S.I. or British M.U.?

A question from Italy (curiosity killed the cat, but...):

What kind of Measure Units do you currently use nowadays in UK? SI (meters, kilograms etc.) or British (inch, pounds and so forth)?

-- Antonio Maschio

Reply to
Antonio Maschio
Loading thread data ...

We used to use Imperial and Metric. Now we use Metric and Imperial.

Reply to
Mike Halmarack

We use a mixture - metric for some things and imperial for others.

Depends on what commodity you're talking about!

Just a couple of examples . . .

We measure (road) distance in miles, and speed in miles per hour - but buy petrol in litres.

We buy wine in litres - but beer in pints.

I think we can still buy loose groceries in pounds, but - because of some damn silly EU ruling - it's illegal not to display the prices per kilogram more prominently.

Reply to
Roger Mills

"Metres", Kg, etc. Is the standard spelling "metres" in Italy?

These are still fairly widely used, although not "official".

Reply to
Chris Bacon

A veritable mixture, depending on age, purpose and education.

Personally, I use metric for everything, except the following that I can think of:

  1. Road distances (in miles)
  2. Heights of people (in feet and inches)
  3. Weights of people (in stones and pounds)
  4. Volumes of milk and beer only (in pints or metric)

Everything else is metric, including things of similar weight/length as those above. I would measure a particular length of wood, for example, as

1.88m, whilst thinking of my height as 6'2".

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

We also buy material such as chipboard in 8 x 4 feet sheets but with the thickness measured in mm !

Andy

Reply to
Andy Cap

travelling distances and speeds in miles, beer and milk in pints petrol bought in litres, but consumption rated in miles per gallon.

Clothes tend to use inches if they are not just S/M/L or 10/12/14

For anything else I'd guess that depends on the age of the person you ask, certainly over 40 and they'll tend to use imperial unless there's a good reason to use metric (e.g. mm seem better to me for small measurements that 1/16 of an inch)

Reply to
Andy Burns

Worst of all, we measure car fuel efficiency in miles per gallon, despite only oldies remembering what a gallon was! The car manual will give you the alternative of litres per 100km, but we don't use km for road distances...

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Then there's gold...

Reply to
Bob Eager

For comparison purposes it doesn't matter - you could use eggcupfulls per fathom.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

And illegal drugs.

Marijuana is measured in "eighths" (i.e. multiples of 1/8 ounce), whilst cocaine is measured in grams. The poor dealers have to carry two scales!

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

True, but it adds extra complexity trying to work out how much petrol you will use for a certain journey.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

I don't find myself having to measure/weigh *that* too often!

Reply to
Roger Mills

and what's wrong with 1/32 or 1/64 for that matter.

Reply to
Toby Sleigh

The problem with litres per 100km is that it's the reciprocal of what we're used to - and is a measure of fuel *in*efficiency rather than efficiency.

I simply calculate miles per 10 litres, and then divide by 2.2 to get MPG to sufficient accuracy for my purposes.

Reply to
Roger Mills

Its 2400mm x 1200mm in all the places around here.

MBQ

Reply to
manatbandq

Antonio Maschio ha scritto:

Of course metres! I guess that meters comes from my american english. Sorry. And sorry the above "guess", that should have been "think"!

-- Antonio.

Reply to
Antonio Maschio

I don't think my eyesight or accuracy with a tools is that high, naturally some things are 526 "and a bit" mm :-)

Reply to
Andy Burns

Why not have the same for, err, that most rational of measurements, the centimetre?

Reply to
Chris Bacon

And sizes of rooms. Despite my measuring nearly everything in metric just to keep my life simple, when I was house hunting I knew exactly how big a 10ft * 12ft room would be, but found it harder to visualise a 3m *

4m room. Luckily metric measurements didn't come naturally to estate agents either

Anna

Reply to
Anna Kettle

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.