imperial measurements

[Ruelz]

Canadians are supposed to be totally metric...so even though we're not...we're still more metric than the USA...

...but not much...

[Outdoor Girl]

Actually, in Canada - at least in Ontario - we buy milk by the 4 L bag.  There are three smaller bags inside that contain 1.33 L each.  Everyone who uses these has a jug that the milk bag fits in.  And since we are on the Imperial gallon, which is 160 ounces instead of the US gallon which is 128 ounces, this is slightly less than 1 gallon for us.  (4.56 L is one Imperial gallon, I think.)

You can buy milk in waxed cardboard cartons that are either 1 L or 2 L in size.  And there are some places you can buy milk in 2 L or 4 L jugs but these tend not to be full grocery stores.

[Ruelz]

I got very used to milk bags while we lived in Ontario...then we moved back out west and bought 4 L jugs...

I wonder why Ontario has bags and we don't?

[Outdoor Girl]

I don't know.  I really prefer it, actually.  It is much easier to store and I like knowing that the container my milk is in has never been used before.  I don't think milk jugs are returnable any more nor do they get reused but it squicked me out when they were, when I was a kid.

[Perfect Circle]

Our road signs and milometers in cars are still in miles not kilometres, most people still measure their height and weight in feet and inches, stones and pounds. 

Yep and the conversion results can be quite hilarious. I recently gave my height on a life insurance application form in centimetres because that's what I naturally do and it didn't specify. They converted 175cm to 5'2''. About seven inches missing. I think.

I don't understand all imperial measures as I've had to learn them as an adult, but I'm ok with pounds and pints. Ounzes get confusing, so I use a conversion table for baking recipes. And I am so glad all shops now use metric measures as well.

[demarco]

Going metric was all the rage in the late seventies when I was a newlywed and trying to set up a household.  I remember going to a home shopping party during that time.  The seller soberly warned us that we were going to need all new measuring stuff because of it.  She just happened to have some for sale....

[camlan]

I remember learning the metric system in school and being told it was the future and it was coming. (I'm in the US.) The metric system itself is lovely. Converting back and forth between the two systems was what was difficult for me. I remember thinking, "Just convert already. It'd be sooo much simpler." And I suspected that most people disliked the metric system (there was a lot of bad press about converting at one time) because of the difficulty in converting measurements from one system to another. But all you would have to do is convert once, and you'd be set. No more boring math problems about changing 12 feet, 7 and a half inches to centimeters or meters. You wouldn't be converting; you'd just be using the new system.

But at some point, I think the powers that be decided not to force such a strange and alien system on poor, hapless American citizens. So we remain the largest country in the world not to use the metric system.

You do see metric measurements on most packaged foods. And measuring cups have both sets of measurements, but measuring spoons do not. I think the military uses some metric measurements, and science and medicine use metric.

[Outdoor Girl]

But at some point, I think the powers that be decided not to force such a strange and alien system on poor, hapless American citizens. So we remain the largest country in the world not to use the metric system.

Most populous, anyway...   

[One Goat to Rule Them All]

But at some point, I think the powers that be decided not to force such a strange and alien system on poor, hapless American citizens. So we remain the largest country in the world not to use the metric system.

Most populous, anyway...   

I always found it a bit ridiculous that the US still uses Imperial and England doesn't. Measurements based on the length of the king's feet, and temperature based on the freezing point of the Thames outside of Greenwich? How American! 

I'm Canadian too, and I'll add a "True dat" to everything the Canadian PP's have said already. I used to get milk in a bag when I lived in Ontario, and now I get it in a 4 litre jug, which I kind of prefer- I don't have to change the milk bag every five minutes so frequently and try to use that stupid little cutter and then give up and just use scissors after mangling the bag a bit

The conversion was pretty much complete by the time I was old enough to start measuring anything.

I measure:

• Distance in Kilometers (and still think "that's not so fast" when watching American movies when they say " he was going 80!" in shocked voices)
• Height in Inches
• Weight in pounds
• measurements in centimeters/metres
• butter in pounds (not sticks- our butter comes in one big block with cup measurements on the side. 1 lb= 2 cups)
• cooking with cups and tablespoons. I've never seen a recipe that wasn't in imperial. Ok, I've rarely seen one that wasn't in imperial.
• temperature in Celsius. Fahrenheit never made sense to me. In Celsius, water freezes at zero and boils at 100. 20 is a lovely day (unless you're in southern Ontario, in which case it'll be muggy as hell). Easy peasy!

