Are you still imperial?

[Marek K]

We bought an electronic bathroom scale a few years ago in Germany, with a little switch on the bottom that can be set to kilograms, pounds... and stones.

Hard to find, but we needed to measure in pounds to get an idea of how much household goods we were shipping.

How many pounds was a stone, again?? :06: Fourteen lb, or something like that? Kind of like a fortnight? Well, you can't blame us Americans for that one...

 

[Kim]

We bought an electronic bathroom scale a few years ago in Germany, with a little switch on the bottom that can be set to kilograms, pounds... and stones.

Hard to find, but we needed to measure in pounds to get an idea of how much household goods we were shipping.

How many pounds was a stone, again?? :06: Fourteen lb, or something like that? Kind of like a fortnight? Well, you can't blame us Americans for that one...

:rofl: I was wondering how long it would take you to find this thread!!

Yes, 16 ounces in a pound, 14 pounds in a stone, 2 stone in a quarter, 4 quarters in a hundredweight, 20 hundredweight in a ton!

If you are going to go to all the trouble - why stop at half measures? :rofl:

 

[Marek K]

:rofl: I was wondering how long it would take you to find this thread!!

Yes, 16 ounces in a pound, 14 pounds in a stone, 2 stone in a quarter, 4 quarters in a hundredweight, 20 hundredweight in a ton!

If you are going to go to all the trouble - why stop at half measures? :rofl:

I thought stones were only used for body weight?

Now, wait a minute... 2 stone (not stones?) would be 2x14 lb = 28 lb in a quarter (which I've never even heard of...).

Four quarters would be, um, 112 lb. At least I've heard of a hundredweight -- cwt, right?

Twenty cwt -- a ton -- would be 2,240 lb.

Last I heard, a ton was 2,000 lb.

But wait (pun intended)... A metric ton is 1,000 kg, which is darn close to your 2,240-lb ton.

Coincidence, or conspiracy?

 

[Kim]

Originally there were 12.5 lbs in a stone...so 100 lbs in a hundredweight....2000 in a ton. It got changed to 14 lbs in a stone.

For a detailed description of what, where, and why...see here.

These days stone is only used for body weight and hundredweight is obselete. When I was a kid we used to buy house coal by the hundredweight. (stone never had a plural...no idea why not)

 

[Halthron]

Yes, 16 ounces in a pound,

Unless it's Troy

 

[Jamdiver]

:rofl: I was wondering how long it would take you to find this thread!!

Yes, 16 ounces in a pound, 14 pounds in a stone, 2 stone in a quarter, 4 quarters in a hundredweight, 20 hundredweight in a ton!

If you are going to go to all the trouble - why stop at half measures? :rofl:

Hehe, lol those figures are still printed in the back of exercise books here!

So Kim, I've been dying to know. How did the shillings, pence, half-pence bit work before they converted the pound to equal 100 pence??

 

[cpe111]

Eventually its going to happen to the US, its just a matter of time. Industry is already doing it, and lots of other things that aren't readily visible to the average American. The one big one, visibly at least, is the speed limit signs. But eventually they need to be replaced, and I could easily see their replacement showing both miles and KMs, and then eventually just KMs.

Darryl

And while they are at it can they please replace them with round signs bordered in red with a bloody big black number in it (like everyone else has) insteadyof those poxy little things that dont exactly jump out at you. :05:

 

[KOMPRESSOR]

And while they are at it can they please replace them with round signs bodered in red with a bloody big black number in it (like everyone else has) insteadyof those poxy little things that dont exactly jump out at you. :05:

??? -I thought they meant highway 55....

 

[Kim]

So Kim, I've been dying to know. How did the shillings, pence, half-pence bit work before they converted the pound to equal 100 pence??

OK. There used to be 240 pennies in a pound or 20 shillings or 10 two bobs or 8 half crowns! A pound was paper money but there was originally a gold coin of the same value called a sovereign (and a half sovereign as well)
3 pennies in a thrupence, 2 thrupences in a sixpence, 2 sixpences in a shilling, 4 sixpences (or 2 shillings) in a two bob, 5 sixpences in a half crown, 4 half crowns in a ten bob note.
Of couse there was also 2 farthings in a half-pence, and two halfpence in a penny.

Before my time there was also the crown (2 half crowns.)

Last but not least there were 21 shillings in a Guinea!

Of course we got ripped big time when they converted to decimal!.

You can find a history lesson here:
http://www.businessballs.com/moneyslanghistory.htm

 

[Marek K]

Im in the UK and was born in the transition imperial > metric.

The result is im an odd kind of hybrid unable to adopt one system fully.

Temperatures, metric. Fahrenheit means nothing to me

Weights, im still using pounds and stone.

Measures, litres although pints when it goes to drink.

Distances, imperial. I understand miles/miles per hour but km/h means absolutely nothing to me. The only exception in diving is i use meters as my gauges and tables are all meters.

Pressures im definately bar as opposed to psi.

I guess folks that use a mixture of measuring systems are probably in or from the native-English-speaking world. What's really interesting is how the combinations differ.

I grew up in the U.S., with Imperial of course.

Spending a large chunk of my life in the military, I learned to use metric for distance measure... that's what all NATO military maps are in (though I seem to remember that contour elevations are in feet in the States)... and I could sure judge 2,000 meters as the maximum distance I could hit a tank-size target with my tank main gun. I still tend to express distance in meters, rather than yards.

I use (and think) mph when driving in the States, but km/h here in Europe. We've got two U.S.-spec VWs, and I don't even see the large mph speedometer figures anymore... just the smaller km/h.

Heights in cm or weights in kg don't mean anything to me... it's feet/inches, and pounds (we don't use no stinkin' stone). I've sort of developed a feeling for degrees C, but F is still "natural" for me... I have to think of C "benchmarks" and what they're equivalent to, then adjust from there using a very rough 2-to-1 ratio (zero C = freezing, 21C = room temperature = about 70F, and 33C = 90F... when I consider it officially "hot").

I know that 2,000 meters is about treeline in the Alps for backpacking, and that any elevation below that may be iffy snow-wise when making skiing reservations.

Diving? I learned Imperial... that's what all our family's gauges are... and that's what I think in. Twelve meters depth? I can't picture that. But 40 ft? Oh, yeah. Freaks European divers out.

And a full tank fill is 3,000 psi, even if the guy filling it is thinking 200 BAR.

--Marek