When do Brits use Imperial and when do they use Metric?

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BeersTeddy@reddit

Both always both, mix them all the way along as much as you can.

Pint of beer or milk, but only a litre of juice.

Plasterboard 2400mm x 1200mm Plywood 8' x 4' (no, it's not the same as 2400 x 1200mm)

Timber 4" x 2" x 2400mm

Car Fill up in litres Drive in miles Fuel onsumption in......... miles per galon (UK galon, not US obviously)

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LionLucy@reddit

Both. Both in the same sentence. I'd definitely say "it's about six feet long and a centimetre wide" and everyone would understand.

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killer_by_design@reddit

Approximate in imperial, precise in metric.

"How bigs the bed?"

"Gotta be at least 5ft wide I reckon"

"Will the bed fit in the gap?"

"Yeah it's 1.5m wide"

This is the way.

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Norman_debris@reddit

Yes, metric has a scientific precision. Imperial is more colloquial.

It's also only a random subset of imperial units that are used. I'd never use fl oz, gallon, or lb.

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killer_by_design@reddit

Inches, feet and miles. Never furlong, or fathoms.

mL, L, pints, cups, spoons and gallons, never buttloads, fl Oz or quartz.

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PiercedGeek@reddit

never buttloads

I'm American but I use Metric Fuckton all the time

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What really confuses me about the US is that everyone is rabid about keeping imperial measurements and yet they use mm to measure their ammunition and the military use click as a measurement of distance, a click is a kilometre and definitely metric.

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NanaBananaFana@reddit

That’s because those are both military related terms. Only military uses metric (and science, because of military).

I am not a fan of Imperial, but I find it hilarious when Brits criticize the use of Imperial in the US. We got it from you! We are at least more consistent (not rabid, thank you very much:) rather than the confusing and inefficient salad of measurement units used daily by the Brits (stone, mph, liter of milk, pint of beer etc)

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StuartHunt@reddit

So only the military use 9mm ammunition?

That's BS

Because 45% of all small calibre ammunition sold in the US is 9mm.

9mm is also the ammunition of choice for mass shooters in the US.

Law enforcement ammunition of choice is the 9mm.

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PiercedGeek@reddit

*klick

Phoenix_Fireball@reddit

Unless it's over a short distance...

"It is a little known but true fact that a two legged creature can casually beat a four legged creature over a short distance, simply because of the time it takes the quadruped to get its legs sorted out.".

Quote courtesy of the great Sir Terry Pratchett.

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MostUnlikelyUserName@reddit

Tim Fitzhigham had a go on radio 4 a while back, link below.

To totally be that guy.... you're wrong!

That's 1hp on average, throughout a work-day.... or 15HP in a race!

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Uk-reddit-user@reddit

If it’s one horse, no matter how strong it is, it’s still one horse power.

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cheeseybees@reddit

... I wasn't saying "a racing horse is 15 Horse Power"... I was saying a horse at work can do up to 15 Horse Power

and 1 Horse Power is the average that you'd get throughout a day

"Although Watt may have "bent the truth" to make his engine more appealing, he was not lying. While it is true that the maximum output of a horse is around 15 horsepower, when you average the output of a horse over the course of a work day it ends up being around a horsepower. Watt defined this amount as "the amount of work required from a horse to pull 150 pounds out of a hole that was 220 feet deep"."

I get the joke/statement that 1 horse = the power of 1 horse... but Horsepower was a marketing term! Used to sell shit, and, like most marketing terms, reality doesn't really reflect the image they're selling you!

And Horses are measured in hands and feet, not even kidding.

Also there is a barleycorn, third of an inch, difference between UK foot sizes

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nehnehhaidou@reddit

Not furlong

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llynglas@reddit

But you would use pints at the pub.

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killer_by_design@reddit

Abso-fucking-lutely

Although, this is one place where I believe the Germans have is beat in the fact that they drink beer by the stein.

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fothergillfuckup@reddit

Cups? CUPS?.....

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Rarely but sometimes Imperial "feels like" it makes more sense.

A rugby ball is a lb. So a baby being 6lbs makes more sense to me than 2.72kg because that's like picking up a bag of rugby balls.

It's also how I know I couldn't drop kick a baby. You know, theoretically....

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BigBunneh@reddit

Yep, I could happily eat a pound of cheese, but a kilo? Not a chance.

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IronDuke365@reddit

You use cups? I thought that was only used when borrowing sugar from a neighbour.

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killer_by_design@reddit

Loads of times you'll open a recipe and it'll say a cup of X

I just use a mug. I'm a maverick, I cannot be contained

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foodie-verse73@reddit

Those are either old recipes or American ones. Depending of the food you kinda need to know which one because an imperial cup is not the same as a US cup. (Imperial is about 185ml; US is about 240ml.)

