• andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      69
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      21 stone is approximately 1.54 Americans, by my calculations. Another weird unit of measure but who am I to judge?

    • gerryflap
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      6 months ago

      I was already wondering that. Whether they’re Americans or British, they seem to have the same fear of using logical measuring systems like metric

      • thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Haha I don’t think it’s about fear. It’s probably about having hundreds of years of using those measurements, and it being very baked in to the language used between people to communicate.

        Nobody wants to have to translate between kg and stone all the time. It’s tedious. If you live in a country where all your interactions are going to be in one measurement then you’re probably just going to go along with everyone else.

        Even down to ‘goin down the pub for a pint’ being a commonly used phrase which doesn’t have the same ring when it’s '‘goin down the pub for a half litre’.

        • Eheran@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          That’s the thing, they do use kg. So it is not something they don’t know about. Just that stone for people’s weight specifically somehow is still in use.

          For the pint, I do not think it is about the volume when someone says that. As of they are only going to drink one anyway?! Replace it with beer and it is a perfectly normal thing to say.

    • eric@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Yes. The Brits still use a few non-metric measurements at times. In fact, it was America’s British heritage that got us Americans into the bad habit of using imperial over metric in the first place.