I just overheard...

I have a science degree and when working in a lab I thought in metric units but in the kitchen I think in imperial as that was how I was taught. I think of my height and weight in imperial and need a calculator to convert for BMI calculations and suchlike.

CanadianGran

I'm not promoting one system over the other, I was flabbergasted that a 20 yr old didn't know that there was a difference.

I wonder how she buys sliced ham in a deli.

😂😂😂
That reminded me of when I was in Spain, decimal wasn't used widely in the UK and I thought I'd asked for a quarter of ham in Spanish. I got more than I bargained for.

Is your work colleague American or Canadian? They still use imperial in the USA (although some measurements are different to UK) which is why we still need to use a dual system.

DGD seems to be learning decimals at primary school but I doubt she is learning imperial measurements.

Your height- imperial.
Your weight - imperial
Your temperature either C or F - it's one of the few things I don't convert
Fluids e.g. milk - pints, but I usually measure into a jug which has both, so go by the recipe. I can picture a pint better than a litre though.
Fizzy drinks - by the can
Lager - pints. I don't drink it, but as with milk, a pint is easier to imagine
Road distance -miles. And MPH.
Depth e.g. swimming pool probably feet - I think in terms of my height and whether I could touch the bottom.
Fabric- either
Carpeting- whatever it's priced in.

suelld

Hellogirl1

As someone who still thinks in pounds and ounces, I vote to get rid of kilograms!

DITTO

Yes!

I taught in metric and feel comfortable using it for everything except oddly the birth weight of babies🤯
Thanks Loopyloo. I didn’t know that and you’ve saved me looking it up!

So what do you weigh/measure the following things in?
Your height- imperial.
Your weight - metric, baby weight -imperial
Your temperature either C or F
Fluids e.g. milk-in a 4 pint carton
Fizzy drinks by the litre
Lager is difficult. I only ever drink half a pint. Half a litre is nearly a whole pint. Asking for .284litre sounds crazy
Road distance -depends which country I’m in. But I do rapidly convert km to miles in France, but not miles to km in England.
Depth e.g. swimming pool metric
Fabric- metric
Carpeting- metric
I guess we do that because we can. Those I teach who only ever do metric (apart from buying 4pints of milk) will do metric.

So had to look up why lbs! Goes to the Latin libra pondo. A pound of weight. Like the d for old pence denarius. Amazing and rather ridiculous, methinks.

Knitting yarn - that's something I only really know in grams. I started knitting when I was 7, and do remember buying ounces of yarn. Now very little comes in less than 25g, and most are 50 or 100g skeins. Buying in ounces will have been cheaper, as you would have been able to buy exactly what you needed - particularly in the days when you could 'lay aside' the yarn and get it as you knitted up what you had. Now you have to estimate the quantity and often find there are leftovers, or that you are 'playing yarn chicken' in case you don't have enough.

They are learning weights and measures in schools …BUT they are learning kilograms …just as we learnt pounds and ounces! Not their fault if people are ‘stupidly’ showing two different weights!
How are they supposed to know both.
They are modern kids. Taught in the modern ways ….it’s about time everybody dropped pounds and ounces …after all…we don’t go one about pounds , shillings and pence anymore.

Hellogirl1

As someone who still thinks in pounds and ounces, I vote to get rid of kilograms!

DITTO

I tend to work in both but if I m getting weighed it’s in stones and pounds but if I m cooking or measuring items it’s gms or cms apart from height or waist then it’s inches. Blimey looking at that it really is confusing 🤷‍♀️

Jackiest

Try working out the area of a room 4 yds 2ft 5 in by 3yds 1ft 7in and you will soon see why the metric system is so much easier. It is like trying to do maths with roman numerals.

For carpeting? Why would you do that? You find a roll of carpet the width you need (12 foot in our case for the bedrooms) and buy the length you want.

You really cannot blame a young person for being confused about imperial measures and how they compare to the metric system. After all, I am 71 and had left school at 15 before the change came in in Britain.

Denmark went over to the metric system some time in the end the 19th century - only historians learn the old measurements and weights (if they need to), school-children do not and haven't done so for over a century.

But my generation and my mother's and grandmother's still talk or talked about buying a pound of something - which is more than an Imperial pound if you really want to know, and my husband's generation of joiners and carpenters continued to use inches when ordering wood from the wood-yard.