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IronDuke365@reddit

Ah, that's Americanisation for you. If a recipe calls for a cup, i bin it and find a new one.

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DazzlingClassic185@reddit

Except for when you’re working out your cars fuel usage… when we actually buy fuel in litres (for the non British readers!)

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CoffeeandaTwix@reddit

Yes, metric has a scientific precision. Imperial is more colloquial.

Nonsense. In modern times, many imperial measurements are defined by and calibrated by metric ones and so they are exactly the same but with a change of scale and no difference in precision.

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Norman_debris@reddit

Might be an age thing too. I'm sure my mum is the same, but for me it's all g and Kg, mL and L.

But we can all agree that a "cup" is a ridiculous measure.

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OddBoots@reddit

The switch to metric happened when my mother was a teenager. My mother and grandmother taught me how to cook and bake, so most of Nana's recipe books were in imperial, most of Mum's were in metric. I had to learn both and how to convert between the two. It was only briefly a problem. I get a lot of people not much younger than me who just can't manage the conversion, or have an inaccurate chart. A guy at my work Googles for conversions to metric every single time if he using an American recipe instead of taking the time to learn the basic formulae. Then he gets weird when I tell him the answer, he double checks it, and I'm right (wasting both of our time). I'm not sure why you asked if you were going to Google anyway.

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hayesian@reddit

You don't happen to have a copy of this accurate chart?

I'm one of those idiots that googles it every time.

IIRC it's 2.2lbs to 1kg but that's one only one I know (hopefully).

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OddBoots@reddit

This one is pretty good. https://millyskitchen.co.nz/blogs/how-to-101-guides/baking-conversion-chart-weighing-and-measuring

I have a terrible brain for actual maths but I'm good at pattern recognition, and this sort of nonsense. It's not a skill I've managed to monetise, unfortunately.

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hayesian@reddit

Nice one! I'm still trying to find my skill to monetize as well 😅

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joemktom@reddit

That's some very wet dough!

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BeccasBump@reddit

lb is for flour, possibly sugar, and babies.

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BeagleMadness@reddit

When I had my eldest kid in 2005, I was told he weighed 4lbs 0oz (he was early, first and last time ever 😂). Every week when he was weighed, they'd note how many ounces he'd put on and current weight in lbs/oz.

When my second and third kids were born in 2012 & 2016, everything was in grams/kilos. "Congrats, it's a boy! He's 3.16 kilos!" and every measurement thereafter was noted in grams. My older relatives would all be like "What's that in pounds and ounces?"

InterPunct@reddit

This makes a lot of sense to me as an American.

Imperial seems more natural and intuitive but I always assumed it was just my familiarity with it.

Metric is definitely more precise for measuring length but not for temperature. Sure, Fahrenheit is totally arbitrary and weird but if I want to know if the road's going to freeze tonight, the difference between 32°F and 33°F is more precise than 0°C and 1°C.

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bunnahabhain25@reddit

I hear Americans say that a lot about C vs F... it doesn't make a lot of practical difference though, given that the freezing and boiling point of water are on precise integers. Also you can allow a decimal point and increase your accuracy tenfold, if you really must.

Not making the argument for C, per se, just observing that the argument I always hear for F doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

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Mashaka@reddit

American who lived in Europe for a few months. I think both systems are just fine. Under 18 C is cool, under 10 cold. 25 is warm and the 30s are too fucking hot. Drive careful below 1c or 34f. Anything lower or higher doesn't mean much.

My only complaint is that converting between C and F occupies a terrible space where you can do it in your head, but it's really annoying.

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ALittleNightMusing@reddit

Here's a handy shortcut: C to F: double it and add 30.

F to C: subtract 30 and halve it.

It's not exact, but it's near enough.

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Mysterious-Eye-8103@reddit

Double it and add 30 if it's around 10C, 29 if it's around 15C, 28 if it's around 20C, and so on. That always gets you accurate to the nearest degree. Trickier to remember but didn't take long if you use it.

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Mashaka@reddit

Huh, good call. I guess I don't need to treat it like a middle school science test question where the 'right' answer is specific.

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saltyholty@reddit

That's not what they mean by using metric for precision. It's nothing to do with the size of one unit, you can split a unit if you need to, it's just a cultural thing in the uk.

"How big is 6 feet?"

"I'm 6 foot tall.."

"ok.. How big is that in cm?"

"why? What are you looking at?"

"It's this thing... it says it's available in 1800mm or 2000mm..."

"Oh... You want the 2000mm one."

"Why don't they do it in feet and inches?"

Feet and inches are strictly for how tall someone or something is. Or how high up you are if you've climbed a tree. Every length is metric unless you're navigating a journey, in which case it's miles.

