30-Year-Old Just Discovered How Ridiculous The Imperial System Is, Can’t Believe Not Everyone Is Using The Metric System
Every time the US citizens dare to complain about their weather, people who live outside the states usually mock them for the use of Fahrenheit, as pretty much no one knows temperature they’re exactly describing. But the temperature scale is not the only measurement that has people around the globe confused. Why? Because the USA uses the imperial system while most of the world uses the metric system.
As a system, the imperial unit system was first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824. It was later reduced and refined, however, most of the countries that used it (the British Empire and colonies) have since moved to metric system units. Well, not our dear ole states. They simply switched some things up, put a label “United States customary units” on it and went on their merry way. Still, doesn’t mean it’s not going to confuse the rest of the world, who are happily using the simplistic metric units of measurement.
And it surely confused one funny Twitter user, Innes McKendrick, who went on quite a rant after taking a closer look at some of the measurements. “The reason I made the horrific discovery was a paragraph in Mike Clelland’s Ultralight Backpackin’ Tips book: “The math here is all done in ounces. With 16 ounces to a pound, conversion gets a little tricky otherwise, unlike that ingenious metric system”. Obviously, I was floored. SIXTEEN. Wow. I guess I figured it would be about 12, but never bothered to check given that I’m more than adequately served by the universally superior metric system” McKendrick told Bored Panda. He also went on to explain that he’d not be coming back to the topic of the imperial system as he feels he does not possess the “mental fortitude to take a second look”. Scroll down below to read what his funny tweets, and don’t forget to tells us what you think in the comments!
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One Twitter use decided to take a closer look at the imperial system and it sent him on quite the rant
Image credits: innesmck
Image credits: innesmck
Image credits: innesmck
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McKendrick is a video game programmer and calls himself “universally unknown,” but says this isn’t the first time he has caused a stir on the internet. “If anyone is aware of me it’s probably because of a time I got really angry about egg cups, or the time I started a petition to be able to drink the cursed liquid found inside an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Which failed. They didn’t let me drink it.”
Image credits: innesmck
As the thread continues McKendrick provides more evidence as to why he calls the system a “sadistic horrorshow of mismatched measurements and illogical divisions.” Perhaps a strong reaction to some but as he told the outlet, “Just look at the imperial system Look at it. I would say, if anything, my reaction was not strong enough.”
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Image credits: innesmck
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To add fuel to the fire McKendrick said the thread had prompted some people to reach out and share their knowledge, “People keep trying to tell me more about the imperial system, which is obviously beyond awful for me. I’m getting DMs from men who really want nothing more than for me to memorize the conversion between different imperial units (I won’t) or to admit that Fahrenheit is at times a more useful system (it isn’t),” he said.
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An oxgang or bovate is a land measurement that was used in England and Scotland in the early 16th century. This measurement averaged 20 acres or eight hectares but could also be as low as 15 acres or 6 hectares. The measurement refers to the amount of land one ox could till in a plowing season.
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For people who thought the reason for his anger had to do with math itself he clarified that that was not the issue “I’m not baffled or incapable of basic maths. I absolutely do not need help understanding imperial measurements. I fully understood, from one glance at a conversion chart and another glance back to our decimal number system, that imperial is an utter shitshow and I’m far better served by the excellent, consistent and logical metric system.”
Here’s how people responded to the long rant
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Caps lock issues aside, the guy is 100% right. Why anyone would use such a ridiculous system is beyond me. I especially love this diagram that "clarifies" everything. I also "love" the Farenheit system- at what temperature does water freeze- 32. Why use 0 when you have 32? It's not like most people go to the beach or under the AC when it's 32 outside in the summer. And that's not even going in the whole AM/PM b******t. Why can't people count to 24? Oh and the month/ day/ year thing needs to die a quick and ignominious death too. english-le...-units.png 
I go to an American public school, and in science class we actually use a mix of both systems, which is - surprise! - still really confusing XD
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I still don't understand why we don't just convert to the metric system like the rest of the world
The US is apparently actually SUPPOSED to be using metric... it's just that nobody wants to bother switching over. And school systems aren't teaching it for some reason? Considering the fact that the rest of the world uses metric, you'd think it'd be a priority to teach it to school children.
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He should move to the UK. I'm a Gen X mess: Distance and speed on the roads: Miles Distance from Office to Fire Escape: Metres Height: Feet and inches Body Weight: Stone Weight of a block of cheese: Grams Soft drinks: 500ml bottle Milk/booze: Pints Cocaine: Grams Weed: Ounces
Sorry for the lack of full stops everyone. Wrote it in a list and it autocrrected.
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And then you will discover old English money system. 2 farthings = 1 halfpenny | 2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d) | 3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d) | 6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d) | 12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s) | 2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s) | 2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d) | 5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s) | 4 Crowns = 1 pound. And they said that system 1 pound = 100 pennies is way too difficult...
Yeah my mum occasionally tries to explain this heap of c**p. I have no idea how anyone bough anything
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It depends..which one... a tea cup, a coffee cup, an expresso cup or a sports cup ?!? LOLL
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The entire problem with the Imperial system of measurement is that it's not one system of measurement - it is the leftovers of dozens of different systems, which each make a great deal of sense in their own way. A pint of water does indeed weigh a pound. A league is the distance from where you are to the horizon (at sea level). One of those comes from a Germanic tradition, the other from a Nordic traditional measurement. What's the relationship? Nothing but tradition.
British and U.S. pounds are different in weight though, so how much is a pint again? ;)
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All I can say is look at what happened to the Mars Oribiter because one group worked in Imperial amd the other in metric. Oddly enough most headlines have blamed the guys working in metric when in reality it probably be the imperial guys. https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
Scientists ALWAYS use metric. I am an American. And C, not F.
Load More Replies... Then in uk money went metric, in the 70s. Went from 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound, to 100 pence to a pound, overnight. All of us learned the 12 times table because of the money. I still think of my weight in stones and pounds, and my height in feet and inches. Have managed to accept celcius, and kilometres a little bit.
Why do the Oxen in the drawings have people faces, that is gonna give me nightmares.
As a Belgian who uses meters, centimeters, kilograms and the like, the American way of measuring never made sense to me. And it's really hard to cook following American recipes as well...
Trying to convert grams and liters in a European recipe to American teaspoons and cups is a bit of a nightmare, too. At least there's a conversion program available online to help, a bit. Sometimes you just have to guess and wing it. :)
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Okay, but when you use the word "stone" for weight, you sound like a peasant in the 1500s talking through your three black teeth.
WAIT you mean that outside of america you only learn your times tables till 10? I lost two months of my life in third grade fro no reason?? That's it I'm done with you America
So the U.S. should use the metric system because the rest of the world does? Fine. Then countries like the UK need to start calling "crisps" chips and "chips" fries because most the of the world does.
No, they should use it because it makes sense. Those pesky UK inhabitants should also switch, they started this whole madness! Driving on the wrong side of the road and stuff. But it's their thing, it shouldn't be Americas thing, you can't handle it. The rest of the world is laughing at you (when we're not shaking our heads in disbelief).
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I agree with Devon Nicholson Jr "HOW MANY FAHRENHEIT ARE IN A CUP" made it for me!! :D
I love me a good rant, and this guy was funny. What cracks me up the most is that he's conflating the US and British imperial measurement systems. The USA either abandoned stone as a measure of weight, or we never used it in the first place, and the other weight/volume measurements aren't standard to each other at all. The only question remaining for me is, how far did he walk? A kilometer? A half mile? 500 miles, and then 500 more???
Most of this had to do when the world was a much smaller place . . . tribal lands were measured by the use of animals at hand . . . goats? cows? chickens? And then there were guilds . . . they kept secrets as to weights and measures, one for dealing with each other, the other for the general public. Much like Cockney's used rhyming slang to pass a message in front of punter. As for education, as long as the system is not standard, teachers have a job. Think of the rat catcher -- as long as there are rats, there is a job. Looking for logic? Not here, mate . . .
Paradox. In North America, both measurements systems are used in cargo transportation. Air freight - metric. Trucking - predominantly imperial. Ocean - odd mixture of both... go figure
I can't find anyone commenting on the "mile" itselve. There are so many of them, many still in use for some reason and they are all weird. I get where some come from, cool idea in yea early days, but it also gives a LOT of room for error in worldwide use.
