Imperial Measurements in the U.K.

[NIrelandGillian]

I'm not sure if you're being serious or joking, but the metric system was developed by the French and adopted by the French Revolutionary Assembly in 1795.

Napoleon spread it around, so it owes a lot to the French. It's a lot easier to use than the Foot/ Pounds system when it comes to science and technology.

But that's why he said "French...". He didn't like metric, being old-school and brought up with pounds and ounces, feet and inches, miles and yards, gallons and pints etc.

The Metric System

Thank you for that informative explanation.

Gillian

 

[HantsUK]

Is there anything in the Brexit agreement about Imperial measurements?

I confess I haven't finished reading Johnson's Christmas present to me yet. OK, I haven't actually started.

Someone here must have read it by now. No? It's been out for 4 days so far. With a brief 34 page summary, 1246 main pages, and some other bits, that's only 333 pages per day. Anyone in or near London, stuck in Tier 4 won't have been able to do anything else. I'm sure that reading it will make Covid isolation seem exciting.

Here is the link to the UK gov site;
Agreements reached between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union

 

[Francis Drake]

Is there anything in the Brexit agreement about Imperial measurements?

I confess I haven't finished reading Johnson's Christmas present to me yet. OK, I haven't actually started.

Someone here must have read it by now. No? It's been out for 4 days so far. With a brief 34 page summary, 1246 main pages, and some other bits, that's only 333 pages per day. Anyone in or near London, stuck in Tier 4 won't have been able to do anything else. I'm sure that reading it will make Covid isolation seem exciting.

Here is the link to the UK gov site;
Agreements reached between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union

The Brexit agreement would have no concern regarding Imperial Measurements. Such things are now entirely for the UK to decide, and given that in the last decade or so they have relaxed the paranoid hatred of all things British, we might see some return to traditional measures.
However, I expect the EU are likely to demand exports in their direction to be metric.

 

[Strong in Him]

I confess I haven't finished reading Johnson's Christmas present to me yet. OK, I haven't actually started.

"Johnson's Christmas present to me" - like it.
No returns possible though.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

It also made things very confusing for the elderly.

If things didn’t progress because they would be confusing for the elderly we wouldn’t have invented fire yet.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Such things are now entirely for the UK to decide, and given that in the last decade or so they have relaxed the paranoid hatred of all things British, we might see some return to traditional measures.

Apart from keeping some traditional measurement as a pint why would they reintroduce some illogical archaic measurements nobody else wants to use that adds complexity, errors and costs when dealing with everyone else ?

Is someone really sold that UK is more of everything if they have their own measurement system ?

If they really want to feel special and not like everyone else perhaps Welsh could be the new national language of more unique and special UK.

 

[Francis Drake]

If things didn’t progress because they would be confusing for the elderly we wouldn’t have invented fire yet.

Adopting EU measurement systems was not progress, it was a deliberate political move to destroy yet more of Britain's identity..

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Adopting EU measurement systems was not progress, it was a deliberate political move to destroy yet more of Britain's identity..

You know it is not “EU measurement system”

It is global and everyone is already doing it in one form or another.

Busting Myths about the Metric System

 

[Francis Drake]

Apart from keeping some traditional measurement as a pint why would they reintroduce some illogical archaic measurements nobody else wants to use that adds complexity, errors and costs when dealing with everyone else ?

Despite attempts by the EU, and Europhile uk governments to destroy British identity, Imperial measurements have always continued to be used, so its not about reintroducing them but giving freedom to choose.

Is someone really sold that UK is more of everything if they have their own measurement system ?

We never ceased having our own imperial measurement system, it just went underground for a while, but has been re-emerging for the last 20 years as a matter of choice!

If they really want to feel special and not like everyone else perhaps Welsh could be the new national language of more unique and special UK.

That is a really childish comment, and shows you obviously have no sense of nationhood.
FYI, it's not about feeling special, it's about being ourselves without a foreign Fascist government dictating what we do.

 

[Francis Drake]

You know it is not “EU measurement system”

It is global and everyone is already doing it in one form or another.

Busting Myths about the Metric System

No it's not global. Certainly many nations use the metric system to some degree, but not completely.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

No it's not global. Certainly many nations use the metric system to some degree, but not completely.

Guess reading the one page link was too much effort.....

it's not about feeling special, it's about being ourselves

Sure, sure.

 

[Strong in Him]

If they really want to feel special and not like everyone else perhaps Welsh could be the new national language of more unique and special UK.

