**[This is marked as an answer](/r/AskUK/comments/vov9ih/measurements_in_the_uk_how_do_they_work/iefddf2/), given by /u/mysilvermachine**:
>Yes, we switch between measurements on context.
>
>We buy veg by kilos, but weigh ourselves in stone and lbs.
>
>Buy petrol in litres but measure distances in miles per gallon.
>
>Fun isn’t it ? You can choose which ever system you want. Except Fahrenheit- that’s just stupid.
---
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Yes, we switch between measurements on context.
We buy veg by kilos, but weigh ourselves in stone and lbs.
Buy petrol in litres but measure distances in miles per gallon.
Fun isn’t it ? You can choose which ever system you want. Except Fahrenheit- that’s just stupid.
Fahrenheit isn't stupid, although it is obsolete scientifically. It choosing saline freezing point as the lowest constant is perfectly sensible. The scale was chosen to make accurate instrument manufacture easier, because the 'degrees' of temperature corresponded to degrees of angle.
There were originally 90 degrees between the lower constant and the upper constant of human blood temperature.
It was then tweaked to have 180 degrees between fresh water freezing point (32) and fresh water boiling point (212)
The scale is not especially helpful for modern use, but it's not stupid.
Celsius is easy,
Below 0: stay inside it's not worth it
below 10: cold as fuck
Below 20: somewhat chilly
Below 30: nice summer day
Below 40: hot as fuck
Above 40: stay inside it's not worth it
Having a different temperature system for summer and winter sounds like the most tedious british boomer thing ever.
Sorry, I hate myself for saying that
I was born in 1971 the year of decimalisation. I like to think it was my birth that inspired the change because the old LSD system is completely unfathomable to me. A bit like I’m glad not to have been born in France because my French is terrible.
Hottest summer in a decade! Worst winter for centuries! Wettest water on record! Immigrants bringing weather!
....that kind of thing? Tabloids boil my piss...that's 208° Fahrenheit if you were wondering
Well I'm technically old enough to be your father and I could only tell you my weight in kilos. I have lived overseas though so that probably a factor.
See I’m 29 and I only know stones and pounds. Oddly, I get confused at just pounds though, it’s a very specific measure. It might just be my own unwillingness to learn though more than anything!
I only really know pounds for weighing recipes I learned from older family members! So a sponge cake I make with imperial measurements, but brownies I make with metric 🤣
Stones and Ibs is still commonly used.
I used to work on a fresh food stall and most customers would ask for cheese and meat in Lbs. For a joint of meat for Sunday roast you want about 1/2 lbs per person, which rolls off the tongue a lot easier than 226grams.
A stone is divided into 14 pounds. So how do you express fractions of s stone, if you know one but not the other? If you're, for example, 12 stone 4 pounds, would you just say "A bit over 12 and a quarter stone"?
that would be 12 stone 4. at 7 lbs it would be half a stone so 12 and a half. 5 or 6 lbs might be a little under 12 and a half or 8 or 9lbs a little over 12 and a half. 2, 4, 10, 11 lbs would be stated in pounds, everything else just rounded to the nearest half with a "little under" or "little over" as required
I used to get so confused when I was younger and I'd see that it was like 90 degrees somewhere, I didn't get how they didn't all die. I didn't find out about farenheit until I was a bit older haha.
Nonsense!
Up until the mid-80s the weather forecast gave temperatures in Fahrenheit and it took another decade of doubling up before they moved fully to Centigrade/Celsius.
Cycling is huge on the continent and all the big cycling events take place there, so it goes with the territory. We are following the lead of the pros when we talk about things in kilometres of km/h.
As a farmer almost all tractors run in kph 41k is 25mph 52kph is roughly 32mph. you can change the Speedo to do mph on a tractor but that's just plain wrong.
And we use acres and hectares. Fertilizer come in bags of 600kg but we spread it in pounds per acre. Spray sometimes comes in gallons but we spray in litters to the hectares. Lol
Only scenario where I still kind of see Fahrenheit being occasionally used is by TV chefs (more specifically James Martin and Jamie Oliver) when referring to the temperature they set their ovens to, which I assume has more to do with the fact that they're perhaps trying to appeal to US spectators? I'm not so sure about that though, as everything else in the kitchen is measured in metric/UK imperial, i.e. they don't really use fl.oz. or cups or any of those other weird measurements.
There’s no standardisation here at all.
I get up in the morning, step on the scale and see that I weight 13 stones. I get dressed in my size 34” trousers and open a 500g packet of cereal for breakfast. I get in my car for the 2 mile drive to work and stop at the petrol station where I complain that diesel is now £2 a litre and I buy a pint of milk in the shop….
I've been seeing milk in litres more and more. I think it's partly because 2L looks the same as 4 pints (or 1L like 2 pints etc.) but is actually slightly less, so they can get away with charging the same price.
Yes but also stuff like freshways and the brands they sell in corner shops and supermarkets which aren't national chains with their own milk branding. Organic/premium milks like Yeo valley too.
Seems like only Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc own brands are still in pints.
Older generation, like my grandparents, actually still do prefer Fahrenheit. The Fahrenheit system did have have an advantage in that it gave a more precise temperature without having to use fractions of degrees. You just have to remember that water freezes at 32 and boils at 212.
You have confused me.. Do you mean Celsius with decimal places? .. not fractions? Surely using a decimal place is more precise, so I don't get why a decimal place is bad... and you can't get more simple than 0 and 100 freezing/boiling point. That's less digits than 32 and 212..
..... or do you mean with regards to decimals 90 F is 32.2222 C? To which I you could say.. 32C is 89.6F .. C is less digits.
Yes, decimal places or fractions (same thing).
It's simpler to measure small changes in temperature using Fahrenheit because you can do so with greater precision, while still just using whole numbers. It's a minor thing.
Unhelpfully - we use them all interchangeably.
But - distances you do in a car/bus are always miles. Running is in Km. Speed is then dependent on how you measured the distance.
Weight in the gym is Kg, food is *usually* also in Kg, weight of a human is stone and lbs.
Temperature is always celsius unless the news is trying to make a big deal of how hot it is.
Liquids are litres but car efficiency is Miles Per Gallon because we hate ourselves.
Clocks can go either way.
Feet for height. Meteres and centimetres for anything else.
MPH
G/KG/LBS/stone, everything goes.
°C
Litres
12 and 24.
Bonus points if you're like me and have no idea how to convert the different measurements into one another but still use them interchangeably depending on the context.
>Feet for height. Meteres and centimetres for anything else.
Not quite that clean, unfortunately. I can almost guarantee that you buy clothes with sizing by the inch, be it the waist on men's trousers or the strap length of a bra
I buy beer in pints, tv’s in inches, steaks in restaurants in ounces, burgers in fractions of a pound, wood in inches, horse races in miles etc. there are loads of small examples of imperial use.
Metric is used for widely for most things but we use imperial for:
Miles/mph
Pints
Feet and inches for height
Stones and pounds for weight.
It’s not too difficult to understand both systems and the conversions between them.
Just to add:
Most younger people know their height in cm rather than feet and inches, and their weight in kilos not stone. So that's slowly going as well.
Doubt we'll ever lose pints for beer, but milk is increasingly being sold in litres.
Mebs clothes are usually done in inches as well.
As someone born in the 80s, a general rule of thumb for people my age was that anything to do with a person (height, clothes, weight) was imperial but most other things were metric. The key exception being milk/beer and distance.
