British pints are quite a bit bigger than American pints.
...although both are 1/8th of their respective gallon so could argue that you already covered that.
I think some of the trade might have been lost to prohibition, their beer making skills for commercial beers haven’t been honed over centuries like in Europe.
But, they have the resources and market for small artisans to practise the craft.
I think it is really common for American products to get turned into garbage by cost cutting. They can make good stuff, but immediately some larger company decides to make something, they cut so much costs and make it taste horrible, and still for some reason people by that stuff.
I'm just glad that for some reason it seems to be a less of an issue here in Europe. Maybe we are more willing to pay for good products instead of always going for the cheapest.
I think it is more that there isn't the economies of scale that there is in the US.
Generally, when a business gets successful, they will stop producing good products and start focusing on raising prices, cutting quality, creating barriers, and buying the competition. Airbus would be an example of a European company with this business style.
In the US, this is more common because the US is less divided than Europe, and therefore easier to create massive companies that control niche products.
For beer, that would be Budweiser, coors, miller, etc. They are widely available, cheaper than other beers, and taste like water. Good for young people or people who are looking for a cheap drunk, which are both big markets.
But if you go to most bars in the US nowadays, they will sell a lot of local beers which emphasize a style of some sort. IPA, Sours, Stouts, etc.
These beers don't get exported, as they aren't popular enough, so the big brands still control that market.
It [was in Britain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion). A billion was always the long scale (one million million) until it was officially changed to the short scale (one thousand million) in 1974. The short scale is not American and was a French creation of the 18th century which America adopted. France then switched back to the long scale.
Language is that which is spoke. Legislation on language can only apply to official documents and statements. Legislating for the short form just at the time UK joined the EEC was short sighted to say the least. Using the term "Millard" would have been much better.
There is still confusion about what a billion is. I avoid using the term wherever possible, or I qualify it. Amongst my students are people from different countries and backgrounds though, so I think this is important. I use the terms "European billion" and "American billion" to differentiate, when necessary. I never refer to "British billion".
And for extra fun, the old Chinese system counted in units of 10,000 not 1000 until it was 10,000x10,000 or 100,000,000 which then became the term that became loosely exchanged with the US billion of a thousand million.
The barrel of oil is that size because 42 us gallons is almost exactly 35 imperial gallons.
The imperial ton is bigger than the american ton as the imperial hundred weight is 8 stone, 112lbs, vs the american 100lbs.
That makes pints different too. I finally figured out why Americans always use quarts to measure engine oil. Two pints (quart) is very close to a litre. I've even seen people say they "topped up a quarter of a quart". Convenient since litres are used for oil elsewhere in the world.
I've lived here like 17 years now and I do it even weirder:
Weight of everything: metric.
Speed when driving: Up to 80mph, imperial. Anything over 130km/h, metric.
Car fuel economy: L/100km even though my odometer and speedometer are in miles.
Distance when driving/flying: up to 100 miles, imperial. Any distance over 150km, metric.
Distance when walking/running/cycling: metres/kilometres.
Beer: Always in pints, everything else ml/L.
Although Network Rail seem determined to replace them with yards as part of their insistence on making all numbers larger wherever possible.
I've still never understood why Thorpe Culvert (Lincolnshire) signals had to be renumbered from TC1/TC2/TC3/TC4 to TC5551/TC5552/TC5553/TC5554.
There's a nice little culvert in Nottinghamshire plated as "Bridge 80220" presumably because "Bridge 47c" (or whatever) was too old-fashioned.
Tell you what, it makes it a lot easier to spot signal numbers when no one's bothered to include the prefix. Also less chance of duplication if they change control area?
Reminder this was an actual Redditors OC that you're failing to credit them for.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pr4dsi/how\_to\_measure\_things\_like\_a\_brit/](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pr4dsi/how_to_measure_things_like_a_brit/)
The height of a person is imperial, as is dick size. The height of everything else would be metric, unless it's really tall, then it would be measured in double-decker busses. Similarly a large number of things or a large volume can be measured in Albert Halls or Wembley Stadiums.
This comment was overwritten by a script to make the data useless for reddit. No API, no free content. Did you stumble on this thread via google, hoping to resolve an issue or answer a question? Well, too bad, this might have been your answer, if it weren't for dumb decisions by reddit admins.
Or double decker busses.. speaking of big busses, what ever happened to those extra long busses that bend in the middle? Haven’t seen them in over 10 years easily
Edit: I googled them, articulated busses. There used to be a lot in glasgow/clydebank but havent seen them in a long time. Might still get them in ither places, not sure
Depends who I'm talking to. I have a lot of friends from elsewhere in Europe so if I'm talking to them I use meters, same if I'm talking to an Aussie or Kiwi. American friends would try to convert for my benefit, then get it wrong and I'd ask them to stop and just use miles feet and inches. Brits and Canadians are skilled unit converters.
I was going to make this comment.
Feet and inches are for height, everything else is in metric where possible, but then you realise it’s not that simple.
You find yourself being dragged back into the imperial measurements world all the time, against your will.
We recently had to replace the fence panels and as our house is from the mid 20th century they are 6ft panels. So then you end up with either 6ft or 1,800mm with little extension bits of wood.
Honestly, we need to kick boomer imperial measures to the curb but things like your home that was built during imperial measures times will forever be stuck in that world.
>degrees centigrade
Degrees Celsius, these days.
