Do you use the metric system ?

[stewart38]

I bend light all the time. Well, my eyeballs do.

Has the metric system not been adopted 'round your neck of the woods?

Re above , no it hasnt

What is it with the UK and the 'metric system'. Yards and all that stuff havent been taught in schools for over 30yrs ago but................

Surely we all drive in miles have distance on signs in miles and I still think in feet for my height and when looking at a house I want to see the dimensions in feet. Same for weight its stones for me. Of course sugar went to kilos years ago etc

I’m happy to see temps in Centigrade or Fahrenheit

I don’t say Brighton is 100km away or I'm 1m 80cm etc or 90 kilos

Who does ?

Why don’t we go one way or the other (of course it would cost a lot to change all the signs but councils put up 1000 new signs every day around the same roundabouts)


Another thread is talking about square feet re dance area but im sure most were taught in metres ?

Maybe we like 3000ft mountains rather then 900 metres ?

8 inches sounds more impressive then 20cms ?? who knows ?

100f sounds better then 38.5c anyway

[David Franklin]

Re above , no it hasnt

Re above (but not terribly related to the rest of your post). What I really meant is that the metric system should be the default assumption once you enter scientific discussion.

What is it with the UK and the 'metric system'. Yards and all that stuff havent been taught in schools for over 30yrs ago but................

Surely we all drive in miles have distance on signs in miles and I still think in feet for my height and when looking at a house I want to see the dimensions in feet. Same for weight its stones for me. Of course sugar went to kilos years ago etc

I’m happy to see temps in Centigrade or Fahrenheit

I don’t say Brighton is 100km away or I'm 1m 80cm etc or 90 kilos

Who does ?

I'm reasonably happy to convert either way for anything other than height, where I don't really have a clue mentally what 1m80 looks like. (Part of the problem is a 1% error in height is moderately significant; a rough conversion gives 1m80 = 6ft, when it's actually a bit less than 5'11. That error wouldn't matter if talking about weight, but somehow with height is matters more).

[stewart38]

I'm reasonably happy to convert either way for anything other than height, where I don't really have a clue mentally what 1m80 looks like. (Part of the problem is a 1% error in height is moderately significant; a rough conversion gives 1m80 = 6ft, when it's actually a bit less than 5'11. That error wouldn't matter if talking about weight, but somehow with height is matters more).

Whats 6ft 1.5 inches then in metres

Re above (but not terribly related to the rest of your post). What I really meant is that the metric system should be the default assumption once you enter scientific discussion.

ps

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The metric system has been adapted by virtually every country, with the only notable exception being the USA (the other non-metric countries are Liberia and Burma). Some countries (such as the UK) are still in transition to the metric system.
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[Yliander]

Despite being only taught metric at school - I use imperial and metric depending on what I am doing

imperial - height
metric - weight

imperial - sewing seams and hems
metric - when I'm working out how much fabric to buy.

imperial - for small distances - 1-3 feet (a netball thing)
metric - for driving distances

metric & imperial in the shed depending on the instructions as the conversions never seem to work out quite right - but if I've done the design then it's metric - millimetres are more precise

[Twirly]

Despite being only taught metric at school - I use imperial and metric depending on what I am doing

imperial - height
metric - weight

imperial - sewing seams and hems
metric - when I'm working out how much fabric to buy.

imperial - for small distances - 1-3 feet (a netball thing)
metric - for driving distances

metric & imperial in the shed depending on the instructions as the conversions never seem to work out quite right - but if I've done the design then it's metric - millimetres are more precise

Particularly the bit in bold about sewing, and even I can't figure out why I do that.

And there was me thinking it was my age (I just about remember the conversion from imperial to metric and the confusion it caused). Yli - you've just made me feel much less old!

[stewart38]

metric - for driving distances

So where do you drive then ?

[Barry Shnikov]

Whats 6ft 1.5 inches then in metres




ps

--------------------------
The metric system has been adapted by virtually every country, with the only notable exception being the USA (the other non-metric countries are Liberia and Burma). Some countries (such as the UK) are still in transition to the metric system.
-------------------------

Easy conversion.

101 mm is v-e-r-y close to 4". So 6' = 18x4", therefore 1818 millimetres, or 1.82 metres. 1" is v-e-r-y close to 25 mm; so 6'1½" is 1.85 metres

[David Franklin]

Easy conversion.

101 mm is v-e-r-y close to 4". So 6' = 18x4", therefore 1818 millimetres, or 1.82 metres. 1" is v-e-r-y close to 25 mm; so 6'1½" is 1.85 metres

Correct answer (using the figure of 2.54 which according to Google is exact) is actually 186.69cm, so closer to 187cm. Again, in %age terms, you were pretty close. But when talking about height, most people consider a couple of cm to be a noticable difference.

Edit: or just type '6 feet 1.5 inches in meters' in Google.

[Gadget]

I work distances in m or mm for room areas and garden sizes, I work in miles for traveling distances (although it really bugs me that fuel is per liter and mileage is mpg)

If talking to "the older generation" {} I can talk roughly in ft & in - but that's only because I used to have to tell them how far away from the jack they were and understand what they were telling me... better with "This much"

Weights I use whatever the recipie says, but I'm more a "handfull" "pinch" "dollop" "splash" kind of person when cooking

[Jhutch]

Another thread is talking about square feet re dance area but im sure most were taught in metres ?