Then you get the "Nautical Mile" which is 1.1508 normal miles - ajusted for the curvature of the earch. Never heard of an equivalent to this in kilometres.
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With all the endless discussions, comments, people feeling the need to be offended ;-) etc. etc. aside, has anyone else noticed some comments were posted 3 months ago? Is this "just an old BP article" & reason for its familiarity is that it is simply an reposted BP-article? ;-)
yeah, the imperial system is a real nightmare. I was in UK a few years back and this confused the s**t out of me, driving in MPH ok, but why the f**k buy fuel in liters when the fuel consumption is calculated in miles per gallon, what kind of gallon in the first place, UK, US? and how many gallons are in a liter? this is a f*****g mess. And even in ireland, you go from the north to the south and suddenly without notice you go from MPH to KMH without notice, I was racing the highway for a few what-ever-distance at 120MPH before I figured out it was KMH now and not MPH anymore, luck I got away with it without a fine
If your in the UK then it will be a UK gallon about 20% bigger than the USA one. And you don’t get gallons in a litre it’s literally in a gallon( 4.5 to the UK gallon) and if you go from one country(Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom) to another one (Southern Ireland is also known as the Republic of Ireland or Eire) why shouldn’t they change from mph to kph. As for doing 120 mph along those roads your lucky you didn’t wreck
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Speaking as an American, it's because there are many irrational and intellectually lazy Americans who don't want to make the effort to learn something more logical. They're also the same people who believe 'Murica's #1 in everything and it's the rest of the world that's wrong.
Well, the two most important things in an American life is measured in the metric; guns and drugs!
Not only that, UK gallons are different from US gallons. I found that out when I was trying to work out the cost of petrol in gallons as it's sold in litres now. UK petrol works out about £6 a (uk) gallon. That's why they changed to litres!
Then there's the fact that there's 12 inches in a foot. When you break down a cm you get mm, what a great idea. What happens when you break down inches? Fractions of inches!
America actually drafted a proposal which was approved by Congress to convert to the metric system back in the 70s or so. However, because so many lobbyist complained it would cost so much to rebrand everything and remarket and teach people how to use it, the bill was never enforced. The bill was never retracted either so it's been sitting in limbo for decades while we all are supposed to be learning it. As and American, I find it embarrassing we don't use the metric system. Who remembers the Mars rover that plowed into the surface of Mars because the calculation was done in feet by an American engineer but the program was done in meters by a European lol.
"How many Fahrenheit are in a cup?" Lol good question, it's actually 32 (jk)
Oh, and most countries don't have royal families. Need to get rid of that and join most of the rest of the world.
Listen, I still remember this commercial from I was a kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUXutV6Vk6k. I didn't understand why we didn't convert until one day in college it dawned on me in an Econ class that most companies in the US were too cheap to do what was required to convert to the metric standard, and that they must have gotten to Reagan's administration somehow to stop it. ::eyeroll:: Because I have to watch my diet, I use metric because it's easier to weigh ingredients when I cook or bake.
only the USA, Burundi, & Burma Myanmar still use the imperial system...the obscure units like stone or hundredweight are not used over here in the US...the system works, but if you go into the engineering, technical, science fields, you have to know & use metric system...those people are intelligent enough that that's not much of a burden...you have to be familiar with both systems...and you are only a calculator's calculation away from converting to the other unit...this is not a big deal..
I can soooo sympathize! In grade 4 we were taught that 8 ounces=1 cup 2 cups= 1pint 2 pints =1 quart 4 quarts = 1 gallon Then we were told that the Imperial gallon is larger than the US gallon. Say what?!? Are our ounces bigger? Of course the teacher couldn’t explain it. It remained a mystery until I got interested in beer in my late 40s and started to wonder why a British pint of beer is bigger than a regular pint. And that’s when I discovered the gill. In the imperial system it’s not 2 cups = 1 pint, it’s 4 gills = 1 pint and a gill is 5 ounces. And that finally explains the differences in gallon sizes.
He's lucky he didn't have to learn how to add up old pounds, shillings and pence in the old system. There were 12 pennies in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound, so 240 pennies to the old pound. And don't forget a guinea, that was 1 pound and one shilling. Adding up had to be done in three columns, and you didn't carry the first column until you went above 12, and you didn't carry in the next column until you went above 20. Everything metric is just so much more logical.
It gets much worse. A US pint has 16 fluid ounces, an Imperial pint has 20 fluid ounces. A US fluid ounce is equal to 1.0408 Imperial fluid ounces. US uses a short ton 2,000 lbs whilst an imperial ton or long ton is 2,240 lbs. Go metric and the rest of the world will understand the US.
My favorite is a bottle of soy sauce I bought recently, where the amount in the bottle, the serving size, and the price per unit were all different things. The amount was ounces (with milliliters next to it), the serving size was purely milliliters, and the price was per pound.
what if I told you the british empire invented the imperial system. with is the supreme measurement system
Please don’t mention land measurements of links, chains and roods. His head will explode
That gives rise to tbe question. How much farenheids to a shoe?
Load More Replies... The imperial System isn't even a System. It's a bunch of units mashed together and they have nothing to do with each other. The metric System is based on factors of 10, 100, 1000... And Celsius thought of a base range from 0-100, not from 0-32-96 (wtf?)
As a kid I had all these imperial conversions shoved down my throat at school. We even had pounds, shillings and pence in currency which itself required crazy conversions. By the time I got to high school, we had decimal currency and used the metric system for weights and measures.
I always thought it was odd how J.K. Rowling used weird conversions between knuts and sickles and galleons...now I understand. That is just how Britain is. Any random number will do.
This guy is so right, I've always loved this comparison: In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade-which is 1 per-cent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to "How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gal lon of water?" is "Go f**k yourself," because you can't directly relate any of those quantities
At 72, all we were taught was "the Imperial System" so I get it...now, I believe they are teaching the metric system (&, it's about time !!!). How I wish that I had been taught that !Of course, I see at least 2 generations that will have to die before it is fully integrated !
So, the US and the early foreigners rebelled against the home country, but adopted it's weights and measures!!! Sounds a bit weird, doesn't it? And they still have not seen the folly of that crucial mistake!
12 inches to the foot, 3 feet to the yard (6 to the fathom), 5.5 yards to the pole, rod or perch, 4 poles, rods or perches to the chain, 10 chains to the furlong, 8 furlongs to the mile and 3 miles to the league. 63,360 inches to the mile. Easy! (not)
Most people are adaptable and flexible. Some people are not and are too stupid to live. And then there's Moth Dad--too stupid to live and loudly telling the whole world about it.
I'm actually going to save this page in my favourites, when I feel blue I'll have something to cheer me up. I had to learn most of this for physics in high school, but I totally and completely agree!
On that Rod/Furlong measure illustrated with the oxen: Those measures are still in use (as opposed to some of the others, like 'chains')... A standard UK allotment is 10 rod in size; in Victorian times this was decided to be sufficient to sustain a family with their (2? 4? 8?) kids. No actual oxen involved, just kids and parents grafting.
This is American because we do whatever the f**k we want. Nothing matters and we know it.
Both systems are useful and have a purpose. http://askawiseman.com/metric/
I don't get. So is USA the only country using the imperial system? Well... That's sad.🙄
Now try living in Canada where we (for some unbeknownst reason) use a f****d up mix of imperial AND metric units! My licence reads 174 cm tall, 70kg... NO ONE, besides the elderly know what the hell this means! Is she tall? Short? Fat? Skinny? Yeah, I'm 5'7" and 155lbs. Yet we use km/h not miles per hour, and drive on the right... I swear - Canada is like the mongrel child of Britain & America.
I don´t know how long it takes in USA to learn that useless imperial system. Seems so illogical... At our primary schools in Argentina, we learn the metric system at age 8 in a spam of one or two weeks. And everyone knows it. I´ts just a matter of multiply or divide by 10s, or just move the damn comma around the numbers and that´s it. Feets and inches make total sense, since all humans have the same height... No wait, my bad.
A volume ounce of water is also a weight ounce of water. It makes perfect sense and isn't complicated at all until you go making it complicated.
The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I like it.