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squashInAPintGlass@reddit

My opinion (worthless) is that no one would give a distance in 450ft as there are plenty of other divisions of a mile before you get to feet. So, 450' is 150 yards. Then there's 22 yards (or 4 rods) in a chain, 10 chains to a furlong. A furlong being the distance and ox could pull a plough before resting. And that leads to measures of area; a chain by a furlong is an acre; 640 acres to the square mile. And yet an acre isn't a "square" measurement, as you will have realised, it's ten times as long as it's wide .

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B8eman@reddit

Honestly don’t know why computers refuse to use yards at hundreds of feet

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Sea-Situation7495@reddit

But I don't want it to say 150 yards to the junction, anymore than I want it to say 450 feet. I want 150m from the junction, but 10miles to my desination.

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alphahydra@reddit

Yes! It irritates me no end that I can't set long distance units to imperial and shorter units to metric.

I realise mixing them is weird, but enough people seem to do so that it really would be a great quality of life option for British users.

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90210fred@reddit

Generally, I'm happy to mix and match, know height and weight in both. Not problems. BUT Imperial is fractions, metric is decimal. If you convert 7/16ths of an inch into 0.?? I'll scream and scream

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Key-Nectarine-7894@reddit

There are no rules about this. Everyone should be using Metric 100% of the time now. The reason they don’t is because the Governments were incompetent and Margaret Thatcher abolished The Metrication Board.

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BlazedLad98@reddit

Just use both whenever really was never taught why just what

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Bertybassett99@reddit

Brits who live in the UK of a certain age dont understand metric. Brits who live in the UK of a certain age dont understand imperial.

Eventually all Brits will only understand metric. The older ones tend tonise imperial more. The young ones use metric. The transistion ones, like myself use both.

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GoGoRoloPolo@reddit

What age do you reckon the transition ones are? I'm 35 and would say I'm a transitional one - and I'm mostly good at inches because I worked in photo printing with all the 6x4s, 8x10s, etc. but prefer measuring most things in metric.

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Bertybassett99@reddit

I grew up with metric in the classroom. But my parents were firmly imperial and I work in construction which is steeped in imperial.

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wosmo@reddit

I think the "transition" is just really difficult to define.

State schools have been required to use metric as the primary system since 1974. So someone born in 1964 (eg, someone 60 this year) did their entire secondary school & O-levels in metric. Those born in the 70s and onwards did their entire primary education in metric.

The fact that you still consider yourself transitional 25 years later shows just how much a mess we've made of this.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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Constant-Piano-6123@reddit

This pretty much sums it up. (It’s a shit show)

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solve_et_coagula13@reddit

Railways use miles and chains. A chain is 22yds. 80 chain in a mile. Also mix up metric and imperial for everything just to keep everyone on their toes.

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OrganizationLower611@reddit

The younger the generation, the more they lean to metric.

well in their defense the english language is kind of a lot of languages

there's old english and norman french and church latin and more french and scholarly greek and cockney slang and americanisms and names of curries, in that order

so unless you have something better than chutney, I don't see why they'd want to learn

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ThemBadBeats@reddit

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Mootpoint_691@reddit

Boring human here brought up with both imperial and metric. A UK gallon is 4.4 litres ( American gallon is 3.8 litres ).

A metre is 39 inches, so 3’ 3” or a yard & 3 inches.

I can still hang wallpaper using a plumbline ( grandad taught me that one).

My favourite is electric cars that have kWh per mile or watt hours per mile.

It's a complete jumble.

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HomeworkInevitable99@reddit

In the late 1960s we were all taught everything in metric, including the odd ones (kilometre, hectometre, decametre, metre, decimetre, centimetre, and millimetre).

The country was going decimal!

But only the currency was decimalised.

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JeromeKB@reddit

In the mid seventies our headmaster told us, the government say I have to teach you metric, but it won't all be metric for years yet so I'm also going to teach you imperial as well, so you can cope til then.

He was a wise man, and I'm still grateful!

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think_im_a_bot@reddit

In the 80s they said that imperial will be dead by the time I grow up, so we're refusing to teach you old units or conversions on principle.

They also said I wouldn't carry a calculator (never mind Google) everywhere I go. I. Grateful they were wrong on that because I still can't work imperial.

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nasted@reddit

I gained two stone during lockdown but then lost 6kg in 2021. I no longer know how much I weigh.

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Srapture@reddit

I switched to kg for weight a while back and no longer intuitively know my rough weight in stone. I hadn't weighed myself in a while; when I finally did, it was kg but I weighed more so I didn't have a common frame of reference.

People weigh themselves in stone or lbs unless they are massively into their weight for sporting reasons and could say KG's!

Weight Stone and Pounds (person for example) unless its heavy then tonnes (1000kg)

Distance Miles

Measurements mm or m (cm if you are at school) sometimes inches

Height Feet and inches

Volume liquid usually litres unless it's milk or beer then pints

Temperature degrees Celcius until it gets hot 20+ then Fahrenheit usually

Speed (car) miles per hour

Velocity metres per second

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hook-happy@reddit

Honestly, whenever we like. There’s no logic. Don’t try to understand. You’ll end up with a headache.

