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???

I'd estimate a dog's weight as a fraction or multiple of my dog's weight. I can't remember why but I have been known to estimate a persons volume from their weight.

The weight of water though - I've seen a lot of people surprised by the weight of water in a dinghy or just on its cover, or trying to move a container full of rainwater.... knowing whether you need to remove half or 90% or whatever before it's likely to budge can be handy.

In JE Gordon’s book Structures:Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down I seem to remember that he makes the point that while we should be impressed by the construction and engineering skills of Greek, Roman and mediaeval builders, we no longer see their mistakes and disasters, as they fell down long ago.

Or pyramids - there's a couple of collapsed ones where they were still working things out around today ...

As proved by this thread, for all the romanticising about metric/imperial, absolutely no one is clamouring for the old pounds, shillings and pennies money

So clearly, it's not the decimal part of metric that's the problem ....

I was born in 1978 but many/most teachers still used imperial measures- in fact i would say its only in the last 10 years thats I've started to bake and cook metric.

I'm in my 40s & I use both imperial & metric measurements.
I prefer imperial & having been taught by my grandparents about 'old money' and it's units of worth, I actually prefer the 'old money' system as it makes money seem more real/valuable.
E.g. I would be less likely to waste a £1 knowing that it was worth 240 pennies compared to the 100 pennies a £1 is worth today.

More often water (or mostly water) than anything else. Litre/ 10cm cube/ kg , ml /cubic cm/ gram. And for everything else, density is a multiple/fraction of water so easy to get a ballpark idea

How do you do that in imperial?

As the imperial system has existed for centuries I assume everyone managed just fine although

I'm really proficient in both. Can mentally convert. I have to be though I'm an engineer so need to be comfortable with both. Comfortable with everything down to units of heat and energy though I find imperial is more cumbersome for calculations.

I use feet and inches, and stones and pounds.

Obviously people managed in imperial units, but it's far easier with integrated consistent units.

I was born in 1978 but many/most teachers still used imperial measures

That surprises me, born 1961. DM was a primary teacher, she was teaching metric in school before then and would use it outside of work too.

absolutely no one is clamouring for the old pounds, shillings and pennies money

I don't remember it but my husband does and says that he had no problems with it even as a child. Surely an adult of even average intelligence could cope, even today.

Surely an adult of even average intelligence could cope, even today

Of course they could, unless there are learning difficulties that would apply to any system I be willing to bet that youd have to look hard to find people who don't understand their own currency system.

£sd was never problematic for me, including guineas which were still a thing when I was a child.

The building trades still use a lot of imperial measurements, even if stuff comes in metric. Half inch? Sorry, you can only have 12.7mm.

I would LOVE to go back to old money. So much nicer. Florins ! Farthings!

I don't remember it but my husband does and says that he had no problems with it even as a child. *

Of course we coped fine. And we coped fine with decimalisation, and could see it was easier. I would guess that if lsd was reintroduced now it would be harder to transition the other way.

And it's not as though a finger of fudge would still cost 3d.

Ah I’ve said this on other threads but I once reduced a Y8 class to tears - real tears - with a “fun” Christmas lesson based on Dickens’ Christmas Carol.
Sample question (I may slightly exaggerate): Mr Scrooge bought the Cratchits a goose weighing 5 lb 3 1/2 oz @ 12/6 per lb, a turkey weighing 7lb 4 1/4 oz@ 4/2 1/4 (farthing) per lb, three bags of coal at 4/6 per bag, two skipping ropes at 6d each, a Christmas pudding at 3/3 and three farthings and a bag of kindling costing three ha’pence. How much did Mr Scrooge spend in total?
I would have been expected to do similar at primary school in the 1950s (though probably less complicated).
N.B. I am not willing to mark your answers. There’s a storm outside and I have wine.

I agree that it is odd particularly when a very young mother says their baby weighs 7 lb 6oz or whatever. I am nearly 60 and remember decimalisation and how much easier sums became. There is no logic in continuing imperial measurements.

No, I don't see it so much with younger people, but definitely do observe it at large in UK society.

A large part of our population is older and I understand that imperial remains their preferred system. I'm happy to have weights in shops specified in both lb and kg.

At the same time, I certainly haven't taught DC imperial measures, only how to look up converters on Google if necessary. I can't imagine they'll need more than that in future life, esp if they go into science, engineering or medicine.

When I was in school all science and maths was metric. It's been quite weird to return to the UK last year and find DC being given some maths questions with imperial units at primary school. I've explained it as just an additional level of mental flex in arithmetic problems (and not added that it seems to me a pointless perpetuation of an outdated tradition).

@borntobequiet
a goose weighing 5 lb 3 1/2 oz @ 12/6 per lb

Haha, you have lost me here already! 😂
What is 12/6? Is that just mathematical fraction? I probably would have been in tears in the lesson too! 😊
But I am very impressed that people can do these calculations automatically, I only know metric which really lends itself to calcs so no impressive skills there. Although I have to say, many Brits I meet are very proud to announce that they are shit at maths, which I find extremely surprising. I think in any other European country it is a great shame not to have mathematical skills, so people would definitely not be advertising it. Could it be the imperial/metric interface breaking the mathematical spirit in many British people?

What is 12/6?

Twelve shillings and sixpence.

12x12+6=150pennies (there are 240 pennies in a pound).

As I said all of a sudden, decimal doesn't seem so bad. I have never heard anyone moan they want £sd back.

Ha! I think it was rarely automatic, even back in the “good old days” and even then, only among those who routinely did such calculations.

Which possibly (or at least partially) explains the problem regarding British people and Maths.

Which possibly (or at least partially) explains the problem regarding British people and Math

Why?

Most countries use the Metric system. Those countries that are renowned for their maths such as South Korea use the metric system.

I was born in the 1950’s, so grew up with imperial measures. We became really good at using different bases in our calculations - all metric amounts are just in base ten, but we handled base 12 (pennies to shillings), base 8 (pints to gallons) base 14 (pounds to stone), base 16 (ounces to pounds) etc.
Even doing a simple calculation of adding up money required the conversion of 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound.
And as for lengths - we had rods, poles, perches, chains, furlongs, feet, inches, yards and miles!
I think all the extra arithmetic kept our brains agile. But I loved and still use imperial measures for as much as possible, because they’re such practical everyday sizes.
A foot was literally a human foot. An inch was the last joint of the thumb. A cubit was along your arm to the elbow, a furlong was the distance the plough horse went between turns, etc. An ounce of most cooking ingredients was about a handful.
And it’s so much easier to remember recipes when all the numbers are between 1 and 16, instead of the hundreds of grams in metric ones. I taught my toddlers to cook using imperial - they could understand weighing out 3 oz, but couldn’t yet cope with 84 grams.

base 14 (pounds to stone), base 16 (ounces to pounds) etc

That I don't get - why not have 14 ounces in a pound and 14 pounds in a stone.

Why change from 14 to 16