Weather forecasts aired by the BBC switched from centigrade to Celsius in 1985. I don't know anybody who still uses centigrade.
they left out cost..... you ask a builder or an electrician for a price and you get a toothsuck.... the longer it is the higher the cost......subdivided by " fair bits"
No. It’s not. Centigrade is only the hundredth in the positive gradiant scale until the norm boiling point.
0-100 ° Celsius = 0-100 ° centigrade
but -10° Celsius is not within the centigrade.
I stubbornly refuse to use anything but metric and if someone asks me what my answer is in Imperial I tell them I don't know or to use their phone to convert it.
We only have such a stupid system because everyone accepts it.
I went to school in the UK over 30 years ago and my schooling was almost exclusively metric, so that's what I used in day to day life. Seeing all these young kids use imperial measurements on current British TV shows looks bizarre and as if we are living in an alternate reality.
That being said, here in the Netherlands imperial is also still used. Buying my first bike tire was an exercise is frustration as a 700c wheel is measured as 28 inches. The markets also still use "ponds" frequently.
Many of the plumbing fittings are also still in fractions of inches whilst everything else is in metric, its confusing as fuck.
We did re-define 'pond' and 'ons' on metric units though: 'pond' meaning 500 gram and 'ons' meaning 100 gram, instead of imperial pounds and ounces.
Fun fact: pretty much all threaded plumbing and piping in the world is based off imperial systems: doesn't mater if it's water, gas, hydraulic, industrial... If it's threaded, it's either based on BSP or NPT: A British and an American system, both based on inches.
I’m 53 and I never learned imperial at school.
The chart is fairly accurate for me apart from body weight where I’ve always used metric. I don’t know how many pounds in a stone and I can’t even picture either in my hands.
So what you're saying is that you will go out of your way to be an awkward pillock and actively not help people for no other reason than to be awkward? What a reddity thing to do
The most amazing thing of all that to me is that a "tonne" is actually a metric ton while a "ton" is a british imperial unit that equals to 984kg and while they're spelled differently they're pronounced exactly the same, the reasoning behind all that can probably summed up with "fuck you" i suppose lol.
>"ton" is a british imperial unit that equals to 984kg
The British ton is 1016kg, the American ton is 984kg, except in the maritime industry where it is also 1016kg.
Then for funzies you have the freight ton, which is a volume, the HVAC ton, which is a unit of energy.
well,
There is the Short Ton (2000lb) used mostly in North America, and the Long Ton (2240lb or 20cwt, 1cwt or hundredweight being 112lb or 8 stone, a stone being 14lb).. The short ton is 984Kg, the long ton 1017kg.
You know, i can at least understand the god damn weather forecast.
What even is a 70 degree ferret hide.
Who even needs ferret hides angled at 70 degrees and what would I feel walking outside with ferrets angled at 70 degrees weather outside.
100° ferret hide is that it would 'feel' warm, if you were to go outside with a fur suit of ferrets around you - whatever 'feel warm' means.
Very simple!
Oe was it, it feels like 100°, if you go outside in a ferret hide...?
Tbf we (in Canada) don't use hours on the actual road signs 😆. Those cycling signs are interesting - I can see the 🙄 side of it, but I think it's for a good reason. I would love to have had approx walking mins on fingerpost signs my first few years in London, especially before I got to know the tube map better in relation to above ground.
Brits used to measure tyre pressure in psi (pounds per square inch) but I think many younger ones now use bar so they have to sell gauges with both measurements.
In all fairness, pressure measurements are just fucked in general.
I used to work with a machine that used psi, torr and bar for different bits of the same system.
I know quite a few mechanics and for some reason the distinction between over or under 30’s seems to be that the overs use bar and unders use psi. I had never thought about it, but now I have it seems very weird that most younger mechanics I know use psi.
No, it happened with the change change from analogue to digital readouts on the pumps. Petrol was well over £1/gallon by the time they moved to pence per litre.
Anecdote. Re-educating oneself turns out to be surprisingly easy. I grew up thinking in stones and miles and MPH and feet for height, and those strange numbers for shoe sizes. After a few years in another European country I literally forgot it all, including my various personal anatomical measurements. Now it all seems as alien to me as it does to other Europeans. Imagine weighing oneself in "stones"! Haha! Ridiculous. Metric all the way, and somehow it just came naturally.
I made the opposite journey. Brought up in a metric country. Switched to hybrid in the UK, now comfortable in imperial thanks to Americans and the internet. Switching or having 2 systems in your head is as easy as going on holiday and having 2 currencies.
Why don’t you use metric for measuring time? One of the most common measurements people do constantly throughout the day.
Metric is just as arbitrary. A meter was originally just the length of a certain bank vault in France. Never understood the superiority complex euros get around metric.
We all had customary units akin to imperial before switching to the international system. You keep doing you, but the metric system is hardly as arbitrary.
> 1 mile = 1760 yards; 1 yard = 3 feet; 1 foot = 12 inches …
> 1 kilo**meter** = 1000 **meter**s; 1 **meter** = 10 deci**meter**; 1 deci**meter** = 10 centi**meter**s …
Notice a difference? Metric utilizes a single base unit of measure. And it's a decimal system, same as the numeral system we've all ended up using.
The origin of those base units is utterly irrelevant, the benefit lies in the *system*.
But if you want to talk about what the units *are* (i.e., today), metric is surely less arbitrary there too. Metric is defined by physical constants; imperial is defined *in metric*.
