The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

If only there was some common universal system of measures....

[Grey Fox]

 

[HVC]

Says the country that measures in stones

[Josquius]

Says the country that measures in stones

Do we still do that?
I've not ran into stones for a while.
Though the way some people insist on using imperial especially around baby stuff is bizarre and annoying.

[Tamas]

Says the country that measures in stones

Do we still do that?
I've not ran into stones for a while.
Though the way some people insist on using imperial especially around baby stuff is bizarre and annoying.

A lot of people are using stones.

[HVC]

I mean I don't run into it day to day, since you know, there the Atlantic between us. But it's used often enough that I know about it. The dailymail even uses it in their headlines

[Sheilbh]

Do we still do that?
I've not ran into stones for a while.
Though the way some people insist on using imperial especially around baby stuff is bizarre and annoying.

Yes definitely.

It's the weird mix that I find most mad here - and I do it myself I have split uses. I think it is just a consequence of us learning metric in school but socially lots of old imperial measurements hanging around so it's adjusting slowly.

Pounds and ounces for babies. Personally for height and weight I use kg and cm but also know imperial. Short distances and walks in metres and kms (and I definitely grew up with people describing short distances in yards) but would use miles for "travel" distances. Ml and litres for liquids - except beer.

[Duque de Bragança]

At least with Brexit, you can switch back to full imperial system. Perfect for the future Singapore-on-Thames!   

[Josquius]

I've just learned: Apparently its very common in India that people reject the very idea of proto-Indo European and all associated elements
I knew the Hindu nationalists were mad but...

Do we still do that?
I've not ran into stones for a while.
Though the way some people insist on using imperial especially around baby stuff is bizarre and annoying.

Yes definitely.

It's the weird mix that I find most mad here - and I do it myself I have split uses. I think it is just a consequence of us learning metric in school but socially lots of old imperial measurements hanging around so it's adjusting slowly.

Pounds and ounces for babies. Personally for height and weight I use kg and cm but also know imperial. Short distances and walks in metres and kms (and I definitely grew up with people describing short distances in yards) but would use miles for "travel" distances. Ml and litres for liquids - except beer.

Its only really miles that I can think of that I use imperial in. And occasionally feet as a lot of people insist on continuing to use it for height- though it was many years before I learned of the relationship between height and inches, much like stones when I was a kid its just used as a measure in itself. I've not done my weight in stone for 20 years or more.

And quarters. Quarters were things on their own. Quarter implies it should be quarter of something but no.

It is encouraging that metric is slowly taking over though that mile one will be hard to break.

[Sheilbh]

I've never heard of quarters.

I think pints will be the last to go

[Grey Fox]

In Canada, or Quebec atleast, what I find interesting is the clear divide between the offspring of those that where here when Canada switched from Imperial to Metric vs the offspring of immigrants that grew up in a metric country and came later to Canada.

At large conversation in groups means constantly adapting  and adjusting your measurement system.

[Duque de Bragança]

I've never heard of quarters.

I think pints will be the last to go

Metric pints? 

[Josquius]

Reading a book which is a facsimile of 17th century book. It uses those Fs instead of Ss.
I can't help but imagine the writer with a lisp.

[Barrister]

Yeah, just the other day I was baking some cookies requiring two different types of sugar. The recipe gave the metric amount in grams - 110 g in both cases - and the imperial amount in cups. But the cup measurement differed (I don't recall off the top of my head, but it was a pretty drastic difference).

It's the old "what weighs more, a pound of iron or a pound of feathers" thing.

You can't convert from mass to volume unless you know the density. Much less prone to error to go from one volume measurement to another.

Yeah Duque had the answer - cups is a measurement of volume, grams is a measurement of weight.  And when measuring a solid (like say flour or sugar) as a volume it's inherently unreliable.

If a measurement needs to be really accurate it's always best to use weight.  But weight is always a PITA because you need to measure the empty container, tare out your scale, then measure the full container.

But for things that need precise measurements like baking, apparently measuring by weight is the way to go.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah Duque had the answer - cups is a measurement of volume, grams is a measurement of weight.  And when measuring a solid (like say flour or sugar) as a volume it's inherently unreliable.

If a measurement needs to be really accurate it's always best to use weight.  But weight is always a PITA because you need to measure the empty container, tare out your scale, then measure the full container.

But for things that need precise measurements like baking, apparently measuring by weight is the way to go.

There are online converters. You choose the substance enter the cup measurement and then get the grams.

They are apparently quite unreliable