I just think it's really cool that in the US we use BOTH systems. A lot of people never come across metric unless they are mechanics or assemble anything. I spend a great deal of time in my shop and need to have imperial and metric pretty much everything. It's wonderful paying for the same tools twice just so you have the right size tool. What I really love is I have some tools that use both imperial AND metric fasteners for some reason. The sooner we fully switch to metric the better.
Don't forget that the metric system was created by Napolean's scientists (I'm Portuguese, and despite having invaded my country, the metric system was actually a very good legacy they left). Therefore adopting the metric system would mean, for those old school British scholars, that the royal empire had lost the fight against the French! Humilliation then! About Americans, they just need to be "special and single" in everything (football, for instance; US gallon, etc.).
I'm trying not to freak out on the ton joke. It was a lie, right? RIGHT?
Blame it all on the French. They invented the Imperial System, then 400 years later invented another to replace it.
Yes even the french realised that s**t had to go!
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I was with him until he mentioned "Stone". Also the best way I've heard to think of Fahrenheit is "percent-hot", as most of the temperatures humans regularly experience fall within that range. So an 80 degree F day is 80% hot and pretty toasty warm. 10% hot is not very hot at all.
The *only* time I’ve seen someone mention stone as a measurement of weight is in British newspapers. Americans do not use that term. As an American working in science, I use Fahrenheit for the weather and Celsius for the lab. I had someone explain Fahrenheit versus Celsius as 0-100F are numbers humans might experience in the weather, roughly, while 0-100C is the range for liquid water, aka useful temps in a biology lab. This is true for my life.
Load More Replies... Don’t mention land measurements of links, chains and roods his head will explode.
Moth dad is just mad because he doesn't have lamp ... jk this is actually infuriating
You have only scratched the surface. The basic unit of energy is British Thermal Unit (BTU) which is the energy required to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Needless to say, it is not compatible to any other form of energy (electric energy, chemical energy, mechanical energy etc). The logical unit would be foot-pound (distance multiplied by force), but it is used only seldom. Power is energy divided by time. The unit of power in the Imperia is horsepower - defined not on how a horse can haul loads, but how it can operate a capstan using a pump, so a horsepower is not the actual power of a gee-gee. One horsepower is conveniently 2544.4336 BTU per hour. A pound can denote both a mass and force. Pound is unit of weight, which is a force. If you need to use mass, the basic unit is a slug, which is the pound (force) multiplied by the Earth's gravity 32.174 ft/s². It equals 14.594 kg. But if the mass is given as pounds, then the unit of force is poundal, 0.138 N. Easy?
This was the original measuring system in Britain, well before metric and metre were heard of. Leave the Americans alone, just because you can not cope with anything but simple maths does not mean Americasn can't. I am British and miss the old system, even those I was only 6 when it changed
Im sorry. Is metric superior? Why isnt your time schedule in europe metric then? Checkmate. Get off base 60/24 (12/6/2 like lb, ounce, gall) before you act snobby, british.
Imperial is roman and egyptian. hell yes ill keep using it. Also, if metric is so great, by do they still go by 60 minutes and 24 hours in a day in britbong land? Can't they metricize base 10 their days?
Half of the complaints this guy is making are inaccurate and I'll informed. I do see problems with the imperial system, but I prefer to measure my flour in a measuring cup, not on a scale.
Not sure it's really the rest of the world since the UK doesn't completely use the metric system
Which cup? Is he serious? Does he not know that there are special cups called "measuring cups" that are standard sizes? They're sold near the measuring spoons, genius. If you buy one in Canada it will have the metric equivalents printed on the other side.
There are two kinds of countries in the world. Those who went to the moon and those who use the metric system.
And it was the Germans who designed the spaceships.
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For the record, when you are baking, all major ingredients should be weighed for accuracy. Flour, sugar, butter, milk...etc. But what frustrates me is that there are several really good cookbooks out there and I'm on the opposite side of this problem..they are all in metric measurements and I live in that damn imperial measurements country. Can we please learn the metric system now?
It is estimated that maintaining a separate measuring system from the rest of the world costs the US about half a TRILLION dollars per year. As well as every once in a while losing an $80,000,000 Mars satellite. Keeping the Imperial system puts us in great company with those other bastions of democracy Liberia & Myanmar.
Don't forget about butts, hogsheads, etc. (A butt is 130 gallons btw and 2 hogsheads to a butt)
Also, I only learned the metric system in the Army. Ita all they use. Took awhile to switch back and forth and not forget the other system.
While the US government closed down we should have all switched to the neteic system.
Hilarious that a Brit is blaming the US for his lack of understanding of the Imperial System that was invented by the Brits.
I grew up with both systems and can with few basic routines convert in my head, if people are going to whine, why bother with multiple languages, let's face it the English language is being slowly desTRoyed in America as is the spelling
I agree! I am annoyed by the silly imperial measurement America has kept instead of moving onto the metric system like the rest of us have! I'm in Australia and often have to put up with the imperial measurement thing when putting up things for sale.
Well, for one thing, just look at that ruler. See how much easier the Imperial is to read??? And, and, and, your f__cking country started it! Besides it's quaint and old fashioned. The world should change to suit US! LOL
I'm English and know both the imperial and metric systems, at primary school in the 80s we were taught both. However I tend to use the imperial system, especially when cooking/baking, as that's what my mum used and all her old cookbooks had those measurements. I'm also the only person I know who uses Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, I don't even understand the latter. I don't know why as everyone my age doesn't understand Fahrenheit. It's weird.
A German guy set up the Farenheit temps. It covers a wider range in my opinion.
I'm just a common European and I can't get one think - so many people fought about 1776 for independence from the British Empire and they still use the British measurements instead of counting like normal people: 10, 100, 1000, etc. At least in USA they drive the cars in the correct side of the road...
So because this guy's an idiot, Imperilisitc system is wrong? Because he can't be bothered to do a little math, we just make stuff up?
And so another generation of Americans is outraged by our still not being taught metrics. Folks this has been a thing, the outrage, for multiple decades. Did you know in the 70s they tried to switch over to metric In schools? But for the kids who had just learned all the nincompoop math In the Imperial system it was a crash and burn experience. So they gave up. I mean can you imagine getting the country on board to give up Imperial and switch to metric now even? We can’t even halt daylight savings time changes.
It’s like some s**t head here in the USA, inventing “ new” math, because he wanted to f**k with kids heads! And once the kid gets to high school, new math is GONE, and they love it, but now have to deal with algebra and geometry. I liked good old Aristotelian Logic. Pain and simple words. If I ever met the dude who invented new math, I think I’d go bat s**t crazy on his a*s, hijack him and then brainwash him for a few years, then when that was done turn him lose in a foreign country and video what happens!
AMERICA: please explain why MILK comes in Pints, Half-Gallons or Gallons, but SODA comes in Liters???? Why, why, why!!!
I was teaching junior high math in the seventies when there was an actual national effort to teach metrics. Parental complaints were almost universally "it's just too hard." I think after a year or so the decision was made to let the transition come naturally. So far it hasn't, but I think it's farther along than most people suspect.
Thanks for blurring the “I” in b******t, a single letter (surely we won’t be able to read it if one letter is blurred) so that it looks like a slightly larger, light gray “l” bp hahahaha
The imperial System isn't even a System. It's a bunch of units mashed together and they have nothing to do with each other. And the ideas behind these units are often hilarious, like Fahrenheit.
We tried in the 70s, and we thought metric was too complicated. I'm not kidding! Look up the SNL news sketch of Dan Akroyd mocking how difficult the metric system is! At least we kept our 2-liter bottles of soda/Coke/cola/pop. And we'll always have a liter of cola ready for Officer Farva.
I should say I'm from the UK and I learnt the Imperial system first before we slowly started to go metric. What I will observe is that the general public takes a massive hit from retailers as the process takes place, both from currency change and weights and measures changes. Nobody ever 'rounds down' the price. I worked in construction most of my life and well recall the chaos that ensued when metrication entered the field. Bricks shrank in size a little, making repairs or extensions to buildings using Imperial a complete mess. Timber also shrank. A 'four by two' became 100mm x 50mm, meaning scarfed repairs became impossible unless one was prepared to buy larger timber and plane down to match the Imperial size - a waste of good timber right there. Finally, I think there is a real, dumbing-down issue here. Sure, basing all the systems on multiples of ten does work alright but is also intensely boring. The old measurements are part of the history of mankind. Diversity educates.
