Weights and measures

I don't really want to debate the relative merits of the metric and Imperial systems, but I'm interested to know which one everyone uses. In Canada, the metric system is official in many fields, but most people continue to use Imperial for a lot of things. Distances are always metric, because the road signs are, as are temperatures, because they are announced on the radio in Celsius. I tend to use Imperial for more approximate things, and metric when I'm being precise. I'll say, for example, that something is ten feet long if I'm just estimating, but if I know exactly how long it is, I'm more likely to use metric. Weight is almost always in Imperial, except for food, because it is usually labelled in metric (even though the actual weights are Imperial; butter is sold in half-pound blocks, but they're listed as 494 grams or whatever it is).
I assume that the US uses Imperial for everything, but I guess the UK is probably more mixed. I've seen weights listed in stone before too; how common is that in everyday speech?

T he only units used in everyday speech, regarding the weight of a person in England is Stones and pounds. For example, I weigh 12st 10lbs. I think kilogrammes is used to a certain extent in relation to the weight of people as well, but it just has not caught on. Kilogrammes is used mostly when buying fruit, meat etc - sadly (I recently read of a fruit & veg man being prosecuted for refusing to sell in metric but insisted in sticking with good ole pounds and ounces - talk about metric martyrs). I don't think anyone solely uses pounds when referring to a persons weight anymore (if they ever did that is), I believe the Americans do, however

Most peopl in Britain use Imperial measurements.

Unlike most people in Continental Europe, we measure our height in feet and inches instead of metres and centimetres (I'm around 5 feet 8 inches), our weight in stones rather than kilograms (I'm around 11 stones), our distances in miles rather than kilometres (look on any British street-sign), most temperatures in farenheit rather than celsius (the temperature outside being (80 farenheit makes the weather sound warmer than its 27 celsius equivalent) and shoppers buy most of their goods in weights such as pounds (lbs) and ounces (oz).

I'm sure food such as meat and veg are sold in Kilogrammes as opposed to the Imperial pounds and ounces???? I'll have to check, but I'm sure this is the case Adam. Perhaps both are given?? I definitely bought a nice fat, juicy steak the other day which weighed 0.3554 Kgs, which, erm, does not sound so fat and juicy now.

I was in a (British) DIY shop the other day and bought a 1.5 metre long piece of 2x1 inch wood. You can bet your life that if you measure a gap in metric the shop still sells things in feet lengths but if you measure the gap in inches they sell in metric.

I buy fuel in litres but work fuel economy out in m.p.g. I listen to the weather forecast in Celsius (why do they do that? don't we all go "whats that in fahrenheit?") then I go and have a nice pint of beer.

Do Americans or Canadians ever use "stones" to weigh things?.

In Australia we've almost completely converted to metric. One exception which comes to mind are beer glasses in the pub which are based on multiples of imperial ounces though rounded to the nearest 5 ml (which somewhat screwy because whilst the pint & half pint got rounded up, the three-quater pint got rounded down - shoulda just rounded the ounce up to begin with). By the way, Americans don't use the imperial system but have their own (mostly identical but in some places different) system, e.g. six US pints ≈ five imperial ones.

The above post of mine is missing an "is", sorry 'bout that. Oh, yeah, as far as I know, Americans tend not to use stones. They tend use the short scale with a ton of 2000 lb as opposed to 2240 lb. A long ton is 160 stone exactly but you can't divide a short ton into stones evenly. I don't believe Canadians use stones either (probably due to US influence)

No, we don't use stones here in Canada. I've never heard it from Americans either. It's always confusing when I read about football players from the UK and they're listed as 12 05 or 12 st 5 or the like and I have to try to convert it...Pounds are so much easier! (Kilograms are alright too.)
We have the same sort of problem with tools and lumber as Andy mentioned. Some retailers use metric, others use Imperial, some use Imperial sizes but list them as metric, etc. A lot of food things are still in Imperial; wheat or corn are sold in bushels, berries in pints, some fruits by the pound, etc. Meat tends to be metric though, even though the signs often price it by the pound.

"I'm sure food such as meat and veg are sold in Kilogrammes as opposed to the Imperial pounds and ounces???? "

I've never seen shops selling those items in kilograms. Most people in Britain don't think in metric. When they go shopping the vast majority only think in Imperial measurements.

Imperial measurements are everywhere in Britain. Even sport.