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YangtzeRiverDolphin@reddit

I occasionally say miles when I think the other person won’t understand the distance in kilometres. Everything else in metric always. Once walked out of a hairdressers when I asked for 2cm off and they told me they only work in inches.

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gothic_they@reddit

Ahhh yes, this is seriously what grinds my gears.

I use imperial for speed in mph and distance in miles. Anything different I use metric.

I think it’s somewhat a generational thing. I’m a millennial and I’ve noticed the generations older than me use imperial versus mine and younger who tend to use metric.

The only universally agreed on measurements I can think of are imperial for distance (miles) and drink measurements (pints). I don’t know any Brit who uses kilometres or centilitres.

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StevieGe123@reddit

Also an age thing. I (65) was taught in imperial up to about 1971. Most screws, woods, doors pipes etc were in imperial up to a fair bit later. My daughter (26) was only taught metric in school and all significant measures (beer excepted) have been in metric for all her life. Having said that, she would probably still refer to people's heights in imperial. No one would say someone was 183cm tall, always 6 foot.

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Mop_Jockey@reddit

It's kind of arbitrary but generally a lot of people still use imperial measures for body height and weight. Worth noting for body weight we also use stone not just pounds.

Miles and yards are also widely used for distance as are miles per gallon although fuel is sold by the litre.

Milk is often sold by the pint but the metric volume must also be displayed and if you buy a beer in a pub it'll be in a pint glass which is 568ml.

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Srapture@reddit

I hate the MPG/litre situation.

"The car is doing 50 miles per gallon and I have a quarter tank left which is 15L so that means I... Uh... A pints is 568ml so... Ah, fuck it. Fingers crossed!"

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Taiyella@reddit

I've never heard anyone in the UK weigh themselves and say I'm 220 lbs unless it's a baby

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Mop_Jockey@reddit

Me either that's why I said

Worth noting for body weight we also use stone not just pounds.

Scientific stuff: metric

Baking: both

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mostlymildlyconfused@reddit

What the hell is a cup size anyway if we’re not discussing bras?

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SojournerInThisVale@reddit

those are American measurements

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elmothelmo@reddit

How much do you lift bro? "100kg".. wow, how much do you weigh? 10 stone 5lbs.

Me: what lengths of 50mm x 100mm do you stock

Him: Oh, you mean 4" x 2"?

Me: Yes

Him: We have 1.2m, 2.4m, 3.6m, and 4.8m lengths of 4" x 2"

Another instance, I was talking to a builder friend about a fence I needed to put up, I asked how big I needed to dig the holes for the fence posts? He tells me 2ft deep, 30cm x 30cm

When baking I have used recipes that have weights in metric/grams, and liquids in imperial/pints. Where this can get difficult is trying to guess whether the teaspoons/table spoons are imperial or metric. The difference isn't huge, but when making something like bread it can have a big difference in the final outcome.

Often people tell me their height in feet and inches, but their weight in kilogrammes

Distance? Metric if short. Imperial if long.

Fuel? We buy it in litres but measure our vehicle efficiency in MPG.

Milk? Imperial unless its Oat Milk, then it's Metric

Height? Feet and Inches

Weight? Anything, depends on age

Often:

Imperial for gross measurements.

Metric for fine measurements.

Also varies by application:

Timber in Imperial

Mechanical items in metric because they invariably are now.

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Flat_Fault_7802@reddit

The old Tallywacker is still measured in Inches. A 225 millimeter dosent sound the same.

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Idontwantarandomised@reddit

You use imperial casually, since everyone knows how big a foot is, and then metric when you need to be precise. It's why the government said 6ft for social distancing in lockdown. It doesn't need to be bang on 2 meters, and everyone knows roughly how long 6 ft is

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TrinityTosser@reddit

We run in kilometres as it sounds we've done more: 10km rather than 6 miles for example.

It's sold in widths of 1.143m .... which is an Ell ...

the building trade do the same, they use metric, but it all really imperial underneath

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cowplum@reddit

Bloody 'ell!

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Declaron@reddit

500 yards down the road is a petrol station selling petrol at £1.35 a litre, which is a pretty good price as a full tank in my car would cost £50 and I get 55 miles to the gallon so that would do me for work and back for the week and my Sunday morning drive down to the park for the weekly 10 kilometer run. After my run I tend to weigh myself, currently 11 stone 5 lbs which is good, I lost over 10kg in the last month so I'm on track to fit into my 32 inch waist jeans. Sometimes my daughter comes with me, she's growing up fast, we measured her height on the doorframe at 5ft the other week, it was only then I realised we don't have standard 2 meter doors in our house. Anyway I then tend to drink at least 1.5 litres of water to rehydrate before heading down the pub for a couple of pints.