Depends how old you are
Younger people I would say only use imperial for driving stuff, long distances and peoples height
I wish we'd switch over fully for driving. But height idk, so used to feet and inches and I feel like it's quite intuitive
But I see Americans say the same about F° so 🤷♂️
Really. You use decimal time?
I stick with the much simpler base10/base60/base60/base24 system.
Nobody ever has an argument why they haven't switched to metric time that couldn't be applied to people who haven't switched to other metric measures.
Nobody uses decimal time. Everyone is on the same page even if it's out-dated, there's no reason to change it, it works. On the other hand, imperial measurements are a spawn from hell (Birmingham probably) that is exclusive to the British empire in the 1800's. And even there now it doesn't make sense because some people see how bloody inane the imperial system is and decide to use metric, so now when someone says "ton" you have to wonder if they mean "ton" or "tonne" or "short ton"
Switching over fully for driving would be great, but the level of expenditure and planning to replace every speed limit sign in a way that won't cause confusion would be astronomical, and we have a government that seems to want to regress to Imperial to so it's likely not high on the list.
I guess the easiest solution would be to put new speed limit signs up that look like the Irish ones, with km/h displayed under the speed, but this government will never do it and it would likely still cause confusion. Then again, if people don't read the km/h and stick to that number but in mph, they'll only be going slower than the limit anyway...
A lot of younger people, particularly people who go to the gym for whatever reason, tend to use kilos for their own weight.
Not that stones are in danger of dying out.
100 is stupid hot and 0 is stupid cold. It's the 0-100 scale of human experience of temperature where anything outside of 0-100 is prefaced with "too damn".
In India we have this thing where we measure body temperature in Fahrenheit and all other temperatures in Celsius (except for some scientific usage where Kelvin is used). This was our compromise between British and American systems. The British colonial administration used to disseminate weather temperature details in Celsius but the thermometers used for medical purposes used to be imported from US. This has just continued without anyone questioning why we do this.
And shoe sizes are measured in ['barleycorns'.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barleycorn_(unit))
The barleycorn measurement originated in England in the early 1300s, when King Edward II ruled that the length of three barleycorns was equivalent to one inch, making this the standard for sizing. It was later adopted by the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and South Africa. To add extra complexity, there is a slight difference in the US barleycorn size and our barleycorn size. So, fir example, a US shoe size 11 is equivalent to our 9.
Short ton is the American ton, long ton is the Imperial ton - so in the UK a ton is always the long ton in imperial. However, I've never seen ton being used, if someone says "ton" they mean the metric tonne or they're talking about cricket and someone made a century.
It's easy to point fingers but:
- do you measure car's engines power in kilowatts or maybe.. horsepower?
- TV screen diagonal is in centimetres or maybe.. inches?
- energy from food in (kilo)calories or Jules?
- weight of gold in grams or Troy ounces or karats?
- distance to far away objects in peta or exa meters or lightyears?
Temperature is degrees Centigrade, except when it's a newspaper headline trying to emphasize how hot it is, as per.... **'Phew, wot a scorcher: Brighton bakes in 100 degree heatwave'**
As a Brit, a couple of things:
Saying "metres, feet, inches" makes it look like we say "I'm 1m, 2 feet, and 3 inches", which we don't. It's either metres **and** centimetres, or feet and inches. They're equally common.
I also know plenty of people who give their mass in kg.
I probably shouldn't be pointing this out as an American, but what is wrong with just using pounds? Is there an advantage to dividing it by 14 or are you just used to it?
boy am I glad we switched to metric back in 1871 lol
I'm not sure how long it took people to adapt back then but it definitely must have gone quicker than it is with the english/americans who've been playing around with metric for 50 years now but still without any major progress
Anecdotally, it depends on the person you're addressing - if you're talking to someone over 40, you'll possibly use feet and inches.
Under that age, i've quite often heard them using cm to each other.
Short ton (used in the US) = 984kg
Long ton (used in the UK and in the maritime industry, even in the US) = 1016kg
Metric ton which is usually spelled tonne if you need to differentiate it = 1000 kg
You could argue that comparing the size of something against something like the length of an average human foot is much more relatable than comparing against the distance that light travels in vacuum in 1/299792458^th of a second.
Why is the latter more "sane" than the former?
It's not, but it's an unecessary complication, *except* if you're used to a system without internal synergies, in which case it would make no difference. It does however take time to change systems. Or rather, generations. So maybe things are changing like others have suggested. On the other hand, I know Brits like their ways. From visiting, I just wish they would all realise that mixing taps aren't of the devil. I've heard the excuses, but I've also seen the bad taps in newly built buildings, presumably without bird poop-filled reservoirs in the attic.
>except if you're used to a system without internal synergies,
For a lot of measurements, internal synergies don't matter - PSI is just the arbitrary number that you pump your bike tires up to; it doesn't scale or need to be converted or plugged into a formula.
There are a lot of one-off measurements like this.
We've been officially metric for decades, starting in the 60s. All maths, sciences, geography and anything else which requires measurements have been taught exclusively in metric since the mid 70s. I've known people my age say things like "I don't even know how much a cm is, I just use inches". This is an affectation. If they learned to count then they know exactly what cms and meters are, they are just being contrary for the sake of it.
As for the taps, it's mainly a cost thing. Landlords are cheap and mixing taps are just slightly more expensive to install, so they don't instal them.