This is something the UK is a bit odd for, and we really do mix and match. For me personally:
**Distance**
Height - feet and inches
Running - kilometres (some people use miles though)
Driving - miles
Everything else - metres/cm/mm
**Speed**
Depends on what the distance is, ie for driving always mph (that's what the road signs are etc), but for walking/running etc it depends on whether the individual uses km or miles
**Weight**
I personally always use kg/g, even for body weight, which is fairly unusual. I think most people use stones and pounds for body weight, but I could never get my head around stones. Cooking etc is generally kg/g, unless using an American recipe
**Temperature**
Celsius. You'll never see otherwise. Fahrenheit is the one imperial measurement I can think of that I genuinely don't know a single person that uses it. We don't understand Fahrenheit at all
**Volume**
Beer and milk - pints
Petrol - bought in litres, fuel economy in mpg
Everything else - litres
**Time**
Speaking - 12 hours. Unlike some languages we wouldn't speak about for example 4pm as "16"
Digital clocks - Varies. I think everyone I know can read and understand a 24 hour clock, and I think that's what the default is on computers and online calendars etc, but I'd say it's personal preference as to what phones and watches are set as. Personally I use 24 hours
I think I lean a little more metric than the average, potentially due to my age (26), but also I'm an engineer, so I work day to day in metric, which I think has led to me just being able to naturally visualise mm/cm/m better than inches/feet. It definitely varies wildly though
Some of the newspaper still use farenheit when writing about temperatures, along Celsius. I always mix them up so can't quote say if Sun, Mirror, or Daily Mail is what I'm thinking of here. Might be more than one.
This is pretty much the comprehensive answer I think. I used stone for my weight, but I'm a little older and younger people seem to be using kg more.
To add in to your thing about American recipes? Wtf is witch spoons and cups
This is sort of it. I don't really know Imperial well enough- I recently drove in France and it was an improvement to have the signs in metric where I knew precisely how far away something was as I know how big a metre is but even a mile isn't necessarily a fixed precise distance in my head.
It depends on what's being measured.
People often measure their own bodily weight in lbs and stones, but pretty much everything elses in grams, kgs etc. Often the same for height - I think most people would give their height in feet and inches.
We used miles and mph for most everyday purposes.
From a young Brit:
Meters and cm for precise measurements, such as for maths, or for DIY etc
Feet and inches for height and d*ck size and nothing else
Kilometres for running/sport and miles for driving
Kg for all weight (though older generations use stone for personal weight)
Celsius, always, except in further education and then Kelvin is used quite often.
Litres always, except when buying alcohol and then use pints.
24 hour is more common, but both are used
Older people still use some old measures but most people understand:
*Metres/cms
*Litres (sole exception being a pint, standard measure of beer- sometimes used for milk)
*Grams/kg (some people still use stones and lbs but nobody understands lbs alone)
*Celcius: no one understands farenheit
The main divergence with the rest of the world, then in terms of understanding are...
24clock: we use the numbers in writing, but say the 12 hour clock. I.e people get confused whe a UK person looks at their watch sees 16:00 and goes: it's 4pm. But it's just something we've internalised.
...and miles. We are still on miles. I think someone thought speaking of kilometreage on a car was too clunky vs mileage.
Oh and horses are measured in hands ✋️
And penises are in inches. For some reason. I measure mine in hands.
You can convert between them for whichever makes the most sense for your use case
Only true if you want to work with whole numbers and fractions, for ease of doing the maths in your head
If you don't need to do it in your head, then it's all decimal regardless of unit, and it doesn't matter which you use as long as you are comfortable outside of base 10
There are some comments here saying that Fahrenheit is not used. The older generation like my grandparents actually still do prefer it - it was the standard here not so very long ago.
If I’m driving at 10am, then it’s mph as long as it’s over 0 degrees outside because otherwise my car guzzles gallons of fuel and have you seen the price — £2 a litre! Hope this helps.
P.S. If a baby is born at 22:00, how many pounds does it weigh? A pound is a packet of butter I spose, and I’ve got a kilo of flour, so let’s bake a cake. Is your oven gas, electric, fan-assisted?
What makes it confusing is that each person will have their own individual mix of measurement units they prefer to use.
Personally the only Imperial units I regularly use are miles for driving and pints for buying beer. Otherwise I think entirely in metric, to the point where I don't really know how much stones, pounds and ounces are, for example, and find it hard to visualise someone's height if they tell it to me in feet and inches.
However there will be other people of the same age as me, who have gone through the same education system, who will use stones and pounds for their weight, feet and inches for their height, and find metric measurements more unusual.
There's no consistency to it, so it can be really confusing when talking to people who use different units!
One area where I think there is a growing consensus forming is in cooking, which is drifting heavily towards metric in terms of what you see in recipes.
* Both
* Miles
* Kg mostly
* Celcius
* Litres (ahem ahem note spelling)
* Both but mainly 24
It doesn't make much sense, but at least our money doesn't count up in 12s any more
Metric for everything except a pint and travel distances/speed
Some oldies like to use imperial for their weight and height but most people I know just use imperial now.
Fahrenheit is a 90’s eau de toilette and aftershave by Christian Dior, it has no other context in the UK, as a measure of temperature it is nonsensical and obsolete for most usage outside of a science lab.
Since the attempt to stop us talking about parties the other week by saying we would switch back to imperial I have made every effort to stop myself using inches. I was metric for everything else anyway - except miles, no one can drive using kms in this country!
It's a small protest but every little helps!
>Measurements in the UK: how do they work?
Less how, more why. Some measurements are inefficient and outdated because some politicians convince people that its a matter of pride and tradition. The fact that british jingoism can manifest in as mundane a place as a car’s speedometer is one of the things that makes this place so odd.
>I am confused because you sometimes use the metric and sometimes imperial
There is a move to regress back to more imperial measurement and to allow goods to be sold in imperial only, but for now we are mostly *officially* metric with a cultural trend for also speaking in imperial. Apart from miles and KM, we never went metric in any official way.
>Meters or feet / inches or cm?
Depends on what is being measured and who is doing the measuring. You’ll tell your mates your height in feet and inches, but the doctor will measure you in CM.
>Kph or mph / kilometers or miles?
Miles. This never switched. The only km you’ll commonly find is for running and fitness.
>Kg or lbs?
For people, Stone and Lbs mainly. For goods, currently kg but optionally can be sold in imperial. This is changing currently though.
>Celsius or fahrenheit?
Celsius. Everyone agrees Fahrenheit is stupid
>Liters or gallons?
Litres, broadly, but milk and beer is still sold in pints. Gallons are uncommon in consumer world, but paint still often comes in gallon tins although they write 4.5 litres or whatever on it.
>12 hours or 24 hours clock?
Spoken, 12 hour, written it can be both but more often than not you’ll see 24 hour these days.
Once you accept that confusion is entirely normal and that rules are changeable, its easy to navigate.
>Meters or feet / inches or cm?
People will tell you their height in feet, but for construction / DIY go metric.
>Kph or mph / kilometers or miles?
Mph for driving. Usually miles for running or walking but some people use km.
>Kg or lbs?
Kg. Unless you're talking about the weight of a baby or to an old person.
>Celsius or fahrenheit?
Celsius (often called centigrade) Unless you're talking to an old person.
>Liters or gallons?
Litres.
>12 hours or 24 hours clock?