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JasterBobaMereel@reddit

Officially Metric, Except for distance in Miles, Speed in MPH, Draft beer in Pints, Shoe sizes in Barleycorns (as as they are in the USA)
..and a few little used archaic measures

I only tend to use these imperial measurements; Pints - When buying drinks in pubs/bars/restaurants. Miles - Driven distances. Miles per gallon - Car fuel mileage. Feet & inches - People's height.

Everything else is metric.

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BFastBtch@reddit

Stone and pounds for body weight, grams for cooking.

Feet and inches for height. Metres for distance under a mile, then miles.

I cook in grams, unless it is a recipe i know by heart and they are in ozs because 4,8,8,8,8 is easier to remember than 4,200,200,200,200. The numbers are just smaller 42 is easier maths than 425. And if i have 250 grams of butter i need 500 grams of flour, 6 butter 12 flour, is just easier.

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Kei_cars_are_my_jam@reddit

We buy petrol by the litre, and then burn it by the gallon.

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InterestingPie1592@reddit

Children aren’t taught imperial at school, however older generations still remember it and so there’s a bit of a mix and match going on.

Most people know general sizes I.e penis sizes and height but not a lot of people could explain smaller imperial sizes like 3/8 etc

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Kindlydestroyed@reddit

Miles and pints. That’s all I need.

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Dizmondmon@reddit

I tried getting used to litres per 100 kilometres for fuel economy for a week, out of interest. I struggled and went back to mpg, I think because I had no ingrained frame of reference.

I just checked the conversion for 30 and 40 mpg reasoning if I can commit these to memory, I might do better next time. So 30mpg is 7.8l/100km and 40 mpg is 5.88l/100km. Of course, I walked into the US / imperial gallon trap and have now committed the wrong units to memory which will probably cause my demise in a future crisis.

Of course it's not an inverse linear relationship either so 50mpg (us) isn't going to be 3.8l/100km, but 4.7l/100km.

OK.. Imperial gallons.. Any notable and easy to remember points of reference to convert easily in my head? And I'll need more than two to indicate the "inverse non-linear relationship".. Right!

35mpg is 8l/100km. (8 litres, not 81) 40mpg is 7l/100km. (7 litres, not 71) 45mpg is 6.3l/100km (6.3 litres, not 6.31, but if it was, it would be ok in the grand scheme of things.

So all we need to remember is is the above paragraph and figures in a simple mnemonic. Something along the five tomatoes (52art0) rule.

No need to thank me.

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It gets a bit surreal buying things, jam still comes in imperial sizes, but is labelled in metric.

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ChangingMonkfish@reddit

Driving is my favourite:

Speed: Miles per hour
Distance: Miles for long distances but generally metres for shorter distances
Fuel: Priced in litres
Fuel economy: Miles per gallon
Tyre pressure: probably most normal to use PSI but it depends on the car whether the correct one is given in psi or KPa (sometimes both)

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I'm in my mid fifties and only use miles when driving (because that's what my car uses and whats on signs) and pints at a bar. Everything else is metric.

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D4M4nD3m@reddit

We just use both really. Although, roads are always in miles, height in feet and inches, beer and milk in pints.

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PigHillJimster@reddit

I'm just over 50, and an Electronic Engineer and design PCBs. Like the rest of my year-group, and subsequent years, we were all taught metric from Primary School right up to and including Secondary School and University. Particulary in Science and Technology subjects.

My first job on graduating was for a PCB Fabricator in 1995 and I was quite surprised to find imperial measurements used in this area. Distances and sizes of features were given in thousandths of an inch (or as the Americans say "MIL") and the thickness of copper plating was given in ounces! Yes, copper thickness was described for the weight of copper on a 1 foot by 1 foot square piece of PCB laminate, so usually 1/2 oz, 1 oz, or 2 oz.

The PCB CAD Design systems could handle both sets of units but typically defaulted to imperial and thou.

This was largely driven by the US and the early PCB Production equipment.

The board dimensions, size of drill holes, and dimensions to drill holes however were, for 90% of designs, in metric millimetres.

This was because the drawings for the profile and fixing holes, and the enclosures, were all designed by Mechanical Engineers that used metric.

The CAM software we used was quite happy accepting and using both sets of units. UK

UK customers used imperial and thou for the PCB design data and metric for the profile and drill data.

US customers used imperial and thou for everything.

Japanese and other EU based companies used metric for everything.

These days I use metric for everything and convert freely in my head. 0.1" = 2.54 mm, and the values 1.27, 2.54, 5.08, 6.35, 7.62, 10.08 are used quite often for connector pitches, leg pitches etc. Surface Mount components have a mixture of pitch sizes but most complex ones these days are on a metric pitch or grid.

