Inspired by the height and weight thread in Chat - are you metric or imperial? And why?

[broguemum]

I've been wondering this for a while, but how come the vast majority of you seem to think in Imperial terms when it comes to measurements?

I'm a Brit, I went through the UK education system up to the age of 21, I am nearly 40 years old and I have NEVER EVER been taught the imperial system. I have no intuitive feel for it AT ALL! So how come so many of my contempories (that's you lot by the way) appear to be almost entirely Imperial.

My lack of Imperiality (is that a word?) really hinders me on threads about babies weights etc as I have no idea what 10 pounds is. I have to go away and find a converter and by then I have usually missed the moment.

Can someone enlighten me? How come you are all so Imperial? And I don't mean purple and ermin....

[baffled emoticon]

by the way - American imperial weights and measures are not always the same as British ones here

I vaguely understand heights and weights but am completely lost at converting gallons and miles per gallon. It is really difficult as we don't work out how many km to the liter, we use how many litres per 100km.

explodes

It's a plot!

I live in Germany so am almost completely metric. Only thing, as others have mentioned, is that my height (but weight is metric) is imperial but dcs are completely metric.

I'm a similar age to you broguemum and never learnt imperial at school, except maybe in home economics.

Quite agreee with you btw

I am rather mixed up about measurements. I was taught metric at school, but imperial was used at home when I was growing up.

My height is 5'11. dd1 is 145 cm and dd2 is about 110 cm, I do not have a clue what their height is in imperial.

For weight, I use stones. I could probably get used to kilos for my children, but I so rarely weigh them that I do not have a clue.

For food I use mostly kilos and grams. I do not really feel comfortable going into a greengrocers and asking for a pound of potatoes, I would not have a clue what I was going to get. However, for making fairy cakes I use imperial, and also did for formula.

For temperature, I use metric for the winter, eg. 0 is freezing, and 5 is cold. However, in the summer imperial comes more naturally to me. I like it in the 70'sF, and start wilting in the 80'sF and take to my bed in the 90'sF . Thanks to the BBC I can now at least function in metric even in the summer. I know that 18-25C is pleasant for me.

I know that they still use imperial in the USA, although I do not really understand why. Metric is so much easier, I feel sorry for the children still having to do maths with imperial measurements. I was very glad that I did not have to! The one thing that totally astonished me was why the space mission to Mars failed when the scientists mixed up their metric and imperial. To the best of my knowledge all scientists are supposed to used metric SI units, even in the States. So for all of us mere mortals, we can at least gain comfort that even rockets scientists get in a muddle.

Imperial.

I am 27, was never taught it at school, but still use it

I do get confused with "128lbs" though - I need division into stones...

Liquid I work in metric, unless it is under 8 fl oz.

I think mine is from my mum tbh.

I have no idea about mpg, and have always been fairly crap at "if you're travelling at x mph how long will it take you to reach somewhere y miles away" - that is just a mental block though and nothing to do with the unit it is being measured in!

Oh, and temp I do C

Oh yes, my children's height is metric!

I am confusing according to DH.

he is a builder, and so works with mls, cms, etc.............I however do inches and feet.

height, tis in feet/inches for teens and adults.......for the younger three however they are in cms.

weight.........stones and pounds please

measuring for cooking, depends on the book....can do both, but cannot convert.

heat......c in the winter, f in the summer.

temps for the children......c I think (well, whatever 37 is)!

driving......miles obviously as that is how the car measures it

Ya do know the car will do kms as well right?

You sound like you work like me. The only thing I don't do is change temp in the summer (what's that all about?? Is it so we can whinge it is -1 and then get all exasperated by just how hot it is at 90??)

I'm another weird hybrid of metric and imperial.

Ds's height and weight are metric. Mine are imperial.

I bake (cakes, bread, etc) in imperial but tend to 'cook' in metric.

Temperature is definitely metric - though it's inches of rain rather than cm for me.

Distance is miles, smaller distances are cm or inches depending, and my own measurements (waist, etc) are always inches (because they sound smaller that way )

Now I think about it, am a bit and wonder why I don't just stick with one system!

Another mixture here - I'm 41 and was only taught in metric in school, but my parents always used imperial so anything I've picked up from them is also imperial. Height and weight always imperial. Miles, pints and gallons.

But if I want to measure something I'll always use metres, cm etc, and always Celsius for temperature. Cooking is now a mixture - my old scales showed both, but the new digital ones are metric (there's a fiddly switch to change, but I've settled with grams now).

DH is slightly older, and was taught imperial measurements in school, which adds to the confusion if we're discussing anything!

Oh yes, waist would be inches. Other small distances cms.

Pasta is metric, potatoes imperial.

I am 'imperial' as it is what I and my fellow contemporaries were taught as I grew up. I think it changed towards to end of my schooling, but by that time I had already learnt this, and my elders (parents, siblings etc) all used imperial so it stuck I guess.

I do not have a 'natural' feel for metric either, although I am gradually getting the hang of it!

This is a subject that should clearly be examined further and I should therefore give up even trying to finish this (hideously dull) report for tomorrow and focus on this as someone is bound to offer me generous funding....

[hopeful emoticon? someone? please?]

Bra size is always in inches. I just can't remember what it is in cm even though I now have to shop for them in metric.

Don't understand why anyone under 50 would still use fahrenheit. Celcius is so easy and logical.

metric, because even though they taught us both in Ireland, I find metric about a thousand times easier.

Grew up on the continent so totally metric. I thing it makes more sense awell but I might be just a tinsy bit biased...

it's not about making sense though ! Anyone with half a brain will agree that the metric system is so much simpler.

It's just that you do whatever you grow up with and hear around you - so people are in 5ft 6, and 10 st, distance are in miles, milk comes in pints (and litres).

Weights are a mish mash of ounces, pounds, grammes and kilograms

Temperatures are celsius (or centrigrade) - but somehow 30C is nowhere near as understandable to the British mind as in the 90s (F) .

We like to complicate things.

either - I really dont care as I was taught both at sachool and it was never actually explained they were two different systems, confused - I was for a while.

Then I realsied that 2.2 Ilb was a kilo and that 14 ILB was going to be either a stone or 6 and three quarter kilo. That 140 Ilb would be 10 stone.

Having a generation above me that work in imperial and a generation that work in metric below me I am happy to do either.

I do though wonder why we buy petrol in litres and calculate the number of miles we do to the (UK) gallon?

because we used to buy petrol in gallons (when did we change and why ? I can't remember !) and drive in miles - so mpg. now we buy petrol in litres but still drive in miles - so it should be mpl - - but in Europe they buy litres and drive km - so get kpl. My car tells me mpg and kpl - but not mpl.

Mostly imperial - only got round to the metric weights to be able to keep up with DH (Australian) - still have no real feel for it if it is outside my known range, though.

I don't think it has anything to do with being taught at school, it's what you pick up at home. My mum was quite often on a diet and so any weight discussion was in her terms, i.e. imperial.

metric heights and I don't get on at all - I have to convert to feet and inches to get any sense. DH is the same, on this front btw.

Metric. But I can "do" imperial if needs be. I'm bi-numerical .

Petrol was changed to litres in the early 80's - to cover the growing price per gallon when petrol was getting expensive and about to hit the £1 per gallon tag

I am a mix

miles not kilometers
pints not liters
lb's & oz not Kg
CM & meters not inches and feet (unless talking of height of a person)