Finally nearly 200 hundred years after the change the generations that are younger then we, have no idea what we are talking about if we say, "I bought a pound and a half of mince," or "I shall need a dozen four by twos for the job." and this is really how it should be.

The young woman mentioned in OPs post should however have known that kgs stands for kilo or kilograms, but is justified in asking whether that is the same as a pound.

Nanadana - that’s brilliant! Reminds me of the Two Ronnies’ four candles sketch! 😂😂
On another note regarding measurements - we recently visited a holiday park where the main swimming pool had a depth of 1.5 metres, which is my height, so I couldn’t touch the bottom. This would also apply to the majority of women and children. Is it legal for a pool not to have a shallow end…? 🤔

Try working out the area of a room 4 yds 2ft 5 in by 3yds 1ft 7in and you will soon see why the metric system is so much easier. It is like trying to do maths with roman numerals.

When it comes to carpeting, metric doesn’t work well in our Victorian house. Fortunately I’ve never had trouble finding it in a 12 foot width (3.66m to you modern types).

Bossyrossy

So what do you weigh/measure the following things in?
Your height
Your weight
Your temperature
Fluids e.g. milk, beer
Road distance
Depth e.g. swimming pool
Fabric
Carpeting
Have you succumbed to metric or are you an imperial measurement girl/guy? Or maybe a mix of the two?

Imperial in every one, I’m afraid. I’ve never found it a problem though, apart from having to google what’s normal when I’ve checked a DGS’s temperature. 98.6 is still my go-to (wasn’t there a song about it?).

I’ve a handy conversion chart on the fridge - I use all sorts of recipes so am happy quickly converting imperial, metric, spoons and cups into whatever seems best.

I think the temperatures in Celsius on the weather forecasts are gradually overtaking Fahrenheit in my feeble brain though. It’s been a while.

Theexwife

I can understand why she did not know. Weight was probably taught at primary school and referred to as grams and kilos so no need for an abbreviation and would have no knowledge of lbs.
Very few people buy loose items by weight and certainly not a 20year old.
I dare say that a 20-year-old knows a lot more about tech and things relevant to the younger people's world today than I do so I would not be critical going down the young people today route.

Me too. It's not 'young people' - things other than fashion trends are very rarely confined to one generation. If I said 'older people today - intolerant and condescending' I'd expect to be told off for stereotyping, and this is no different. 'A kilo' looks and sounds different from '1kg', and the girl was just checking rather than get it wrong. No doubt she would have been castigated if she'd just gone ahead and used the wrong quantity of hazardous substance.

Speaking of older people - back in the day I went to a newsagent to pay my paper bill, and the assistant (older than I was at the time, but I was young) looked flustered. The papers were 25p each and I handed over £1 to pay for three. He got the back of a receipt and wrote
25
25+
25
_
75

then
100-
75
_
25

and counted out my 25p change. If I was 25 and he was 50, I guess he'd have been at school in the 40s.

So what do you weigh/measure the following things in?
Your height
Your weight
Your temperature
Fluids e.g. milk, beer
Road distance
Depth e.g. swimming pool
Fabric
Carpeting
Have you succumbed to metric or are you an imperial measurement girl/guy? Or maybe a mix of the two?

I still "think" in imperial but as I sell online mainly to Americans I have to be able to use both imperial and metric.

I was reading something last night about employers bemoaning the fact that many graduate trainees lacked basic numeracy and literacy skills. Yet they are unwilling to consider older jobseekers who take such skills in their stride.

Doodle and Hetty - and on the number/size of eggs.

Rees-Mogg wanted to bring back Imperial measures! Probably a good scam for price increases. When we went decimal prices were upped.

How would you ask for a pint down the local pub, a litre of ale doesn’t have the same ring to it.

NanaDana

I clearly remember just after we went metric going to a hardware store, and asking for ten yards of garden hose. The shopkeeper said that they couldn't sell it in yards, as it was now all measured in metres. I gave the O.K. to go ahead, and was then asked if I wanted it in inch or half inch diameter. The shopkeeper seemed surprised when I then fell about laughing..

🤣🤣🤣

Jackiest

They told me the imperial system was being phased out when I was at school. It is about time we got rid of it.

They told me that too. I'm bilingual in weights and measures, and currency. And I've done my best to ensure my 3 kids are too.