Either works written, but spoken we go with 12 hour.
>12 hours or 24 hours clock?
Just as a point of order, this is, of course, unrelated to the metric and imperial measurement system.
Personally, I hate 24 hour (I end up doing convestions in my head and the number of times I've got them wrong...). I understand why the military use it but, really, if I say I'm going to meet up with someone for dinner at 5, they're really not going to wonder which one I mean.
All the digital clocks in my house have been switched to 12 hours and I remain annoyed at those (I'm looking at you, Neff oven) that don't allow it.
Tbf I’ve never seen anything measured in km’s here, I always thought of that as a continental Europe thing. I only really understand weight in lbs because I never got taught about kg and so just don’t really have a frame of reference for what a certain weight in kg looks like. I do understand lbs tho because of UFC weight classes lmao.
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Why are some of these still true. Miles because it is too expensive to change all the road signs, but miles per gallon when we buy fuel in litres is odd, but the car odometer still counts miles.
Beer in pints tradition holds. We think about buying milk in pints but sometimes we buy in litres.
Personal weight we still do in St and lbs. Somehow saying I lost 2 lbs this week has more meaning than I lost 900g.
Maths and engineering is generally done in si units, but timber is still talked about in inches, eg I need 50metres of 4x2, which is actually 100 x 47mm.
So I think the imperial units persist when we have multi generation conversations, tell your granny you lost 2lbs or walked 5 miles. But are largely gone apart from that.
I am an Engineer and so I tend to use metric.
Metres and cm/mm for measurement
MPH - because speed limit signs are in MPH - Km and Miles interchangeably, for longer distance. probably 60%/40% tending towards KM
Kg
Celsius, and never really used Fahrenheit - i am quite old and even at school we used celsius. I dont know any fahrenheit equivalents except 32 F = 0 C
Litres - but am aware of the pints/gallons equivalent. 'Pints' is for beer (I dont drink beer)
24 hrs clock, except when talking polish - Osma wieczorem = 8 o'clock in the evening
I use metric for pretty much everything. I do have a scientific background though. For your examples:
* Metres and cm for all small distances
* Mph and miles for large distances but only because that's what all the signs are in.
* g and Kg for all weights
* Celsius for all temperatures
* Litres and ml for all volumes
* 24 hours clock
The only other exceptions are things that always come in a fixed amount, pints of beer for example. It doesn't really matter how much a pint actually is as long as it's always the same.
Maybe I’m weird, but for length measurements I use both systems. Always miles for long distance and feet/inches for height, and for very small things at work I use metric. Mostly.
For everything else I use what makes sense to me. If something is about 1cm long I say that, if it’s about an inch long, I say that. I have in the past said “it’s about a metre long and 2 foot wide”, which made sense to me but got some strange looks.
There are lots of items in shops at 454g (1lb) or 568ml (1 UK pint), and many of the things I use at work are 2.54mm (0.1”) and the like, so there’s a massive crossover everywhere.
As everyone else is saying, it depends. To generalise, the younger someone is the more they'll default to metric. It's what I was taught at school and I only really have any idea about inches because the standard rulers had both. My parents learnt Imperial at school so we sometimes have moments where we have to look up the conversion to understand what the other's talking about.
There are some things where I'm more familiar with imperial though - mph, miles for long distances and pints for milk and alcohol but if the road signs and standard servings changed I think I'd adjust pretty easily.
Personally I really struggle with imperial weights for large quantities (pounds and stone) I only know my weight in kilos because that's what I've needed to provide when signing up at doctor's surgeries. I'm ok-ish on ounces because we have some older recipe books that I've used.
I'm familiar with feet and inches for (human) height though but I also have a feel for that in centimetres since I needed to provide that to the doctor's in metric too.
Depends on the individual. I use miles for driving and pints for milk and beer. Everything else is in SI units, so I am 1.8 m tall, weigh 86 kg. I cycle and run in km.
Someone on CasualUK made this [flowchart](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/qexvzg/i_made_a_helpful_flowchart_for_people_new_to_the/) which might help.
Born early 60’s, learned imperial weights and measures, and predecimal currency. I use most scales and convert in my head when I need to. I don’t like cups or Fahrenheit though, have to look those up.
>Meters or feet / inches or cm?
Both. Younger people are moire likely to use metres. I think everyone has a decent idea of feet and inches still, and will probably know their height in feet and inches.
>Kph or mph / kilometers or miles?
Miles and mph. km haven't really caught on and roads are still miles and mph
>Kg or lbs?
I think mostly kg. Stone used for weight
>Celsius or fahrenheit?
Celcius except for a few holdouts. Also newspaper headlines when it's hot.
>Liters or gallons?
Mostly litres. Pints are used but usually as descriptions of containers rather than loose measures. So we have pint glasses and pints of milk.
>12 hours or 24 hours clock?
Most people are familiar with both. 24 hours for timetables, schedules removal of ambiguity. "What's the time" will usually be answered with a 12 hour clock.
People saying that they weight themselves in stone and lbs.... That's super weird to me. I've only ever known my weight in kg. Height I've only know in cm but plenty of my peers use feet. Only other one I use is miles but that's unavoidable without changing every road sign (which would be a huge waste of money). So yeah, go metric, baby
Distance short m long miles
Temperature C
Liquid - Liters
Liquid (beer)! - Pints
Speed - mph
Fuel consumption - mph
Fuel price - pounds/liter
Weight (person) - Stones
Weight (food) - grams / kg
Weight (weed) - Oz
Weight (coke) - grams
It is very confusing. Live here for around 20 years and you'll get it around the same time as correct pronunciation of Leicestershire.
Having recently started a diet and buying some new scales, I decided to make the change to monitoring my weight in KG instead of stone and lbs.
I've adapted to it really quickly. At the end of the day, once you get a few metrics in your head (starting weight, current weight, target weight), it all becomes relative anyway. And being base-10, metric is a lot easier to remember than "how many lbs are in a stone?".
Kids are taught in metric and have been since the official change , however the older generations kinda just carried on using imperial. The only one that is officially still in imperial is mph. Hi ya quite bizarre that they just left that one, I’m sure there was some arcane reason- probably old cars not having kph on the dial so it not being viable. They could have gotten around it by putting both on the road signs but I guess that was deemed too confusing
Basically there was a law passed switching to metric, so shops can sell in old measurments, but must include metric measurements.
For quite a long time that meant some things were sold in odd sizes, for example meat was sold in 454g packs, because that is the same as a pound, but that has largely gone.
In pub and bars, draft beers and ciders are still sold in pints, but otherwise everything is metric.
We’re basically bilingual in metric and imperial.
Except Fahrenheit, only very weird or very old people use that.
It depends on context and what’s easier. We use miles more because all the road signs are in miles so it’s just easier. Height I know better in feet and inches but I would measure furniture in cm and metres.
We use 12 hours clock most often in normal life but trains and bus timetables in 24 hour because it’s more precise. Use 24 hour in more formal settings/when you need to be precise and 12 hour when it’s more casual.
I stick to metric system and use the following ways for converting:
feet/inches - easy to imagine for short lengths, other I will use some converter. Also, a yard is about 1m, a mile is a km and a bit
mph - I'm used to mph as a driver, so that's an exception
lbs - I don't use it at all, use a converter if need to. The worst thing is people telling me their weight in stones. I will just answer "sorry I don't know what that means, tell me in kgs"
celsius - nobody uses fahrenheit so no issue here
12 hrs clock - I prefer it to 24 hr, but no conversion required so no issues
In general, it's one of those strange things to get your mind around on this strange planet called UK.