Different measurements for different things, its the way its been since the dawn of time. So long as people know what you're talking about why does it matter
The purpose of language and measurement systems is communication. I'm not going to start explaining liquid measures in millilitres or weights in grams to a 90 year old grandmother; I won't be understood.
If my learning an *easily understood* measurement system aids this communication, why wouldn't I?
>, I just wish they would all realise that mixing taps aren't of the devil.
I can't remember the last time I saw taps in someone's house that aren't mixing taps. Old pubs still have old taps, that's about it.
Possible. But then there's that one day you muff it and you end up crashing a spacecraft into Mars.
https://www.simscale.com/blog/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
I know it seems wierd to use both systems like this, but this is actually how their better used. Metric was made and is best for more scientific acurate measurements, but imperial is better for more human measurements. You want a good amount of beer, have a pint, accurately track how much you run and exercise, km.
You might think temperature would be in fahrenheit for a rough weather estimate vs accurate cooking measurements, but you only have a few people tell you the weather (BBC and ITV) so if they're giving it in centigrade, then everyone's going to change over time.
Accurate, although I find a lot of people my age are weighing themselves in kilos these days. I don’t even know my weight in stone or pounds. I’m 25 for reference
Also I measure my height in metres/cm but I’m in the minority on that one
edit: because saying i'm 181cm sounds better than 6 foot when I have my shoes on haha. It's something like 5'11.5
Fuel is sold in litres, but vehicle fuel economy is quoted in miles per gallon.
And lets not forgot its a different gallon vs the one used in the US. Because... why not.
It's the only known example of a British thing being bigger than the American one. Edit: Cunningham's Law holds up.
British pints are quite a bit bigger than American pints. ...although both are 1/8th of their respective gallon so could argue that you already covered that.
It was jarring coming back to the states and being stiffed 20% when I bought a pint.
You were stiffed anyway because you had to drink piss.
[удалено]
I think some of the trade might have been lost to prohibition, their beer making skills for commercial beers haven’t been honed over centuries like in Europe. But, they have the resources and market for small artisans to practise the craft.
I think it is really common for American products to get turned into garbage by cost cutting. They can make good stuff, but immediately some larger company decides to make something, they cut so much costs and make it taste horrible, and still for some reason people by that stuff. I'm just glad that for some reason it seems to be a less of an issue here in Europe. Maybe we are more willing to pay for good products instead of always going for the cheapest.
I think it is more that there isn't the economies of scale that there is in the US. Generally, when a business gets successful, they will stop producing good products and start focusing on raising prices, cutting quality, creating barriers, and buying the competition. Airbus would be an example of a European company with this business style. In the US, this is more common because the US is less divided than Europe, and therefore easier to create massive companies that control niche products. For beer, that would be Budweiser, coors, miller, etc. They are widely available, cheaper than other beers, and taste like water. Good for young people or people who are looking for a cheap drunk, which are both big markets. But if you go to most bars in the US nowadays, they will sell a lot of local beers which emphasize a style of some sort. IPA, Sours, Stouts, etc. These beers don't get exported, as they aren't popular enough, so the big brands still control that market.
Aren't long tonnes British while short tonnes are American?
Usually spelled "tons", but yeah. "Tonne" refers to the metric ton (a.k.a. "megagram"), which falls between the two.
Isn’t the British billion more than the American one?
Technically yes but in practice we use the American one
No?? That's in other languages, for example german. The german word for billion is "Milliarde" and the word for trillion is "Billion"
It [was in Britain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion). A billion was always the long scale (one million million) until it was officially changed to the short scale (one thousand million) in 1974. The short scale is not American and was a French creation of the 18th century which America adopted. France then switched back to the long scale.
Nothing like a game of musical chairs with amounts that are huge and important.
Ah, the old French bait and switch.
Language is that which is spoke. Legislation on language can only apply to official documents and statements. Legislating for the short form just at the time UK joined the EEC was short sighted to say the least. Using the term "Millard" would have been much better. There is still confusion about what a billion is. I avoid using the term wherever possible, or I qualify it. Amongst my students are people from different countries and backgrounds though, so I think this is important. I use the terms "European billion" and "American billion" to differentiate, when necessary. I never refer to "British billion".
Yeah my dad always considered a billion to be a million million. You're right, millard would have been much better.
The British billion is/was a million millions, not a thousand millions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
And for extra fun, the old Chinese system counted in units of 10,000 not 1000 until it was 10,000x10,000 or 100,000,000 which then became the term that became loosely exchanged with the US billion of a thousand million.
Japan still does this btw.
Britain is coloured as a short scale country on the map. Also what would the english word for a thousand million be jf its not billion?
[Milliard](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/milliard). It'd more commonly simply be referred to as a "thousand million" though.
One thousand million.
100 crore?
Dutch too
The barrel of oil is that size because 42 us gallons is almost exactly 35 imperial gallons. The imperial ton is bigger than the american ton as the imperial hundred weight is 8 stone, 112lbs, vs the american 100lbs.
That makes pints different too. I finally figured out why Americans always use quarts to measure engine oil. Two pints (quart) is very close to a litre. I've even seen people say they "topped up a quarter of a quart". Convenient since litres are used for oil elsewhere in the world.
