Yeah, that’s in the food thing. What’s frustrating is everything is purchased in metric denominations but in imperial-standard sizes so we get stupid crap like a 355ml (12 oz) pop can.
Traveling to metric countries is so refreshing on this. I remember being in Argentina and buying a bag of cookies at the bakery and just asking for “un cuarto” of cookies (implicitly a quarter-kilo).
Around here (rural southern Saskatchewan), imperial still has a stronghold because of our roads, farming, and other factors. Our roads are laid out on a 1 mile grid (some places it’s 2 miles north-south) and a square mile is 1 section of land (640 acres).
Even the kids who’ve never learned any imperial measures still use at least miles for distance when driving the grids. (And that’s what we call them: grid roads, not gravel roads or any other designation.) Even equipment without odometers can follow a set of directions like “4 miles north and 3 miles west” because you just count intersections.
Even our legal land locations are given using these ancient units. So I live at NW 19-20-10 W3 and every emergency service and business who needs to knows how to find me.
Fun fact: there are very few flat-earthers around here because of something called a “correction line.” The square grid doesn’t fit the curved surface, so the roads that (approximately) follow the meridians (lines of longitude) need to be offset every so often to keep them parallel. The roads that intersect those offsets are called “correction line roads” and are used as landmarks when giving directions.
I don’t know about pool temperature, but water temperature in the lake and indoor temperature are imperial with outdoor temperature in Celsius. Usually. :)
Ontario checking in, 100% accurate. Actually I would add home temperature (like the thermostat) under F, but body temperature (like checking if you have a fever) under C. Also we’re so used Americans using miles for distance/speed we’ll sometimes use it in idioms ("They ran out of here at 100 miles per hour!”). I never realized this change between measuring systems wasn’t the norm until I started chatting with Europeans.
That’s interesting, I know the one I have now can go between the two and is just defaulted to F, but growing up the one in my childhood home only showed F. I never really understood the numbers in relation to the temp either, I just would notch it up or down a few degrees depending on how cold I was 😂
So here (and maybe it’s just my family?) I’ve always seen the home thermostat set in F, while the weather outside is strictly C. So like my house is set at 70f but if I were talking about outside I’d use C. Which is funny because the thermostat in F also means nothing to me, I just notch it up or down a few degrees depending on how cold I am in the winter 😂😅
Many ranges and ovens do have the option to do this hidden in the settings somewhere. It may be worth do a search for how to do it on your model. (Model and serial number are usually on a sticker that is visible when the lower drawer is opened.)
If you’re looking for some logic in this mess, it’s that we generally use metric for things regulated by the government and imperial for more informal things.
So road signs and food package sizes are mandated to be in metric, so we’re forced to learn kilometers and grams there. But measurements of people and cooking temperatures are mostly used casually so we’ve stuck to old habits.
This leads to some ridiculous situations. For instance, we understand distances and fuel volumes in metric, but for a long long time we’d only talk about fuel economy in miles per gallon. Anyone who wanted to calculate fuel economy had to memorize the formulas to convert km to miles and litres to gallons.
Around me, this has finally changed in recent years and mostly it’s just old timers still using MPG. (Which is good, not just because metric is easier in this case, but because measuring economy as a ratio of fuel over distance is just plain superior to the other way around.)
Yeah, basically. I think it kind of depends on your age though. I was almost 100% metric with the exception of baking until my teens or so (we never had a pool).
A lot of it comes from getting stuff from the US. Most of the cookbooks you find here come from the US so they use US measurement. Doing construction? The lumber’s cut to sell to the US market so you may as well use US measurement when you work with it. Steel lengths are usually available in metric so commercial construction is metric too. I’ve done a fair amount of construction and land surveying so I can do most length conversions like that in my head.
Temperature, though, I’m hopeless with Fahrenheit. Some older folk will still prefer °F to °C all the time but to me it’s just numbers. Most of my life is spent between -30°C and +30°C so it works out very conveniently as a nice symmetrical gauge between “cold winter day” and “hot summer day.”