Cooking is made a bit difficult because while we cook in imperial, most cans and food are sold with metric volumes/weights on the side. I have an ancient palm pilot that has a conversion software in it that I take shopping if I need to, and I just plug in the number and it converts it for me. It's very handy! It does all kinds of conversions, too. Like "Newton metres" to "dyne cms", which I've found to be extremely handy in day to day life 

[NestHolder]

My trustiest cookery book, the one I use when I'm trying to remember the quanties for pastry, or Yorkshire pudding, or how long to roast meat, is an ancient one I got from my Grandma, in which all the measurements are in lbs and oz and all the temperatures are in Gas Mark or Fahrenheit.  I manage.

Some of our (UK) items are still sold in amounts which are clearly the legacies of the Imperial system - eg 250g butter, which looks a lot like half a pound (actually it's about nine ounces).  It's changing; the shops display prices in kilos and litres, but if I go into my local butcher and ask for a pound of sausages, that's what he'll sell me—it's just that he'll weigh and price it in metric.  But we both have a better understanding of what a pound of sausages looks like than we do of half a kilo.

I quite like the American system of using cups for recipes, although I was sadly puzzled until I actually bought some 'cup' sized measures.  What cup?  This pretty, elegant teacup, or the mug I use for coffee, or a small mug, or... what?  However, Lakeland have provided both me and my daughter with proper cups.  She uses them to make muffins. 

What really annoys me is when a recipe calls for a 'stick' of butter.  Hah.  I buy butter in the aforementioned quantities... so what's a 'stick'?  Grrr.

[One Goat to Rule Them All]

What really annoys me is when a recipe calls for a 'stick' of butter.  Hah.  I buy butter in the aforementioned quantities... so what's a 'stick'?  Grrr.

A stick of butter is half a cup. Like I said, in Canada we get butter in 1 lb. blocks, but we used to bake with Margarine, and it came in half cup blocks so it was handy for American recipes. It came in a little square though, not a "stick"!

[sparksals]

^ So Canada really isn't that different from the US, huh?  I've never seen a road sign in km here, but I see packages all the time with both metric and imperial, as in 236 ml (8 oz).  Is milk still sold in quarts and gallons?  Milk cartons/jugs usually have the ml printed on them, but nobody ever says they need a liter of milk (or 3.78 liters of milk). 

(Yes, I had to look that up.  I don't for a second remember how to do conversions in my head, despite all the conversions we did in elementary school.)

Not true.  In terms of "using" metric, many people like KAren and myself grew up with Imperial and convert the metric back to imperial. 

Everything in Canada,  be it in the stores, at a gas station, a road sign, are all in metric.  Food is packaged in Grams or Kilograms.  They may show how many ounces they are depending on what it is.  Produce, deli and meat are sold per kilogram or per 100 grams.  Conversions may or may not be available. 

Road signs for speed are always in KM and speed limits are KM/Hour.  Canadian vehicles speedometer show KMs/hour as the major speed, with MPH as the smaller numbers.  Odometers are in KMs as well.  Cars prior to a certain year, I thikn sometime in the 70's still have MPH if they are still on the road, but new vehicles since X year have metric first.   

Gas is sold per litre.  There is never a conversion per gallon. 

Road signs do not have miles, they do not sell meat by the pound or ounce.  The major and legally required measurement for weight, distance and volume is metric.  Imperial may be provided on certain items, but it is not required.  I think food manufacturers do it as a courtesy for those of us who got caught in the crossfire of learning Imperial and then having Metric rammed down our throats.  Now that I think of it, I think both are on packaged food b/c many manufacturers make for both US and CAnada.  However, another monkey wrench is in Canada ALL packaging be it food or a crockpot must be in english and french. 

There are signs in the US in metric - on I-19 to be exact in AZ.  At a certain point leaving Tucson to head to Mexico, the signs change to KMs and I believe they also have MPH for speed and miles for distance.  Can't remember.  Don't know if other Interstates near Mexico also have that or not. 

[JoW]

...when a recipe calls for a 'stick' of butter.  Hah.  I buy butter in the aforementioned quantities... so what's a 'stick'?  Grrr.

In the US butter and margarine come in 1 lb boxes.  Each box contains 4 sticks.  Each stick is 5 inches long, 1.25 inches wide, 1.25" deep.  Each stick is wrapped in paper that is marked in 1 tablespoon chunks.  1 stick = 1/4 pound = 1/2 cup.  (This from the box I just dug out of my freezer so I could answer the question.)

The stick size and markings are useless if you are using a metric recipee.  But they are great if you are using an American recipe.  Which is part of the reason the US is so slow going metric.  Many of us are still using Grandma's recipees. 

[kareng57]

^ So Canada really isn't that different from the US, huh?  I've never seen a road sign in km here, but I see packages all the time with both metric and imperial, as in 236 ml (8 oz).  Is milk still sold in quarts and gallons?  Milk cartons/jugs usually have the ml printed on them, but nobody ever says they need a liter of milk (or 3.78 liters of milk). 

