The Official "Your country is weird" Thread

[Chundles]

Yes, and they all have those funny names, too. The size of the engines are shown in metric and the tyres. Well, they do comply in one way--they use U.S.A.-only light bulbs.

Do they screw in the other way???

 

[gekko513]

My biggest problem with metric v imperial is that in the UK we still seem to use a mixture of both.

The UK use metric measurements for buying/selling stuff but our roads etc are still in miles. We buy petrol by the litre but then quote our fuel consumption in miles to the gallon. Most people can quote their height in feet and inches and their weights in pounds without having a clue of what they are in cms or kgs.

I learned 'metric' at school but since at that point much of the 'real UK world' was still selling stuff in imperial measures etc (until a few years ago), when I started shopping for myself, I had to relearn everything. I still have recipes in one or other and measuring cups in the wrong things.

There will always be a transition period with a little pain, but just think about the structure and harmony you will have when you're done.

Now if we could just persuade the telly and computer monitor industry to ditch the inch as a measurement for screens. And what's up with using inches for trouser measurement?

 

[nomad01]

Jersey used to have one but it went bust.

England still has Burger King... it gives the local rodents a place to live. Well, it keeps em off the streets.

 

[Applespider]

There will always be a transition period with a little pain, but just think about the structure and harmony you will have when you're done.

The trouble is that we apparently started doing this in the UK 30 years ago and don't appear to be a huge amount further forward in the transition. At school I was only taught in metric but since the real world still uses the other, I'm more comfortable in imperial.