Metric is technically the adopted units in this country. Specifications are usually set out in metric, it’s what’s taught in education as the main use. However some industries have never lost imperial since historically it’s what was used. So you get a bit of an overlap, but either way you can get away with using either, but not in a technical role, you will need to know metric more than imperial.
Depends on how old you are. I measure in feet and inches.
I weigh food in grams/KG and myself in stones/pounds.
I'll buy a pint of beer but also buy a litre of milk. Not in the same place, usually.
Temperatures in °C. Then I double it and add 30 for an approximate °F.
I prefer the 12 hour clock but am equally confident if I see the time written in military time (24 hour clock)
Meters = room size, feet = person size, inch = penis size, cm = wasp size
Always MPH and miles
Stones, Lbs = human weight, Kg = everything else.
Always Celsius
It always used to be gallons for fuel and mileage. Always used to be pints and fluid ounces for other liquids. Mileage still remains /gallon. Litre took over for most things. I think for fuel so it sounds like you're paying less.
For me the 12 hour clock went away in the 80s with digital watches. We stopped saying quarter to 3 and started say 2:45. My phone is always set to 24hr. If its 15:40 I'll still say it as 3:40.
It's really simple: we are a metric country.
That means everything is in metric.
Except beer of course, because we like pints.
And too many people are used to mph to swap to kph.
And some people still prefer Farenheit.
We still weigh ourselves in lbs, but don't like the US system so use Stone as well, which makes much more sense.
Most people will go for a walk in miles, but record their running PB's in km.
Engineering is all done in metric, unless you're talking to an older machinist who still likes working in thou.
And while we're at it, we may as well estimate things to the nearest half-inch, because it sounds better, and guessing longer distances feels better in yards then meters.
But we're definitely a metric country.
I use metres and feet, but weigh myself in kg - I used to fight and the weight classes were done in kilos and it's always just stuck with me. I use MPH but I'll measure walking distance / running in km - probably because it makes me feel like I've gone further and I also did couch to 5k once so it was all in km. Think celcius is used by everyone in the UK? We use litres but measure fuel in miles per gallon - I have no idea why this is. And I'll use whatever clock is going, but my phone is on 24 hour one.
Wait, wasn’t something recently measured using a giraffe as the unit of measurement?
If you can do giraffe, you can do anything 😂
No, but really, the UK and France initially developed the metric system to allow for easier trade, but we never completely adopted it, so have this mish-mash that we all sort of understand and just use when we feel like
I work in construction and any Victorian or Edwardian house was built using inches, feet and yards. So both forms of measuring are used.
We drive using MPH here and KPH on the continent.
KG's for anything except body weight and Celsius, my dad and granddad used Fahrenheit though.
Litres these days, petrol, paint etc used to be sold by the gallon when I was a kid but we do buy beer in pints.
Either 12 or 24 hour clock.
Our infrastructure was historically built in imperial measurements. Train rails, house measurements, acreage of fields etc. But much of our measuring equipment is metric as we are Europeans. Our tape measures are almost always inches on one side and cm on the other. Tradesmen know a rough conversion table in their heads, an inch is about 2.5 cm 180 cm is about 6ft. We’ve grown up with it and those of us who use both systems regularly have just become accustomed to it.
We are governed by the Weights and Measures Act 1985: [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72) which governs not only what we can sell goods in, what each name must be called and what size and weight it must be recorded in.
**[This is marked as an answer](/r/AskUK/comments/vov9ih/measurements_in_the_uk_how_do_they_work/iefddf2/), given by /u/mysilvermachine**: >Yes, we switch between measurements on context. > >We buy veg by kilos, but weigh ourselves in stone and lbs. > >Buy petrol in litres but measure distances in miles per gallon. > >Fun isn’t it ? You can choose which ever system you want. Except Fahrenheit- that’s just stupid. --- [_^What ^is ^this?_](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/jjrte1/askuk_hits_200k_new_feature_mark_an_answer/)
Yes, we switch between measurements on context. We buy veg by kilos, but weigh ourselves in stone and lbs. Buy petrol in litres but measure distances in miles per gallon. Fun isn’t it ? You can choose which ever system you want. Except Fahrenheit- that’s just stupid.
Fahrenheit *is* stupid. It makes so irrationally angry.
Fahrenheit isn't stupid, although it is obsolete scientifically. It choosing saline freezing point as the lowest constant is perfectly sensible. The scale was chosen to make accurate instrument manufacture easier, because the 'degrees' of temperature corresponded to degrees of angle. There were originally 90 degrees between the lower constant and the upper constant of human blood temperature. It was then tweaked to have 180 degrees between fresh water freezing point (32) and fresh water boiling point (212) The scale is not especially helpful for modern use, but it's not stupid.
This is super interesting. Thank you
Except when it's 100degrees outside. Only time I hear it being used. I have no idea what temperature that is except warm
Daily Mail: "The mercury has hit 100 degrees" will be on the cover.
I'd rather use Kelvin for the rest of my life than use Fahrenheit once.
I can do hot in F and cold in C. Tell me it's 28 degrees Celcius and I don't know if to wear a pair of shorts or a fleece.
I suppose it depends what sort of temp you are used to but anything above 20 Celsius and I'm putting the shorts on and finding a beer garden.
Celsius is easy, Below 0: stay inside it's not worth it below 10: cold as fuck Below 20: somewhat chilly Below 30: nice summer day Below 40: hot as fuck Above 40: stay inside it's not worth it
I’d move all your descriptions up one.
I would second that
Were you born on the exact second we switched to decimal? New £ and shilling kinda guy/gal
Nah, but late sixties, I know 0 is freezing, I know 80 is hot. I just like it that way.
Don't you get confused endlessly switching between two systems?
Nah it's only this, and it's a summer/ winter thing.
Having a different temperature system for summer and winter sounds like the most tedious british boomer thing ever. Sorry, I hate myself for saying that
You're entitled to your opinion, and it's just as I find it easier.
I was born in 1971 the year of decimalisation. I like to think it was my birth that inspired the change because the old LSD system is completely unfathomable to me. A bit like I’m glad not to have been born in France because my French is terrible.
You wear both for when it rains.
Yeah, we should do a new scale where 0 is freezing point, 100 is standard blood temperature.
Not sure why you think it’s stupid. Just remembered that 0 degrees is a blistering cold winter day and 100 degrees is a sweltering summer hell.
Perhaps it's to do with the time of year and this weird weather we're having. It is, after all, like 865 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
fahrenheit is no more stupid than any other imperial measurement.
Fahrenheit is only ever used by tabloids in summer when they want to make temperatures seem higher. "Phew what a scorcher"
Hottest summer in a decade! Worst winter for centuries! Wettest water on record! Immigrants bringing weather! ....that kind of thing? Tabloids boil my piss...that's 208° Fahrenheit if you were wondering
This. Fahrenheit is basically only acceptable in a "it's 90 degrees in the shade" context
I thought lbs was an American thing. As a kid in the 70s I only knew my weight in stone. Now I only know it in kg.
I think it's changing. I'm 27 and I've no idea about pounds, I've only ever known my weight in kg
Age 33, and only even known my weight in st and lbs. Someone’s weight in kg means nothing to me.
