to think that politicians who are keen for a return to Imperial measurements should be asked to do calculations with them

[cakeorwine]

I know my weight in stones and pounds. And in Kg
My height in feet and inches. And metres / cm

I can visualise a mile - but a 1000 yards - not really.

But when it comes to calculations, I would struggle with Imperial but it's easy with metric

10 stones 5 pound 7 oz divided by 7

or 52 kg divided by 7 - I could estimate that pretty confidently and it wouldn't take too much time to calculate it.

3 lb 5 ounces at £1.23 a pound or 4.2 kg at £1.23 a kg?
And what is less than an ounce - you can easily go more precise with metric but with Imperial?

I know that 'in the old days' people got used to these calculations. But we've moved on.

If you want to display units in price per pounds or per gallon / fluid ounce, go ahead . But keep Metric.

I think politicians who are keen to do Imperial should be asked to do some percentages, division and multiplication with such units. And then they should be asked if it's worth it

I have no problem with traders using both, but I would avoid anyone selling only in Imperial because I would (probably correctly) feel they were a Boris supporting Brexit loon and wish to spend my money elsewhere.

What worries me is that this is the best they can come up with - and we're stuck with them for over two more years.

Within the last five years, I did a post-grad qualification in a technical subject in a UK university. In imperial units. They're not as defunct as people think (mostly due to the Americans).

They also (or at least the basics of them) are taught in schools these days.

No one's going to ban using metric measurements, and frankly people should stop getting het up over this whole thing! Are you really saying you care intensely whether shops should be allowed to use solely imperial units?

Are you really saying you care intensely whether shops should be allowed to use solely imperial units

I think that it's a great way to make comparisons difficult if you have the same item using 2 different units for measurements.

There are people who struggle to compare price per 100g to price per Kg. And that's just multiplying by 10.

Do we need to get rid of chip and pin and use 'hapepennies' and 'thruppeny bits' whatever they are too?

With bells on!

Are you really saying you care intensely whether shops should be allowed to use solely imperial units?

Yes. It would be a retrograde step. Dual price if you want, but primarily in metric.

Technical people at post grad level will be able to cope with converting units if they have to (except maybe the Mars Lander people), but basic stuff for the general public should be as clear as possible.

What happens when you weigh apples and they come in between 6 ounces and 7 ounces. Does it just go to fractions?

These apples weigh 6 and 123/ 557of an ounce. At £3 a lb.

Or you have 128g of apples at £2 a kilogram

Ah well done @DuncinToffee apparently DM was only has listening herself while getting ready for work

Drachms and grains. Though I suspect the people desperate to go back to imperial aren’t doing many calculations using either of those.

Drachms and grains. Though I suspect the people desperate to go back to imperial aren’t doing many calculations using either of those

They would be if I had my way

Yeah, but I had an unusual upbringing in some ways. I was an ill child and couldn’t attend school much when I was younger and so was taught a lot at home. I’m fairly sure others my age who spent more time in school than I did learned predominately metric. I do know metric liquid measurements and weights, I just tend to think in lbs, oz, pints and such when cooking. It’s not something I feel strongly about though, it’s just the default my brain uses

I believe the answer to your question is 14.35/32 x 2 which is approx 90p if I’ve done that right?

With lincslady on this. This thread just seems to be a lot of froth for nowt.

I’m in my 50s and grew up with both - I prefer imperial for most stuff as it was how I got on with life day by day. My parents worked full time and I was cared for by my grandparents. Guess what they used….

Seemingly that makes me and others like me “ridiculous old people” or “silly old farts”.

Nice.

With lincslady on this. This thread just seems to be a lot of froth for nowt

Not really. It's a proposal and a consultation that could increase costs on businesses, make price comparisons harder for people and potentially impose more stress on already stretched curriculum

Of course, Johnson would know that traders can display Imperial and Metric if they wanted to. And I suspect most traders will stick to metric - as they have always had the chance to do both.

I don't think many traders will just use Imperial. Unless they want to send a message.

It isn't really froth. Either this government wants to make Imperial measures the default/primary, in which case there will be enormous costs to business on top of all the current COVID and Brexit impacts we are already seeing.

Or this is yet another dead cat intended to distract us from this government's corruption and incompetence, in which case it shows that they hold the people they are supposed to be serving in absolute contempt.

Neither is acceptable.

The people who grew up with imperial are gradually dieing off. Those of us in our 50s and 60s are the crossover generation. Most younger people mainly know the simpler/better/more sensible metric system. 50+ people have coped for 40 years even they/we don't need more things in imperial now.

A quick conversion using my slide rule (sorry, no abacus) of the current 163p/litre at my local garage tells me that petrol is now selling at approx. seven pounds, eight shillings and tuppence ha'penny per gallon - so maybe the reintroduction of the horse drawn carriage isn't such a bad idea. We can power it using methane from all the horse shit that's emanating from the House of Commons.

I say, bravo! And answers to all 20 of them within 50 minutes too: five points to Gryffindor!

Don't forget a litre of water's a pint and three quarters

Oh I knew there was one more!

Ffs we are not going back to imperial measurements. All they are doing are decriminalising the use of imperial measurements

Is it really illegal to sell in imperial measurements or is it illegal to only sell in imperial? I.e. not offer metric at all.

Just curious because until about a year ago my favourite haberdashery would sell in either metric or imperial. Each roll of fabric was priced up in price per metre and price per yard and they sold on whichever units the customer preferred.

I went in the other day and it has changed hands as previous owners retired. Now owned by someone younger so I assume only metric, don't know for sure as I always bought in metric anyway.

But even so some items are bars on imperial measures still. I wanted tape that just happens to be one inch wide so I had to buy 8 metres of one inch tape! 😄

I'm a child of the '60s, so was taught the imperial system at primary school. I measure distance in yards, feet and inches and am pretty good at guessing eg heights etc, but can readily convert to metric because we had to learn how to convert at school prior to metrification.
In weights I struggle more, I cook in ounces, and can slice a chunk of butter off to within 1/8oz for example - but my conversion to metric is poor (250g pack of butter is roughly 8oz)

The big advantage of imperial measurements is you can divide by 4 and by 3 and thus fractions are simple, half is easy in metric (0.5) but 1/4 0.25 is trickier. You'd have to have been brought up on imperial measurements to appreciate

It has BIG implications for Trading Standards departments. They will have to have Imperial weighing scales and they will have to be calibrated against scales of higher accuracy and they have to be calibrated etc. The equipment will have to go through a regular re-calibration process. All this is so their scales' accuracy can't be challenged in court. The Imperial calibration equipment required will have to be procured and it is no longer produced by any manufacturer. All staff will have to be trained in Imperial and all this will amount to a large sum added to the rates.

Yes, it really is illegal to sell in Imperial. You must sell in metric but you are allowed to put the Imperial alongside it as helpful information for the consumer as long as it is not more prominent than the real metric price. If you make a conversion error the metric price is the legal one. Depending on which way the conversion error goes you could find yourself in court for selling short weight.

Of course it isn't illegal to sell in Imperial. All the market stalls where we shop do it, no prosecutions whatever. To suggest this about helping shopkeepers is bollocks.

So how come no market traders are in the courts?