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???

Having grown up with not only Imperial but pounds, shillings and pence, too, I often remember how it was said when we converted to decimal money, how children would be so much better at maths, now that they wouldn’t have to waste so much time on money sums, e.g. adding £14 11s 7d to £27 3s 5d, or working out in your head (mental arithmetic tests!) the cost of a dozen articles @ fivepence three farthings.(Actually quite easy when you knew how).

Whether the nation as a whole has improved at maths, I would like to say, but I’m not sure there’s much evidence for it.
It took me two goes to pass O level maths, BTW, so I’m not claiming any sort of mathematical whizzery.

chomalungma

Shit I mean divide by 2.

opr maybe I multiply by 1/2

Having grown up with not only Imperial but pounds, shillings and pence, too, I often remember how it was said when we converted to decimal money, how children would be so much better at maths, now that they wouldn’t have to waste so much time on money sums, e.g. adding £14 11s 7d to £27 3s 5d, or working out in your head (mental arithmetic tests!) the cost of a dozen articles @ fivepence three farthings.(Actually quite easy when you knew how)

Are the stories true about how there were so many different coins of each denomination and covering a whole range of Monarchs so that your Farthing could turn into hundreds of pounds if it was rare enough?

It’s such a mess I went to school in the 90s and know my weight in stones and my children’s in kg - but I also know their birth weights in lbs. And their heights in cm. I think by the next generation imperial heights/weights will have died out.

I think that it's a bit of a political statement too. I remember when there was a huge fuss because 'Europe' forced us to start selling in Kg and litres. Good grief, you'd think they were asking us to drown our first-borns. Many shopkeepers doggedly continued with imperial, or displayed both weights and two prices.

The US on the other hand, has a system closer to imperial measurements. So if we come into line with Europe, we move away from the US and vice versa.

The US on the other hand, has a system closer to imperial measurements. So if we come into line with Europe, we move away from the US and vice versa.

Using the same words for what are sometimes different quantities can be more confusing than two different systems. It's particularly obvious in pints and gallons.

And (as mentioned upthread) Americans sometimes make colossal mistakes when a scientist (who use use SI/metric) meets an engineer still stuck in imperial. DH, a scientist, had some baffling conversations until he realised an American chemical engineer he was talking to was using F not C in a context where it had never crossed DHs mind that would happen.

Does highs of 83 and lows of -6 sound incomprehensible to an American. It sounds so logical to me!

Does highs of 83 and lows of -6 sound incomprehensible to an American. It sounds so logical to me!

That would sound comprehensible to an American - but they'd misunderstand what it meant. Whereas in a U.K. weather report that -6 would be C, they would perfectly sensibly interpret it as F to match the 83. -6 F is -21 C so they'd think you meant a lot colder than most of us ever experience in the U.K.

Whereas if you said that temperatures in the U.K. typically ranged between -6 and 28 throughout they'd know you meant C as 28F is below freezing.