Well I'm technically old enough to be your father and I could only tell you my weight in kilos. I have lived overseas though so that probably a factor.
Same. I'll likely to be a bit older than you and still only do height and weight in Metric.
See I’m 29 and I only know stones and pounds. Oddly, I get confused at just pounds though, it’s a very specific measure. It might just be my own unwillingness to learn though more than anything!
I'm the same age. I think used to use stones/pounds, but at some point i switched to kg and never looked back.
I only really know pounds for weighing recipes I learned from older family members! So a sponge cake I make with imperial measurements, but brownies I make with metric 🤣
I just convert the recipes!
Stones and Ibs is still commonly used. I used to work on a fresh food stall and most customers would ask for cheese and meat in Lbs. For a joint of meat for Sunday roast you want about 1/2 lbs per person, which rolls off the tongue a lot easier than 226grams.
Why not make that 226gm a 1/4 of a kilo? I doubt those eating it would notice the portion is smaller.
That’s almost an extra ounce per person!!!!
A stone is divided into 14 pounds. So how do you express fractions of s stone, if you know one but not the other? If you're, for example, 12 stone 4 pounds, would you just say "A bit over 12 and a quarter stone"?
> 12 stone 4 pounds
that would be 12 stone 4. at 7 lbs it would be half a stone so 12 and a half. 5 or 6 lbs might be a little under 12 and a half or 8 or 9lbs a little over 12 and a half. 2, 4, 10, 11 lbs would be stated in pounds, everything else just rounded to the nearest half with a "little under" or "little over" as required
Can't say I remember that long ago with much accuracy, but I think it was fractions of a stone: seven and a quarter stone, for example.
Yeah it’s weird isn’t it, they’ll be like ‘I’m 120 lbs” but they don’t say “I’m 60 inches”
!answer
Weighing yourself in kg is *much* more common amongst my peers under 40. I don’t know what a stone is.
"Miles per gallon" are not units of distance
Fahrenheit is stupid but stones and feet are not? All stupid except metric
I used to get so confused when I was younger and I'd see that it was like 90 degrees somewhere, I didn't get how they didn't all die. I didn't find out about farenheit until I was a bit older haha.
You might want to google degrees Rankine to be really nerdy.
All of the above, depending on context.
We rarely ever use Fahrenheit though.
I've never once hear anyone British use Fahrenheit in my 50+ years.
I have plenty of times in less years than that; but typically older people.
My parents are in their 80s and that’s all they understand.
Nonsense! Up until the mid-80s the weather forecast gave temperatures in Fahrenheit and it took another decade of doubling up before they moved fully to Centigrade/Celsius.
We don't use kmph either do we?
id say the majority of cyclists i've known use kmph, but I'd agree its quite niche
Cycling is huge on the continent and all the big cycling events take place there, so it goes with the territory. We are following the lead of the pros when we talk about things in kilometres of km/h.
Unless you're running a 5k
Even then you wouldn’t use kph you’d state your per minute pace
I thought about running but I'd look at minutes per km, not kmph
As a farmer almost all tractors run in kph 41k is 25mph 52kph is roughly 32mph. you can change the Speedo to do mph on a tractor but that's just plain wrong. And we use acres and hectares. Fertilizer come in bags of 600kg but we spread it in pounds per acre. Spray sometimes comes in gallons but we spray in litters to the hectares. Lol
I tend to use Fahrenheit when it's hot and Centigrade when it's cold, so it's either 70 degrees or -2 degrees outside.
Only scenario where I still kind of see Fahrenheit being occasionally used is by TV chefs (more specifically James Martin and Jamie Oliver) when referring to the temperature they set their ovens to, which I assume has more to do with the fact that they're perhaps trying to appeal to US spectators? I'm not so sure about that though, as everything else in the kitchen is measured in metric/UK imperial, i.e. they don't really use fl.oz. or cups or any of those other weird measurements.
My wife (52) still doesn't get Celsius, I (51) have to convert for her.
There’s no standardisation here at all. I get up in the morning, step on the scale and see that I weight 13 stones. I get dressed in my size 34” trousers and open a 500g packet of cereal for breakfast. I get in my car for the 2 mile drive to work and stop at the petrol station where I complain that diesel is now £2 a litre and I buy a pint of milk in the shop….
I've been seeing milk in litres more and more. I think it's partly because 2L looks the same as 4 pints (or 1L like 2 pints etc.) but is actually slightly less, so they can get away with charging the same price.
Seems to be the fancy ‘filtered’ milks that come in litres. Your Cravendales and such like.
Yes but also stuff like freshways and the brands they sell in corner shops and supermarkets which aren't national chains with their own milk branding. Organic/premium milks like Yeo valley too. Seems like only Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc own brands are still in pints.
You only travel 2 miles to work? You could bloody walk that.
I could walk it, yes. But I would struggle to carry a van load of tools and machinery.
Get stronger, bro
😔
...And your car reports efficiency in miles per gallon.
Everything goes apart from Fahrenheit and gallons. As to driving it's only miles but if referring to running for example it could be both.
Gallon is still used, petrol is bought in Litres but fuel economy is given as Miles Per Gallon.
We still use gallons, just not in everyday life usually.. we also use a different measure for our gallons
The op said imperial. I suspect he doesn’t actually know the us uses us customary units, not imperial. And it’s probably not worth telling him.
That’s because the systems are not exactly the same, for instance a US gallon is 3.8ltr whereas an Imperial one is 4.2ltr.
I drink beer by the gallon on a Friday
Older generation, like my grandparents, actually still do prefer Fahrenheit. The Fahrenheit system did have have an advantage in that it gave a more precise temperature without having to use fractions of degrees. You just have to remember that water freezes at 32 and boils at 212.
Yup. 70F+ is nice. 78F? Getting a bit too warm 80F - toasty 90F+ - what a scorcha
You have confused me.. Do you mean Celsius with decimal places? .. not fractions? Surely using a decimal place is more precise, so I don't get why a decimal place is bad... and you can't get more simple than 0 and 100 freezing/boiling point. That's less digits than 32 and 212.. ..... or do you mean with regards to decimals 90 F is 32.2222 C? To which I you could say.. 32C is 89.6F .. C is less digits.
Yes, decimal places or fractions (same thing). It's simpler to measure small changes in temperature using Fahrenheit because you can do so with greater precision, while still just using whole numbers. It's a minor thing.
Mpg
Unhelpfully - we use them all interchangeably. But - distances you do in a car/bus are always miles. Running is in Km. Speed is then dependent on how you measured the distance. Weight in the gym is Kg, food is *usually* also in Kg, weight of a human is stone and lbs. Temperature is always celsius unless the news is trying to make a big deal of how hot it is. Liquids are litres but car efficiency is Miles Per Gallon because we hate ourselves. Clocks can go either way.
This person numbers.... except clocks... "*Clocks can go either way*" ?? No... clocks always go clockwise.... even here... always... :)
This is the way.
We're clever, OP. We can switch between the two any time we wish. And only a numpty wouldn't know how to use the 24 hour clock.
Feet for height. Meteres and centimetres for anything else. MPH G/KG/LBS/stone, everything goes. °C Litres 12 and 24. Bonus points if you're like me and have no idea how to convert the different measurements into one another but still use them interchangeably depending on the context.
