I am wondering how many people use the metric system.

Just a little test, and answer this honestly, do you know your height and weight in metric units. If you go to hospital they use it and I understand that it is a requirement on many application forms for various organisations, insurance, employment and the like to be in metric.

When people stop and ask me directions I always use metric. I will say e.g. 350 mtrs turn left etc.etc. Many say, how far is 350 mtrs?

I stood on a guess the weight of a cake competition recently at a BBQ. Everybody guessed it in lds/oz which quite surprised me.

I say we should all be using metric, what say you?

I did an engineering degree, so I'm pretty used to SI units. Oddly enough, distances are one thing I tend to quote in yards rather than metres - although let's face it, I'm usually guessing enough that just giving the same number in metres would probably be as accurate! Casual measurements might be in inches, but anything I actually stop and think about will be in millimetres :)

I guess I'll know I'm totally converted when I drive in kilometres, although that's not likely to happen until road signs are all changed (and speed limits too?).

I asked for a quarter of cherry balsams t'other day lol

Well, we are being gradually metricised, although in a fragmented and incomplete way. The main pressure is coming from the requirement for European standardisation as a result of the implementation of the EU's Single European Market. It is now illegal to use imperial measures for groceries etc, as the metric martyr case conclusively demonstrated.

There are exceptions of course, such as for beer and distances, but at some point these might also go the same way as other imperial measurements.

I still think in gallons though when I fill up my car

And I assume M'Lord, your vehicle does very few kilomtrs to the gallon!

Originally posted by LordChaverly
I still think in gallons though when I fill up my car
Interesting - I just think of "let's put twenty quid in". I guess I'm aware of litres because that's the unit it's priced in these days, but in my head that's just a price comparison between petrol stations rather than even thinking about how many litres I use :)

Before I start, can I just say that I am in favour of the Euro and I am an Engineer so I use Metric units if I am going calculations. I just wanted to get that out of the way because the rest of what I say will make me sound like an old git.

The metric system has a fundemental problem. The old units are not just familiar, they also work in a way which simply makes them easier to handle. You might think the opposite is true since counting in tens on the decimal system is easier but this only works when dealing with money. When dealing with sizes, then most things we want to describe are easier to describe in imperial units. The "foot" unit is such that we can describe common objects quickly and easily in the range 1- 20. Inches are then 1 - 12. These are numbers which we can visualise easily in our brains. We cannot visualize 63 or 87.

In terms of money, I still use "bob" as in "ten bob" but mostly to annoy the people on the till at Tescos. The old money system was slightly bizzarre but, again, was based on small managable numbers in that you never had to think of a number bigger than 20 and usually not more than 12. What will happen to these old units is that people will continue to use them for decades and will replace the nearest metric unit with an old name so they will buy in 500g but call it a poundor 1/2 litre will become know as a pint. Eventually the dictionary definition of the old terms will be the new equivalent.

Originally posted by KenH
The metric system has a fundemental problem. The old units are not just familiar, they also work in a way which simply makes them easier to handle. You might think the opposite is true since counting in tens on the decimal system is easier but this only works when dealing with money. When dealing with sizes, then most things we want to describe are easier to describe in imperial units. The "foot" unit is such that we can describe common objects quickly and easily in the range 1- 20. Inches are then 1 - 12. These are numbers which we can visualise easily in our brains. We cannot visualize 63 or 87.
I guess it's slightly easier to visualise 60 or 90, although I admit 4 or 6 inches is more intuitive. Maybe the solution is to start a whole new metric system where a small unit of distance is ooh, about *that* long (holding up fingers about 2.54 cm apart)... :wink: You could actually argue that a tenth of that is more useful than a millimetre, although the slight issue of needing to change every other unit in the world might hold us back (area is easy, mass, temperature, energy, power etc would mess things up a bit)!

Definitely still use the old system for day to day things - have to try and convert grocery weights back to lbs and oz, work out distances for walks in miles, and heights in feet, and only know my weight in stones. Only time I use metric is at work - it is easier to do calculations using metric. Seems very heavy-handed to insist on just labelling things in metric - could have been designed to make us older folk feel marginalised. Why not have dual labelling, just as things have to be labelled in both languages in Belgium or Canada or Wales?

I am fairly old however - people below the age of say 30 or certainly 25 are starting to think intuitively in metric terms, I find, presumably because they haven't been much exposed to the old measures.

However I'm not quite old enough to still think of money in £sd terms.

We had dual labelling for a fair few years didn't we? I'm sure I can remember seeing small metric versions of weights and measures in the supermarket quite a long time ago - albeit printed in small type on the price labels... (not just on the packaging)

Originally posted by rich951
We had dual labelling for a fair few years didn't we?

