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Metric - I feel such a fool!

(61 Posts)
MamaCaz Sat 26-Jan-19 15:01:19

I have spent the whole of my teenage and adult life believing that 30cm equals 12 inches - exactly, not approximately.

Today, measuring my latest piece of knitting, I realized I was wrong. I couldn't believe it, and went to check my ruler with a tape measure, which just confirmed my ignorance.

Firstly, I can't understand how, as a very conscientious school child, I came to believe this (and passed my 'O' level maths ok). Secondly, with all the numerous crafts that I do, and the measuring they entail, I can't believe that I have not made this discovery before the age of 57!

Feeling very embarrassed now, and wondering how many other things that I think I know, but don't. blush

LuckyFour Sun 27-Jan-19 16:56:58

My doctor's scales are in kilos not pounds and stones. I ask what my weight is in stones and she has to look it up on her computer. I said wouldn't it be better if you had scales with dual markings on as surely many people still understand their weight in stones not kilos. She said yes it would be better but this is what she is supplied with???? Ludicrous.

Barmeyoldbat Sun 27-Jan-19 16:58:22

Sorry only do inches and feet but weights in metric and miles in km.

SueDoku Sun 27-Jan-19 17:04:54

I remember when the TV weather forecasters moved from F to C for temperature, they had a
contest for a mnemonic to help people to adjust. The winning rhyme was:
"5 and 10 and 21
Winter, Spring and Summer sun"
And this has served me very well ever since. Apologies to whoever composed this - I'm afraid that your name hasn't stuck in my mind in the same way..!! blush

jacq10 Sun 27-Jan-19 17:09:04

Don't understand when we went decimal with the money we didn't do the same with metric. We all managed to cope with the decimalisation okay. On the rare occasion I am following a recipe I luckily just have to press a button on the scales and it converts to gms but most recent recipes are metric anyway. I'm definitely in miles when driving!!

JackyB Sun 27-Jan-19 17:41:09

We did both at school and became familiar with both. Now I live on the continent of course metric is all I have. I can never remember my height in metres though. And I can easily visualise rods, poles, perches, chains, furlongs and fathoms.

I'm forever converting recipes (including American ones where they talk in "cups").

I still insist that the imperial measurements are more natural. So often I find that things are 2.5 cm, or an inch, and 30 cm (as in a foot, mentioned in the OP) crops up very often as a size of something.

Here in Germany I can ask the butcher or the grocer for a pound of anything (500g), and a loaf of bread is often described as an "Einpfünder" or a "Zweipfünder".

GreenGran78 Sun 27-Jan-19 20:47:10

I used to work in a sweetshop. We were forced to buy new metric scales, as the old ones were declared to be illegal. Nearly all the customers continued to ask for “a quarter of......” even though the sweet jars were labelled in ‘price per 100 grams.”
I’m not too bad with metric, but have to convert it to imperial, in my head, to visualise it. I think that the main problem with metric is that it’s so easy to mistakenly put the decimal point in the wrong place. I remember a baby dying because it had been given ten times the dose of m edication due to this error.

(I was just about to post this when I realised that it had written that I used to work in a ‘sweatshop’. Darned predictive text,

Barmeyoldbat Sun 27-Jan-19 22:05:03

I must admit I do ask when buying and using the metric system to asking the butcher what does 200 grams of braising steak look like.

MissAdventure Sun 27-Jan-19 22:07:36

I had to ask the assistant in a shop to show me roughly how big a metre is, with her arms spread out.

JackyB Wed 30-Jan-19 11:09:50

With regards to the quarter of sweets: Again, here in Germany it is quite normal to ask for a quarter or half a pound of cold cuts or cheese. You get 125g or 250g of course, but everyone knows what is meant.

JackyB Wed 30-Jan-19 11:12:21

You also hear "Zentner" which is a hundredweight. This could be a 50kg sack of potatoes for example, or a child's weight.