The rest, well, it’s mostly just the unitary form of peer pressure. You just sort of pick it up. The really wild thing is that I might say something like “oh yeah, my cat weighs 5 lbs, so she’s like half the weight of one of those 5-kilo bags of flour” without irony.
Yeah, I mean I can do the math and get work it out if I care enough, but I doubt I’ll ever grok Fahrenheit the way I do Celsius. It’s like saying “oh it’s 300K”. You can do the math and work out what temperature that is, but until you bring it into the frame of reference you’re familiar with it’s just a number.
This chart has been around for a long time and is getting out of date. It should now be called: How Older Canadians Measure Things. Younger Canadians are getting a lot more metric.
For example none of the younger people at my office know their weight in imperial. The most they knew were some baby weights they had to convert to imperial for their parents.
Really? I find that surprising. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about their weight in kilos, aside from in medical contexts. I’m 37, but I work with teenagers; weight doesn’t come up often, but I’ll pay closer attention.
I have metric and fractional wrenches, hex wrenches, etc. I’d love it if the US would stop holding out and join the 21st, or 20th, or 19th century and finish converting to metric. Yes it would suck a little bit, but since I have to convert every second thing one way or the other anyways, it would at least be a light at the end of the tunnel.
As was stated by someone else, this should be “construction” specifically. All our lumber is shared with the US, so it’s measured in inches/feet. I think most buildings have wall stud spacing measured in inches here to match lumber sizes like 2x4"
My father hauls liquids in Canada. Never leaves the province. But on his reports he must note metric and imperial gallon.
I don’t have to watch the show to know it is true. When I was in middle school we had to learn conversions for all of these (except °C to °F, cause that’s too hard).
Okay, yeah that all seems correct to me lol. It sure does make us sound crazy though!
I’m pretty happy to have non-zero competency in all the systems lol. I’m a regular hobby crafter, and honestly some projects just work better in metric, some are better in imperial.
Speaking as a Canadian and a millenial, I would say this is completely true. For example, right now my AC reads 72F, whch is right where I like it in this 25-35C weather.
It depends where you are in Canada. Regions like Windsor Ontario use °F for air temp and AC, whereas Ottawa uses pretty much just °C. Unless your in a hotel for some reason.
I’d argue it’s mostly true. I’ve never used Fahrenheit for a pool, the pools I’ve used in multiple cities around the west are all in Celsius. I’m as confused about 101f as a hot tub temperature as I am about knowing if 72f is a good room temp. Like most people I know, I switch my AC to Celsius immediately, because otherwise I have to do a mental conversion any time I want to set it. I think the only F a Canadian is almost certain to use is in oven temperatures…
And the “is it for work” adage for lengths only really applies to trades.
Australia we still use some legacy units such as psi instead of kPa or Bar in common parlance. This stems from our parents using this. Kids nowadays will probably adopt kPa, as it’s in all the door jams of cars.
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I use metric for everything but I use lbs for weight.
Volume for drinks is also Imperial in my experience.
16oz/20oz beer, 5oz wine, 1oz liquor, etc
I find that’s really only with alcohol and coffee, pop or water for instance is in metric, ie 1lt, 2lt bottle,
Coffee is the worst in imperial because a standard “cup” of coffee is 6oz when everything else a cup is 8oz.
Yeah, that’s in the food thing. What’s frustrating is everything is purchased in metric denominations but in imperial-standard sizes so we get stupid crap like a 355ml (12 oz) pop can.
Traveling to metric countries is so refreshing on this. I remember being in Argentina and buying a bag of cookies at the bakery and just asking for “un cuarto” of cookies (implicitly a quarter-kilo).
Around here (rural southern Saskatchewan), imperial still has a stronghold because of our roads, farming, and other factors. Our roads are laid out on a 1 mile grid (some places it’s 2 miles north-south) and a square mile is 1 section of land (640 acres).