Aye, but we don't have it now! People like me for whom the old system is unalterably ingrained will hopefully survive for more than a fair few years yet ;)

Perhaps it's a "survival of the fittest" thing, they hope you will either grow to understand the metric units or die off - maybe we should merge this with the creationist/evolution thread! :)

I come back in to say I am from the more mature element of the forum, well into my 60s, and I have no problems using metrification. I do not use it at work but buy everything in grms and kilos ask for my shopping in Fish market, butchers etc. in metric, travel in Kilomtrs, clock my speed in kilomtrs, buy drinks in ltrs where I am able etc. etc.

Dare I say, I feel it is a laziness not to do so. After about 3 months of thinking about it, it became second nature. While people still ask 'What's that in old money?' we will never standardise onto metric.

Originally posted by BoppinBruce
I come back in to say I am from the more mature element of the forum, well into my 60s, and I have no problems using metrification. I do not use it at work but buy everything in grms and kilos ask for my shopping in Fish market, butchers etc. in metric, travel in Kilomtrs, clock my speed in kilomtrs, buy drinks in ltrs where I am able etc. etc.

Dare I say, I feel it is a laziness not to do so. After about 3 months of thinking about it, it became second nature. While people still ask 'What's that in old money?' we will never standardise onto metric.

Aye but you're one of them sophisticated London types ;)

No, it's a fair point - I guess there are things I could do to try and get an intuitive feel for metric weights etc.

Bruce,

Don't you miss the the daily exercises in mental agility and computational dexterity required in handling the pre-decimalised currency? Now lessee:

four farthings in a penny
three pennies in a threepenny bit
six pennies in a sixpence
twelve pennies in a shilling
two shillings in a florin
two shillings and sixpence in a half crown
five shillings in a crown
ten shiilings of course in a ten bob note
twenty shillings in a pound
one pound and one shilling in a guinea

Now lets get on to imperial weights and measures

16 oz in a pound
14 pounds in a stone
20 stones in a hundredweight
20 hundredweights in a ton
5 1/2 yards equals one rod, pole or perch.....

er, thats enough imperial weights and measures for now.

M'Lord, I do miss the sagging pockets full of loose change and the arms outstretched opening a white five pound note I must admit.

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Bruce,

Don't you miss the the daily exercises in mental agility and computational dexterity required in handling the pre-decimalised currency? Now lessee:

four farthings in a penny
three pennies in a threepenny bit
six pennies in a sixpence
twelve pennies in a shilling
two shillings in a florin
two shillings and sixpence in a half crown
five shillings in a crown
ten shiilings of course in a ten bob note
twenty shillings in a pound
one pound and one shilling in a guinea

Now lets get on to imperial weights and measures

16 oz in a pound
14 pounds in a stone
20 stones in a hundredweight
20 hundredweights in a ton
5 1/2 yards equals one rod, pole or perch.....

er, thats enough imperial weights and measures for now.

The British resisted decimalisation because it was 'too complex' :)

Originally posted by BoppinBruce
And I assume M'Lord, your vehicle does very few kilomtrs to the gallon! Actually, in metric measurement you calculate how many kilometres you do with 10L of petrol/diesel, so it makes somthing like this:

10L for 100km.
Older cars will do 15L for 100km, and newer cars around 7L :)

Why 100km ? Bit of a standard distance... A convention if you like.

Interesting thins is that in markets on the Continent it is possible, and still widely done, using pounds for grocery. Usually it is 1 pound of cherries (instead of 500g).

Me?

I'm every inch a metricophile!!:thumbsup:

I am 26 and was only ever taught in metric at school. I think it is very confusing that so many things in everyday life are still measured in imperial units. So we have this silly situation where my generation has never been taught to use imperial (and I only know the basics of it), but where we have to use a hybrid of the two systems.

I know my height in both (and I don't know my weight in either!!), and I prefer to use metric because it is so much simpler to understand. I can't be doing with all the odd numbers that make up all the imperial measurements!

Unfortunately this country has taken the most ridiculous route to bringing in the metric system. Instead of bringing in the metric system all in one go, getting all the initial moaning and confusion out of the way decades ago (and everyone would be used to it by now), they bring a little bit in every few years or so. So we end up with people moaning every few years, and these ludicrous 'metric martyrs' (it's a unit of measurement for god's sake - not a matter of life or death!). I'm not sure exactly when metrication started, but I am assuming before decimalisation came in - which was nearly 35 years ago - and we are still using both systems alongside each other!