A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter. 16 ounces in a pound, 112 pounds in a hundredweight, 20 hundredweight in a ton which is more than a tonne 2240 pounds in a ton and 12 inches in a foot , three feet in a yard an 1760 yards in a mile. This does not detract from the fact that there's 22 yards in a chain 112 chains in a mile . Fluid ounces, pints, quarts and gallons all have a charm of their own and have little to rationalise themselves with which is on reason that I left through UK for a country that knows nothing of bushels, or furlongs thank god.
'A pint's a pound the world around' might be an old expression referring to beer, as in, £1 for a pint which is still the standard serving of beer in the UK today. I'm just guessing, but this would make sense to me
only the USA, Burundi, & Burma Myanmar are still on the imperial system. I know an engineer who once used cubits as a measurement as a joke. He did not mention whether he was using the 15" short cubit or the 18" long cubit. Nobody noticed or made anything of it...I worked as a tech for years...you just get used to working with both systems at the same time...sometimes celsius, sometime fahrenheit, sometimes met-cubed, sometimes cubic feet, etc, etc...you have to know both systems...just part of it...
He was wrong about 1thing (I think) 1 ton of gold and 1 ton of feathers are equal because they are both 1 ton
I went to american schools in the '70's when they were changing to metric, then I finished in germany. america just gave up? what happened?
But they already taught us what pounds, ounces, stones, inches, feet, yards, furlongs, acres, poles, perches and rods were - they couldnt unteach us - just got messy. We were 6
Load More Replies... Beyond tedious. This man is going to have a stroke! And not every one cup measuring cup has the same volume. What is that about?
How did Moth Dad get that old and now know this? I'd be mad at his schools
US residents won't abandon the useless Imperial system and adopt the Metric system because America is STUPID.
I'm all for the imperial system, just because it pisses this guy off.
I'm still using my 1930's cookery book, I still have my imperial scales, I still measure in feet and inches and yards... I was born in 1965 and my middle school years were made utterly miserable by a vicious nasty teacher trying to ram the 24 hour clock, metric measures and binary into my head. My granddad used to give me a thrupenny bit every sunday and working out that two of those was sixpence but sixpence was now 2 and a half p but two sixpences was five pence did my head in. How is 1lb (14oz) suddenly being 2.2 of anything "easier"? It just makes the sums harder!
It can cause misunderstanding! My American relatives thought we had very cold summer when I mentioned 37 degrees outside..
Raised on the imperial system I have to do all the mental gymnastics to convert from metric so I can visualize the size/weight.
I don't know what the problem is. We live in the digital world. 16 is a perfectly cromulent number to use! It's Hex 10, which makes a lot more sense than Hex 0A, don't you think? We in the US are just very forward-thinking, cozying up to our future robotic overlords. But if you want confusion, let's talk about acres. There are 640 acres in a square mile. Now, 640 *sounds like* a great number. That is hex 40 time ten, right. Except good luck with that. But if a square mile is 640 acres, how many acres along one side of that square mile? Well... The square root of 640 is 25.298. So one square mile is 25.298 times 25.298 acres. See? It all makes sense. Although, actually, it's not that bad. One square mile is 16 "back 40s". That is, 16 sections that is 40 acres large. That's not so bad. And we're back to 16. Hurray! Each of those sections is 6.324 acres on a side. That makes perfect sense.
Schools and the US government pushed it hard in the 70s and it never caught on. They still teach it but no one cares. We do call a 2 liter bottle of soda a 2 liter bottle instead of a 64 ounce. How about we get everyone on the same currency first and then we try to retire the imperial system?
You could have made your point without adding F****ing to every comment. How to release your anger? Use a thesaurus, express your anger at the gym, while jogging or by meditation. Americans don't like changing their behaviour especially to something they did not invent or cannot make money from.
Jimmy Carter tried to convert us and we said "screw you" . The US uses the imperial system and that's that. Pick your battles. Cope or don't come here...like we care.
When measuring out ingredients for baking, using pounds & ounces is much easier. 1 Cup of flour = 4oz or 125g; 1tsp = 5ml; etc. --> It is easier to scoop a measuring cup into your bucket of flour than to haul your kitchen scale out. The metric system, however does have its uses.
What are you talking about man, half of your manufactures still use feet and inches, we brit's have started using metric and is it costing us dearly, Plus if you yanks are measuring your d***s using metric this is where your giant d***s come from, use imperial and find your true d**k size then go hide in a dark corner.
My head is populated with conversion factors, formulae, etc. this guy needs to calm down and just use metric. Take a chemistry class that’ll take the starch iut of the hyperbole and put your brain to work.
He's 30 years old and just now "discovering" the imperial measurement system? WTF type of education did he get, did he go to school on the back side of Mars or something? It's more of a derision of our education system that a man can go through life without knowing what measurement system the United States uses!
Why would anyone outside the US need to learn about the Imperial system?
Load More Replies... This guy is a psycho for being so angry. We use both systems for certain things . If It doesn't make sense to him then he shouldn't be so mad. Just continue using the metric system and stop being so obsessed.
Yes - we can use the metric and imperial system in unison to the closest oz or gram - but what is a cup?. If a reciepe calls for various weights of ingredients - then a cup of---something. We have large and differing sizel of cups.. Just give a weight - 2oz of mushrooms etc. Half a cup means nothing to us
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he tried to learn the entire what we call normal history of math on this side of the world let me put it this way i a 17yr old could sit down and explain everything wrong with his math and why its easier our way
My head hurts. I once asked an English guy how tall was he, his response was like 1.8 meters or something like that. How TF am I supposed to determine height based off that? 5'11 would be a lot easier. And then kilos/stone for weight? I just don't get it. Yes the rest of the world might use the metric system, but I'm fine without it :)
I'm from England, we used to use this system until we went metric. I miss it so. I hate the notion of 1 clip (USA) or com's Europe I personally loved our old system. Who wants to here my baby was 4.65 kilos or whatever when you can hear she gave birth to a 9lb baby sounds so much better
A baby at 4.65 kilos is a heavier than your 9 pounds...
Load More Replies... I'm only guessing, but A PINTS A POUND THE WORLD AROUND probably means ' a pint of beer is £1 all round the world.' At some point it probably was around a quid for a beer in most places, although it obviously wouldn't have been served as a pint.
Ah, I read someone else's comment, which makes more sense!!
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Then don't f*****g use it. Stop bitching about it. I love the imperial system.
Honestly how dumb do you have to be to jot know about the imperial system if you are 30
Napoleon tried that. 10 month year, 10 hour day. When he was defeated we all kept the metric system he'd forced on us, because it was useful. But no one kept those new time measurements, because they make no sense.
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Life is apparently too hard for moth dad. I hope that 'dad' part doesn't mean he has kids: they deserve better.
It is estimated that is costs the US an extra $1.5 TRILLION* to maintain two separate measuring systems. Not to mention the loss of a $125 million Mars Orbiter satellite: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/ *I'm going to skip for now the difference in what we consider millions, billions, etc.
We will go metric when everyone starts driving on the right side of the road in a car with a steering wheel on the left. Until then, bye bye.
Ohhh, you are one of those americans who once went for some days to UK and now think they have seen (and know) the whole wide world... Hilarious! In litterally most parts of the world they use both: the metric system and right-hand traffic. So your point is really, well, pointless. So yes, bye, bye.
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Get a life dude...I couldn't even read all of the post because it was so ridiculous. Just another ego-centric person thinking what they have to say will be EVER SO LOVED by John Q....
I'm a sheetmetal fabricator. My shop works equally well in metric or Imperial, which ever the customer specifies. One system is no more nor any less accurate than the other. The user defines the level of accuracy and the one who can navigate both equally well is the winner. Whine on, babies, some of us really don't care .
It's easy: 32844: 3 teaspoons to a tablespoon, 2 tablespoons to an ounce, 8 ounces to a cup, 4 cups to a quart, 4 quarts to a gallon. 2 cups to a pint since there's 16 Oz in a pound. The for distance all you need is 12 & 3: 12 inches to a foot and 3 feet to a yard. But sadly that means an inch is as small as it gets and yards and miles are ridiculous to remember. Beyond that, there's nothing else to know. So if the poster wants to know how many degrees F in a cup, how many degrees Celsius in a liter?