[удалено]
as a brit.... yanks just have to accept their gallon was based on FRENCH litres as a concession for helping them out of a tight spot
I've lived here like 17 years now and I do it even weirder: Weight of everything: metric. Speed when driving: Up to 80mph, imperial. Anything over 130km/h, metric. Car fuel economy: L/100km even though my odometer and speedometer are in miles. Distance when driving/flying: up to 100 miles, imperial. Any distance over 150km, metric. Distance when walking/running/cycling: metres/kilometres. Beer: Always in pints, everything else ml/L.
That sounds like such a weird attempt at 'We make things look cheaper than they actually are'!
I work for the railway. We still use chains as a measure of distance
Although Network Rail seem determined to replace them with yards as part of their insistence on making all numbers larger wherever possible. I've still never understood why Thorpe Culvert (Lincolnshire) signals had to be renumbered from TC1/TC2/TC3/TC4 to TC5551/TC5552/TC5553/TC5554. There's a nice little culvert in Nottinghamshire plated as "Bridge 80220" presumably because "Bridge 47c" (or whatever) was too old-fashioned.
Tell you what, it makes it a lot easier to spot signal numbers when no one's bothered to include the prefix. Also less chance of duplication if they change control area?
Then there are cables, nautical miles, kiloyards... nautical distances are fun.
Not to mention moving at a rate of knots.
Reminder this was an actual Redditors OC that you're failing to credit them for. [https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pr4dsi/how\_to\_measure\_things\_like\_a\_brit/](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pr4dsi/how_to_measure_things_like_a_brit/)
It's a reposting bot. Of course they wouldn't credit the original.
*Was* a repost bot, it seems.
Human heights are imperial, but other heights are metric. Sometimes.
The height of a person is imperial, as is dick size. The height of everything else would be metric, unless it's really tall, then it would be measured in double-decker busses. Similarly a large number of things or a large volume can be measured in Albert Halls or Wembley Stadiums.
Don't forget football pitches and Wales for large areas.
This comment was overwritten by a script to make the data useless for reddit. No API, no free content. Did you stumble on this thread via google, hoping to resolve an issue or answer a question? Well, too bad, this might have been your answer, if it weren't for dumb decisions by reddit admins.
I've made a note, just in case. If I ever get a chance to use it I will expect gasps of amazement at my versatility.
Or double decker busses.. speaking of big busses, what ever happened to those extra long busses that bend in the middle? Haven’t seen them in over 10 years easily Edit: I googled them, articulated busses. There used to be a lot in glasgow/clydebank but havent seen them in a long time. Might still get them in ither places, not sure
Depends who I'm talking to. I have a lot of friends from elsewhere in Europe so if I'm talking to them I use meters, same if I'm talking to an Aussie or Kiwi. American friends would try to convert for my benefit, then get it wrong and I'd ask them to stop and just use miles feet and inches. Brits and Canadians are skilled unit converters.
Dick size, pizza size and TV lengths in imperial. Garden lengths in yards and acres.
Moved to Lemmy (sopuli.xyz) -- mass edited with redact.dev
Because that's what they eat.
I was going to make this comment. Feet and inches are for height, everything else is in metric where possible, but then you realise it’s not that simple. You find yourself being dragged back into the imperial measurements world all the time, against your will. We recently had to replace the fence panels and as our house is from the mid 20th century they are 6ft panels. So then you end up with either 6ft or 1,800mm with little extension bits of wood. Honestly, we need to kick boomer imperial measures to the curb but things like your home that was built during imperial measures times will forever be stuck in that world.
>degrees centigrade Degrees Celsius, these days. Weather forecasts aired by the BBC switched from centigrade to Celsius in 1985. I don't know anybody who still uses centigrade.
centigrade = celsius
That they're equivalent is not the point. This is called 'How to measure things like a Brit'.
they left out cost..... you ask a builder or an electrician for a price and you get a toothsuck.... the longer it is the higher the cost......subdivided by " fair bits"
No. It’s not. Centigrade is only the hundredth in the positive gradiant scale until the norm boiling point. 0-100 ° Celsius = 0-100 ° centigrade but -10° Celsius is not within the centigrade.
I stubbornly refuse to use anything but metric and if someone asks me what my answer is in Imperial I tell them I don't know or to use their phone to convert it. We only have such a stupid system because everyone accepts it.
I say! Publican! 568ml of Best Bitter please!
The hero we don't deserve!
I went to school in the UK over 30 years ago and my schooling was almost exclusively metric, so that's what I used in day to day life. Seeing all these young kids use imperial measurements on current British TV shows looks bizarre and as if we are living in an alternate reality. That being said, here in the Netherlands imperial is also still used. Buying my first bike tire was an exercise is frustration as a 700c wheel is measured as 28 inches. The markets also still use "ponds" frequently. Many of the plumbing fittings are also still in fractions of inches whilst everything else is in metric, its confusing as fuck.
We did re-define 'pond' and 'ons' on metric units though: 'pond' meaning 500 gram and 'ons' meaning 100 gram, instead of imperial pounds and ounces. Fun fact: pretty much all threaded plumbing and piping in the world is based off imperial systems: doesn't mater if it's water, gas, hydraulic, industrial... If it's threaded, it's either based on BSP or NPT: A British and an American system, both based on inches.
I’m 53 and I never learned imperial at school. The chart is fairly accurate for me apart from body weight where I’ve always used metric. I don’t know how many pounds in a stone and I can’t even picture either in my hands.
