People can stop panicking about this Imperial measurements thing!

[Echobelly]

The proposal to reintroduce Imperial measurements is a fucking stupid idea and waste of time but Lordy, my social media is alight with people going 'OMG, they're going to force everyone to learn Imperial and it's ageist and ableist and will wreck trade and it'll be so expensive to recalibrate all out scales' etc etc.

I mean, hold your horses folks - they're allowing people to use imperial which wasn't allowed under the EU, just so they can say we can now do something we couldn't do under the EU. It's not being mandated. It's totally empty symbolism.

A handful of red-faced market stall holders will use it to make a point, no one else will care, nothing else will happen. I mean, I hate this bloody government and this ridiculous, retrograde idea but please be better than those people who don't read beyond the headlines.

Sorry, just the inaccuracy of response to this is bugging me!

@Porridgealert

I'm happy to buy apples in kilos but if I bagged some apples, I could estimate how many made a lb better than i could a kilo. Same way I'm happy to measure a room size in meters, but to estimate it by sight, I'd use feet. I'd always calculate height and weight imperially - it's much more descriptive.

Two things about being over 60 @LusciousLondoner.

1. We had to use both systems at school so we're very educated and extremely flexible in our thinking.
2. We were taught manners.

Yes, all of this.

You only need to read any thread on here about weight to realise people mostly use the Imperial system, or occasionally both (normally height in feet and inches and weight in kilos).

@NiceGerbil

We switched to metric in 1965.

That's what. 56 years ago?

And people are still pissed off about it! Even though it's perfectly fine to display both.

I honestly don't care about this issue, and use both systems flexibly. I was born in 1964 and taught both systems at school.

*was taught

@Porridgealert

Imperial units tend to be based more on human daily experience than on what is logical, consistent and accurate (as the metric system is)

The imperial system is accurate however it evolved. And a foot is always 12" - couldn't be more consistent. And if its so logical to use metric, why do aviation and shipping across Europe use imperial?

Metric units are equally 'daily experience' if that's what you're used to. Adults are generally somewhere between 1 and a half to two metres tall - just as convenient as '5 ft to 6'6" ' I'd have thought. Litres and kilograms are roughly twice as large as pints and pounds - no more or less 'human scaled' either way. And the fact that a litre of water weighs a kilogram is very convenient indeed.

Miles being used by those industries is historical and hard to change I suppose. A hangover of the imperial past? But day to day - increasingly you find runners, walkers and cyclists reporting in km not miles.

What do most people measure their kids in? Metric makes more sense to me for car seats and theme parks (when will shorty hit 102cm in shoes)

@Babdoc

Some of us never stopped using them, OP! I do all my cooking in ounces, weigh myself in stones and pounds, all British road signs are still in miles, I measure people’s heights in feet and inches, and drink beer in half pints.

And me

Most people use both surely

I have no idea what the OP is on about, but I have never stopped using imperial, at home or in shops.

I am a scientist and use metric at work if using European resources, and imperial if using American ones.

but there is no "bringing back" of imperial - it is universal and always has been

@donquixotedelamancha

Can't believe all these unpatriotic people wanting to use American units, the UK has been metric for 50 years. Such a shame some people don't care about their countries heritage and culture these days.

The whole Brexit project is a vehicle for this country’s Americanisation.

I am old enough to remember crying in school over sums involving the multiplication and division of yards / feet / inches and stones / pounds / ounces.

Imperial measures are ridiculous, compared with the sensible metric system.

I prefer imperial because they are more appropriate for every day stuff. eg rugs are 8x10, 10x12- your height is 5 or 6 ft, weight is 10 stone, sugar was 2lbs.
Remembering a single or double digit is much easier than rug 234cm , height 176cm etc etc let alone 1.76 m or even worse 1,760 mm

Fine for maths but not very human mind friendly

What's more likely is that some places will use both, seems reasonable as a lot of people haven't got their heads around metric yet!