Even the kids who’ve never learned any imperial measures still use at least miles for distance when driving the grids. (And that’s what we call them: grid roads, not gravel roads or any other designation.) Even equipment without odometers can follow a set of directions like “4 miles north and 3 miles west” because you just count intersections.
Even our legal land locations are given using these ancient units. So I live at NW 19-20-10 W3 and every emergency service and business who needs to knows how to find me.
Fun fact: there are very few flat-earthers around here because of something called a “correction line.” The square grid doesn’t fit the curved surface, so the roads that (approximately) follow the meridians (lines of longitude) need to be offset every so often to keep them parallel. The roads that intersect those offsets are called “correction line roads” and are used as landmarks when giving directions.
I don’t know about pool temperature, but water temperature in the lake and indoor temperature are imperial with outdoor temperature in Celsius. Usually. :)
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I think you mean that all of your roads are laid out in a 1.609km grid.
Yup pretty accurate (quebec)
Ontario checking in, 100% accurate. Actually I would add home temperature (like the thermostat) under F, but body temperature (like checking if you have a fever) under C. Also we’re so used Americans using miles for distance/speed we’ll sometimes use it in idioms ("They ran out of here at 100 miles per hour!”). I never realized this change between measuring systems wasn’t the norm until I started chatting with Europeans.
I am in Ontario and all me thermostats have been metric. Thankfully too as it’s always confusing when it’s in imperial.
That’s interesting, I know the one I have now can go between the two and is just defaulted to F, but growing up the one in my childhood home only showed F. I never really understood the numbers in relation to the temp either, I just would notch it up or down a few degrees depending on how cold I was 😂
Air temperature is strictly in celcius in Québec. I have no idea what it means to set the thermostat to 70F. Is it hot, is it cold, who knows 🤷
Same in the maritimes.
So here (and maybe it’s just my family?) I’ve always seen the home thermostat set in F, while the weather outside is strictly C. So like my house is set at 70f but if I were talking about outside I’d use C. Which is funny because the thermostat in F also means nothing to me, I just notch it up or down a few degrees depending on how cold I am in the winter 😂😅
I use metric for all distances, and celcius for all temperatures… except my oven, but if i could change that to C, I would.
Many ranges and ovens do have the option to do this hidden in the settings somewhere. It may be worth do a search for how to do it on your model. (Model and serial number are usually on a sticker that is visible when the lower drawer is opened.)
But then you have to convert all the recipes that only list Fahrenheit :(
If you’re looking for some logic in this mess, it’s that we generally use metric for things regulated by the government and imperial for more informal things.
So road signs and food package sizes are mandated to be in metric, so we’re forced to learn kilometers and grams there. But measurements of people and cooking temperatures are mostly used casually so we’ve stuck to old habits.
This leads to some ridiculous situations. For instance, we understand distances and fuel volumes in metric, but for a long long time we’d only talk about fuel economy in miles per gallon. Anyone who wanted to calculate fuel economy had to memorize the formulas to convert km to miles and litres to gallons.
Around me, this has finally changed in recent years and mostly it’s just old timers still using MPG. (Which is good, not just because metric is easier in this case, but because measuring economy as a ratio of fuel over distance is just plain superior to the other way around.)
Also, a lot of our recipes/cookbooks/ovens come from the states!
My head hurts.
Yeah, basically. I think it kind of depends on your age though. I was almost 100% metric with the exception of baking until my teens or so (we never had a pool).
A lot of it comes from getting stuff from the US. Most of the cookbooks you find here come from the US so they use US measurement. Doing construction? The lumber’s cut to sell to the US market so you may as well use US measurement when you work with it. Steel lengths are usually available in metric so commercial construction is metric too. I’ve done a fair amount of construction and land surveying so I can do most length conversions like that in my head.
