No we are a mixed people thank you very much
For decades, Britain has had campaigners against metric (or the “Napoleonic system” as some of them call it), who were generally on the populist right. There was a grocer who refused to display prices in metric measurements and, when he was fined, refused to pay and was sent to gaol; the tabloids called him the “Metric Martyr”, and lionised him as a hero alongside those who vandalise speed cameras. One of the promises of the Brexit campaign was to abolish the metric system and go back to imperial measures, though after they won, they realised that the imperial measurements have been legally defined in reference to SI units for decades, and establishing a new basis for measurement would be far too expensive and disruptive to do just to placate a bunch of pub bores and opinionated van drivers, so they dropped it.
So Britain has a mixed system (beer and milk are measured in pints, and road distances/speeds in miles, but most other things are metric), only the fluid ounce, which is 1/20 of a pint, is legally defined as 28.4ml or so. Even worse, road distances given in yards (each being around 0.9 of a metre) are actually in metres, going on the assumption that the average person can’t tell the difference. Of course, they can’t call them metres, as there’d be irate letters to The Times and questions in Parliament.
Wait, the yard distances were metres all along!? I could have used the time spent learning my 0.9 times tables for better things!
Gaol is jail, for the rest of us.
Oh Jesus. Imagine what Nigel Farage would say if he overheard me giving the measurements of my curtains in centimeters. He’d have me catapulted to Rwanda.
There were some polls asking why people voted for Brexit. Not only where there respondents wanting imperial measurements, there was even a small but significant group that wanted the return of pre-decimal currency, which was abolished in 1971.
For those not familiar with the UK’s old currency, it used to be 12 pence in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound, and with a variety of coins representing odd combinations of those.
The US wanted to rid itself of as much English influence as possible, she even changed the spelling. Odd that she held on to Imperial.
Imperial is slightly different. We use US customary measures.
This is one of my favorite facts.
*French influence. Most of the prominent differences between American and British English (such as -er/-re and -or/-our) occurred because the British preserved (or changed spellings to add) French influence.
The UK can pretend all they want, but they ain’t part of the metric club.
Invents the word Soccer, calls americans dumb for using it.
(TBF it’s dumb, especially since you call hand egg football, sry americans)
Third World Ball Chace.
apparently its short for association football
Yep! It was to distinguish Association Football (“Soccer”) from Rugby Union Football (“Rugger”).
I suppose we should use “Gridder” for North American “Gridiron Football”.
The term football used to apply to any ball sport played on foot (as apposed to on horseback). The idea that it could only belong to soccer is actually quite arrogant.
Why not assfoot?
i think assball sounds funnier
these MFs convey weight in whatever the fuck “stone” is. don’t let them shame you for not using liters
Stone is only real used for body weights now, and mostly be older people. I see metric weights used a lot more in medicine and by younger folk now.
They’ll also list height in meters and centimeters, but list driving distance in miles.
They’re metres and centimetres, but your point is still moot due to our prescribed 3000ft Munros
Nah, height is feet and inches
Depends which part of the country you live in
Rough people height generally feet (“a 5ft lass”, “he’s gotta be 7ft!”), actual height in m or cm. Except above a certain height and then well it’s a 15ft drop or a 3000ft munro
It’s 14 lb. Definitely a contender for the dumbest unit in common use.
The point is at the wrong place. And how much is this lb in litres?
0.454 l
Thaanks!
Should just be called a fortpound
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in this context i actively refuse to respect British spelling
Whenever I see meter and liter spelled the English way I pronounce it Frenchly in my head with a gargled R.
“lee-tray”
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And this is English. Do you write an exchequer or a check?
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Yeah sorry it’s a cheque
*Czech.
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Build an entire empire just to troll your own offshoots.
True dat. You wouldn’t believe the crazy, flavourful food we eat behind closed doors. We save the bland beige-on-toast for when foreigners are around.
What flag is that?
It looks similar to an inverted Union flag but one of the red stripes is in the wrong place.
We are supposed to use metric here in my country, but because of American influence, we use imperial.
I loved Torque Test Channel’s take on the whole metric thing… https://youtu.be/2QUum9NymZY?si=8w7PCNReVX1-3tMn
The US was a founding member of the Metre Convention, find a new slant
Nothing you’ve said disagrees with the meme.
We were almost the first country to switch. Now we’re probably going to be last
We bamboozled ourselves. The Brits woke up to the fact the metric system was better and changed. Sure they still have their idiots who like the old system there but they ignore them. Whereas here we let that small minority rule. That is why we are using a broken old system and why we are the only country that is. Because we let the stupid rule in order to beat some imagined enemy.
Screw both. If you don’t measure temperature in Kelvin don’t talk to me.
I thought you guys were independent?
Why do you need a former master to tell you to switch?
Secretly they all want to be dominated by a powerful monarch.
