetti.

Its a joy to confuse my children with farthings, hapenny, thrupnnie bits, sixpence, shillings, ten bob notes, pounds and guineas. Horses are still sold in Guineas.

Allows me to get my own back for all their teenage slang.