Metric vs. Imperial

[heymike]

Wondering where you are from and what you use when you are guest-imating size. We had a recent discussion in my office on how Canadains typically perceive or visualize units. Being so close to the US has its drawbacks I guess.

For me, I was born and raised in BC Canada. Someone asks me how tall I am, or how much I weight, I always use the imperial system.


Volume - Small units: I can do liters or gallons (or pints).

Volume - Large units: Has to be gallons, usually I compare to a 45 gallon drum as a benchmark, or my 180 gal fish tank.

Area: For land, I think in acres, for anything small it would be square feet.


Distance - Small Units: Completly indifferent be it CM or Inches for anything under 1 foot. Meters/yards I am also indifferent and can use either, but I drift towards yards as I can compare to a football field.

Distance - large units: I can use meters but my I think my brain prefers using feet or yards unless it is over a kilometer. Anything I hear in 'miles', my brain has to convert to KM to understand it.


Weight - Has to be pounds. If I hear 90Kg my brains says "200 pounds"


Temp - Would be celsius, ice is 0, boiling is 100, easy. I know human body temp is 98f, I would have to use that as a benchmark.

[JordanN]

Born: Toronto
Raised: Brampton
Prefers: Metric


Volume - Small units: Milliliters. Can't stand the small imperial equivalents.
Volume - Large units: Liters. But gallons when dealing with fish aquariums or water tanks.
Area: Undecided
Distance - Centimeters and meters when I want to measure precisely. Inches for when I want to measure something small but not count the numbers so much.
Distance - large units: Meters.
Weight - Pounds for large objects and grams for small. Sometimes ounces for food weight.
Temp - Celsius.

I'm pretty much a metric user. I dislike the imperial system for the conversion rate and huge amounts of fractions.

[sillysimms]

Born: Mississauga
Raised: Mississauga
Prefers: Varies depending on what is being measured.

Volume - Metric - litres. I'm in my 30s but don't know how much a pint or gallon is.

Area: Square Feet. I can't visualize the size of a condo when someone mentions it is XX square metres.

Distance - small units - Centimetres or inches - doesn't matter

Distance - large units: Metres or kilometres. I'm not too familiar with yards or miles.

Weight - Pounds. If I hear something in kg., I have to convert it to pounds.

Temp - Celsius

Height - feet

[CCCC3333]

Volume - cubic meters

Area: acres

Distance - small units - Centimetres

Distance - large units: kilometers

Weight - stones

Temp - fahrenheit

Height - inches

[board123]

Volume - cubic meters

Area - square meters

Distance - small units - millimeters

Distance - large units - kilometers

Weight - Newtons

Temp - Kelvin

Height - meters

[corrupt123]

Good topic for a thread. Having gone through the canadian (toronto) school system, I have no problem using 100% metric units. Realistically though, I express my height and weight in imperial.

Measurement of any size I tend to do in metric, though I switch over to imperial for a lot of automotive stuff, because it's been the standard for so long. Especially for micro-measurements (thousandths and ten-thousandths of an inch for example... not 0.18mm)

Volume I do in metric.. Liters or cubic units, but pressure I always do PSI. I don't think I've ever even looked up the definition of a Kpa.

I do like to refer to alcohol using imperial measurements though

[anycee]

I'm 20s and born in BC.

Height/measurements or weight of people in feet and inchs and lb. Can't visualize metric equivs.

Small distances in meters/feet/inchs/cm.

Large distances in km.

Small volumes in L/quarts/ounces/T/t/mL

Small weights in grams/pounds/kg.

No problem with 24 hour time.

Not comfortable with F, okay with Celcius.

Pressures in PSI.

[rabbit]

I heard that it was some Saskatchewan backward bum, country fudge for Canada not being 100% metric. He didn't want to change, so he went to court over it. Actually, it's to our benefit, in a way, since we're familiar with both. Kind of like being bilingual .

Funny thing is that Canada went metric because the US were going to.

[wetsnot]

"The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it."

[red120]

Born: USA
Raised: Canada
Prefers: Metric


Volume - Small units: Milliliters.
Volume - Large units: Liters.
Area: Feet (Seriously, can anyone in NA visualize condos in m^2?)
Distance (Short) - Inches
Distance (Large) - Meters.
Weight - Pounds.
Temp - Celsius.. ever since moving to US, it's odd getting used to Fahrenheit.

[Setz]

Volume - liters or gallons.

Area - square meters, square foot

Distance - small units - inches

Distance - large units - kilometers

Weight - pounds

Temp - Kelvin and celsius

Height - inches/feet

[gei]

Volume - cubic meters

Area: acres

Distance - small units - Centimetres

Distance - large units: kilometers

Weight - stones

Temp - fahrenheit

Height - inches

woah... are you living in the stone ages or something?

[rabbit]

That's what Brits use. I think 1stone = 20pounds (?).

[gmark2000]

U.S., Myanmar and Liberia are the only countries that have not adopted the metric system.

[chriswalsh]

That's what Brits use. I think 1stone = 20pounds (?).

1 stone = 14lbs

Weight - Newtons

Temp - Kelvin

Really? I know thats handy for dynamics class and all, but in day to day life??

I'm from rural Ontario, but have always said height and weight in imperial units. Fuel economy in US units.

Ever since I got a car imported from the US (ie US gauges) and moved to Windsor, I've become pretty much 'bilingual'