The British one wouldn’t be the best choice. Not exactly powerful…
May I present to you, how to measure like a Brit
It’s great fun especially when you’re trying to work out how fuel efficient your car has been when your tank and fuel pump is in litres and the fuel efficiency is in miles per gallon.
Oh and you’ll have a jolly time following a recipe from more than 20 years ago trying to remember what the hell “Gas Mark 4” is in centigrade for fan or convection ovens.
Oh and my personal favourite for the industry I’m in: when designing a PCB your component sizes will use imperial codes, your wire diameters will be in AWG, your track widths and PCB dimensions will be in millimetres, but your copper thicknesses will be in ounces despite the final weight for the assembly will be in grams.
Canada has a similar chart, with some fun modifications. For example, distance could be feet/inches, millimeters/meters/kilometers, or minutes/hours, depending on what you are measuring.
As an Indigenous Canadian … when someone asks me where something, someone, some town, some location, the sun or a celestial object is located … I turn my head and point with my lips.
And my distance measurements are usually answered first by asking ‘why?’ … and if they give an acceptable response, I’ll tell them the distance is either … ‘not far’ … ‘far’ … or ‘very far’
I’ve also learnt to point with my lips. It’s pretty handy.
I turn my head and point with my lips.
TIL that this is a thing in Indonesia.
I still have some doubts. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BeIUsyoAoLs
Thank you for posting this. So sick and tired of people saying that GB switched to Metric.
This! That stupid map that just shows the US and Burma always annoys me. The US customary system includes Metric units. Canada and England still use Imperial/Customary. And “Metric” Is actually like 5 different systems with similar features like ANSI/ISO, KMS/CGS, and the three different pressure measurements.
Natural units >>> Metric I want an alternative to Metric that uses base 12 units instead.
I want an alternative to Metric that uses base 12 units instead.
Right?! I have been saying that for years! It really pisses me off that we evolved with 5 digits on each hand instead of 6. It’s clear evidence against the the idea of intelligent design.
Cont on finger sections or knuckles, like some cultures do. Gives you 12 on one hand, using the thumb to count.
Or 16 if you choose your reference points right.
But we still have a number system where 10 is the sum of 5+5.
I want a number system where 10 is the sum of 6+6, and 12 is the sum of 7+7. A number system with two more single-digit numbers: one representing the sum of 6 and 4 as a single digit; and another representing the sum of 6 and 5. A system where 10*10 is 100, and 100 is the product of 6 * 2 * 6 * 2. A number system where 10 is evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
A metric system developed from that number system would be stunningly gorgeous.
I’m curious how you could make that work as it’s a basic contradiction. For 6+6 to equal 10 6 couldn’t equal itself which makes the entire premise invalid.
If you want more single digit numbers hexadecimal aka base 16 is even better than 12. But I can’t see how 10 can be evenly divided by all of 2,3,4,6 without being a multiple of the set.
I think they just mean base 12. So “10” isn’t ten, it’s 1 * 121 + 0 * 120; xyz is x * 122 + y * 121 + z * 120.
Like sixteen in hex is 10 (commonly written 0x10, to differentiate it from decimal 10)
Edit: oof, my client is trying to be clever with the mathematical writing and bungling it, I’ll try to fix… Hmm, hope that makes it better not worse
You mean base 12.
Of course. But I’m saying it in such a way that doesn’t require the use of numbers in a base that is the product of 2 and 5.
In any given number system, the base of that number system is 10.
your track widths and PCB dimensions will be in millimetres
Not milli-inches? Is this a UK thing or have PCB design evolve since I last touched it?
Anyway, milli-inches is one of the funniest unities I’ve used.
We call them thou.
Or mils
Dost thou indeed?
Beware he who thous the thou.
Yeah, thou is industry standard. Never heard of mili inches
You forgot that inside temperature is in Fahrenheit, outside is in Celcius.
No it isn’t, I rarely see fahrenheit in the UK
Old people who still remember old money
How old are you? Even my parents, both in their 70s, use Celcius for everything.
Bear in mind that the gallon we use is different from the US gallon, too:
- a UK gallon is eight (imperial) pints of 20 fluid ounces, so 4.54 litres
- a US gallon is 231 cubic inches, so 3.79 litres
The reason that I thought American car fuel economy was so terrible as a child is partly because UK mpg is +20% on US mpg for the same car on the same fuel. But also, because American car fuel economy is so terrible.
It’s weirder when you look at Canada vs USA. Mileage here is usually written L/100km, but back in the day the cars were exactly the same but the mileage in Canada was better because the the US gallon is only ~83% the size of a proper gallon.
Don’t forget that the UK fluid ounces are different (slightly smaller) than the US fluid ounces as well
20 UK fl oz = 19.21 US fl oz
Holy crap, that’s why craft beer tall cans are different from 16oz tall boys here in the states. I’d always wondered why the were 19.2.
Brits also think our gasoline is crappier because we use a different calculation for octane, (R+M)/2 instead of RON.