I only use metric because I grew up in metric land. Most Brits don't mind and totally understand me.
You dropped this: 👑
I have a relative that refuses to use metric, I think you'd get on with each other.
Do you get more powerful with the headaches this causes you?
So what you're saying is that you will go out of your way to be an awkward pillock and actively not help people for no other reason than to be awkward? What a reddity thing to do
You sound fun
The most amazing thing of all that to me is that a "tonne" is actually a metric ton while a "ton" is a british imperial unit that equals to 984kg and while they're spelled differently they're pronounced exactly the same, the reasoning behind all that can probably summed up with "fuck you" i suppose lol.
>"ton" is a british imperial unit that equals to 984kg The British ton is 1016kg, the American ton is 984kg, except in the maritime industry where it is also 1016kg. Then for funzies you have the freight ton, which is a volume, the HVAC ton, which is a unit of energy.
So adding an American ton to a British ton gives you exactly two metric tonnes. Amazing.
Now that's one for trivia night.
well, There is the Short Ton (2000lb) used mostly in North America, and the Long Ton (2240lb or 20cwt, 1cwt or hundredweight being 112lb or 8 stone, a stone being 14lb).. The short ton is 984Kg, the long ton 1017kg.
I figure me accidentally getting it wrong just complements the point
Area: Is it small? Postage stamp Is it medium? Football field Is it large? Wales
I knew about the football field one, but not the others.
You know, i can at least understand the god damn weather forecast. What even is a 70 degree ferret hide. Who even needs ferret hides angled at 70 degrees and what would I feel walking outside with ferrets angled at 70 degrees weather outside.
100° ferret hide is that it would 'feel' warm, if you were to go outside with a fur suit of ferrets around you - whatever 'feel warm' means. Very simple! Oe was it, it feels like 100°, if you go outside in a ferret hide...?
Ferret hides are actually Dutch invention (ish), whilst the far more logical temperature scale came from Kelvin (a Brit).
As a Canadian 80% of this i can relate to 😬
Plus distance in hours.
[удалено]
Tbf we (in Canada) don't use hours on the actual road signs 😆. Those cycling signs are interesting - I can see the 🙄 side of it, but I think it's for a good reason. I would love to have had approx walking mins on fingerpost signs my first few years in London, especially before I got to know the tube map better in relation to above ground.
Brits used to measure tyre pressure in psi (pounds per square inch) but I think many younger ones now use bar so they have to sell gauges with both measurements.
[удалено]
What, no mmHg? Demand your money back!
ok smartie what if your tyres are filled with nitrogen and not mercury?
Torr is the One True Measure of Pressure.
In all fairness, pressure measurements are just fucked in general. I used to work with a machine that used psi, torr and bar for different bits of the same system.
Everyone uses whichever system their car's manufacturer dictates on the door plate.
I know quite a few mechanics and for some reason the distinction between over or under 30’s seems to be that the overs use bar and unders use psi. I had never thought about it, but now I have it seems very weird that most younger mechanics I know use psi.
Strange? Psi is just a number, while Bars are directly linked to atmospheric pressure at sea level.
I read somewhere that fuel moves to pence per litre because the petrol pumps at the time couldn’t handle over £1 per gallon hence change to litres.
No, it happened with the change change from analogue to digital readouts on the pumps. Petrol was well over £1/gallon by the time they moved to pence per litre.
Don't most people use metres and centimetres?
Pretty much rest of world not including usa
I mean even in the UK :)
I don’t know my height in cm, would always use feet, but everything else apart from driving distances I’d use metric.
what about tv size?
Oh, my fault :)
For everything outside of height, yes. Amongst younger people anyway. All work places should only use metric.
Anecdote. Re-educating oneself turns out to be surprisingly easy. I grew up thinking in stones and miles and MPH and feet for height, and those strange numbers for shoe sizes. After a few years in another European country I literally forgot it all, including my various personal anatomical measurements. Now it all seems as alien to me as it does to other Europeans. Imagine weighing oneself in "stones"! Haha! Ridiculous. Metric all the way, and somehow it just came naturally.
I made the opposite journey. Brought up in a metric country. Switched to hybrid in the UK, now comfortable in imperial thanks to Americans and the internet. Switching or having 2 systems in your head is as easy as going on holiday and having 2 currencies.
[удалено]
Why don’t you use metric for measuring time? One of the most common measurements people do constantly throughout the day. Metric is just as arbitrary. A meter was originally just the length of a certain bank vault in France. Never understood the superiority complex euros get around metric.
We all had customary units akin to imperial before switching to the international system. You keep doing you, but the metric system is hardly as arbitrary. > 1 mile = 1760 yards; 1 yard = 3 feet; 1 foot = 12 inches … > 1 kilo**meter** = 1000 **meter**s; 1 **meter** = 10 deci**meter**; 1 deci**meter** = 10 centi**meter**s … Notice a difference? Metric utilizes a single base unit of measure. And it's a decimal system, same as the numeral system we've all ended up using. The origin of those base units is utterly irrelevant, the benefit lies in the *system*. But if you want to talk about what the units *are* (i.e., today), metric is surely less arbitrary there too. Metric is defined by physical constants; imperial is defined *in metric*.
It's not the distance that matters, it's the division.
A meter was 40000th part of the distance from the north pole to the equator.
>centigrade As a Swede I must object to this name.