I prefer imperial because they are more appropriate for every day stuff. eg rugs are 8x10, 10x12- your height is 5 or 6 ft, weight is 10 stone, sugar was 2lbs.
Remembering a single or double digit is much easier than rug 234cm , height 176cm etc etc let alone 1.76 m or even worse 1,760 mm

Rugs are made to imperial sizes, hence easier to remember 8x10, if they were made in metric 2.4x3.00 vs 8ft 2 & 1/2 inch x 10ft.
Fitted carpets are made in metric widths 2m, 4m and 5m being common widths, why carpet shops insisted in selling by sq yard is beyond me, other than its more difficult to work out and check quantities required.

How's it easier to remember 2lb of sugar vs 1kg?

I do love a pop at the Americans but they also mix n match measurements. Their heights for rides is definitely in cm.

It is still (just) possible to buy fruit and veg in France by asking for une livre (a pound) even though the measurement pre-dates the revolution.
Old people still talk about 'mes acres".
Folk memories can last a looong time. 😂
I have tried describing my height in pieds et pouces, but that doesn't work any more.

It is interesting the notion of "Imperial" measurement is associated with the British Empire, when the origins of pounds / feet / inches go back much further.
Libra pondõ eh? What did the Romans ever do for us? 😂😂😂

I don’t understand metric. Im a pounds and ounces girl.

Infact, we’ve all continued using it. When did you last hear sone one say the baby weight X kg at birth. Its always been imperial.

Interesting MrsDThomas. Do you not find using base 16 and 14 for calculations a bit time consuming?

I learnt to cook in imperial. I literally can’t bake unless following a recipe in metric. I’m in my early thirties.

[quote Lockdownbear]@garlictwist I'd assume a quarter is 1/4 of a pound, 4oz. God knows why a pound is abbreviated to lb.
But only selling in 1/4s could have landed them in court, this change has taken that threat away.

@cakeinspiration it's a lot longer than 20 years, probably closer to 50 years. I think the big changes happened around 1971 when they made the money change from lsd to £. But it might have been earlier.
So really you're probably the second generation to be taught in kilos and meters. Ask your parents what they were taught in?[/quote]
I was 7 in 1971 and my first memory of being taught about money in school was the metric system but I think I may have been on a of the first years they did this as I remember my parents saying how novel this was and that my older sister had been taught shillings and pence in my year

@MrsDThomas

I don’t understand metric. Im a pounds and ounces girl.

Infact, we’ve all continued using it. When did you last hear sone one say the baby weight X kg at birth. Its always been imperial.

When I gave birth 2 months ago. DS was 3.94kg. (Or 8lb11).

@Fawnor

Imperial measures are ridiculous, compared with the sensible metric system.

This. I measure short distances in m and cm, my weight in kg and ingredients in mg, g in kg, my height in cm and liquids in l and ml.

I don’t understand pounds, ounces, inches, feet etc. Ridiculous outdated measurements.

I’ve never understood kilometres or kilos at all. I’ve always weighed in imperial. Miles, pounds and ounces. So life will be easier for me.

The whole thing is just an effort to convince simpletons that Britian is "winning" some kind of patriotic war.

@Porridgealert

My husband says, so could very well be wrong!, that all nautical and aviation measurement are done in miles etc. Its to do with the 360°. Apparently easier for calculations of navigation. All of Europe does it so obviously all countries use the two systems. Apparently not China and Russia.

He's referring to nautical miles. If you sliced the earth into two hemispheres, at the equator, so you have a flat circle.

Then divide that circle into 360 degrees and divide each of those divisions into 60 minutes. Then a nautical mile is one of those arc lengths. A nautical mile is 1.15 x a mile.

A knot is 1NM/hour.

to use imperial which wasn't allowed under the EU, just so they can say we can now do something we couldn't do under the EU

Not true so YABU. I guess that's what the government want people to think.

Out of curiosity.... what are the imperial units for very small amounts/ lengths? Millimetres, micrograms, etc. TIA