The Measurement Thread

I live in England, where we seem to be stuck in this frustrating mix of metric and imperial measurement.

We use miles almost exclusively for long distances (no road signs have kilometres) but feet and meters interchangeably for anything shorter. Depending on who you’re speaking to, and it really doesn’t seem to an age or class thing (at least where I live), you have to adjust which you use because people tend to get a bit funny with you if you use the “wrong” one.

For example, when people buy tobacco the vast majority ask for it in imperial weight - even though the packaging is 100% metric. It’s a very odd combination of ways of measuring and must be even more confusing for the young’uns.

Don’t even get me started on what happens when you go from Northern Ireland to Southern Ireland - daftness.

It doesn’t really matter which you use but I wish they’d just pick one and run with it.

Dek Rollins said:

Have you ever seen a kitten? If you can’t remember how big they are, just look up a picture. 1 Kitten is the volume of a kitten.

Calico or lion?

Dek Rollins said:

Stinky-Dinkins said:

Dek Rollins said:

Stinky-Dinkins said:

How much is a kitten?

Have you ever seen a kitten?

Yeah sure, but trying to imagine its weight in cats is blowing my ass out.

I’m not sure why you’re trying to figure out a weight with a measurement of volume.

I’m not sure why you’re taking this answer seriously.

Mark’s Down On Your Syntax said:

I live in England, where we seem to be stuck in this frustrating mix of metric and imperial measurement.

We use miles almost exclusively for long distances (no road signs have kilometres) but feet and meters interchangeably for anything shorter. Depending on who you’re speaking to, and it really doesn’t seem to an age or class thing (at least where I live), you have to adjust which you use because people tend to get a bit funny with you if you use the “wrong” one.

For example, when people buy tobacco the vast majority ask for it in imperial weight - even though the packaging is 100% metric. It’s a very odd combination of ways of measuring and must be even more confusing for the young’uns.

Don’t even get me started on what happens when you go from Northern Ireland to Southern Ireland - daftness.

It doesn’t really matter which you use but I wish they’d just pick one and run with it.

It’s like this in Canada as well, though to a lesser degree. That’s mostly the fault of our stubborn neighbours to the south, however, who keep sending us stuff with non-metric measurements on it…(well, maybe not mostly–imperial units for measuring height and weight just seem to have stuck).

It’s your fault for buying those things!

TV’s Frink said:

It’s your fault for being Canadian!