So 90 RON is actually 85.9 in the US. And in most of the country the minimum is 87 (R+M)/2.
93 Premium is like 98 RON. And race gas 100 is like 105 RON.
To be fair though, your petrol is still insanely cheap compared to the UK and Europe.
US freedom is made from cheap gas.
I thought it was the right to keep a bear’s forelegs
God status = blessed 🦅🇺🇲
Yes. Calculating how much a car journey is going to cost is such a chore. Trip in miles ÷ mpg × 4.5 × £/litre of fuel = cost.
I just assume I’ll do 45.45 MPG, then I’m pleasantly surprised when the fuel bill is lower than expected.
A similar chart could be made for the US, proving that it does use metric: soda and wine bottles, medicine doses, eye-glasses measurements (in fact most medical things).
I think that both systems are used in schools now.
But then I see cooking instructions for a “cup of chicken strips” and a recipe having 1/4 cup of butter, and I wonder why anyone thought that volume was a good idea there.
Butter comes in sticks that are 1/2 cup. So half a stick is 1/4 a cup
True, but that’s just replacing a cup with a length, and rules out using an existing tub.
Why not use weight, which is easy to measure and tolerant of different forms/shapes?
Butter in a tub usually isn’t pure butter as they add oil to it to make it spreadable when cold.
Recipes that call for butter are normally designed for true/pure butter and may not cook or bake properly if spreadable stuff is used. (there is however Amish rolled butter that’s sold in big ‘loaves’ where measuring can be annoying)
Unless you need to measure it in grams then it’s super simple!
Weight requires a scale. I don’t know a single American who has a scale in their kitchen.
This sounds like a catch-22 problem.
Maybe scales could be improvised, with a stick, some cups, and awkward-shaped chunks of chicken in one of the cups.
Or, we just use volumetric measurements, despite the slight variations they introduce when you cram pack flour into a cup instead of gently scooping the sifted. It’s a kitchen, not a laboratory or a factory.
My first example was “a cup of frozen chicken strips”.
I know I can make a guess how much they mean, but I could easily be off by a factor of 2.
It really wouldn’t be hard to have the weight listed.
If it’s medical, over 12%abv, or 2L of soda we use metric. Or related to spaceflight after the incident
But what if it is horse milk?
Cubic hands?
How about spherical feet?
Short distances should be meters, feet, inches, millimetres.
None of that fractions of an inch bollocks.
And milk is often actually in litres and half litres, we just assume it’s in pints. Clever little bit of shrinkflation.
Short distances should be meters, feet, inches, millimetres.
American machinists go a different way altogether: thousandths of an inch. So no binary fractions, but still imperial-ish. :/
And milk is often actually in litres and half litres, we just assume it’s in pints.
That one makes sense.
fractions of an inch bollocks
my condolences
The only part I disagree with is stone/pounds for people’s weight. Although we use stone, I’ve never heard someone use pounds… Maybe if you’re in Weight Watchers or something, but otherwise it’d be rounded to the nearest half a stone (e.g. 9 and a half stone)
Yeah, it’s common talking about babies birth weight but that’s about it.
I’m 14st 13lb. Nowhere near 15 stone.
It’s because we’re stuck with a bunch of twats who can’t let go of the past. They’ll stick with Imperial measurements, mostly because the word looks like “Imperialist” and that’s the side they want to be on. Jacob Rees-Mogg is a wrought-iron dildo.
According to this chart, goat milk is vegan 🤔
Goats are actually malevolent vegetables.
How about breast milk? It is neither cow milk, nor vegan milk…
Isn’t it vegan if it’s sourced by consent?
Presumed consent is not consent. We cannot assume it was consensually sourced.
Like the steak in the restaurant at the end of the universe?
Measure in ml if it’s outside, or g if it’s in the baby, I think.
Or cup size, if still in the source container.
Can you measure something like, D-C–cup milk since the total volume isn’t all milk?
Guesstimate based on the feel of it… I think a scientific study is warranted and I volunteer to help guesstimate.
All right, but we’re doing the study on rats as per usual and extrapolating to humans. Please turn up at the lab Monday 9am sharp.
There’s also a difference between imperial miles and nautical miles, though I’m not sure if British long distance ships use nautical miles or not.
Aviation uses nautical miles across the western world.
Since volume is equivalent to metres cubed and distance is equivalent to metres (both multiplied by some conversion coefficient), I think fuel efficiency should be measured in metres squared, because why not.
This is a correct unit for it. Why? Think of it like a tube where as you move along it you use up the fuel. Over a set distance you would use more in a lower efficiency vehicle. Since the length of that pipe is the same, then the change would be the area of the ends of the pipe. Thus fuel efficiency is an area, smaller is better.
I mean, you are correct in that there is an actual physical interpretation for it
(Yes, the “bird poop” one is correct, it does talk about fuel consumption too).