The Scots and the Irish would never agree - why would they?

 

[Francis Drake]

Guess reading the one page link was too much effort.....

Your link is irrelevant, as we are not talking about legislation.
The issue is the day to day use of measurement, and it should be obvious to anyone that the metric system is not absolute around the world, but there are many other preferred measurements in use.

Sure, sure.

Sneer all you like, it just makes you look foolish.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Your link is irrelevant, as we are not talking about legislation.
The issue is the day to day use of measurement, and it should be obvious to anyone that the metric system is not absolute around the world, but there are many other preferred measurements in use.

Sure there are. Why you feel they are in any way significant might be a better question.

I am sure there plenty of tribes with non standard measurements for historical and whatnot reasons they use when they buy some goats from their neighbors.

Just feels silly if that is a source of national pride or something.

But as always your mileage may vary. I guess they can be really emotionally important to somebody.

 

[Abide with me.]

I was watching a documentary the other day when I noticed these Brits were talking about length and width and such in terms of feet and inches. Then I remembered that I think you still drink "pints". I found the video below which seems to say you guys use the imperial system more than I thought. So when do you use imperial vs. metric? I'm sure that metric is always used in the sciences, right?

Metric was introduced in the 70's when the UK joined the common market of Europe, I was 12 at the time, and never got used to cm's etc, still don't, we still have mikes as opposed to kilometers, but the BBC insists on saying kms. A pint is a pint to most, I don't know about science, guess it's all metric now though.

 

[Strong in Him]

Metric was introduced in the 70's when the UK joined the common market of Europe, I was 12 at the time, and never got used to cm's etc, still don't, we still have mikes as opposed to kilometers, but the BBC insists on saying kms. A pint is a pint to most, I don't know about science, guess it's all metric now though.

I still talk about pints, miles and stones.
I keep having to say, in my head, 2.5 cm = 1 inch and try to work it out. But I have no idea about km, litres and so on.

My youngest brother, however, was born a week after we went decimal, and knows nothing else.

 

[Chesterton]

Metric was introduced in the 70's when the UK joined the common market of Europe, I was 12 at the time, and never got used to cm's etc, still don't, we still have mikes as opposed to kilometers, but the BBC insists on saying kms. A pint is a pint to most, I don't know about science, guess it's all metric now though.

They were trying to introduce it here in the '70's also, but we had less reason to convert. It never took hold except with scientists, with the exception of the liter and two liter bottle of Coca-Cola, for some reason. Although we still mainly use ounces and gallons for liquids, the only time you'll hear an American speak in metric is when they're buying soft drinks sometimes.

 

[bhillyard]

Unfortunately the U.S. gallon is not the same as the imperial gallon.
U.S. gallon = .833 imperial gallon.
So the U.S. doesn't use imperial measure.

 

[Francis Drake]

Unfortunately the U.S. gallon is not the same as the imperial gallon.
U.S. gallon = .833 imperial gallon.
So the U.S. doesn't use imperial measure.

Maybe not Imperial as in British Empire, but other US non metric equivalent.
Don't forget that the majority of your original measurements came via Britain.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I knew the US and UK gallons were different (Australia's used to be the same as the British system before we went metric), but I never thought about the reason until now. So I went looking for the answer.

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/us-gallons-imperial-gallons.php

It appears the US stuck by the original Queen Anne's gallon to measure wine. At that time there were apparently 3 different "gallons" - one for wine, one for beer and one for grain. The UK got fed up with 3 different measurements, and legislated to make one single standard for a gallon, which was a rough average of the existing three, but the Americans stuck with the wine gallon to this day. So they're different.

Short gallon history lesson
Think of language mapped out in a kind of family tree. Once, hundreds of years ago, British people and American colonialists were all perched on the same branches of the family, way at the top of the tree, speaking the same language and walking the same land. Then a bunch of people from the UK went and settled in the US, and for a couple of hundred years, had very little contact with the original branch across the ocean. Just as stories, recipes and traditions evolve and grow in different segments of different families, so does language.

Way back - at the time we all lived together - we had used the Queen Anne's gallon of 3.785l to measure wine. We also had different volumes and names to measure both beer and grain. When we realised that this was silly, in 1824, the UK chose a single imperial term and lumped together all three measurements, picking a roughly-average volume and calling it a gallon. American colonists, though, stuck to tradition and kept just the Queen Anne's volume for their own gallon definition.