Yeah, talking about square feet means that i have to switch it into square metres.

Maybe we like 3000ft mountains rather then 900 metres ?

I have walked a few munroes but i still think of them in terms of metres rather than feet. I may know they have been chosen because of their height in feet but i just think in metres rather than height.

8 inches sounds more impressive then 20cms ?? who knows ?

Dont know, never have to talk about things that long Would still do it in centimetres rather than inches anyway

100f sounds better then 38.5c anyway

well 100f is actually 37.8C. To someone like me who doesnt like it that hot then they both sound pretty awful I much prefer the celsius system

[purplehyacinth]

Height - imperial
weight - imperial

cooking - imperial (I have a lovely set of beautifully-accurate pre-metric scales - they do not have metric on them AT ALL)
Cooking otherwise "puckle by guess"

Sewing - imperial
In the fabric shop.... "I want whatever the equivalent of x and 3/4 yards is in metres please"
seam widths - my sewing machine guide-lines are in 1/8ths of an inch - imperial


And before you ask, I am sufficiently young that all I was taught in school was metric.

[Mr Darcy]

I work in miles for traveling distances (although it really bugs me that fuel is per liter and mileage is mpg)

Exactly, who these days knows thinks about how much a gallon of fuel costs anyway? The charts on the pumps that convert it for you no longer seem cover todays prices. Though if you just use it to compare when you choose a new car is doesn't matter much.

Perhaps we should switch to this new measurement system for everything: So, what's the velocity of a sheep in a vacuum? | The Register

[Martin]

Being in Aussie now, I drive in km's but sometimes I go to a place which is "miles away"

I am still 5'7" tall, recently moved states and had to update the driving licence, they asked on the form how high I was in cm's - not a clue, so I put down a random figure.

feet and inches when it comes to parking or length of a car still means something to me, whereas 20cm... duh, um what?

As to weight of myself or a potential dance partner I am about to do a routine with, which involves lifts.. all in kg's now, not even sure about the Stone and lb thing anymore when it comes to weight.

Always use metre and not a yard.

Temp is now Celsius not Fahrenheit (although only since coming to Aussie and it took some time to adapt). Air con in the house is set to 27C..from memory a cool 80F, outside is often silly numbers...

Oh yes, I am in litres now for petrol, my car does 16 kms to the litre.. took a while but I got there and now understand it..

[Twirly]

Interesting and confusing one last night. Was baking a cake from my mum’s old recipe book. All measurements in ounces which is fine as my scales do both metric and imperial (I can use either if I’m following a recipe, but only use weights when critical, or cooking pasta as otherwise I cook too much )

But it had to be baked at Gas mark 4 (she always had a gas stove) or 350… it didn’t say, but hopefully Fahrenheit or it would have been charcoaled! But my oven is of course in degrees C, so I had to go find an old cookery book that would have both in and convert it, and then check in another cookery book to adjust for my fan-assisted oven. Was 180 degrees C, and had to be turned down by about 10 degrees.

[stewart38]

I am still 5'7" tall, recently moved states and had to update the driving licence, they asked on the form how high I was in cm's - not a clue, so I put down a random figure.

Most short people would

[Andy McGregor]

Most short people would

You will find that 5'7" is not "short" it is "perfect"

[Sparkles]

I generally tend to be metric at work (in a laboratory) and imperial at home.

I find it's fairly easy to switch between the two (except for temperature, I don't unerstand Fahrenheit at all) but maybe part of that is a) spending a lot of time with my Nana and b) having a Maths teacher for a Mum

[stewart38]

(except for temperature, I don't unerstand Fahrenheit at all)

So do you put on a coat when they say its going to be 90f today ??

80's 90's even the magic number 100f has impact

[Whitebeard]

Well, I'm a pretty ancient human so I still mainly think in Imperial terms which have some relationship to the scale of everyday human life as it used to be lived. A yard, about one walking pace; a foot about one shod footlength; a span about 9.5 ins; an inch up to the thumb first joint: that sort of thing.

But, in scientific subjects dealing with very small measuremnts/amounts, I had/have no problem with grams and cubic centimetres (now, for some reason, millilitres).

The problem, for me, is why the millimetre (with no human scale whatsoever) has been chosen as the base unit rather than the centimetre (2.54 to the inch); which I could have learned to relate to in everday human terms. I know it's only a matter of dividing by some factor of ten, but buying a length of (six or eight foot) wood measured in tens of thousands of millimetres is, to me, quite frankly, stupid in the extreme.

There you go, underneath, we're still thinking, and acting, Imperial; even though expressing it metric.

[mabraham]

The problem, for me, is why the millimetre (with no human scale whatsoever) has been chosen as the base unit rather than the centimetre (2.54 to the inch); which I could have learned to relate to in everday human terms. I know it's only a matter of dividing by some factor of ten, but buying a length of (six or eight foot) wood measured in tens of thousands of millimetres is, to me, quite frankly, stupid in the extreme.

That's true, but one practical reason is so that people with poor mathematics skills can still deal with small distances without needing to use scary decimals.