Are you metric or not? Why?

[celticleather]

Many moons ago, when I was a printer, we measured everything in points and picas. There were - and probably still are - twelve points to a pica, and six picas to an inch. But not an English inch; that would be too easy! The system was based on the American inch, which was, at the time, slightly different from the English inch (I've never quite understood this, because Caxton was printing in England before Columbus stumbled across America!).

When I became an archaeologist, everything was metric, but we still dig trenches that are one foot or two feet deep, and take off soil an inch at a time!

In the UK we now buy petrol (gasoline) in litres, and use it to drive miles (not kilometres), so we have fuel consumption expressed as 'miles per litre'.

When I buy leather, the thickness (weight) is usually specified in millimetres. For example 3.6 - 4.0mm is 9 - 10oz, but it's sold by the square foot, except when buying soling leather when it's very often sold by the kilogram. It's now illegal to sell stuff in the UK in imperial measures, so I don't know how the tanneries get away with it! (http://www.metricmartyrs.co.uk/)

Our money became 'metricated' in 1971, and this was a godsend! The old pounds, shillings and pence were every schoolchild's nightmare!

As for time, Johanna - they're working on it! (http://zapatopi.net/metrictime/)

I still think in imperial measures (I don't believe that's illegal yet), and I guess I always will, but I am just thankful that, for the purposes of mixing cement, a bucket of sand will continue to be a bucket of sand!

[Bree]

Metric??? What the heck is that? We don't need no metric in Buffalo!!

100% inches, feet, yards, miles, ounces, pounds, tons and all the other wonderful measurement types of the system I was born with in the good old USA.

[rawhide1]

I'm with ya Bree!!!! When my 4th grade daughter has math homework and it involves metric stuff I holler at the wife and let her help the girl.

Mike

[greg gomersall]

I used to live 30 miles south of Moose Jaw till the gov't made Canada metric. Been lost ever since, hell ended up in s.w. Idaho. Metric sucks. Greg

[Tina]

I'm with you Roo, I LOVE my metric system that make sense all the way...

I try my best to adapt to the American "system" but it's not easy, everything's a mess and you actually have to learn each system one by one (weight, lenght, volume etc) Metric is sooo easy, just 1, 10, 100, 1000 on all types...And a metric ton is of course 1000kg :-)

[tonyc1]

A Ton out here is 2240 pounds.Tony.

I'm with you Roo, I LOVE my metric system that make sense all the way...I try my best to adapt to the American "system" but it's not easy, everything's a mess and you actually have to learn each system one by one (weight, lenght, volume etc) Metric is sooo easy, just 1, 10, 100, 1000 on all types...And a metric ton is of course 1000kg :-)

Tina, I thought a Metric Ton would be a Tonne.Tony.

[Tina]

A Ton out here is 2240 pounds.Tony.Tina, I thought a Metric Ton would be a Tonne.Tony.

Well, You might be right about the English spelling on that one I have no idea...Where I come from it's Ton (I think actually with a big T but not sure, *hmmmmmm???*) We do learn brittish English in shool (manny, manny, manny, years ago) but i can't remeber much from that time, I'm sure it shows :-)

[Scary Leatherworks]

Some of the hospitals have started switching from Fahrenheit to Celcius. I've gotten used to it but it was difficult at first trying to think 98.6F = 37C. And a 2 degree rise in C to 39 = 102.2F (bad). Also when a patient is admitted they are weighed in pounds but some of the medication is based on mg per kg so another conversion is needed. it would be easier if we used all metric but I can't think of someone as 80kg as opposed to 176lbs.

Scott

[cem]

All metric for me, my mum tried to get me interested in making quilts with her a few years ago and they use imperial for that but after asking her for about the 50th time how you read all the funny little measurements on the inch rulers she gave up and is quite happy for me stay at the metric end of the table.

[Denise]

Canada is officially metric, but our largest trading partner is the US so most people up here know both fairly well, at least if they are over 20 years old. In Western Canada our rural road system laid out in a grid based on miles, so we drive so many km/hr to go so many miles. We buy gas in liters, and have conversion charts in the cars to figure out fuel usage in miles per gallon. The grocery store advertises its prices in dollars per lb and dollars per kg but the lb price is usually in larger letters, probably because it looks cheaper. Prepackaged foods are all labeled in grams, but I know my meat and produce prices by the lb. Most adults can tell you that it is 2.2 lbs in a kg but can't tell you their weight in kgs, only lbs. I almost have memorized a chart of X times 1.6 so I can figure out how many more kms to go to make X number of miles. I can be pretty accurate when I spread my figures apart a centimeter or an inch. I know 40 degrees Celsius is 104 Fahrenheit and minus 40 is the same in both – and COLD in either. I know there are 250 mls in a cup so I can convert between how much is in a can and what my recipe calls for quite easily, but I had to approach an older woman in the grocery store recently because my recipe called for so many ounces of something and I couldn't remember how many ounces were in a cup. Which is different than in a lb. And why does is the abbreviation for pound consist of two letters, neither of which occur in the word pound anyway? And why is rainfall the one thing measured in tenths of inches rather than halves and quarters and eighths? That one makes me wonder a little. And my "metric crescent wrench" works fine on anything - though I have to call in a spanner, pronounced "spanna", to use in on our NZ made electric fence if I want to follow the instructions exactly. Overall, I figure I am relatively bilingual even though I only know the English language. But please don't ask me the volume of a bushel or how big a hectare is. I have my limits.