Question for those outside of the USA - Measurements

[Assassin Xaero]

I've noticed a few different times where media outside of the US still use the term "foot" as a measurement. One example, in Yahtzee's book Jam, it says the city was covered in a three-foot layer of man-eating jam. Do they use "foot" and other standard (or whatever the hell our non-metric system is called) in other countries, or just use it for another reason in media?

 

[Melon Hunter]

Well, Britain occupies a weird region somewhere between metric and imperial. Although measuring things such as food weight on packaging is metric by law, we use miles to measure distances between towns and miles per hour for speed. While I much prefer the metric system, I generally find imperial works better for colloquial and conversational description. I don't know why, but 'three-foot layer of man-eating jam' sounds better than 'one-metre layer of man-eating jam' to me.

 

[aba1]

Canada still uses imperial measurements for some things but that is mostly because we trade with the US so much.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

We use all the things.

Kilos?

Pounds?

Fuck that, stone.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Of course we use imperial.

The most important measurement sounds better in inches. Case closed.

 

[IamQ]

Metric is the best, u alls' be noobin'

Captcha: FRUIT SALAD

Damn' straight

 

[almostgold]

I have a question for Europeans:

What measurements does your wood come in for shopwork? Here in the States some of our standard cuts are 2x2 (inches, but it is actually 1.5x3.5. Its cut at 2x4, then dried and sanded), 4x4, etc.

What does lumber come in overseas?

 

[Esotera]

In the UK we have a hybrid system and it's fucking horrible, I really wish the government would just push for full metric. Miles and pints irritate me the most, along with construction mostly using the old imperial system, which I don't understand nearly as well as the metric.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

We use all the things.

Kilos?

Pounds?

Fuck that, stone.

Stones are the worst units of measurement ever conceived.

Your mum is the worst unit of measurement every conceived

Yeah.

Now what'cha gonna do?

 

[hermes]

Metrics, all the way.

While I lived in US for a while, I eventually got used to all the alternative measures (although some are pretty counter-intuitive); but there was one I could never, ever, get used to: Fahrenheit. What kind of backward measure is that which sets the reference points at 32 and 212? Who measures something in 1/180th of an interval? I swear, after years, its bonkers to me...

 

[aba1]

We use all the things.

Kilos?

Pounds?

Fuck that, stone.

Stones are the worst units of measurement ever conceived.

Your mum is the worst unit of measurement every conceived

Yeah.

Now what'cha gonna do?

Woooooooooooooooo shit just got real!

 

[Batou667]

People-height is measured in feet and inches. Buildings and vehicles are measured in Metres.

Babies are weighed in pounds and ounces (as for why the goddamn mass of your sprog should be the first thing people enquire about, that's a rant for another time).

Adults are weighed in Stones. Just Stones, never Stones and Pounds (because that would be confusing). We tend to round up or down, or maybe use Half Stones.

If you're weighing something heavy, it might be a couple of Tons. Or is it Tonnes? They're pronounced the same so who the fuck knows!

Water and juice are sold in litres, but beer and milk comes in pints.

Our rulers are all in centimetres, but distance and speed are Miles and Miles per Hour.

Temperature is in Celcius, except in hot weather when meteorologists get to proudly announce that it's "100 degrees" - Fahrenheit, that is.

Welcome to Britain. We're fucking retarded.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

People-height is measured in feet and inches. Buildings and vehicles are measured in Metres.

Babies are weighed in pounds and ounces (as for why the goddamn mass of your sprog should be the first thing people enquire about, that's a rant for another time).

Adults are weighed in Stones. Just Stones, never Stones and Pounds (because that would be confusing). We tend to round up or down, or maybe use Half Stones.

If you're weighing something heavy, it might be a couple of Tons. Or is it Tonnes? They're pronounced the same so who the fuck knows!

Water and juice are sold in litres, but beer and milk comes in pints.

Our rulers are all in centimetres, but distance and speed are Miles and Miles per Hour.

Temperature is in Celcius, except in hot weather when meteorologists get to proudly announce that it's "100 degrees" - Fahrenheit, that is.

Welcome to Britain. We're fucking retarded.

The problem with tons and tonnes is that one is imperial and the other is metric and they aren't the same. A metric tonne is 1000kg. I looked up the imperial ton and it is 2240 pounds ('cos that's a sensible number).

Also, don't forget other units beloved of journalists: as long/tall as x double decker busses; As long/wide/area the size of x football/tennis pitches; and my personal favourite 'an area the size of wales'.

 

[Tiger King]

I have a question for Europeans:

What measurements does your wood come in for shopwork? Here in the States some of our standard cuts are 2x2 (inches, but it is actually 1.5x3.5. Its cut at 2x4, then dried and sanded), 4x4, etc.

What does lumber come in overseas?

a 2x4 is understood in my country but we tend to measure in cm

 

[Pinkamena]

Here in ol' Norway, we use Polar Bears as our standard unit of weight. It gets cumbersome.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

People-height is measured in feet and inches. Buildings and vehicles are measured in Metres.

Babies are weighed in pounds and ounces (as for why the goddamn mass of your sprog should be the first thing people enquire about, that's a rant for another time).

Adults are weighed in Stones. Just Stones, never Stones and Pounds (because that would be confusing). We tend to round up or down, or maybe use Half Stones.

If you're weighing something heavy, it might be a couple of Tons. Or is it Tonnes? They're pronounced the same so who the fuck knows!

Water and juice are sold in litres, but beer and milk comes in pints.

Our rulers are all in centimetres, but distance and speed are Miles and Miles per Hour.

Temperature is in Celcius, except in hot weather when meteorologists get to proudly announce that it's "100 degrees" - Fahrenheit, that is.

Welcome to Britain. We're fucking retarded.

The problem with tons and tonnes is that one is imperial and the other is metric and they aren't the same. A metric tonne is 1000kg. I looked up the imperial ton and it is 2240 pounds ('cos that's a sensible number).

Also, don't forget other units beloved of journalists: as long/tall as x double decker busses; As long/wide/area the size of x football/tennis pitches; and my personal favourite 'an area the size of wales'.

Yes, yes you are.
You should all just get metric.
The number 10 is not scary. Nor hard to calculate with.
Also, you produced Daystar.

[sub][sub]I jest, I jest, I simply could not resist and he is the only high-profile guy I have seen in here of which I know the origin[sub]
You also produced his mother[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Shodan1980]

I work in air traffic and its all over the place. Global altitude is measured in feet, unless you're in Russia, where its metres. Air pressure is measured in hectoPascales (used to be millibars, don't get me started) though if you're in America its inches of mercury (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?) And every nation has it's own altitude where you go from the local air pressure to the standard air pressure on the altimeter of 1013 mB (or 29.92 inches for the colonials) So many conversions.