That’s what you get when you suddenly switch from imperial to metric 🤷. It’s a bit more “tidier” (from what I know) in the US. They started putting up distance signs with both miles and km in some states, so people get a general idea of how they correlate to each other… which is good I guess. I mean, most of the world has a general idea how to convert a mile to a km (it’s 1.6, but I use 1.5 to get a general ballpark figure), while only military personnel over there have an idea of how much of a distance a km is.
They still measure weight about anything flesh or food related in pounds though.
Canada did a sudden change and adjusted pretty well. Moved here recently and they’re pretty consistently metric, though I see some use of Fahrenheit every so often, though I think that’s by virtue of being close to the US.
There’s a wonderful BBC archive video on YouTube of a 1978 video interviewing people on the streets of Britain about switching to Kilometres. Fascinating to see the attitudes and level of knowledge about it from the time.
Yeah, It did surprise me to be honest, didn’t know that many people actually knew how they relate to each other, back in the day I mean. Some were opposed to changing, but still, a lot said they’d be pro for it. Interesting.
Did we watch different videos? The only person who seemed in favour sounded like he was German. One person was worried that you get less mileage in your car with kilometres. Another mentioned that Britain used to rule the world and now it’s “part of a community”, which they said “ain’t right”. Yet another said they fought 10 years in the war (?) to keep things how they are, but now people want to change everything.
All in all, the sentiment was overwhelmingly negative.
That’s what you get when you suddenly switch from imperial to metric 🤷. It’s a bit more “tidier” (from what I know) in the US. They started putting up distance signs with both miles and km in some states, so people get a general idea of how they correlate to each other… which is good I guess. I mean, most of the world has a general idea how to convert a mile to a km (it’s 1.6, but I use 1.5 to get a general ballpark figure), while only military personnel over there have an idea of how much of a distance a km is.
They still measure weight about anything flesh or food related in pounds though.
Canada did a sudden change and adjusted pretty well. Moved here recently and they’re pretty consistently metric, though I see some use of Fahrenheit every so often, though I think that’s by virtue of being close to the US.
Pretty mix in Canada, not as mix as UK but:
Pool and oven temps, height, weight, construction mesurment, cooking mesurments = imperial.
Outdoor temps, distance and speed = metric.
There’s a similar chart for Canadians:
That’s good 👍. I still have no idea how cold or hot it is if someone expressed temperature in Fahrenheit.
There’s a wonderful BBC archive video on YouTube of a 1978 video interviewing people on the streets of Britain about switching to Kilometres. Fascinating to see the attitudes and level of knowledge about it from the time.
https://youtu.be/ykthWUdkhu0
Yeah, It did surprise me to be honest, didn’t know that many people actually knew how they relate to each other, back in the day I mean. Some were opposed to changing, but still, a lot said they’d be pro for it. Interesting.
Did we watch different videos? The only person who seemed in favour sounded like he was German. One person was worried that you get less mileage in your car with kilometres. Another mentioned that Britain used to rule the world and now it’s “part of a community”, which they said “ain’t right”. Yet another said they fought 10 years in the war (?) to keep things how they are, but now people want to change everything.
All in all, the sentiment was overwhelmingly negative.
We all know the “Britannia rules the waves” guy voted brexit if he was still alive haha.
Maybe, I didn’t get that cuz English is not my first language and Brits kinda talk funny, I can barely understand them, so you’re probably right.