have you grown up to be semi-metric?

[Trickyvee]

I was just thinking about this after talking about 'old' money on another thread. Having grown up being taught decimal but living with a generation still talking pre-decimal, do you now have a mixed approach when dealing with weights and measures?

I tend to measure floors etc in metres and centimetres, but heights mean nothing to me unless we're talking feet and inches, and on the road it has to be miles. Food is measured in g and kg and ml, but I still hanker for a quarter of sweets and when I'm assessing the damage those sweets have made, I'll tot it up in stones and pounds.

And another thing...why does Europe embrace the centilitre while the UK doesn't?

It's all very confusing.

[kazboot]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

You raise a very important point here, Tricky.

My husband is a chippy so I've grown used to measuring floors and the like in metric, but waist measurements etc. I can only do in imperial.

Also I prefer pints and gallons to litres, but use both and the same is true with my use of pounds and ounces/grammes and kilos.

Aren't we funny in Britain? We cannot let go of the old ways.

[HG]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

I'm mainly old school, weights I use pounds (except in the gym where all the weights are in kilos), heights and width I use feet and inches, liquids I use pints. Distance I use miles even when running 10k races.

I can and do convert them though when I need to when buying stuff etc.

[Richard1978]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

I tend to mix units quite a bit.

For small measurments I use metric, but for long distances I always used miles.

When cooking I always weigh out in grammes.

For body measurments I tend to use feet & inches, & weight in stones & pounds.

At times I've been interested in planes, & always seemed to use imperial units, mostly because books always seem to use feet (for dimensions & altitude) & pounds (for weight & jet power).

[Austin Maxi]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

I tend to mix units quite a bit.

I sometimes do that.

....and then I fall over!

[Trickyvee]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

I need to rename this thread semi-metric

[Gothic]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

When I started school, I was taught both systems as they were just starting to change over, so it was really confusing.

When I started in the cheese-making business, all the ingredients were measured in metric and all our equipment was in imperial, so we always had conversion charts everywhere. I now work with rubber matting for livestock and everything is in metric but all the farmers still work in imperial!!

[HG]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-decimal?

I need to rename this thread semi-metric

[Sly]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-metric?

I used them all. Imperial is a terrible way to measure small things though, I hate having to use it to manage small numbers.

[PC66]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-metric?

I'm very much a customary/Imperial user for all everyday uses, growing up at a time when few people were using metric at all and with a later association with the U.S.

I use metric measurements where appropriate in some of my scientific work (e.g. radio wavelengths have always been specified in metric units, even if - at least in the U.S. & U.K. - we tend to convert to feet & inches for measuring the size of the aerial).

And like many, I absolutely object to forced metrication by the government making use of Imperial units illegal.

[battyrat]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-metric?

Think I am like most people here.I tend to use what I was brought up to use which is a mixture of both depending on the situation.Problem arises when I go shopping for fruit etc and ask for a pond of apples.Some shops are now showing both measurements again now which is a great help.

[Hair Bear]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-metric?

What I find odd is that in some rural parts of europe the village markets weigh produce in lbs / ozs.

[amethyst]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-metric?

I Still prefer pounds and ounces dont like grams and kilos.Also still like feet and inches dont like centimeters etc

[the fox]

As a child of 70's-80's, I also grew up with both. I recently completed a woodwork project at home where I found myself measuring things in a combination of inches and centimetres, depending on which lined up easier ! So I have shelf measuring 60 cm by 6 inches.

By the way, Notice how we price our petrol in litres, then measure fuel efficiency in miles per gallon ?

[PC66]

Re: have you grown up to be semi-metric?

By the way, Notice how we price our petrol in litres, then measure fuel efficiency in miles per gallon ?

A natural consequence of the way in which the conversion of pumps and pricing was forced upon us by the government, while when looking at fuel consumption people will hold on to the measurements they're familiar with and feel comfortable using.