Temperature, though, I’m hopeless with Fahrenheit. Some older folk will still prefer °F to °C all the time but to me it’s just numbers. Most of my life is spent between -30°C and +30°C so it works out very conveniently as a nice symmetrical gauge between “cold winter day” and “hot summer day.”
The rest, well, it’s mostly just the unitary form of peer pressure. You just sort of pick it up. The really wild thing is that I might say something like “oh yeah, my cat weighs 5 lbs, so she’s like half the weight of one of those 5-kilo bags of flour” without irony.
Fahrenheit is Celsius - 32 then divided by 1.8 which is not an easy conversion luckily its also 9/5ths
The trick I found out was to subtract 32 from Fahrenheit then divide by 9 then multiply by 5.
The other trick, you subtract 10% from your Celsius times by 2, then add 32 but this one doesn’t reverse well because you have to add 1/9th
Yeah, I mean I can do the math and get work it out if I care enough, but I doubt I’ll ever grok Fahrenheit the way I do Celsius. It’s like saying “oh it’s 300K”. You can do the math and work out what temperature that is, but until you bring it into the frame of reference you’re familiar with it’s just a number.
I paint quite a bit for work. Funny trying to add up 5.5 ft and 2.75 ft and 17 ft to quote a job lol
This chart has been around for a long time and is getting out of date. It should now be called: How Older Canadians Measure Things. Younger Canadians are getting a lot more metric.
For example none of the younger people at my office know their weight in imperial. The most they knew were some baby weights they had to convert to imperial for their parents.
Really? I find that surprising. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about their weight in kilos, aside from in medical contexts. I’m 37, but I work with teenagers; weight doesn’t come up often, but I’ll pay closer attention.
The one that stands out for me, I’ve never used imperial to measure distance for work. All our “mileage” is done in km’s.
By work they mean things like small measurements related to tooling eg what size is the socket
I got very confused the other day when I discovered some of my furniture needed imperial allen wrenches. I didn’t realize that was a thing.
I have metric and fractional wrenches, hex wrenches, etc. I’d love it if the US would stop holding out and join the 21st, or 20th, or 19th century and finish converting to metric. Yes it would suck a little bit, but since I have to convert every second thing one way or the other anyways, it would at least be a light at the end of the tunnel.
As was stated by someone else, this should be “construction” specifically. All our lumber is shared with the US, so it’s measured in inches/feet. I think most buildings have wall stud spacing measured in inches here to match lumber sizes like 2x4"
My father hauls liquids in Canada. Never leaves the province. But on his reports he must note metric and imperial gallon.
I don’t have to watch the show to know it is true. When I was in middle school we had to learn conversions for all of these (except °C to °F, cause that’s too hard).
Many things make sense now
Okay, yeah that all seems correct to me lol. It sure does make us sound crazy though!
I’m pretty happy to have non-zero competency in all the systems lol. I’m a regular hobby crafter, and honestly some projects just work better in metric, some are better in imperial.
Speaking as a Canadian and a millenial, I would say this is completely true. For example, right now my AC reads 72F, whch is right where I like it in this 25-35C weather.
It depends where you are in Canada. Regions like Windsor Ontario use °F for air temp and AC, whereas Ottawa uses pretty much just °C. Unless your in a hotel for some reason.
I’d argue it’s mostly true. I’ve never used Fahrenheit for a pool, the pools I’ve used in multiple cities around the west are all in Celsius. I’m as confused about 101f as a hot tub temperature as I am about knowing if 72f is a good room temp. Like most people I know, I switch my AC to Celsius immediately, because otherwise I have to do a mental conversion any time I want to set it. I think the only F a Canadian is almost certain to use is in oven temperatures…
And the “is it for work” adage for lengths only really applies to trades.
When evenings dip below 20C we like to sit in our 101F hot tub.
Australia we still use some legacy units such as psi instead of kPa or Bar in common parlance. This stems from our parents using this. Kids nowadays will probably adopt kPa, as it’s in all the door jams of cars.