That doesn’t explain the difference between a US gallon and an imperial gallon.
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Oh, by the way... all computers in the known universe operate on a base-8 system. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, and so-on. Shall we burn them all and rebuild under a base-10 system just to satisfy one raving looney on twitter?
Um, no. I'm an engineer, converting measurements is annoying and we use metric.
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Oh such a pity, the European army won't be able to sync up with the American one in the Middle East. Oh wait... we didn't invade the middle east out of imperialistic ambitions and need of oil under the thin veil of "democracy" and "freedom" and create a mess that spans decades and cost the health and lives of our young men.
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He probably meant the difference between metric ton and imperial ton they use in US
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"It is easy to take a unit, divide it in half," Oh really? Divide 351.17 in half then without a calculator. In metric you just add zeroes or move the decimal point around so 351.17 can be 35 117 and 3.5117. Your "easy" division will give you 702.34 and 175.585. /// "wouldn't you rather be 'approximately" I wouldn't rather be "approximately" anything, I prefer to be "exactly". Just imagine- you go to the hospital, the nurse asks you how much you weigh and you answer "approximately", so she gives you "approximately" the right dosage of medicine that might just poison you instead. Oh and the cops- "But, officer I was going "approximately" 60 mph, that's like 80 in kph right?" And anyway exactly how much does a stone weigh? Is it like a big boulder or a small pebble? Or is there a perfectly round stone somewhere in a museum that's a model to all other stones?
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Caps lock issues aside, the guy is 100% right. Why anyone would use such a ridiculous system is beyond me. I especially love this diagram that "clarifies" everything. I also "love" the Farenheit system- at what temperature does water freeze- 32. Why use 0 when you have 32? It's not like most people go to the beach or under the AC when it's 32 outside in the summer. And that's not even going in the whole AM/PM b******t. Why can't people count to 24? Oh and the month/ day/ year thing needs to die a quick and ignominious death too. english-le...-units.png
I go to an American public school, and in science class we actually use a mix of both systems, which is - surprise! - still really confusing XD
Load More Replies... I still don't understand why we don't just convert to the metric system like the rest of the world
The US is apparently actually SUPPOSED to be using metric... it's just that nobody wants to bother switching over. And school systems aren't teaching it for some reason? Considering the fact that the rest of the world uses metric, you'd think it'd be a priority to teach it to school children.
Load More Replies... He should move to the UK. I'm a Gen X mess: Distance and speed on the roads: Miles Distance from Office to Fire Escape: Metres Height: Feet and inches Body Weight: Stone Weight of a block of cheese: Grams Soft drinks: 500ml bottle Milk/booze: Pints Cocaine: Grams Weed: Ounces
Sorry for the lack of full stops everyone. Wrote it in a list and it autocrrected.
Load More Replies... And then you will discover old English money system. 2 farthings = 1 halfpenny | 2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d) | 3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d) | 6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d) | 12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s) | 2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s) | 2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d) | 5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s) | 4 Crowns = 1 pound. And they said that system 1 pound = 100 pennies is way too difficult...
Yeah my mum occasionally tries to explain this heap of c**p. I have no idea how anyone bough anything
Load More Replies... It depends..which one... a tea cup, a coffee cup, an expresso cup or a sports cup ?!? LOLL
Load More Replies... The entire problem with the Imperial system of measurement is that it's not one system of measurement - it is the leftovers of dozens of different systems, which each make a great deal of sense in their own way. A pint of water does indeed weigh a pound. A league is the distance from where you are to the horizon (at sea level). One of those comes from a Germanic tradition, the other from a Nordic traditional measurement. What's the relationship? Nothing but tradition.
British and U.S. pounds are different in weight though, so how much is a pint again? ;)
Load More Replies... All I can say is look at what happened to the Mars Oribiter because one group worked in Imperial amd the other in metric. Oddly enough most headlines have blamed the guys working in metric when in reality it probably be the imperial guys. https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
Scientists ALWAYS use metric. I am an American. And C, not F.
Load More Replies... Then in uk money went metric, in the 70s. Went from 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound, to 100 pence to a pound, overnight. All of us learned the 12 times table because of the money. I still think of my weight in stones and pounds, and my height in feet and inches. Have managed to accept celcius, and kilometres a little bit.
Why do the Oxen in the drawings have people faces, that is gonna give me nightmares.
As a Belgian who uses meters, centimeters, kilograms and the like, the American way of measuring never made sense to me. And it's really hard to cook following American recipes as well...
Trying to convert grams and liters in a European recipe to American teaspoons and cups is a bit of a nightmare, too. At least there's a conversion program available online to help, a bit. Sometimes you just have to guess and wing it. :)
Load More Replies... Okay, but when you use the word "stone" for weight, you sound like a peasant in the 1500s talking through your three black teeth.
WAIT you mean that outside of america you only learn your times tables till 10? I lost two months of my life in third grade fro no reason?? That's it I'm done with you America
So the U.S. should use the metric system because the rest of the world does? Fine. Then countries like the UK need to start calling "crisps" chips and "chips" fries because most the of the world does.
No, they should use it because it makes sense. Those pesky UK inhabitants should also switch, they started this whole madness! Driving on the wrong side of the road and stuff. But it's their thing, it shouldn't be Americas thing, you can't handle it. The rest of the world is laughing at you (when we're not shaking our heads in disbelief).
Load More Replies... I agree with Devon Nicholson Jr "HOW MANY FAHRENHEIT ARE IN A CUP" made it for me!! :D
I love me a good rant, and this guy was funny. What cracks me up the most is that he's conflating the US and British imperial measurement systems. The USA either abandoned stone as a measure of weight, or we never used it in the first place, and the other weight/volume measurements aren't standard to each other at all. The only question remaining for me is, how far did he walk? A kilometer? A half mile? 500 miles, and then 500 more???
Most of this had to do when the world was a much smaller place . . . tribal lands were measured by the use of animals at hand . . . goats? cows? chickens? And then there were guilds . . . they kept secrets as to weights and measures, one for dealing with each other, the other for the general public. Much like Cockney's used rhyming slang to pass a message in front of punter. As for education, as long as the system is not standard, teachers have a job. Think of the rat catcher -- as long as there are rats, there is a job. Looking for logic? Not here, mate . . .
Paradox. In North America, both measurements systems are used in cargo transportation. Air freight - metric. Trucking - predominantly imperial. Ocean - odd mixture of both... go figure
I can't find anyone commenting on the "mile" itselve. There are so many of them, many still in use for some reason and they are all weird. I get where some come from, cool idea in yea early days, but it also gives a LOT of room for error in worldwide use.
Then you get the "Nautical Mile" which is 1.1508 normal miles - ajusted for the curvature of the earch. Never heard of an equivalent to this in kilometres.
Load More Replies... With all the endless discussions, comments, people feeling the need to be offended ;-) etc. etc. aside, has anyone else noticed some comments were posted 3 months ago? Is this "just an old BP article" & reason for its familiarity is that it is simply an reposted BP-article? ;-)
yeah, the imperial system is a real nightmare. I was in UK a few years back and this confused the s**t out of me, driving in MPH ok, but why the f**k buy fuel in liters when the fuel consumption is calculated in miles per gallon, what kind of gallon in the first place, UK, US? and how many gallons are in a liter? this is a f*****g mess. And even in ireland, you go from the north to the south and suddenly without notice you go from MPH to KMH without notice, I was racing the highway for a few what-ever-distance at 120MPH before I figured out it was KMH now and not MPH anymore, luck I got away with it without a fine
If your in the UK then it will be a UK gallon about 20% bigger than the USA one. And you don’t get gallons in a litre it’s literally in a gallon( 4.5 to the UK gallon) and if you go from one country(Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom) to another one (Southern Ireland is also known as the Republic of Ireland or Eire) why shouldn’t they change from mph to kph. As for doing 120 mph along those roads your lucky you didn’t wreck
Load More Replies... Speaking as an American, it's because there are many irrational and intellectually lazy Americans who don't want to make the effort to learn something more logical. They're also the same people who believe 'Murica's #1 in everything and it's the rest of the world that's wrong.
Well, the two most important things in an American life is measured in the metric; guns and drugs!