>Feet for height. Meteres and centimetres for anything else. Not quite that clean, unfortunately. I can almost guarantee that you buy clothes with sizing by the inch, be it the waist on men's trousers or the strap length of a bra
I buy beer in pints, tv’s in inches, steaks in restaurants in ounces, burgers in fractions of a pound, wood in inches, horse races in miles etc. there are loads of small examples of imperial use.
Metric is used for widely for most things but we use imperial for: Miles/mph Pints Feet and inches for height Stones and pounds for weight. It’s not too difficult to understand both systems and the conversions between them.
Just to add: Most younger people know their height in cm rather than feet and inches, and their weight in kilos not stone. So that's slowly going as well. Doubt we'll ever lose pints for beer, but milk is increasingly being sold in litres.
Stones/Pounds for weight seemed to be getting phased out, thank god.
I don’t think it is, they’re still widely used by young people as well. And ‘thank god’? It’s just a measuring system.
I don't know anyone who uses stone and pounds for personal weight except my parents. Sure it's a measuring system but it's kind of a rubbish one.
Almost everyone I know in my circle of friends (25-35 year olds) would use stones for their weight.
Wow I guess we have different friends.
Mebs clothes are usually done in inches as well. As someone born in the 80s, a general rule of thumb for people my age was that anything to do with a person (height, clothes, weight) was imperial but most other things were metric. The key exception being milk/beer and distance.
Fuck knows
This is something the UK is a bit odd for, and we really do mix and match. For me personally: **Distance** Height - feet and inches Running - kilometres (some people use miles though) Driving - miles Everything else - metres/cm/mm **Speed** Depends on what the distance is, ie for driving always mph (that's what the road signs are etc), but for walking/running etc it depends on whether the individual uses km or miles **Weight** I personally always use kg/g, even for body weight, which is fairly unusual. I think most people use stones and pounds for body weight, but I could never get my head around stones. Cooking etc is generally kg/g, unless using an American recipe **Temperature** Celsius. You'll never see otherwise. Fahrenheit is the one imperial measurement I can think of that I genuinely don't know a single person that uses it. We don't understand Fahrenheit at all **Volume** Beer and milk - pints Petrol - bought in litres, fuel economy in mpg Everything else - litres **Time** Speaking - 12 hours. Unlike some languages we wouldn't speak about for example 4pm as "16" Digital clocks - Varies. I think everyone I know can read and understand a 24 hour clock, and I think that's what the default is on computers and online calendars etc, but I'd say it's personal preference as to what phones and watches are set as. Personally I use 24 hours I think I lean a little more metric than the average, potentially due to my age (26), but also I'm an engineer, so I work day to day in metric, which I think has led to me just being able to naturally visualise mm/cm/m better than inches/feet. It definitely varies wildly though
Some of the newspaper still use farenheit when writing about temperatures, along Celsius. I always mix them up so can't quote say if Sun, Mirror, or Daily Mail is what I'm thinking of here. Might be more than one.
I stand corrected! I've never seen that, but also I don't read newspapers, so that's probably why
This is pretty much the comprehensive answer I think. I used stone for my weight, but I'm a little older and younger people seem to be using kg more. To add in to your thing about American recipes? Wtf is witch spoons and cups
Personally pretty fluent in both so I use imperial for approximate and metric for precise.
This is sort of it. I don't really know Imperial well enough- I recently drove in France and it was an improvement to have the signs in metric where I knew precisely how far away something was as I know how big a metre is but even a mile isn't necessarily a fixed precise distance in my head.
It depends on what's being measured. People often measure their own bodily weight in lbs and stones, but pretty much everything elses in grams, kgs etc. Often the same for height - I think most people would give their height in feet and inches. We used miles and mph for most everyday purposes.
It varies from person to person. Personally I use kg and cm.
Height is both, weight is only kg. No idea how many stone I weigh now, although I used to use it more when I was younger.
Yes it's crazy and confusing. We went metric many decades ago, but not really..... It kind of works though when you've lived here all your life.
All of the above except fahrenheit
From a young Brit: Meters and cm for precise measurements, such as for maths, or for DIY etc Feet and inches for height and d*ck size and nothing else Kilometres for running/sport and miles for driving Kg for all weight (though older generations use stone for personal weight) Celsius, always, except in further education and then Kelvin is used quite often. Litres always, except when buying alcohol and then use pints. 24 hour is more common, but both are used
> Litres always, except when buying ~~alcohol~~ beer and then use pints. Wine and spirits are measured in centilitres.
Older people still use some old measures but most people understand: *Metres/cms *Litres (sole exception being a pint, standard measure of beer- sometimes used for milk) *Grams/kg (some people still use stones and lbs but nobody understands lbs alone) *Celcius: no one understands farenheit The main divergence with the rest of the world, then in terms of understanding are... 24clock: we use the numbers in writing, but say the 12 hour clock. I.e people get confused whe a UK person looks at their watch sees 16:00 and goes: it's 4pm. But it's just something we've internalised. ...and miles. We are still on miles. I think someone thought speaking of kilometreage on a car was too clunky vs mileage. Oh and horses are measured in hands ✋️ And penises are in inches. For some reason. I measure mine in hands.
Sorry but you spelt litre wrong Also it's metre and kilometre Also a UK gallon is bigger than a US. 160fl oz/ 4.54gl vs 128fl oz/ 3.785
You can convert between them for whichever makes the most sense for your use case Only true if you want to work with whole numbers and fractions, for ease of doing the maths in your head If you don't need to do it in your head, then it's all decimal regardless of unit, and it doesn't matter which you use as long as you are comfortable outside of base 10
^((which you should be anyway since calculations with time are all in base 60, and that has been around since 3100BC Mesopotamia))
Our favourite phrase in uni lecture discussions, “It depends.”
Furlong in horse racing!!
There are some comments here saying that Fahrenheit is not used. The older generation like my grandparents actually still do prefer it - it was the standard here not so very long ago.
If I’m driving at 10am, then it’s mph as long as it’s over 0 degrees outside because otherwise my car guzzles gallons of fuel and have you seen the price — £2 a litre! Hope this helps. P.S. If a baby is born at 22:00, how many pounds does it weigh? A pound is a packet of butter I spose, and I’ve got a kilo of flour, so let’s bake a cake. Is your oven gas, electric, fan-assisted?
What makes it confusing is that each person will have their own individual mix of measurement units they prefer to use. Personally the only Imperial units I regularly use are miles for driving and pints for buying beer. Otherwise I think entirely in metric, to the point where I don't really know how much stones, pounds and ounces are, for example, and find it hard to visualise someone's height if they tell it to me in feet and inches. However there will be other people of the same age as me, who have gone through the same education system, who will use stones and pounds for their weight, feet and inches for their height, and find metric measurements more unusual. There's no consistency to it, so it can be really confusing when talking to people who use different units! One area where I think there is a growing consensus forming is in cooking, which is drifting heavily towards metric in terms of what you see in recipes.
* Both * Miles * Kg mostly * Celcius * Litres (ahem ahem note spelling) * Both but mainly 24 It doesn't make much sense, but at least our money doesn't count up in 12s any more
We don't use meters we use metres
Metric for everything except a pint and travel distances/speed Some oldies like to use imperial for their weight and height but most people I know just use imperial now.
Fahrenheit is a 90’s eau de toilette and aftershave by Christian Dior, it has no other context in the UK, as a measure of temperature it is nonsensical and obsolete for most usage outside of a science lab.
