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’m early 40s and remember the big change over when shops stopped selling stuff such as ham in oz and moved over to grams. I’m guessing late 80s/early 90s.

I was taught imperial and metric at school. Did a lot of cooking at home and my mum only used imperial. Roads are still in miles, people are still in feet and inches.

@gamerchick- not 'slagging anyone or trying to be snarky'!!! As said, I'm just intrigued! Also relatively new to this forum, so I'm sorry if you have read a similar thread before that I was unaware of

I really struggle with metric

Meh. I was at school in the 90s/00s and I use both depending on circumstances/mood. Although if you told me someone was 175cm tall I wouldn’t be able to visualise that like I could if you said 5’9”.

Distance is always miles though 🤔

I am completely baffled by class heights in the horse world. Under 14.2. Great. Under 150cm. WTAF?

I think we did use kg for mass in science for the mass, gravity, weight equation.

My kids measure small things in cm and people in feet.
They drink coke in liters but milk in pints
They run in km but cycle in miles.
It's society that influences this as I grew up in Europe and only understand metric.

I was taught in metric but always choose to use imperial as I have found that when converting recipes they were lazy and just called 1oz 25g makes nice easy conversion charts only problem is 1oz is actually 28g. This small change can really mess up your cake making. I should add that they did the same with liquid 1 pint is

In the 70s/80s most people were taught only metric in school, but the National Curriculum specified the teaching of "Imperial units in common usage", and since most adults had been brought up on Imperial, all the everyday ones were still in use. I find the mishmash we have in everyday use quite interesting. I was amused that in a local NCT newsletter, the list of births had a mix, but the metric units usually went with the European surnames!

Got to say this really annoys me on road signs. I have NO idea how far 100 yards etc is. All my (British 80s/90s education) was in metres. Height as well. I know an adult male is about 6 foot? And a foot is about the same as a long ruler so about 30cm? But my own height/weight I know in cm/kg. Baby weights confuse me - everyone still goes by pounds. Cook in grams/ml/degrees celcius.

I do picture a mile more easily than a kilometre because I had friend when I was little who lived 1 mile away and we used to walk it.

So I think it depends on your reference points. And I can understand not wanting to change everything too quickly and confuse everyone. But we must be getting to a point now where there are more metric heads around.

JayAlfredPrufrock

YES! Talk to me about a horse in anything other than hands and I couldn’t tell you if it was a Falabella foal or a Shire

Looks like it was later....1999. So quite recently really which explains why people still use imperial.

In 1999, when the British Government allowed the derogation for the use of imperial units to lapse, all goods (apart from beer, cider and milk in returnable containers) had to be priced in metric units.

I admit I do feel a bit bad about doing baking with the DCs and using old weights
But for cooking I find it way better for scaling up or down on recipes. You can divide imperial by 12, 6, 4, 3 or 2

It's good to have both - that way you're more likely to find a round number.

For example, in running, people often have little mile and km goals to do different distances but still have a round number as a target.

I know what I am in both systems, but I find it easier to reference other things in imperial; e.g. I'm 158cms, which is fine, but if someone told me they were 172, I wouldn't "know" how tall that was, whereas if they said they were 5ft8, or 6ft2, I would. - A bit like converting currency abroad. It's all about constantly using it - I couldn't use imperial measurements for DIY, for example, as although I was taught both ways, I've only ever really used mm (I'm doing my kitchen, so I'm now pretty good at judging 600mm on sight!) I use ml for liquids, but miles for longer distances. We're very odd as a nation, but make it work where it matters!

Sorry posted to soon ment to say 1 pint is 568ml not 500mil

I’m under 50 thanks and still use imperial (I can roughly translate to metric). I think imperial is much better tbh

I use both, but for some I prefer one method over another. My height in inches, weight in kg. Cooking measurements in oz, distance in miles, room measurements in feet etc.
My son is studying tailoring and clothes making. Apparently for all clothes fitting you measure in cm apart from proper suit tailoring which is always measured in inches still.
Obviously we like to be interesting in the UK😁

I'm 52 and have never used imperial except for weight and height. I was always taught metric at school.

YANBU. Metric is so much easier in every way.

I’m generally confused as I was taught the metric system but much day to day stuff is still imperial. My newborn weighed 4.1kg and no one knew whether that was heavy or not. No one would use km for roads. It was only recently that digital scales enabled you to easily measure out 175g. Change is difficult if it’s not properly thought through.

@drivingmisspotty
1 yard is 90cm or 3 rulers (ruffly) so 100 yards is 90m (ruffly)

You know you're a runner when you're good at mile/ km conversions

Imperial doesn't work well in a digital, computerised society, but it is quite an instinctive system for humans to grasp. The scale of baby weights from 6lb (how diddy) to 10lb (wince) is pretty easy to grasp as a headline. 6ft plus is tall, 5ft short. Stones are quite an easy unit to guage human weight by, better than kg or lbs. Feet and inches are quite easy to visualise. A pint is a comfortable amount to drink.

I grew up in a metric education system, but strongly influenced by a society still lodged very much with imperial. (I use a jumble of both; not quite 40 yet) Britain never really had its heart in converting from imperial to metric and has been half-hearted about it. There was much grumbling in the 90s when items such as fresh food had to be sold in metric not imperial with some cultural exceptions such as pints of beer or milk. I don't know the accuracy of it, but there was certainly a feeling that the EU was imposing a culture change on the UK, and that kind of rumbling, low-level discontent has been a significant factor in Leave support over Brexit.

I thought lbs and oz and ft in were the modern measurements. I don’t like using the other ones.

We don’t use the metric system to measure time and seem to get along just fine.