For passive chip components I use the names 1206, 0805, 0603, 0402 but I can't "visualise" the corrisponding imperial dimension in my head but remember the metric sizes just as easily 3216, 2012, 1608, 1005, and and "see" the size in my head from there. These names are another example where the Japanese originally set the standard with the metric sizes but the Americans corrupted them into imperial sizes, and oddly, the imperial size names have become more standard worldwide.

I only use miles when I am driving because that's what the road signs say. I use km and metres when I am running or doing sport.

I use metric everywhere else in everyday life.

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Dogsbellybutton@reddit

Not sure you are the average Brit here but we allow your answer.

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PigHillJimster@reddit

There's no such thing as an average Brit where this is concerned. People of my father's generation still use inches, foot, yard for length, and ounces, pounds, for weight.

People of my generation are a bit of a mixed bag. We were all taught exclusively metric at school.

Any exposure to imperial was out of school, such as when your parents measured and weighed you. Some may have gone into jobs where imperial measurements may be still used because the old hands still hung on to those measurements, or it's the practice.

I have found places like Dunlm Mill sell by the nearest whole metre when you want to buy something they need to measure.

If you want something from a supermarket counter that's sold by weight it doesn't matter if you ask for it in grams or ounces, they'll just weigh out what you want as the scales display both.

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Vectis01983@reddit

Nothing to do with generations.

Anyone who drives, young or old, uses imperial. All road signs are in miles or yards. All speed limits etc are in miles per hour. Petrol or diesel consumption is measured in miles per gallon.

Try going into a pub and, whatever your age, ordering a half litre of beer. No-one's going to know what you're on about. Young or old, we all order in pints.

So, nothing to do with your 'father's generation', we all do it. And why not? We all understand it.

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PigHillJimster@reddit

I wasn't saying that younger generations don't use imperial. I said they are not taught them at school. They learn metric at school. They pick up the bits of imperial that they do use from exposure outside of school - like road signs.

And most of us don't have any real idea of how they all fit together and relate to each other without looking it up.

As to miles on road signs, yes, the younger generation see the signs, and the miles-per-hour in their car, they learn to judge speed and distance using miles, they may also measure things for work in inches, however, very few of them would be able to relate inches to yards, and yards to miles.

If you were to ask them how many inches in a yard, what a yard was, and how many yards there were in a mile, few would be able to give you an answer, whereas if you asked them to relate millimetres to centimetres, to metres, to kilometres you'd get a much larger response.

Likewise with miles per gallon. Someone who's 20 to 55 can tell you their car and driving gives 55 miles per gallon, and they may know how many gallons their tank holds, and go into a pub an order a pint of beer, but few could you how many fluid ounces there were in a pint, or gallon.

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

Think it can be generational though. I know some younger people struggle with imperial. But if born before the turn of last century, you can ready reckon both.

Imperial does seem to be used for less exact measurements esp around food, driving and height.

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byjimini@reddit

You always know when snow or rain are serious because they switch to imperial measurements.

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CCFC1998@reddit

We use a confusing mix of both

Officially we use metric however:

We use miles for distances unless you're running or cycling then it's km - all speed limits are mph

We use pints for beer and milk, but everything else is litres. Extra confusingly we buy petrol/ diesel in litres but measure the fuel economy of our cars in miles per gallon

We measure the height of people in ft and inches and the weight of people in stone and pounds, but all other heights/ weights are measured in metres/ cm/ kg

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bx14twypt@reddit

I fill my car with fuel in litres but it's economy is measured in miles per gallon

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CalligrapherShort121@reddit

Metric to confuse the wife.

Imperial to annoy anyone who still bangs on about the EU after 8 years.

Seriously. What you have is the result of a relatively recent change. An older generation brought up on imperial and a younger one with metric. Add to that the mix of old measures that have remained in use - miles, pints, is it any wonder you find people using/mixing both.

Nearly all metric except a few cultural things- miles per gallon and pints of beer.

Shows that measuring is just cultural- hence the absurdity of the US and Myanmar using Imperial for measuring.

All you have to do is get used to get over doing 'rough' measuring- eg next town is a about 5k instead of ' a couple of miles' and it's easy.

There'd be some dumb idiots saying ' they've stolen our pints' for about a year then that would disappear like it did with currency.

Eg.

What's £1, 12s and 6p and three farthings minus 10s and tuppence 'hapenny.

Ridiculous.

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KatVanWall@reddit

I’m a Brit born in 1979 and taught in metric, and I still feel bilingual in both. Distances are in miles because that’s what’s on the road signs; when I’m running I might use km, and everyone knows how long a 5k and 10k are, but equally they might be in miles if I’m doing a round number like 5 miles or even 2 miles. Shorter distances are in metres - I can’t get on with yards at all even though I know they are sometimes on road signs (temporary signs are also often in metres though, like ‘roadworks 100 m’!).

