What are they teaching kids these days!

[CESIL]

OK, so I am at my desk...

 

A pupils approaches, year 5...

 

question "can you print me a net to make a cube?"

 

answer "no problem, what size do you want?"

 

I pass him a school ruler marked in centimeters and millimeters.

 

He thinks for a bit, and then says... "Oh about an inch"

 

"What's an inch?" I say, "Nobody works in inches these days, and I haven't for all my working life"

 

"Oh", he says, "I thought it would be easier for you to understand"

 

"What?" I exclaim, "because I am old!" (I am only 52!)

 

WTF are they teaching these kids today? Inches! I don't use no steenking inches!

[FN-GM]

My dad is 53 and only measures in old money. I dont know the imperial system well so its fun and games when we are trying to some DIY together.

 

The UK is weird we are half metic half imperial. I find it odd that they sell fuel in liters but measure consumption in miles per gallon.

[elsiegee40]

I'm surprised @CESIL

 

I'm 49 and I learned both imperial and metric measurements at school. I'm inconsistent in which I use. I cook imperial... most of the time. I measure length metric and height and body weight imperial.

[jmak]

Generally metric, but when I'm measuring for DIY, I use either depending on which falls most easily on the tape measure - our house was built in inches, so often that works out more straightforward.

[TechSupp]

Generally metric, but when I'm measuring for DIY, I use either depending on which falls most easily on the tape measure - our house was built in inches, so often that works out more straightforward.

 

Thats me as well, started of from school in engineering knowing mainly metric but had to work with older people who were definately imperial (30 years ago) so quickly got used to using both and now any diy is done in which ever it falls nearest to!

[CESIL]

I'm surprised @CESIL

 

I'm 49 and I learned both imperial and metric measurements at school. I'm inconsistent in which I use. I cook imperial... most of the time. I measure length metric and height and body weight imperial.

I learned both at school, but by the time I left college I was working exclusively in metric in millimeters. Maybe it's because I did technical drawing at O level? I do still have trouble visualizing weights in metric but I use grams when cooking.

 

I was just surprised that we are still teaching pupils about an obsolete measuring system other than as a history subject...and miffed that he thought I was soooo old that I couldn't handle the correct "modern" units.

Edited March 27, 2013 by CESIL

[One_Minute_Hero]

im late 20s and i use both. i find it easier looking at something small and saying "that 10" long" and not 25cm long but the longer something gets the more i may say "thats 2m long"

 

meh

[Flatpackhamster]

I still do all my work in furlongs, hogsheads and groats.

[E_G_R2]

Well I umpire Field Hockey and I can tell you the average player can't tell 5 yards from 5 meters, they still don't go back far enough at a foul

[witch]

I was taught both and tend to use metric other than cooking.

The exception, strangely, is if I am estimating a height or length and then I will say - oh about 4 feet or whatever.

 

My son, who is 25 and was never taught imperial, will talk confidently in feet and inches - I can only think it is from working with people who learned it from their dads. (mrwITch uses metric or measures in hexadecimal!)

[Andrew_C]

Another 50+ voting for both/either/whichever fits best.

[pbainbridge]

using both.....it's currently -1 centigrade here at the moment but i'm hoping it'll be 100 farenheit when I go on holiday. Doesn't it just sound better than 36

[Davit2005]

Engineering world still uses imperial quite a lot. A lot of older machines in workshops are still in imperial.

[witch]

using both.....it's currently -1 centigrade here at the moment but i'm hoping it'll be 100 farenheit when I go on holiday. Doesn't it just sound better than 36

I've always thought that fahrenheit is far more suited to our climate - with smaller gradations, the slight variations in temperature that mean so much to us chilled Brits are shown up better!

[sted]

i use both generally for lengths i use metric with the exception of kilometres where i use miles so im 4m from home but 300m down the road is a shop

weights whatever is easiest

volume again metric apart from fuel consumption where its mpg litres per 100k is just an odd measurement

temp metric farenheit means nothing to me other than -40 is -40 0 is 32 and 240 is 100

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Inches is best...

 

Oh and Feet, Yards, Furlongs, Miles, Leagues, Yonders (its non-specific but useful) , Wide Blue Yonders (approx 75 Miles).

 

Having said that I've done all my computer dimensions in CM on the new website just to help all you youngsters out!

[hardtailstar]

Im 24 and use inches, its so much easier to use.

 

Having worked in a DIY store where i had to covert and talk to people in both metric and imperial. gone a bit rusty on conversions but I still use inches.

[unixman_again]

I've pretty well always used metric. As an expat Aussie, I was largely educated in metric, with the country changing in 1970, just as I entered secondary school. My dad used metric at work (he worked for a company who built buses), but imperial at home. He was truly amazing. For example, if he wanted 7 even spaced screw holes, he would measure it in imperial (say 4' 2 3/4") and divide that by 7 in his head. I'd measure the length in mm and then do the division. I once asked him why he didn't do this, as it was much easier. He said yes but it's much more impressive to come up with some fraction (7 1/4" in this case). Can't argue with that!

[ButterflyMoon]

I am a feet and inches girl. That said when money went decimal it was a godsend to me as am dyscalulic and all those pounds shillings and pence was a nightmare for me. We Scots measure distance in time ie 'how far is Glasgow?' answer 'it is only 20 minutes up the road'

[Sephiroth]

I'm 23 and quite happily work in whatever seems better (usually judged by who I'm talking to). My mother gets me though... with alarming frequency, she'll measure something as, for example; 2' and 3 cm!

[AMLinington]

I'm 30 and I use mixed measurements - usually when cooking it's a combination of grams and ounces. When I weigh myself it's imperial (when I can see through the tears). When I measure stuff it's mm or inches. I love the randomness of our measurements.

[localzuk]

Its an odd one really. I use metric for things like '100m' but if something is small, it becomes "about a foot" or "3 inches". And if its a long distance, it becomes miles and not km.

 

Weight is metric for cooking (well, unless my mom gives me a recipe which asks for a cup of broccoli... strange Canadians), but stones and lbs for people. Height is ft and inches.

 

Drinks - non-alcoholic are in ml/litres, alcoholic are in pints. Milk is in pints. Fuel is in gallons too.

 

Temperature is always in Celsius. Fahrenheit makes no sense whatsoever.

 

Its enough to confuse anyone.

[AMLinington]

I don't 'get' Fahrenheit either. When I hear someone say '104 degrees' (usually an American) I can't work out if that is hot or cold! At Least with Celsius the closer it is to 0, the colder it is (until you get into negative figures). Makes a lot more sense as it matches what we see outside - Frozen water, temp must be around 0 Degrees C. Frozen water is 32 Fahrenheit - how is that sensible?

[CAM]

Try measuring distance in chains.

[Arthur]

Try measuring distance in chains.

Land's End to John O'Groats is only 69,920 chains (or 1.48677388 × 10-¹⁰ light years in metric)!

 

It's enough to confuse anyone.

I don't know how American's cope with imperial measurements. Each unit contains different quantities which surely makes multiplication and division harder? e.g. there are 1760 yards in a mile, 3 feet in 1 yard, 12 inches in 1 foot, 2 pints in 1 quart, 8 pints in 1 gallon.

 

They also have their own version of a gallon (1 US gallon = 0.832674 British gallons), which means a car that does 50 mpg in the UK, only does 41.63 mpg in the US.

 

It's a total mess!!!