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Comment by jamesjguthrie | Hacker News Reader

I look forward to everywhere using metric.

I'm in the UK, 27 and still struggle at times to comprehend lbs, ounces, stone, feet, inches, yards, miles etc., when everything I was taught in school was in metres, litres, newtons and kilogrammes.

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Also in the UK.

Apart from lengths (feet vs. metres) I don't really find myself needing to calculate between the different units. I couldn't tell you how many litres in a 4 pint bottle of milk (or a pint of beer :)) but all other milk (or beer) is sold with those units, so I can easily compare.

I mean, we are supposed to be metric - but there are plenty of imperial measures in use (height, is another obvious example).

height, is another obvious example

Strangely enough, whilst I'm fine with lengths and distances in metres, the minute someone tries to tell me how tall they are in metres and centimetres, I'm completely thrown. It's the one conversion I pathetically still really struggle with (UK -> Poland in this case).

I had the very same problem, only in the opposite direction, living in Poland for the first 27 years of my life and moving to the UK just over a year ago.

Just bear in mind that 6ft is approximately 180 cm, anything above is above, and anything lower is lower. This gives you a first approximation with only remembering one number. Also, 4in is about 10cm and is easy to add/subtract both ways. This might not be very exact, but it will give you a quick idea.

One note I like to remember is that a foot is the length of a school ruler, everybody remembers the size of a school ruler.

We ask for a footlong, a quarter pounder etc when we go out for fast food.

Our fat friends are 16 stone, 17 stone.

We live miles away from each other.

Penalties in football are taken in the 18 yard box.

We use cup measures for flour, sugar etc in cooking.

The average penis is ~6 inches when fully erect.

I've got two 4 pint cartons of milk in my fridge.

I could go on. Imperial units are absolute muck and I cannot wait for a entirely metric world.

a gallon of milk, eh? you must drink a lot of it

Baby.

> We use cup measures for flour, sugar etc in cooking.

We do? My cookbooks are in metric units. In fact I own no books that use "cups."

As an example go have a look at http://gordonramsaysrecipes.com/ which hosts a collection of Ramsay's receipes. All in tablespoons, teaspoons and cups.

That's an American web-site. His books are in metric.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gordon-Ramsays-Ultimate-Cookery-Cour...

Click "search inside." Everything is in grams.

edit: That web-site isn't even associated with the chief. It is just some fan site. Here is a legit web-site and it is all in grams: http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/go...

> Click "search inside." Everything is in grams.

There's loads of references in that book to knobs of butter and tablespoon/teaspoon measurements.

teaspoons and tablespoons are metric - one teaspoon is 5 ml; one tablespoon is 15 ml. I'm not sure how useful it is having a volumetric unit instead of a mass[1] unit; but that's one thing I like about US cooking. "About a cup of this; about to cups of that" - it's all nice and intuitive. I know roughly what 500 g of flour is, or sugar, but 80 g of butter is tricky.

[1] sorry if I'm using the wrong term. Friendly corrections welcomed.

Use http://onlineconversion.com

1 Tablespoon [UK] = 14.206 531 25 milliliter

Tablespoon and teaspoon measurements correlate to fluid ounce measurements - 1 Tablespoon [UK] = 0.5 ounce [UK, liquid]

They're definitely imperial.

> We ask for a footlong, a quarter pounder etc when we go out for fast food.

So? There's nothing wrong with asking for something called a "footlong" and getting a 30cm meal. Nothing wrong with asking for a "pint" and getting 500ml of beverage.

I don't mean that we only ask for these things, we are served these things. We are served 6 inch or foot-long subs; pints - not half litres - of beer; etc.

It's not just a simple lingual thing. We actually buy products that are divided into round imperial measurements, i.e. 1 foot, 1/4 of a pound, 2 pints, etc.

> We actually buy products that are divided into round imperial measurements ... Imperial units are absolute muck and I cannot wait for a entirely metric world.

Ah sorry, I misread your grandparent post, I thought you wanted to keep the Imperial names & sizes.

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