I’m definitely more used to my weight in stones and pounds, probably because my parents always weighed me in them, but I equally know my weight in kg because doctors. Up until about 5 years ago I’d probably have given stones and pounds first, but now it’s kg first.

Height tends to be in feet and inches, but I also know my height in cm and measure my child in cm because that’s what her car seat guidelines require! (She can lose the seat back when she’s 22 kg or 135 cm.) It sounds weird if giving your height and weight to mix metric and imperial in the same sentence, so I’ve recently started giving my height in cm as well as weight in kg just to ‘match’ lol.

When I’m measuring for DIY I use metric because it’s more precise, but when I’m picturing something like a length of timber or size of gap in my head, I’ll be thinking in feet or inches despite never having officially learned them. Probably because it’s easier to approximate inches, whereas the greater number of cm involved doesn’t lend itself so well to rough estimates.

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Crivens999@reddit

We mix and match depending on how old we are. Only old people for example use Fahrenheit. That and newspapers when it’s hot as it looks hotter

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IcyPuffin@reddit

We can use both separately or jumbled together, pretty much - for example we refer to the imperial miles if we are talking about distance between two towns. Distance between a shop and a garage down the street? That's in meters (although can be yards too).

Buying a bottle of juice? That will be litres. Buying a bottle of milk - that can either be pints or litres (but the pint/litre equivalent is always stated). Go to a bar for some beer? That will be a pint.

Rather than completely adopt the metric which was introduced all those years ago we seem to have just adopted it alongside imperial rather than do as intended and replaced imperial.

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DanielReddit26@reddit

There was a metre gap at the bar, so I shuffled my 6ft1 frame in there and ordered a pint and a 25ml shot of rum. I deserved it because I had just driven 10miles to do a 5k and hurt my foot. I got a decent time for someone who weighs 18 stone - more if I'm holding a kg of pasta as I weigh myself.

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General conversation I'll use both, or any other system I might make up at the time. Eg.

"It's 5ft, give or take a couple cm. About the size of a long broom".

Going to a pub and asking for 500ml or half a litre instead of a pint.

Metric is good and I'll be fucked if I'm using 1/8ths of an inch instead of mm to measure stuff but imperial is just much more emotive.

Metric when using your head. Imperial when using your heart

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Daydreamer-64@reddit

It’s completely interchangeable. Generally whichever one has a simpler answer (e.g. roughly 2 inches rather than roughly 5cm because it’s easier to picture).

PaleOnion6177@reddit

Both usually, it happens a lot when I'm shopping for fabric, I will buy for example, 3 metres of 60 inch wide fabric

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Fyonella@reddit

To some degree it depends on the age of the Brit as to how bilingual we are with measurements. I grew up with imperial and can still visualise inches, feet & yards better than I can centimetres and metres etc. But I’ll use either interchangeably as the situation dictates.

Similarly, I have many, many recipes committed to memory. Some are in ounces in my brain, and some are in grams. Some of the ounces ones I’m happy converting to grams as I go, others I leave in ounces because the tiny differences between 28.3g equals an ounce and the standard 25g conversion does actually change outcomes.

Temperature - grew up with Fahrenheit and Centigrade (now Celsius) and work pretty much interchangeably on that to this day. I immediately know what the weather is like no matter which is given.

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Academic_Visual116@reddit

To further confuse matters, everyone I know of my age group use Centigrade AND Fahrenheit for temperature depending on whether it's cold or hot they ate talking about.

Last winter temperatures dropped to -5 at one point, this summer we had a few days in the 80s ...

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mittfh@reddit

Temperatures are fun. We'll typically use Celsius, but when we have a rare warm period (over 20°C), the tabloid newspapers will suddenly remember Daniel Fahrenheit.

Then there's mass. 1 oz == 28.349523g, but recipe books will usually approximate to 1 oz = 25g, so depending on how your scales are calibrated, they could be up to 13.4% different - hence for best results, stick to one set of units for a recipe, don't mix 'n' match.

For human weight, we have an additional imperial unit, the stone, which is equivalent to fourteen pounds.

Talking of pounds, the pound currency was originally a Tower Pound (5,400 grains or 349.91 grams) of sterling silver. The symbol £ derives from a L in the Blackletter typeface as an abbreviation of the Latin Libre pondo (pound weight) - which also gives us the lb symbol for the weight of other things.

Oh, and pure silver currently sells for £0.68/gram, so if we'd kept to the original definition, a pound would be worth £237.94...

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PodcastPlusOne_James@reddit

There are literally no rules to when or why. We understand both so we just use both randomly

I’m sure it’s incredibly confusing and frustrating to non Brits. On some level, I’m sure that’s why we do it.