Not only that, UK gallons are different from US gallons. I found that out when I was trying to work out the cost of petrol in gallons as it's sold in litres now. UK petrol works out about £6 a (uk) gallon. That's why they changed to litres!
Then there's the fact that there's 12 inches in a foot. When you break down a cm you get mm, what a great idea. What happens when you break down inches? Fractions of inches!
America actually drafted a proposal which was approved by Congress to convert to the metric system back in the 70s or so. However, because so many lobbyist complained it would cost so much to rebrand everything and remarket and teach people how to use it, the bill was never enforced. The bill was never retracted either so it's been sitting in limbo for decades while we all are supposed to be learning it. As and American, I find it embarrassing we don't use the metric system. Who remembers the Mars rover that plowed into the surface of Mars because the calculation was done in feet by an American engineer but the program was done in meters by a European lol.
"How many Fahrenheit are in a cup?" Lol good question, it's actually 32 (jk)
Oh, and most countries don't have royal families. Need to get rid of that and join most of the rest of the world.
Listen, I still remember this commercial from I was a kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUXutV6Vk6k. I didn't understand why we didn't convert until one day in college it dawned on me in an Econ class that most companies in the US were too cheap to do what was required to convert to the metric standard, and that they must have gotten to Reagan's administration somehow to stop it. ::eyeroll:: Because I have to watch my diet, I use metric because it's easier to weigh ingredients when I cook or bake.
only the USA, Burundi, & Burma Myanmar still use the imperial system...the obscure units like stone or hundredweight are not used over here in the US...the system works, but if you go into the engineering, technical, science fields, you have to know & use metric system...those people are intelligent enough that that's not much of a burden...you have to be familiar with both systems...and you are only a calculator's calculation away from converting to the other unit...this is not a big deal..
I can soooo sympathize! In grade 4 we were taught that 8 ounces=1 cup 2 cups= 1pint 2 pints =1 quart 4 quarts = 1 gallon Then we were told that the Imperial gallon is larger than the US gallon. Say what?!? Are our ounces bigger? Of course the teacher couldn’t explain it. It remained a mystery until I got interested in beer in my late 40s and started to wonder why a British pint of beer is bigger than a regular pint. And that’s when I discovered the gill. In the imperial system it’s not 2 cups = 1 pint, it’s 4 gills = 1 pint and a gill is 5 ounces. And that finally explains the differences in gallon sizes.
He's lucky he didn't have to learn how to add up old pounds, shillings and pence in the old system. There were 12 pennies in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound, so 240 pennies to the old pound. And don't forget a guinea, that was 1 pound and one shilling. Adding up had to be done in three columns, and you didn't carry the first column until you went above 12, and you didn't carry in the next column until you went above 20. Everything metric is just so much more logical.
It gets much worse. A US pint has 16 fluid ounces, an Imperial pint has 20 fluid ounces. A US fluid ounce is equal to 1.0408 Imperial fluid ounces. US uses a short ton 2,000 lbs whilst an imperial ton or long ton is 2,240 lbs. Go metric and the rest of the world will understand the US.
My favorite is a bottle of soy sauce I bought recently, where the amount in the bottle, the serving size, and the price per unit were all different things. The amount was ounces (with milliliters next to it), the serving size was purely milliliters, and the price was per pound.
what if I told you the british empire invented the imperial system. with is the supreme measurement system
Please don’t mention land measurements of links, chains and roods. His head will explode
That gives rise to tbe question. How much farenheids to a shoe?
Load More Replies... The imperial System isn't even a System. It's a bunch of units mashed together and they have nothing to do with each other. The metric System is based on factors of 10, 100, 1000... And Celsius thought of a base range from 0-100, not from 0-32-96 (wtf?)
As a kid I had all these imperial conversions shoved down my throat at school. We even had pounds, shillings and pence in currency which itself required crazy conversions. By the time I got to high school, we had decimal currency and used the metric system for weights and measures.
I always thought it was odd how J.K. Rowling used weird conversions between knuts and sickles and galleons...now I understand. That is just how Britain is. Any random number will do.
This guy is so right, I've always loved this comparison: In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade-which is 1 per-cent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to "How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gal lon of water?" is "Go f**k yourself," because you can't directly relate any of those quantities
At 72, all we were taught was "the Imperial System" so I get it...now, I believe they are teaching the metric system (&, it's about time !!!). How I wish that I had been taught that !Of course, I see at least 2 generations that will have to die before it is fully integrated !
So, the US and the early foreigners rebelled against the home country, but adopted it's weights and measures!!! Sounds a bit weird, doesn't it? And they still have not seen the folly of that crucial mistake!
12 inches to the foot, 3 feet to the yard (6 to the fathom), 5.5 yards to the pole, rod or perch, 4 poles, rods or perches to the chain, 10 chains to the furlong, 8 furlongs to the mile and 3 miles to the league. 63,360 inches to the mile. Easy! (not)
Most people are adaptable and flexible. Some people are not and are too stupid to live. And then there's Moth Dad--too stupid to live and loudly telling the whole world about it.
I'm actually going to save this page in my favourites, when I feel blue I'll have something to cheer me up. I had to learn most of this for physics in high school, but I totally and completely agree!
On that Rod/Furlong measure illustrated with the oxen: Those measures are still in use (as opposed to some of the others, like 'chains')... A standard UK allotment is 10 rod in size; in Victorian times this was decided to be sufficient to sustain a family with their (2? 4? 8?) kids. No actual oxen involved, just kids and parents grafting.
This is American because we do whatever the f**k we want. Nothing matters and we know it.
Both systems are useful and have a purpose. http://askawiseman.com/metric/
I don't get. So is USA the only country using the imperial system? Well... That's sad.🙄
Now try living in Canada where we (for some unbeknownst reason) use a f****d up mix of imperial AND metric units! My licence reads 174 cm tall, 70kg... NO ONE, besides the elderly know what the hell this means! Is she tall? Short? Fat? Skinny? Yeah, I'm 5'7" and 155lbs. Yet we use km/h not miles per hour, and drive on the right... I swear - Canada is like the mongrel child of Britain & America.
I don´t know how long it takes in USA to learn that useless imperial system. Seems so illogical... At our primary schools in Argentina, we learn the metric system at age 8 in a spam of one or two weeks. And everyone knows it. I´ts just a matter of multiply or divide by 10s, or just move the damn comma around the numbers and that´s it. Feets and inches make total sense, since all humans have the same height... No wait, my bad.
A volume ounce of water is also a weight ounce of water. It makes perfect sense and isn't complicated at all until you go making it complicated.
The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I like it.
I just think it's really cool that in the US we use BOTH systems. A lot of people never come across metric unless they are mechanics or assemble anything. I spend a great deal of time in my shop and need to have imperial and metric pretty much everything. It's wonderful paying for the same tools twice just so you have the right size tool. What I really love is I have some tools that use both imperial AND metric fasteners for some reason. The sooner we fully switch to metric the better.
Don't forget that the metric system was created by Napolean's scientists (I'm Portuguese, and despite having invaded my country, the metric system was actually a very good legacy they left). Therefore adopting the metric system would mean, for those old school British scholars, that the royal empire had lost the fight against the French! Humilliation then! About Americans, they just need to be "special and single" in everything (football, for instance; US gallon, etc.).
I'm trying not to freak out on the ton joke. It was a lie, right? RIGHT?
Blame it all on the French. They invented the Imperial System, then 400 years later invented another to replace it.
Yes even the french realised that s**t had to go!
Load More Replies... I was with him until he mentioned "Stone". Also the best way I've heard to think of Fahrenheit is "percent-hot", as most of the temperatures humans regularly experience fall within that range. So an 80 degree F day is 80% hot and pretty toasty warm. 10% hot is not very hot at all.
The *only* time I’ve seen someone mention stone as a measurement of weight is in British newspapers. Americans do not use that term. As an American working in science, I use Fahrenheit for the weather and Celsius for the lab. I had someone explain Fahrenheit versus Celsius as 0-100F are numbers humans might experience in the weather, roughly, while 0-100C is the range for liquid water, aka useful temps in a biology lab. This is true for my life.
Load More Replies... Don’t mention land measurements of links, chains and roods his head will explode.