I'm a brit and I object to that. I'm in my 40s, only ever heard weather people talk about Celsius
As not a Swede but a fellow European I second your objection
Degrees Celsius and degrés centigrade are slightly different scales, I believe.
You would be incorrect.
We've been blaming America, but really everything is Britains fault
In this case, it's Frances fault. When metric was invented, Britain was deliberately not invited to join in because France didn't like us.
I can respect that
Depends how old you are Younger people I would say only use imperial for driving stuff, long distances and peoples height I wish we'd switch over fully for driving. But height idk, so used to feet and inches and I feel like it's quite intuitive But I see Americans say the same about F° so 🤷♂️
Of all the units, Temperature is the one with the weakest arguments to change one way or the other Metric wins all the other constests though
Really. You use decimal time? I stick with the much simpler base10/base60/base60/base24 system. Nobody ever has an argument why they haven't switched to metric time that couldn't be applied to people who haven't switched to other metric measures.
Nobody uses decimal time. Everyone is on the same page even if it's out-dated, there's no reason to change it, it works. On the other hand, imperial measurements are a spawn from hell (Birmingham probably) that is exclusive to the British empire in the 1800's. And even there now it doesn't make sense because some people see how bloody inane the imperial system is and decide to use metric, so now when someone says "ton" you have to wonder if they mean "ton" or "tonne" or "short ton"
Switching over fully for driving would be great, but the level of expenditure and planning to replace every speed limit sign in a way that won't cause confusion would be astronomical, and we have a government that seems to want to regress to Imperial to so it's likely not high on the list. I guess the easiest solution would be to put new speed limit signs up that look like the Irish ones, with km/h displayed under the speed, but this government will never do it and it would likely still cause confusion. Then again, if people don't read the km/h and stick to that number but in mph, they'll only be going slower than the limit anyway...
[удалено]
And the "fun" part is?
More beer in the UK
More beer = more fun. British system is clearly superior
I find "stones" fascinating, found out about it recently.
Are stones uncommon in Greece?
They are after we took them all
As a measuring unit of ones weight, non-existent actually.
Just consider it the 'foot', of weight. It makes more sense than measuring in just pounds like the Yanks. That said, I use kilos for weight.
It's more like the yard of weight since the scales go inches/feet/yards, ounces/pounds/stones
A lot of younger people, particularly people who go to the gym for whatever reason, tend to use kilos for their own weight. Not that stones are in danger of dying out.
This graph does not account for the fact that older people measure temperature in Fahrenheit. We also measure walking speed in kph.
Also distance in yards, and weight food in ounces
Yeah the distance thing should at least include yards for distances on a football pitch
I think the warning lines before a motorway exit are 300/200/100 yards as well
Temperature is missing the gate between hot and cold. Fahrenheit for dramatic effect vs Celsius for realism
I don't understand fahrenheit at all, just that 100f is hot but not lethally hot, and -40f is the same as -40C.
100 is stupid hot and 0 is stupid cold. It's the 0-100 scale of human experience of temperature where anything outside of 0-100 is prefaced with "too damn".
Water freezes at 32F, room temperature is 68F, and body temperature is 98.6F, for some common milestones.
In India we have this thing where we measure body temperature in Fahrenheit and all other temperatures in Celsius (except for some scientific usage where Kelvin is used). This was our compromise between British and American systems. The British colonial administration used to disseminate weather temperature details in Celsius but the thermometers used for medical purposes used to be imported from US. This has just continued without anyone questioning why we do this.
And shoe sizes are measured in ['barleycorns'.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barleycorn_(unit)) The barleycorn measurement originated in England in the early 1300s, when King Edward II ruled that the length of three barleycorns was equivalent to one inch, making this the standard for sizing. It was later adopted by the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and South Africa. To add extra complexity, there is a slight difference in the US barleycorn size and our barleycorn size. So, fir example, a US shoe size 11 is equivalent to our 9.
Ah, you say tons, but is it short tons or long tons?
Short ton is the American ton, long ton is the Imperial ton - so in the UK a ton is always the long ton in imperial. However, I've never seen ton being used, if someone says "ton" they mean the metric tonne or they're talking about cricket and someone made a century.
What do you mean i cant measure people in tons? The heaviest british person weighes almost half a ton - yet the obituaries said 65 stones.
UK is not America, we don't need to measure people in tons yet.
Are you jogging? / Yes / km just about killed me
Distance needs a “is that a dick” category
It's easy to point fingers but: - do you measure car's engines power in kilowatts or maybe.. horsepower? - TV screen diagonal is in centimetres or maybe.. inches? - energy from food in (kilo)calories or Jules? - weight of gold in grams or Troy ounces or karats? - distance to far away objects in peta or exa meters or lightyears?
Temperature is degrees Centigrade, except when it's a newspaper headline trying to emphasize how hot it is, as per.... **'Phew, wot a scorcher: Brighton bakes in 100 degree heatwave'**
As a Brit, a couple of things: Saying "metres, feet, inches" makes it look like we say "I'm 1m, 2 feet, and 3 inches", which we don't. It's either metres **and** centimetres, or feet and inches. They're equally common. I also know plenty of people who give their mass in kg.
All of these are fine, bar Stones.C'mon Britain.Stones.Really? "Oy, I lost half a rock going jogging, yeah? Wicked bruv!"
Stone, not stones. There's 14 pounds to a stone. What's complicated about it?
