Litres and Gallons

[lankeela]

Why is it when petrol has been sold in litres for years now we still refer to how many miles a car can do to the gallon?

And why when the weather forecast is on and they give the temperature in centigrade, do they follow it up with it in fahrenheit?

[di1411]

Despite all the above, I have yet to meet a shop assistant, no matter how young, who can't immediately serve me if I ask for a quarter of something - so do they get sent to Imperial training schools before they start the job?

[lankeela]

Then you must be the exception di1411 because we had a young girl working for us, and when someone asked how many pounds were in the bag of peanuts she said �2.50 (which was the price). She also did not know what was meant by 'half a dozen' .

[bobthedogtoo]

Metric or Imperial?
It's an age thing.
I can 'see' in my mind distance in feet e.g. a 12ft by 12ft room.
But if its in Metres, I have to convert it.
Same with volume.... If my car does 15 Km's to the litre,
I would have to convert it to 'see' it in my mind.
I'ts all down to when you were brought up.
Even worse is when I ask for some 4" by 4" timber; how much do you need the sales person asks.... about 25 metres.
How daft is that?

[lankeela]

Same here, bobthedogtoo. Makes you realise how many things are referred to in terms of distance or weight or capacity. Ten foot barge pole comes to mind, don't think this would have the same impact in metric. Two ton Tessy, or a Ten Gallon Hat, can't even begin to convert them.

We sell peanuts in 2.7 kilo bags, and we have to constantly explain to customers that this is just under 6 pounds in 'old money'!

[Jim897]

The reason why we have this confusing mix of 'old and new' is that we (the British) never properly embraced the metric system, despite passing laws that made the teaching of the metric system the SOLE teaching for children for many years now. It's like our attitude towards European integration - we fudge the issue and sit on the edge, never really nailing our colours to one mast or another.

Our continual fudging of this issue has resulted in the seemingly ridiculous situation where all our road signs still remain in miles, as well as the many other nonsensical illustrations already mentioned, and yet our children are being taught wholly metric. It seems that no government is prepared to tackle the true conversion away from our 'sacred' imperial system, thus perpetuation our confusing mix of measurements - and mindsets!
.