In football, opposing members of a team have to be at least 10 YARDS from the ball during a free kick, not ten METRES. The pentalty area is the "18 yard box", not the "18 metre box.". Goal kicks are taken from the "six yard box", not the "six metre box".

Americans use Imperial for everything (me included).

We say , "Boston is 350 miles away."

and

"He's 5ft 4.

You weight 135 lbs?

It's annoying when people say :

The board is 7 FOOT by 25 FOOT.

Here in the U.S. we use liters for soda bottles. For instance, Coca-Cola commonly comes in a two-liter bottle.

And, not forgetting, we tell the time in Imperial measurements (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years) -


60 seconds = 1 minute
60 minutes = 1 hour
24 hours = 1 day
7 days = 1 week
30 days = 1 calendar month
12 months = 1 year
365 days = 1 common year
366 days = 1 leap year
100 years = 1 century




and we measure distances in space using Imperial measurements (light years, the astronomical unit (au) and the parsec) -


1 astronomical unit = 93 million miles = 150 million kilometers

1 light-year = 63225.80645 astronomical units = 5.88 trillion miles = 9.46 trillion kilometers

1 parsec = 3.26 light-years = 19.1688 trillion miles = 30.8396 trillion kilometers

NOTE: An astronomical unit (AU) is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. A light-year is the distance travelled by a photon, in vacuum, in one year. A parsec is a distance having a PARallax of one SECond of arc, as measured from diametrically opposite points along the Earth's orbit. Try not to fall off the end of these figures.
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In fact, the French once tried to Metricate time and introduced the French Republican Calendar in 1793.

There were 12 months of 30 days each -

Autumn:
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, "vintage") Starting Sept 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, "mist") Starting Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost") Starting Nov 21, 22 or 23

Winter:
Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, "snowy") Starting Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, "rainy") Starting Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, "windy") Starting Feb 19, 20 or 21

Spring:
Germinal (from Latin germen, "seed") Starting Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, "flower") Starting Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, "meadow") Starting May 20 or 21

Summer:
Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest") Starting Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (from Greek thermos, "hot") Starting Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, "fruits") Starting Aug 18 or 19


At the time, the English thought this was hilarious they mocked the calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety
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There were 10 days of the week in this Metric calendar-


The month is divided into three décades or 'weeks' of ten days each, named simply:

primidi (first day)
duodi (second day)
tridi (third day)
quartidi (fourth day)
quintidi (fifth day)
sextidi (sixth day)
septidi (seventh day)
octidi (eighth day)
nonidi (ninth day)
décadi (tenth day)

Décades were abandoned in Floréal an X (April 1802).
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In this Metric calendar, each day of the year was named after a plant, a mineral, a fruit or a tool, such as Cauliflower, Juniper, Goose, Fig Plough, Barley, Tomato. But rather than having seven names for the days, each of the 30 days in each month had its own name, unlike in our calendar where around 4 Fridays and 4 saturdays etc appear each once, once in each week. So there were over 360 names for the days of the year.


Needless to say, this Metric calendar didn't catch on.

Those names of the days were similar to the Catholics having a special saint for each of their days. But the

primidi (first day)
duodi (second day)
tridi (third day)
quartidi (fourth day)
quintidi (fifth day)
sextidi (sixth day)
septidi (seventh day)
octidi (eighth day)
nonidi (ninth day)
décadi (tenth day)

were the ACTUAL names of each day.

I come from a generation (at 31) who grew up with the metric system at school, but the imperial system at home for many things. For instance, my mum would send me to the shop to buy 5 pounds of potatoes etc (imperial weights were outlawed in the UK in 1995 as far as I can remember)

The weirdest thing is that until very recently I would think in F for summer temps, but C for winter temps- so I knew that 80F + was a good summer temp in the UK, but 0C was pretty cold!

>>I assume that the US uses Imperial for everything, but I guess the UK is probably more mixed. I've seen weights listed in stone before too; how common is that in everyday speech?<<

Actually, the US does not use "Standard" measurements for everything; note that I shall not say "Imperial" here, as our "Standard" measurements have some differences from "Imperial" measurements due to changes made in the latter after the American War of Independence by the British. In scientific fields in general the metric system is used consistently in the US, and it is also used in many other technical fields, albeit not necessarily consistently (as I know that there are some reactionary sorts in some areas of Engineering who have not changed to such).