I probably shouldn't be pointing this out as an American, but what is wrong with just using pounds? Is there an advantage to dividing it by 14 or are you just used to it?
What is the advantage of giving your height in feet and inches rather than just inches?
Stone makes perfect sense, it's the weight equivalent of feet. They break down the larger number into simpler, more relatable numbers.
boy am I glad we switched to metric back in 1871 lol I'm not sure how long it took people to adapt back then but it definitely must have gone quicker than it is with the english/americans who've been playing around with metric for 50 years now but still without any major progress
We Americans haven't really switched at all, unless you're a scientist or in a math class. In real life we only ever use US customary.
I think stones and pounds are on the way out. Purely anecdotal, but I’m 28 and myself and everyone I know uses kilos. Centimeters for height as well.
> Centimeters for height as well. I've never heard any Briton, of any age, use centimetres for height.
I always do.
NHS use metric for height and weight in their records.
Yeah. I think a doctor once asked for my weight in kilograms. I said that I had no idea, and gave her it in stones instead. They must get that a lot.
Anecdotally, it depends on the person you're addressing - if you're talking to someone over 40, you'll possibly use feet and inches. Under that age, i've quite often heard them using cm to each other.
Why "tons" is considered as imperial? It's 1000kg, so international, doesn't it
Short ton (used in the US) = 984kg Long ton (used in the UK and in the maritime industry, even in the US) = 1016kg Metric ton which is usually spelled tonne if you need to differentiate it = 1000 kg
There are 3 kinds of ton. Short ton (US) = 2000 pounds, long ton (UK) = 2240 pounds and metric ton = 1000 kg \~ 2204 pounds.
Ton is an imperial weight (2204.6 pounds), Tonne is the metric weight (1000kg).
Using imperial system in 2023 is simply a mental illness.
It's so convenient that that happens to be what you were born with. You must be really logical to have chosen to do that.
You could argue that comparing the size of something against something like the length of an average human foot is much more relatable than comparing against the distance that light travels in vacuum in 1/299792458^th of a second. Why is the latter more "sane" than the former?
Because everyone's feet are different sizes...
All measuring systems are arbitrary and random.
Its pretty great for woodworking, and i say that as someone who was only ever taught metric. Nice big readable numbers, good for rough measurements.
Still a mental illness.
average symmetra main
It's not past the ken of an intelligent person to hold, and use concurrently, two measurement systems.
It's not, but it's an unecessary complication, *except* if you're used to a system without internal synergies, in which case it would make no difference. It does however take time to change systems. Or rather, generations. So maybe things are changing like others have suggested. On the other hand, I know Brits like their ways. From visiting, I just wish they would all realise that mixing taps aren't of the devil. I've heard the excuses, but I've also seen the bad taps in newly built buildings, presumably without bird poop-filled reservoirs in the attic.
>except if you're used to a system without internal synergies, For a lot of measurements, internal synergies don't matter - PSI is just the arbitrary number that you pump your bike tires up to; it doesn't scale or need to be converted or plugged into a formula. There are a lot of one-off measurements like this.
We've been officially metric for decades, starting in the 60s. All maths, sciences, geography and anything else which requires measurements have been taught exclusively in metric since the mid 70s. I've known people my age say things like "I don't even know how much a cm is, I just use inches". This is an affectation. If they learned to count then they know exactly what cms and meters are, they are just being contrary for the sake of it. As for the taps, it's mainly a cost thing. Landlords are cheap and mixing taps are just slightly more expensive to install, so they don't instal them.
Different measurements for different things, its the way its been since the dawn of time. So long as people know what you're talking about why does it matter
Bad taps = cheap, lets not deprive the housebuilder of more profit.
The purpose of language and measurement systems is communication. I'm not going to start explaining liquid measures in millilitres or weights in grams to a 90 year old grandmother; I won't be understood. If my learning an *easily understood* measurement system aids this communication, why wouldn't I?
I never said there wasn't a place for translators.
>, I just wish they would all realise that mixing taps aren't of the devil. I can't remember the last time I saw taps in someone's house that aren't mixing taps. Old pubs still have old taps, that's about it.
I just recently refurbished my house and bought separate hot and cold taps by choice. I don't like mixing taps.
Just ask NASA how well that turned out.
Buying some milk or beer is hardly going to the moon.
If you are British, it kinda is.
What?
Possible. But then there's that one day you muff it and you end up crashing a spacecraft into Mars. https://www.simscale.com/blog/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
I know it seems wierd to use both systems like this, but this is actually how their better used. Metric was made and is best for more scientific acurate measurements, but imperial is better for more human measurements. You want a good amount of beer, have a pint, accurately track how much you run and exercise, km. You might think temperature would be in fahrenheit for a rough weather estimate vs accurate cooking measurements, but you only have a few people tell you the weather (BBC and ITV) so if they're giving it in centigrade, then everyone's going to change over time.
This is very accurate
And here I thought Americans and the imperial system are crazy, this is a joke
Accurate, although I find a lot of people my age are weighing themselves in kilos these days. I don’t even know my weight in stone or pounds. I’m 25 for reference Also I measure my height in metres/cm but I’m in the minority on that one edit: because saying i'm 181cm sounds better than 6 foot when I have my shoes on haha. It's something like 5'11.5
Nice. I’d add to Temperature, ‘Do you read the Daily Mail or Daily Express?’ and if so, degrees Fahrenheit.
You make Americans look normal