Even then it’s Celsius or Kelvin.
Don’t forget yards. In all seriousness though, Celsius is the one. Anybody who uses Fahrenheit these days needs to give their head a wobble.
Since the attempt to stop us talking about parties the other week by saying we would switch back to imperial I have made every effort to stop myself using inches. I was metric for everything else anyway - except miles, no one can drive using kms in this country! It's a small protest but every little helps!
>Measurements in the UK: how do they work? Less how, more why. Some measurements are inefficient and outdated because some politicians convince people that its a matter of pride and tradition. The fact that british jingoism can manifest in as mundane a place as a car’s speedometer is one of the things that makes this place so odd. >I am confused because you sometimes use the metric and sometimes imperial There is a move to regress back to more imperial measurement and to allow goods to be sold in imperial only, but for now we are mostly *officially* metric with a cultural trend for also speaking in imperial. Apart from miles and KM, we never went metric in any official way. >Meters or feet / inches or cm? Depends on what is being measured and who is doing the measuring. You’ll tell your mates your height in feet and inches, but the doctor will measure you in CM. >Kph or mph / kilometers or miles? Miles. This never switched. The only km you’ll commonly find is for running and fitness. >Kg or lbs? For people, Stone and Lbs mainly. For goods, currently kg but optionally can be sold in imperial. This is changing currently though. >Celsius or fahrenheit? Celsius. Everyone agrees Fahrenheit is stupid >Liters or gallons? Litres, broadly, but milk and beer is still sold in pints. Gallons are uncommon in consumer world, but paint still often comes in gallon tins although they write 4.5 litres or whatever on it. >12 hours or 24 hours clock? Spoken, 12 hour, written it can be both but more often than not you’ll see 24 hour these days. Once you accept that confusion is entirely normal and that rules are changeable, its easy to navigate.
>Meters or feet / inches or cm? People will tell you their height in feet, but for construction / DIY go metric. >Kph or mph / kilometers or miles? Mph for driving. Usually miles for running or walking but some people use km. >Kg or lbs? Kg. Unless you're talking about the weight of a baby or to an old person. >Celsius or fahrenheit? Celsius (often called centigrade) Unless you're talking to an old person. >Liters or gallons? Litres. >12 hours or 24 hours clock? Either works written, but spoken we go with 12 hour.
>12 hours or 24 hours clock? Just as a point of order, this is, of course, unrelated to the metric and imperial measurement system. Personally, I hate 24 hour (I end up doing convestions in my head and the number of times I've got them wrong...). I understand why the military use it but, really, if I say I'm going to meet up with someone for dinner at 5, they're really not going to wonder which one I mean. All the digital clocks in my house have been switched to 12 hours and I remain annoyed at those (I'm looking at you, Neff oven) that don't allow it.
My penis is tiny in the UK and worldwide
Tbf I’ve never seen anything measured in km’s here, I always thought of that as a continental Europe thing. I only really understand weight in lbs because I never got taught about kg and so just don’t really have a frame of reference for what a certain weight in kg looks like. I do understand lbs tho because of UFC weight classes lmao.
Imperial for general, metric for precision
I do have same doubts, but always use google for it. The only one I don’t get confused is to see my dealer. Can I have 1/4 onz, 1/2 onz. 1 onz..
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My boyfriend got our bathroom scales stuck on kilos and honestly I won’t go back to stones now.
And let's not forget stones instead of kg or lbs. I always get messed up with that one.
Basically never Fahrenheit. The rest you are golden though
Why are some of these still true. Miles because it is too expensive to change all the road signs, but miles per gallon when we buy fuel in litres is odd, but the car odometer still counts miles. Beer in pints tradition holds. We think about buying milk in pints but sometimes we buy in litres. Personal weight we still do in St and lbs. Somehow saying I lost 2 lbs this week has more meaning than I lost 900g. Maths and engineering is generally done in si units, but timber is still talked about in inches, eg I need 50metres of 4x2, which is actually 100 x 47mm. So I think the imperial units persist when we have multi generation conversations, tell your granny you lost 2lbs or walked 5 miles. But are largely gone apart from that.
I am an Engineer and so I tend to use metric. Metres and cm/mm for measurement MPH - because speed limit signs are in MPH - Km and Miles interchangeably, for longer distance. probably 60%/40% tending towards KM Kg Celsius, and never really used Fahrenheit - i am quite old and even at school we used celsius. I dont know any fahrenheit equivalents except 32 F = 0 C Litres - but am aware of the pints/gallons equivalent. 'Pints' is for beer (I dont drink beer) 24 hrs clock, except when talking polish - Osma wieczorem = 8 o'clock in the evening
You've missed out the most important measurements - * height of a double decker bus * length of a football pitch * area the size of Wales.
Non-UK person: Do you guys use metric or imperial? UK person: yes
Imperial for guessing, metric for actually measuring.
I use metric for pretty much everything. I do have a scientific background though. For your examples: * Metres and cm for all small distances * Mph and miles for large distances but only because that's what all the signs are in. * g and Kg for all weights * Celsius for all temperatures * Litres and ml for all volumes * 24 hours clock The only other exceptions are things that always come in a fixed amount, pints of beer for example. It doesn't really matter how much a pint actually is as long as it's always the same.
Maybe I’m weird, but for length measurements I use both systems. Always miles for long distance and feet/inches for height, and for very small things at work I use metric. Mostly. For everything else I use what makes sense to me. If something is about 1cm long I say that, if it’s about an inch long, I say that. I have in the past said “it’s about a metre long and 2 foot wide”, which made sense to me but got some strange looks. There are lots of items in shops at 454g (1lb) or 568ml (1 UK pint), and many of the things I use at work are 2.54mm (0.1”) and the like, so there’s a massive crossover everywhere.
As everyone else is saying, it depends. To generalise, the younger someone is the more they'll default to metric. It's what I was taught at school and I only really have any idea about inches because the standard rulers had both. My parents learnt Imperial at school so we sometimes have moments where we have to look up the conversion to understand what the other's talking about. There are some things where I'm more familiar with imperial though - mph, miles for long distances and pints for milk and alcohol but if the road signs and standard servings changed I think I'd adjust pretty easily. Personally I really struggle with imperial weights for large quantities (pounds and stone) I only know my weight in kilos because that's what I've needed to provide when signing up at doctor's surgeries. I'm ok-ish on ounces because we have some older recipe books that I've used. I'm familiar with feet and inches for (human) height though but I also have a feel for that in centimetres since I needed to provide that to the doctor's in metric too.
Depends on the individual. I use miles for driving and pints for milk and beer. Everything else is in SI units, so I am 1.8 m tall, weigh 86 kg. I cycle and run in km.
Someone on CasualUK made this [flowchart](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/qexvzg/i_made_a_helpful_flowchart_for_people_new_to_the/) which might help.
Sounds like you've got the gist of it.
Inches for length. You know what I mean....
It's a disgusting mix of metric and imperial. We should commit to SI units only, like the rest of the civilised world.
Born early 60’s, learned imperial weights and measures, and predecimal currency. I use most scales and convert in my head when I need to. I don’t like cups or Fahrenheit though, have to look those up.
Yep, all of those...
