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???

Born in the 70’s, so we learned metric at school, but at home the whole family reckoned in feet and inches, pounds and ounces. So it kind of stuck.

I use both
long distances and car journeys always miles driving speeds miles per hour, I wouldn't know what 30mph speed limit was in km/hr but I could work it out
short distances ( upto 2-400metres) I use metres then it would be 1/2 a mile
heights of people in feet and inches but height of a room or curtains would be centimetres
I have a mental image of what a 10st person looks like but not a 100kg person
bra sizes are imperial clothes sizes don't really equate to anything
a UK size 12 is USA size 8 or 10 and a Euro size 42 but what does 42 refer to? it can't mean 42cm as no measurement on a size 12 person is 42cm and Italian sizes are different to french sizes
money and volume would always be metric

Well I'm an engineer and believe me metric is the way to go.

I have to work with Americans from time to time so have to be able to use imperial to which is an annoyance but a necessity.

As an aside - if you haven't seen an American try to add or subtract imperial measurements (e.g. 5 3/8" - 1 5/16") then you should look it up, it's hilarious.

I use imperial for cooking as we have a set of old fashioned scales with weights that dh inherited from his late grandma.

Cannot believe the love for imperial on this thread. Metric is just so much easier:

• everything divides by 10
• water boils at 100c and freezes at zero do the temperature is easy to visualise
• a CM is approx the width of a finger
• 100ml of water (and a few other liquids) weighs approx 100g

Having said that, cos of daily life in Britain I still think about largish distances in miles and height in feet and inches. But I know my height and weight in metric too. I don't cook much but always use metric when I do. My husband was a chef and now a baker. He uses metric always and coverts all US recipes into metric.

I also love the 24hr clock. No need for am/pm

I'm in my 40s and use both. Inches for haircuts and printing photos (I still think 6x4!). Distance, height and a person's weight also imperial. Temperature and general measuring usually metric. Although, I do use whichever measurement gives the closest to a whole number! Baking a cake is definitely easier in imperial - 8, 8, 8, 4...

I can use both but prefer imperial. I’m over 50 and imperial is what my mam and nan used at home.

I’m ex forces so prefer a 24hr clock.

There's nothing to emotionally or socially attach to metric. They're just random numbers.

However everyone knows 6ft is tall. 5 ft shorter person.
What 9 stone 10 stone 6 stone 20 stone mean. No comment on these. :)

A mile is quite a way to walk but achievable. 10 miles a short drive. 50 miles quite a way.
300 miles across country.

We know babies and their health and the ohh dear pain factor, in pounds and ounces.

My mother would have known imperial weight amounts for recipes and sight of pound of butter etc. Me not so much I buy packets as sold but wish I knew in weight.

Ditto all the rest. It's in the social structure of babies, dating, describing people, dieting, sport, bodybuilding, drinking, walking, driving and to a lesser degree eating and cooking.

I am surprised that people don't instintively "know" the conversions. A 3.5 kg baby is 7lbs 12 oz, a 4kg baby is about 8lbs 8. A 6 ft man is 180cm tall and 5miles is 8km. We deal with this stuff every day. However I have absolutely no clue when it comes to farenheit. Surely 100 degrees is literally boiling point.

Oh and cooking I can use either. Just don't mix them. So a cake will work fine with 2oz butter 4oz flour and 3oz sugar OR 50g butter, 100g flour and 75g sugar. But not with 50g butter and 4oz flour. Both cakes will need about 2 eggs depending on size.

I am surprised that people don't instintively "know" the conversions. A 3.5 kg baby is 7lbs 12 oz, a 4kg baby is about 8lbs 8. A 6 ft man is 180cm tall and 5miles is 8km. We deal with this stuff every day. However I have absolutely no clue when it comes to farenheit. Surely 100 degrees is literally boiling point

Can't you see the very contradiction in your post?

You can't understand people who don't know the conversions that you know while simultaneously not being able to convert Centigrade to Farenheit? That doesn't make any sense, 100 degrees C is literally the boiling point of water in certain conditions, 100 degress F isn't anywhere near that

I had metric in school and at home so do my own weight and height in metric. I know my height in imperial but not weight. Go to Weightwatchers where almost everyone was measuring in stone and pounds so I needed to get my head around it. From some of the blank looks on the day I joined a lot of people find imperial calculation hard. It was so easy for me to work out my 10% goal, my leader had a chart to work out my actual goal as it was all imperial.

However I have absolutely no idea about metric weights of babies, 6lb, 8lb I can picture.

I cook in metric
My own weight and height are imperial ( and my weight is secret )
Most people know their height in feet and inches , don’t they ? And their babies birthweight
( though DS was 8 lb 13 which is 4 kg , so I know his weight in both )
I’m nearly 60 , and bought metric weights for my cooking scales when my DC did cookery at school

A foot was literally a human foot. An inch was the last joint of the thumb

Except they're not, are they ... I've got small hands, my thumb joint is more than an inch. A workman's thumb might be about an inch wide perhaps.

I was taught metric at school, but learned to cook and bake at home in imperial. I follow any recipe in whatever measurements now, but if I’m making sponge from memory it’s in ounces :o

For Fahrenheit, roughly speaking, in the nineties is in the mid 30s so hot, for the uk, that is.

I like summer temperature in Fahrenheit and winter temperature in centigrade.

I prefer miles for distances but prefer grams in weight :/

Temperature in celsius!

Born 1965 and I use both . I recently gave my height in cm whilst in hospital .... they were totally baffled lol they then weighed me the metric weight was far better than the imperial one !! ( never realised how much my kg weight was )

And quite often, Imperial measurements are easier in practical applications; 4 flour, 4 sugar, 4 milk, 2 eggs, instead of 113.4g, for example, 6 inches rather than 152.4mm - using a 3,4,5 to ensure a corner is 90 degrees, rather than 914.4mm/1219.2mm/1524mm.

That's only because you've converted from imperial to metric to get those fractions. If you start from a metric recipe and converted to imperial you'd get fractions too

But for recipes the weights are only an approximation, if you want to make the ultimate sponge cake weigh your eggs and use that as the measure for flour and butter.

Or use a balance.

Also you can use 3,4,5 in any measure, feet, cm, metres, miles even.

Yes, it is weird how we have ended up! I was taught only in metric at school - metric coins day was 1971 and I was about 9. However I have needed to know imperial so have ended up knowing both but some better than others.
Eg I usualy know human weight in stones not kilos although that does help us with the USA who use pounds. I have always used C not F for temperature. I understand acres better than hectares. I certaily know a pint of milk. I tend to think in miles for distances not km.

What a mess we have ended up with - it is called the British metric muddle.

I suppose the saving grace is that many of us know both systems so we can operate in the rest of Europe and also in the USA. We are in a sense bilingual in it all.
I remember at school in about 1970 thinking when we went metric we would not have to bother learning the 12x table any more - even that advantage never came and we had to learn the wretched thing despite no longer having 12 old pence in a shilling.

It's a free country, you can use ; pecks , bushels, chains and furlongs if you want. And long may it be so.

Eg I usualy know human weight in stones not kilos although that does help us with the USA who use pounds

When I hear an American say they weigh 160 pounds, I do have to stop and think if that is a lot or not a lot.

I'm splinched between the two. I cook in ounces for small measures and grams for larger ones. I do inches and meters. I do Fahrenheit for cooking and outside temperatures in Celsius.