To think it odd that so many British still use Imperial measurements?

[Elouera]

Britain started using metric measurements in 1965, so I can only assume that majority of people under about age 50 learnt metric in school? I spend part of my schooling under a British system, but it was all metric. I'm just intrigued as to why, 50yrs later, some younger people are still referring to pounds and lbs???

Do people use acres or square metres for area?

I was taught both at school. Some people are older at school , op.

Do people use acres or square metres for area?

Both!
Acres for outside space such as parks and fields and square meters for floor space.

I use imperial for weight and height. But I only understand weight in terms of stones and lbs. definitely not the American way of talking about “she only weighs 100 lb” or whatever.

Indeed I couldn’t tell you if 100lb is actually a lot or not very much without getting my calculator out to turn it into stones.

I do cooking weights in grams though, don’t really understand the 500lb if sugar thing.

I generally use imperial. Most of my recipes came from my mum or grandma, and are in lb & oz, I've always been measured in feet & inches, lb & stone, and distances are quoted in miles, drinks sold in pints etc. I find it a bit odd/forrin when people refer to their weight in kilos tbh.

Acres for outside space such as parks and fields and square meters for floor space

I can't visualise an acre. Yet I can visualise 100 square metres

Funny I've never heard one person pining for L.s.d - all of a sudden there is a limit. And that's it.

I live abroad (EU) and I can cope with all metric except for height, I still struggle to convert cm to feet and inches. Slimming World was a nightmare here when I asked to be weighed in kilos (British rep and mainly British customers), caused massive problems when they read out the weekly report.

Funny though how TV and penis size is always in imperial, whatever country you're in 🤔😂

I am fifty and can visualise in imperial, height, weight and distance but cook in metric. I use Celsius more for temperature the last few years than Fahrenheit. It is quite odd really when I was taught metric in school.

It's not going away either. My 16 year old happily switches between measurements for height, weight, mph, gallons and temperatures and no problems using old recipe or converting distances between. But wouldn't know about a furlong or a chain but they are kept alive through horse racing and cricket. He has never been taught in anything but metric but just picks it up day to day. It shows how difficult it is to impose cultural changes on a society.

I think in inches , I have to translate cm to inches every bloody time I am looking a dress size etc. Also miles. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t still use miles, I have never heard anyone say that something is “3 km away..” ditto pints - who asks for milk in litres ?
Who mentions their waist or bust or bra size in cm ? Everyone still says half a pound of butter.

And bought some land once and it was measured in hectres... hadn't a clue what it meant in a visual capacity. It really is all quite strange when you stop to think about it.

veryone still says half a pound of butter

Do they?

A few facts

Incidentally, the UK came within a whisker of metrication in 1863.

The study of measurement is called metrology, one of my fields of vague expertise having worked in metrology software, amongst others.

Indeed I couldn’t tell you if 100lb is actually a lot or not very much without getting my calculator out to turn it into stones.

A Stone is 14 lbs (for those saying that imperial units are easier to do fractions of ...really?)

Presumably everyone knows without much thought that 7*7 is 49 so 7 stones is 98lb. Close enough?

Quick estimates for converting metric/imperial - we were taught that (approx) 'a litre of water's a pint and three quarters' and 'two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram'

two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram

Great - but what does a pound of jam look like

. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t still use miles,

Couch to 5K? parkRun?

I use both. Im 24.

I worked in a sweet shop as a teenager and some people would ask for 100g of whatever and others would ask for a quarter.

Also use cm and m but also miles, feet and inches. And lbs and oz for my own weight.

Use kg for weights at work though.

Somehow just works for me!

@ErrolTheDragon and I think that is why it works. In science you need a standard unit to be accurate but in everyday life no problem saying a foot is 30 cms (it's not) or 100lbs is 7 stone near enough, of 5km is 3 miles or an inch is 2.5cm (it's not) etc. It all works fine.

Oh, speaking of stone, if you want to confuse an American (stop giggling at the back, please) just mention stone. They have no idea.

Also, remember that US pints and gallons are different to UK ones. Which rather reduces the usefulness of the Imperial system, since you need to specify the type of pints for global understanding. Whereas a metre is a metre.

My DF is Italian, and we grew up all metric anyway. However the year I started school was the year that metric was made compulsory. I remember the teachers saying how lucky we were as older kids had to switch from to metric (which really just meant turning the rulers around).

There used to be a bar near the Gare du Nord in the 90s called "A la Grand Pint du Nord"

what does a pound of jam look like

Well, at the time we learned it, it would look like a jam jar full. But anyway 'a bit more than double' for weight, 'a bit less than double' for volume gives you the right ballpark.

Imperial is easier to visualise because it was originally based on the human body and things we see everyday.

The metric system was originally based on one ten millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator, which is completely outside of the experience of almost all ordinary people.

Imperial is easier for describing and metric easier for complex calculations.

mid fifties here - if I need to measure something I use metric because it is easier. But I know my weight in stone, my height in feet and inches and the car is set to record miles per gallon. And of course the speedo does miles per hour.

strange, isn't it?

Not just an American!

Stone is one of those colloquial words, for me anyway. Never learnt it and thought I knew what it meant, 10 pounds of course, so I was about 15 when my Mum told me that no a stone was not ten pounds! We had a good key hole shaped weighing scale so it was metric.

I'm late 50's and was taught both in school and still use both