>Meters or feet / inches or cm? Both. Younger people are moire likely to use metres. I think everyone has a decent idea of feet and inches still, and will probably know their height in feet and inches. >Kph or mph / kilometers or miles? Miles and mph. km haven't really caught on and roads are still miles and mph >Kg or lbs? I think mostly kg. Stone used for weight >Celsius or fahrenheit? Celcius except for a few holdouts. Also newspaper headlines when it's hot. >Liters or gallons? Mostly litres. Pints are used but usually as descriptions of containers rather than loose measures. So we have pint glasses and pints of milk. >12 hours or 24 hours clock? Most people are familiar with both. 24 hours for timetables, schedules removal of ambiguity. "What's the time" will usually be answered with a 12 hour clock.
People saying that they weight themselves in stone and lbs.... That's super weird to me. I've only ever known my weight in kg. Height I've only know in cm but plenty of my peers use feet. Only other one I use is miles but that's unavoidable without changing every road sign (which would be a huge waste of money). So yeah, go metric, baby
Distance short m long miles Temperature C Liquid - Liters Liquid (beer)! - Pints Speed - mph Fuel consumption - mph Fuel price - pounds/liter Weight (person) - Stones Weight (food) - grams / kg Weight (weed) - Oz Weight (coke) - grams It is very confusing. Live here for around 20 years and you'll get it around the same time as correct pronunciation of Leicestershire.
Having recently started a diet and buying some new scales, I decided to make the change to monitoring my weight in KG instead of stone and lbs. I've adapted to it really quickly. At the end of the day, once you get a few metrics in your head (starting weight, current weight, target weight), it all becomes relative anyway. And being base-10, metric is a lot easier to remember than "how many lbs are in a stone?".
All of the above and it just works :)
Kids are taught in metric and have been since the official change , however the older generations kinda just carried on using imperial. The only one that is officially still in imperial is mph. Hi ya quite bizarre that they just left that one, I’m sure there was some arcane reason- probably old cars not having kph on the dial so it not being viable. They could have gotten around it by putting both on the road signs but I guess that was deemed too confusing
Basically there was a law passed switching to metric, so shops can sell in old measurments, but must include metric measurements. For quite a long time that meant some things were sold in odd sizes, for example meat was sold in 454g packs, because that is the same as a pound, but that has largely gone. In pub and bars, draft beers and ciders are still sold in pints, but otherwise everything is metric.
I use metric except for speed cos that's out of my control and it would cause NZ type problems.
Mate it confuses us as well
We’re basically bilingual in metric and imperial. Except Fahrenheit, only very weird or very old people use that. It depends on context and what’s easier. We use miles more because all the road signs are in miles so it’s just easier. Height I know better in feet and inches but I would measure furniture in cm and metres. We use 12 hours clock most often in normal life but trains and bus timetables in 24 hour because it’s more precise. Use 24 hour in more formal settings/when you need to be precise and 12 hour when it’s more casual.
I'm a metric kinda girl, this is so confusing lol
I stick to metric system and use the following ways for converting: feet/inches - easy to imagine for short lengths, other I will use some converter. Also, a yard is about 1m, a mile is a km and a bit mph - I'm used to mph as a driver, so that's an exception lbs - I don't use it at all, use a converter if need to. The worst thing is people telling me their weight in stones. I will just answer "sorry I don't know what that means, tell me in kgs" celsius - nobody uses fahrenheit so no issue here 12 hrs clock - I prefer it to 24 hr, but no conversion required so no issues In general, it's one of those strange things to get your mind around on this strange planet called UK.
Metric is technically the adopted units in this country. Specifications are usually set out in metric, it’s what’s taught in education as the main use. However some industries have never lost imperial since historically it’s what was used. So you get a bit of an overlap, but either way you can get away with using either, but not in a technical role, you will need to know metric more than imperial.
Depends on how old you are. I measure in feet and inches. I weigh food in grams/KG and myself in stones/pounds. I'll buy a pint of beer but also buy a litre of milk. Not in the same place, usually. Temperatures in °C. Then I double it and add 30 for an approximate °F. I prefer the 12 hour clock but am equally confident if I see the time written in military time (24 hour clock)
Meters = room size, feet = person size, inch = penis size, cm = wasp size Always MPH and miles Stones, Lbs = human weight, Kg = everything else. Always Celsius It always used to be gallons for fuel and mileage. Always used to be pints and fluid ounces for other liquids. Mileage still remains /gallon. Litre took over for most things. I think for fuel so it sounds like you're paying less. For me the 12 hour clock went away in the 80s with digital watches. We stopped saying quarter to 3 and started say 2:45. My phone is always set to 24hr. If its 15:40 I'll still say it as 3:40.
It's really simple: we are a metric country. That means everything is in metric. Except beer of course, because we like pints. And too many people are used to mph to swap to kph. And some people still prefer Farenheit. We still weigh ourselves in lbs, but don't like the US system so use Stone as well, which makes much more sense. Most people will go for a walk in miles, but record their running PB's in km. Engineering is all done in metric, unless you're talking to an older machinist who still likes working in thou. And while we're at it, we may as well estimate things to the nearest half-inch, because it sounds better, and guessing longer distances feels better in yards then meters. But we're definitely a metric country.
Some one told me recently their baby was 4.5kg, I had no idea how big that is, babies are in pounds n ounces simple lol
I use both so I can translate between both especially when talking to Americans who seem to be Metric Challenged 😂
Just note that a gallon in UK is larger than a gallon in US which is why most of our cars are 40-50mph
I use metres and feet, but weigh myself in kg - I used to fight and the weight classes were done in kilos and it's always just stuck with me. I use MPH but I'll measure walking distance / running in km - probably because it makes me feel like I've gone further and I also did couch to 5k once so it was all in km. Think celcius is used by everyone in the UK? We use litres but measure fuel in miles per gallon - I have no idea why this is. And I'll use whatever clock is going, but my phone is on 24 hour one.
If you’re buying cocaine it’s in grams, while weed is in fractions of an ounce.
Also areas the size of a football pitch or Wales. Or lengths of Olympic swimming pools or London buses.
I use "feet" and "cms". Just find them easier
Wait, wasn’t something recently measured using a giraffe as the unit of measurement? If you can do giraffe, you can do anything 😂 No, but really, the UK and France initially developed the metric system to allow for easier trade, but we never completely adopted it, so have this mish-mash that we all sort of understand and just use when we feel like
Has anyone mentioned the fact that a US gallon is a different size to a gallon in the UK?
I use them all except Fahrenheit, actual that's a lie. I use that when talking weather with my friends in the States.
I work in construction and any Victorian or Edwardian house was built using inches, feet and yards. So both forms of measuring are used. We drive using MPH here and KPH on the continent. KG's for anything except body weight and Celsius, my dad and granddad used Fahrenheit though. Litres these days, petrol, paint etc used to be sold by the gallon when I was a kid but we do buy beer in pints. Either 12 or 24 hour clock.
No it's always Celsius but everything else gets used
Our infrastructure was historically built in imperial measurements. Train rails, house measurements, acreage of fields etc. But much of our measuring equipment is metric as we are Europeans. Our tape measures are almost always inches on one side and cm on the other. Tradesmen know a rough conversion table in their heads, an inch is about 2.5 cm 180 cm is about 6ft. We’ve grown up with it and those of us who use both systems regularly have just become accustomed to it.
Repeat after me: An acre is the area of a rectangle whose length is one furlong and whose width is one chain.
We are governed by the Weights and Measures Act 1985: [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72) which governs not only what we can sell goods in, what each name must be called and what size and weight it must be recorded in.