(Yes, I had to look that up.  I don't for a second remember how to do conversions in my head, despite all the conversions we did in elementary school.)

Not true.  In terms of "using" metric, many people like KAren and myself grew up with Imperial and convert the metric back to imperial. 

Everything in Canada,  be it in the stores, at a gas station, a road sign, are all in metric.  Food is packaged in Grams or Kilograms.  They may show how many ounces they are depending on what it is.  Produce, deli and meat are sold per kilogram or per 100 grams.  Conversions may or may not be available. 

Road signs for speed are always in KM and speed limits are KM/Hour.  Canadian vehicles speedometer show KMs/hour as the major speed, with MPH as the smaller numbers.  Odometers are in KMs as well.  Cars prior to a certain year, I thikn sometime in the 70's still have MPH if they are still on the road, but new vehicles since X year have metric first.   

Gas is sold per litre.  There is never a conversion per gallon. 

Road signs do not have miles, they do not sell meat by the pound or ounce.  The major and legally required measurement for weight, distance and volume is metric.  Imperial may be provided on certain items, but it is not required.  I think food manufacturers do it as a courtesy for those of us who got caught in the crossfire of learning Imperial and then having Metric rammed down our throats.  Now that I think of it, I think both are on packaged food b/c many manufacturers make for both US and CAnada.  However, another monkey wrench is in Canada ALL packaging be it food or a crockpot must be in english and french. 

There are signs in the US in metric - on I-19 to be exact in AZ.  At a certain point leaving Tucson to head to Mexico, the signs change to KMs and I believe they also have MPH for speed and miles for distance.  Can't remember.  Don't know if other Interstates near Mexico also have that or not.

Road signs - the first highway signs you encounter upon entering Canada from the US border give the metric-equivalent reminder, but that's about it.  After that, Americans are on their own.......

And it's odd that, even though I have a science background and used metric exclusively at work for years - for household stuff I still convert in my head. 1 inch = 2 1/2 cm (close enough) 1 pound = a little less than half a kg, 1 km = 2/3 mile (close enough).  For temperature  - double the Celsius, add 30 and get the approximate Farenheidt.

Re butter/margarine - in Canada margarine comes in boxes of 1/4 lb squares but butter only comes in 1 or 2 lb bricks.  The wrapped sticks would indeed be nice.

Schoolkids have indeed been learning metric from the early grades for the last 30 years or so - but they eventually end up having to kind of pick up Imperial on the side anyway, since it's still so widely used.

[kareng57]

^ So Canada really isn't that different from the US, huh?  I've never seen a road sign in km here, but I see packages all the time with both metric and imperial, as in 236 ml (8 oz).  Is milk still sold in quarts and gallons?  Milk cartons/jugs usually have the ml printed on them, but nobody ever says they need a liter of milk (or 3.78 liters of milk). 

(Yes, I had to look that up.  I don't for a second remember how to do conversions in my head, despite all the conversions we did in elementary school.)

Not true.  In terms of "using" metric, many people like KAren and myself grew up with Imperial and convert the metric back to imperial. 

Everything in Canada,  be it in the stores, at a gas station, a road sign, are all in metric.  Food is packaged in Grams or Kilograms.  They may show how many ounces they are depending on what it is.  Produce, deli and meat are sold per kilogram or per 100 grams.  Conversions may or may not be available. 

Road signs for speed are always in KM and speed limits are KM/Hour.  Canadian vehicles speedometer show KMs/hour as the major speed, with MPH as the smaller numbers.  Odometers are in KMs as well.  Cars prior to a certain year, I thikn sometime in the 70's still have MPH if they are still on the road, but new vehicles since X year have metric first.   

Gas is sold per litre.  There is never a conversion per gallon. 

Road signs do not have miles, they do not sell meat by the pound or ounce.  The major and legally required measurement for weight, distance and volume is metric.  Imperial may be provided on certain items, but it is not required.  I think food manufacturers do it as a courtesy for those of us who got caught in the crossfire of learning Imperial and then having Metric rammed down our throats.  Now that I think of it, I think both are on packaged food b/c many manufacturers make for both US and CAnada.  However, another monkey wrench is in Canada ALL packaging be it food or a crockpot must be in english and french. 

There are signs in the US in metric - on I-19 to be exact in AZ.  At a certain point leaving Tucson to head to Mexico, the signs change to KMs and I believe they also have MPH for speed and miles for distance.  Can't remember.  Don't know if other Interstates near Mexico also have that or not.

Re older cars - a friend of mine in the late 1970s got a speeding ticket when she was driving a miles-only-speedometer car and was trying to follow the new km-only highway signs.  Unfortunately she converted in her head the wrong way.....

The kicker?  She was on her way to interview for an elementary school-teacher job.