Moth dad is just mad because he doesn't have lamp ... jk this is actually infuriating
You have only scratched the surface. The basic unit of energy is British Thermal Unit (BTU) which is the energy required to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Needless to say, it is not compatible to any other form of energy (electric energy, chemical energy, mechanical energy etc). The logical unit would be foot-pound (distance multiplied by force), but it is used only seldom. Power is energy divided by time. The unit of power in the Imperia is horsepower - defined not on how a horse can haul loads, but how it can operate a capstan using a pump, so a horsepower is not the actual power of a gee-gee. One horsepower is conveniently 2544.4336 BTU per hour. A pound can denote both a mass and force. Pound is unit of weight, which is a force. If you need to use mass, the basic unit is a slug, which is the pound (force) multiplied by the Earth's gravity 32.174 ft/s². It equals 14.594 kg. But if the mass is given as pounds, then the unit of force is poundal, 0.138 N. Easy?
This was the original measuring system in Britain, well before metric and metre were heard of. Leave the Americans alone, just because you can not cope with anything but simple maths does not mean Americasn can't. I am British and miss the old system, even those I was only 6 when it changed
Im sorry. Is metric superior? Why isnt your time schedule in europe metric then? Checkmate. Get off base 60/24 (12/6/2 like lb, ounce, gall) before you act snobby, british.
Imperial is roman and egyptian. hell yes ill keep using it. Also, if metric is so great, by do they still go by 60 minutes and 24 hours in a day in britbong land? Can't they metricize base 10 their days?
Half of the complaints this guy is making are inaccurate and I'll informed. I do see problems with the imperial system, but I prefer to measure my flour in a measuring cup, not on a scale.
Not sure it's really the rest of the world since the UK doesn't completely use the metric system
Which cup? Is he serious? Does he not know that there are special cups called "measuring cups" that are standard sizes? They're sold near the measuring spoons, genius. If you buy one in Canada it will have the metric equivalents printed on the other side.
There are two kinds of countries in the world. Those who went to the moon and those who use the metric system.
And it was the Germans who designed the spaceships.
Load More Replies... For the record, when you are baking, all major ingredients should be weighed for accuracy. Flour, sugar, butter, milk...etc. But what frustrates me is that there are several really good cookbooks out there and I'm on the opposite side of this problem..they are all in metric measurements and I live in that damn imperial measurements country. Can we please learn the metric system now?
It is estimated that maintaining a separate measuring system from the rest of the world costs the US about half a TRILLION dollars per year. As well as every once in a while losing an $80,000,000 Mars satellite. Keeping the Imperial system puts us in great company with those other bastions of democracy Liberia & Myanmar.
Don't forget about butts, hogsheads, etc. (A butt is 130 gallons btw and 2 hogsheads to a butt)
Also, I only learned the metric system in the Army. Ita all they use. Took awhile to switch back and forth and not forget the other system.
While the US government closed down we should have all switched to the neteic system.
Hilarious that a Brit is blaming the US for his lack of understanding of the Imperial System that was invented by the Brits.
I grew up with both systems and can with few basic routines convert in my head, if people are going to whine, why bother with multiple languages, let's face it the English language is being slowly desTRoyed in America as is the spelling
I agree! I am annoyed by the silly imperial measurement America has kept instead of moving onto the metric system like the rest of us have! I'm in Australia and often have to put up with the imperial measurement thing when putting up things for sale.
Well, for one thing, just look at that ruler. See how much easier the Imperial is to read??? And, and, and, your f__cking country started it! Besides it's quaint and old fashioned. The world should change to suit US! LOL
I'm English and know both the imperial and metric systems, at primary school in the 80s we were taught both. However I tend to use the imperial system, especially when cooking/baking, as that's what my mum used and all her old cookbooks had those measurements. I'm also the only person I know who uses Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, I don't even understand the latter. I don't know why as everyone my age doesn't understand Fahrenheit. It's weird.
A German guy set up the Farenheit temps. It covers a wider range in my opinion.
I'm just a common European and I can't get one think - so many people fought about 1776 for independence from the British Empire and they still use the British measurements instead of counting like normal people: 10, 100, 1000, etc. At least in USA they drive the cars in the correct side of the road...
So because this guy's an idiot, Imperilisitc system is wrong? Because he can't be bothered to do a little math, we just make stuff up?
And so another generation of Americans is outraged by our still not being taught metrics. Folks this has been a thing, the outrage, for multiple decades. Did you know in the 70s they tried to switch over to metric In schools? But for the kids who had just learned all the nincompoop math In the Imperial system it was a crash and burn experience. So they gave up. I mean can you imagine getting the country on board to give up Imperial and switch to metric now even? We can’t even halt daylight savings time changes.
It’s like some s**t head here in the USA, inventing “ new” math, because he wanted to f**k with kids heads! And once the kid gets to high school, new math is GONE, and they love it, but now have to deal with algebra and geometry. I liked good old Aristotelian Logic. Pain and simple words. If I ever met the dude who invented new math, I think I’d go bat s**t crazy on his a*s, hijack him and then brainwash him for a few years, then when that was done turn him lose in a foreign country and video what happens!
AMERICA: please explain why MILK comes in Pints, Half-Gallons or Gallons, but SODA comes in Liters???? Why, why, why!!!
I was teaching junior high math in the seventies when there was an actual national effort to teach metrics. Parental complaints were almost universally "it's just too hard." I think after a year or so the decision was made to let the transition come naturally. So far it hasn't, but I think it's farther along than most people suspect.
Thanks for blurring the “I” in b******t, a single letter (surely we won’t be able to read it if one letter is blurred) so that it looks like a slightly larger, light gray “l” bp hahahaha
The imperial System isn't even a System. It's a bunch of units mashed together and they have nothing to do with each other. And the ideas behind these units are often hilarious, like Fahrenheit.
We tried in the 70s, and we thought metric was too complicated. I'm not kidding! Look up the SNL news sketch of Dan Akroyd mocking how difficult the metric system is! At least we kept our 2-liter bottles of soda/Coke/cola/pop. And we'll always have a liter of cola ready for Officer Farva.
I should say I'm from the UK and I learnt the Imperial system first before we slowly started to go metric. What I will observe is that the general public takes a massive hit from retailers as the process takes place, both from currency change and weights and measures changes. Nobody ever 'rounds down' the price. I worked in construction most of my life and well recall the chaos that ensued when metrication entered the field. Bricks shrank in size a little, making repairs or extensions to buildings using Imperial a complete mess. Timber also shrank. A 'four by two' became 100mm x 50mm, meaning scarfed repairs became impossible unless one was prepared to buy larger timber and plane down to match the Imperial size - a waste of good timber right there. Finally, I think there is a real, dumbing-down issue here. Sure, basing all the systems on multiples of ten does work alright but is also intensely boring. The old measurements are part of the history of mankind. Diversity educates.
A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter. 16 ounces in a pound, 112 pounds in a hundredweight, 20 hundredweight in a ton which is more than a tonne 2240 pounds in a ton and 12 inches in a foot , three feet in a yard an 1760 yards in a mile. This does not detract from the fact that there's 22 yards in a chain 112 chains in a mile . Fluid ounces, pints, quarts and gallons all have a charm of their own and have little to rationalise themselves with which is on reason that I left through UK for a country that knows nothing of bushels, or furlongs thank god.
'A pint's a pound the world around' might be an old expression referring to beer, as in, £1 for a pint which is still the standard serving of beer in the UK today. I'm just guessing, but this would make sense to me
only the USA, Burundi, & Burma Myanmar are still on the imperial system. I know an engineer who once used cubits as a measurement as a joke. He did not mention whether he was using the 15" short cubit or the 18" long cubit. Nobody noticed or made anything of it...I worked as a tech for years...you just get used to working with both systems at the same time...sometimes celsius, sometime fahrenheit, sometimes met-cubed, sometimes cubic feet, etc, etc...you have to know both systems...just part of it...
He was wrong about 1thing (I think) 1 ton of gold and 1 ton of feathers are equal because they are both 1 ton
I went to american schools in the '70's when they were changing to metric, then I finished in germany. america just gave up? what happened?
But they already taught us what pounds, ounces, stones, inches, feet, yards, furlongs, acres, poles, perches and rods were - they couldnt unteach us - just got messy. We were 6
Load More Replies... Beyond tedious. This man is going to have a stroke! And not every one cup measuring cup has the same volume. What is that about?