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PassiveTheme@reddit

I use imperial for my height, but vary between imperial (fully imperial as in stones, not just pounds) and metric for my weight. British road signs are all in imperial units, but the "yards" on British road signs are actually metres, and height and weight restrictions are sometimes given in both (or maybe sometimes metric only). In terms of lengths of something, that depends what's easier - is it about 2 cm-ish? Then I'll probably say "an inch". If it's roughly 30 cm, I'll say "a foot". But I'd probably say "10 cm" instead of "4 inches".

There's no real logic to it, and sometimes it depends on who I'm talking to. With my grandparents, I always gave everything in imperial because I knew they understood that better. With people younger than me, I'll generally go with metric because that's what we get taught in schools so they're more familiar with that. The fact is I think in both and casually convert (very roughly) between them with relative ease.

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MyNewAccountx3@reddit

I can figure most things out metric and imperial to some degree but say something is a couple of yards, I crumble! No idea why but yards is the one measure I do not understand.

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ferdinandsalzberg@reddit

I always just convert yards to metres at 1:1

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sookiw@reddit

I learned SI units in school from the late '60s onwards but happily mix and convert in my head. 8 foot of 38x50mm timber (or 2.4m) depending on the weather 😂

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mittfh@reddit

The extra fun is that the "feet" used for timber and paving slabs will usually be the oxymoronic "metric feet" where 1ft = 0.3m rather than 0.304m. It may not sound much, but the accurate conversions are 6ft = 1.8288m (so the metric foot of 1.80m is over 1" shorter) and 8ft = 2.4384m (1.5" shorter).

Similarly, paving slabs will typically be sized in multiples of 300mm.

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JeromeKB@reddit

Which is an absolute bugger when you're doing work on a house built in imperial, and you really, really need that 8ft length of wood!

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Another_Random_Chap@reddit

I was at school during the supposed switch-over, so I started with Imperial, then they tried to teach us Metric, even though no-one outside the school ever used it. The result is I mostly think in imperial, and I can convert small everyday values back & forth reasonably well. But ask me what I weigh in kilos or how tall I am in centimetres and I'd have to look it up. But the strangest one for me is temperatures - I think of cold in Centigrade and hot in Fahrenheit. So if it's around freezing then that's zero, and if you tell me it's anywhere between -10C to +10C then I know what to expect. But tell me it's 27C and I have to convert it to 80F to work out how hot it is. Equally, tell me it's 42F and I really have to think about it.

And to an extent I think a lot of people, particular older generations like myself, suffer from similar. But then we still have milk and beer in pints, distances and speeds in miles, jam jars are 454g because that's the metric equivalent of a Pound etc, and there's no real sign of standardisation on the horizon.

https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/YouGov_-_Metric_vs_imperial.pdf

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vms-crot@reddit

So you know how you can listen to a foreign speaker and they'll just drop in a sentence in English then switch back to their native tongue or vice versa?

Zippy-do-dar@reddit

Aerospace we still use both sometime on the same part - metric internals with imperial threads as fittings

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Dio55@reddit

I was taught metric cooking and distance and height at school but taught to cook by my mother who knew imperial And then to confuse matters further I worked on a deli and had to learn both and the conversions

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rezonansmagnetyczny@reddit

Effectively we've just got a greater pool of words we can use to describe measurements. Most things are done in metric, but we use imperial when imperial is easier to say.

Depends what I'm doing but I usually use Imperial for most things like height, weight, cooking, baking, distance etc

I tend to only use the metric if someone struggles with Imperial measurements

I'm 33 but was brought up in a rural area where Imperial still reigns

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MonkeyHamlet@reddit

Good luck.

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PleasantMongoose5127@reddit

I buy aluminium and the diameters are imperial and I specify length in metric.

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tradandtea123@reddit

Confusingly. Usually with small measurements if it's a vague estimate or guess someone might say about 2 inches. If you were actually measuring something properly such as a small hole that needs to fit something in it would be more common to use cm or mm. Most people can measure 10 or 14cm but getting precise measurements, use inches involving eights of an inch and people would be a bit lost.

We still use miles but I'm not sure many people have a clue how many yards are in a mile. People use pints but definitely don't know how many fluid ounces are in one, I'd never even heard of a fluid ounce until my wife had a baby and was expressing milk in fluid ounces.

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wasdice@reddit

In casual conversation, you use either of both and switch between them without thinking about it. Similar to how you would use a Maori placename without stumbling over the pronunciation - it's familiar, ordinary, unremarkable. To our eyes though, it seems odd that a place called Birchfield could be just down the road from Waimangaroa.

Schools started teaching metric in the late 60s and the majority of industries switched over in the 70s. We also decimalised the currency in 1973, so for a while people felt like everything was changing incredibly fast and there was a fair amount of pushback. Weights and measures in retail didn't completely change until 2000(!)

Some oddities are that roadsigns and speed limits are all in miles. Temperatures (weather and cooking) are given in both °C and °F; people completely ignore the one they don't use. At the pub, you drink beer by the pint and everything else by the millilitre.

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