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While the UK has officially used the metric system since 1965, it seems they still commonly use a lot of imperial measurements like inches, feet, yards, stone, and, officially, miles. Australia is totally metric now - you'll only hear old timers use 'mile', 'feet', 'inches'.etc, yet it seems in Britain people of all ages seem to use these terms in daily conversation. Also why don't they use kilometres instead of miles? I'm assuming they use centimetres, millimetres.etc. Is it simply conservatism?
Because it's extremely difficult to get an entire nation to simply switch to a new way of measuring. Look at the USA, they still work in Fahrenheit! I'm sure the UK will switch to 100% metric eventually, it just takes time.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chilaili
Because it's extremely difficult to get an entire nation to simply switch to a new way of measuring. Look at the USA, they still work in Fahrenheit! I'm sure the UK will switch to 100% metric eventually, it just takes time.
Yes but what's the advantage of using miles instead of km? We switched without any problems. I doubt many hear would want to go back to miles. It's just so logical, one metre is 100cm, one kilometre is 1,000 m.
Yes but what's the advantage of using miles instead of km? We switched without any problems. I doubt many hear would want to go back to miles. It's just so logical, one metre is 100cm, one kilometre is 1,000 m.
It's only logical because that is what you grew up with. Having lived all over there isn't really a benefit to either. If anything be able to run the conversion is beneficial.
Yes but what's the advantage of using miles instead of km? We switched without any problems. I doubt many hear would want to go back to miles. It's just so logical, one metre is 100cm, one kilometre is 1,000 m.
Britain took the decision to make the switchover a slow one. So while people still drive miles, they buy petrol in liters. While they still drink a pint of beer (20 ounces), they buy sugar in kilos. Older people may still feel comfortable in feet and inches but anyone under the age of 45 will not have learned the imperial system at school.
Why do they not switch miles to kilometers and pints to liters (beer only)? Presumably because there is no burning need to do so.
While the UK has officially used the metric system since 1965, it seems they still commonly use a lot of imperial measurements like inches, feet, yards, stone, and, officially, miles. Australia is totally metric now - you'll only hear old timers use 'mile', 'feet', 'inches'.etc, yet it seems in Britain people of all ages seem to use these terms in daily conversation. Also why don't they use kilometres instead of miles? I'm assuming they use centimetres, millimetres.etc. Is it simply conservatism?
Yes but what's the advantage of using miles instead of km? We switched without any problems. I doubt many hear would want to go back to miles. It's just so logical, one metre is 100cm, one kilometre is 1,000 m.
There is no advantage, it's just what the vast majority of the population are used to and there is no initiative to switch over completely immediately, regarding road signage especially. Anyway, from what I hear, schools and colleges here use km in maths as opposed to miles, so educational institutions are clearly trying to get younger people to use km over miles. By the time these people are older, we may well have an entire generation of km users.
So yeah, we retain a few imperial measurements, but metric pretty much rules the roost here, with obvious exceptions. Nobody measures food in pounds or stones. Kg is also becoming increasingly popular to measure weight over the traditional stone and pound measurements.
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