How did Moth Dad get that old and now know this? I'd be mad at his schools
US residents won't abandon the useless Imperial system and adopt the Metric system because America is STUPID.
I'm all for the imperial system, just because it pisses this guy off.
I'm still using my 1930's cookery book, I still have my imperial scales, I still measure in feet and inches and yards... I was born in 1965 and my middle school years were made utterly miserable by a vicious nasty teacher trying to ram the 24 hour clock, metric measures and binary into my head. My granddad used to give me a thrupenny bit every sunday and working out that two of those was sixpence but sixpence was now 2 and a half p but two sixpences was five pence did my head in. How is 1lb (14oz) suddenly being 2.2 of anything "easier"? It just makes the sums harder!
It can cause misunderstanding! My American relatives thought we had very cold summer when I mentioned 37 degrees outside..
Raised on the imperial system I have to do all the mental gymnastics to convert from metric so I can visualize the size/weight.
I don't know what the problem is. We live in the digital world. 16 is a perfectly cromulent number to use! It's Hex 10, which makes a lot more sense than Hex 0A, don't you think? We in the US are just very forward-thinking, cozying up to our future robotic overlords. But if you want confusion, let's talk about acres. There are 640 acres in a square mile. Now, 640 *sounds like* a great number. That is hex 40 time ten, right. Except good luck with that. But if a square mile is 640 acres, how many acres along one side of that square mile? Well... The square root of 640 is 25.298. So one square mile is 25.298 times 25.298 acres. See? It all makes sense. Although, actually, it's not that bad. One square mile is 16 "back 40s". That is, 16 sections that is 40 acres large. That's not so bad. And we're back to 16. Hurray! Each of those sections is 6.324 acres on a side. That makes perfect sense.
Schools and the US government pushed it hard in the 70s and it never caught on. They still teach it but no one cares. We do call a 2 liter bottle of soda a 2 liter bottle instead of a 64 ounce. How about we get everyone on the same currency first and then we try to retire the imperial system?
You could have made your point without adding F****ing to every comment. How to release your anger? Use a thesaurus, express your anger at the gym, while jogging or by meditation. Americans don't like changing their behaviour especially to something they did not invent or cannot make money from.
Jimmy Carter tried to convert us and we said "screw you" . The US uses the imperial system and that's that. Pick your battles. Cope or don't come here...like we care.
When measuring out ingredients for baking, using pounds & ounces is much easier. 1 Cup of flour = 4oz or 125g; 1tsp = 5ml; etc. --> It is easier to scoop a measuring cup into your bucket of flour than to haul your kitchen scale out. The metric system, however does have its uses.
What are you talking about man, half of your manufactures still use feet and inches, we brit's have started using metric and is it costing us dearly, Plus if you yanks are measuring your d***s using metric this is where your giant d***s come from, use imperial and find your true d**k size then go hide in a dark corner.
My head is populated with conversion factors, formulae, etc. this guy needs to calm down and just use metric. Take a chemistry class that’ll take the starch iut of the hyperbole and put your brain to work.
He's 30 years old and just now "discovering" the imperial measurement system? WTF type of education did he get, did he go to school on the back side of Mars or something? It's more of a derision of our education system that a man can go through life without knowing what measurement system the United States uses!
Why would anyone outside the US need to learn about the Imperial system?
Load More Replies... This guy is a psycho for being so angry. We use both systems for certain things . If It doesn't make sense to him then he shouldn't be so mad. Just continue using the metric system and stop being so obsessed.
Yes - we can use the metric and imperial system in unison to the closest oz or gram - but what is a cup?. If a reciepe calls for various weights of ingredients - then a cup of---something. We have large and differing sizel of cups.. Just give a weight - 2oz of mushrooms etc. Half a cup means nothing to us
Load More Replies... he tried to learn the entire what we call normal history of math on this side of the world let me put it this way i a 17yr old could sit down and explain everything wrong with his math and why its easier our way
My head hurts. I once asked an English guy how tall was he, his response was like 1.8 meters or something like that. How TF am I supposed to determine height based off that? 5'11 would be a lot easier. And then kilos/stone for weight? I just don't get it. Yes the rest of the world might use the metric system, but I'm fine without it :)
I'm from England, we used to use this system until we went metric. I miss it so. I hate the notion of 1 clip (USA) or com's Europe I personally loved our old system. Who wants to here my baby was 4.65 kilos or whatever when you can hear she gave birth to a 9lb baby sounds so much better
A baby at 4.65 kilos is a heavier than your 9 pounds...
Load More Replies... I'm only guessing, but A PINTS A POUND THE WORLD AROUND probably means ' a pint of beer is £1 all round the world.' At some point it probably was around a quid for a beer in most places, although it obviously wouldn't have been served as a pint.
Ah, I read someone else's comment, which makes more sense!!
Load More Replies... Then don't f*****g use it. Stop bitching about it. I love the imperial system.
Honestly how dumb do you have to be to jot know about the imperial system if you are 30
Napoleon tried that. 10 month year, 10 hour day. When he was defeated we all kept the metric system he'd forced on us, because it was useful. But no one kept those new time measurements, because they make no sense.
Load More Replies... Life is apparently too hard for moth dad. I hope that 'dad' part doesn't mean he has kids: they deserve better.
It is estimated that is costs the US an extra $1.5 TRILLION* to maintain two separate measuring systems. Not to mention the loss of a $125 million Mars Orbiter satellite: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/ *I'm going to skip for now the difference in what we consider millions, billions, etc.
We will go metric when everyone starts driving on the right side of the road in a car with a steering wheel on the left. Until then, bye bye.
Ohhh, you are one of those americans who once went for some days to UK and now think they have seen (and know) the whole wide world... Hilarious! In litterally most parts of the world they use both: the metric system and right-hand traffic. So your point is really, well, pointless. So yes, bye, bye.
Load More Replies... Get a life dude...I couldn't even read all of the post because it was so ridiculous. Just another ego-centric person thinking what they have to say will be EVER SO LOVED by John Q....
I'm a sheetmetal fabricator. My shop works equally well in metric or Imperial, which ever the customer specifies. One system is no more nor any less accurate than the other. The user defines the level of accuracy and the one who can navigate both equally well is the winner. Whine on, babies, some of us really don't care .
It's easy: 32844: 3 teaspoons to a tablespoon, 2 tablespoons to an ounce, 8 ounces to a cup, 4 cups to a quart, 4 quarts to a gallon. 2 cups to a pint since there's 16 Oz in a pound. The for distance all you need is 12 & 3: 12 inches to a foot and 3 feet to a yard. But sadly that means an inch is as small as it gets and yards and miles are ridiculous to remember. Beyond that, there's nothing else to know. So if the poster wants to know how many degrees F in a cup, how many degrees Celsius in a liter?
That doesn’t explain the difference between a US gallon and an imperial gallon.
Load More Replies... Oh, by the way... all computers in the known universe operate on a base-8 system. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, and so-on. Shall we burn them all and rebuild under a base-10 system just to satisfy one raving looney on twitter?
Um, no. I'm an engineer, converting measurements is annoying and we use metric.
Load More Replies... Oh such a pity, the European army won't be able to sync up with the American one in the Middle East. Oh wait... we didn't invade the middle east out of imperialistic ambitions and need of oil under the thin veil of "democracy" and "freedom" and create a mess that spans decades and cost the health and lives of our young men.
Load More Replies... He probably meant the difference between metric ton and imperial ton they use in US
Load More Replies... "It is easy to take a unit, divide it in half," Oh really? Divide 351.17 in half then without a calculator. In metric you just add zeroes or move the decimal point around so 351.17 can be 35 117 and 3.5117. Your "easy" division will give you 702.34 and 175.585. /// "wouldn't you rather be 'approximately" I wouldn't rather be "approximately" anything, I prefer to be "exactly". Just imagine- you go to the hospital, the nurse asks you how much you weigh and you answer "approximately", so she gives you "approximately" the right dosage of medicine that might just poison you instead. Oh and the cops- "But, officer I was going "approximately" 60 mph, that's like 80 in kph right?" And anyway exactly how much does a stone weigh? Is it like a big boulder or a small pebble? Or is there a perfectly round stone somewhere in a museum that's a model to all other stones?
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