This was posted to another site:


I had an interesting conversation with some friends yesterday (in the
UK), they were trying to work out how many pounds in one stone, and
ounces in one pound, and could not agree or come to a definite
conclusion. One said she could understand weights in stones or
kilograms, but not to convert between stones and pounds. Another said
her baby weighs 12.5 kg, she did not know it in imperial. She also said
it was strange that in the UK birth weights are given in pounds and then
people are always weighed in kg after that. She works as a nurse. The
other friend said that it was a real muddle in this country having some
weights in one system, some in another. Next time she says things like
that I shall give her one of the UKMA leaflets or a link to the site for
her to look at.

I wonder how many people in the UK (and in the USA) have the same problems, in not
really understanding imperial units but just repeating what they heard,
such as a person weighed so many stones, etc.

--
DK



And a response from another poster:


I am in the UK. I can quote my approximate weight in stones (I only ever use
half stone resolution) and in kg (I use 5 kg and 1 kg resolution). I never
convert between the two. It is possible that the two values that I can quote
are actually different weights. I never quote my weight in pounds and have
no feeling for weights described like that.


--
TS

Which other site was it posted to?

Ask any Briton in the street how much they weigh. I bet you nine out of ten say it in stones and pounds. In fact, I would bet that if asked if they knew it in kilogrammes, at least 3 in 4 (probably a higher fraction) would be stumped.

harsh reality time..... October 19 2004, 8:20 AM


Ask any Briton in the street how much they weigh. I bet you nine out of ten say it in stones and pounds. In fact, I would bet that if asked if they knew it in kilogrammes, at least 3 in 4 (probably a higher fraction) would be stumped.



But will the answer be a correct answer or a guess? The whole point of the posting was that people who quote their weight in imperial just parrot imperial terms with no clue as to what they really mean. You haven't proven that these people actually understand what they pretend to use, just that they use it, and I'd bet mostly out of habit.

I would doubt very few would be stumped by kilograms. They all learned it in school and it is the units used in the medical industry.

Sat in my doctor's office today and was surprised to see a British magazine lying amongst the usual suspects. (I think the name was something like "Somerfield".)

Anyway, I leafed through it (summer issue of this year) just to see what the metric presence was. Turns out that all the recipes are given in dual format (metric followed by Imperial in parentheses) for amounts you measure yourself; for pre-packaged products you use in the recipes everything is in metric (no surprise there since the packages are labelled exclusively in metric). Oven temperatures are given in both Celsius (first) and Fahrenheit (but no parentheses around the Fahrenheit number). One of the adverts from Kraft was even better: dimensions (size of squares to cut the final baked product into) was given in metric (cm) but the amount of the Kraft product to pour into the batter was given in Imperial (fluid ounces).

Frankly, I don't know how they keep their heads on straight over there. You'd think by now most of them would be fed up with this and be more than ready to finish metrication once and for all. Go figure ...

Cheers,

--
ES


It seems if the UK people prefer to use imperial, the magazines would reflect it and never use metric. But the way the measurements appear in the media is a pretty good reflection of what the people on the street use.

I genuinely think that most people (outside of our community of metrologists and those with an interest in it), exluding those on a diet plan, only know their weights, and even heights, approximately. I only ever guess my weight to the nearest half stone because I actually don't know my weight (as I only measure it periodically, and it is always changing a little).

P.S. Not stumped by kilos? Then go out onto the British streets and find out for yourself. I dare you.

Carlyle, you still haven't answered the question in the first response on this thread.

I suspect you'll never get an answer, Bud.

---

"Next time she says things like
that I shall give her one of the UKMA leaflets or a link to the site for
her to look at.
"

HA! Carly up to his old tricks again! Since when would the avg Brit know about the UKMA group? It's practically unheard of here in the UK!!

"But the way the measurements appear in the media is a pretty good reflection of what the people on the street use"

Correct - Imperial. Ordinary pro-metric folk (you know, the ones who don't need to rely on lies to back their claims but put down good arguments instead) know how imperial the media is over here - it's a bug bear to them.


Carly - when you ever visit here, you're gonna be soooooo disappointed!