A poll

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1530038]

Comments

[emperor]

You missed:

I think in:
[] pints
[] there are other units of volume?!?
[] Mmm...beer

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[gurthaew.livejournal.com]

Wot about Kelvin? I used the phrase "about 4 Kelvin" this afternoon.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I do feet and inches upwards, but distances in metres (and people only in feet and inches), I do people om stones, some food in stones and some in kgs, and I do hot temperatures in fahrenheit and cold ones in celsius. Me? Weird? Quite possibly.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

I have been known to ask for a metre of five-eighths inch elastic. :-)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I do hot temperatures in fahrenheit and cold ones in celsius

I do that, too - I suspect it is quite common.

Do you do distances in yards at all? (I do - also metres, in which I calculate fabric yardage.)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that be meterage then?

(changed for spelling)

[segh.livejournal.com]

And then there's BTUs - British Thermal Units.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm amused to see that (so far) no-one has said that they think exclusively in kilometres. I've fairly often come across fanfic written by American writers, in which they very carefully have all their British characters measure distance in kilometres, since they've read that Britain has officially gone metric. The writers do, of course, deserve top marks for trying to ensure that they use terminology that suits their characters (some writers don't bother), but it's slightly unfortunate that in this case they're... well, er... wrong.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I generally think in kilometres with one exception, and that is MPG - because that is how my car measures it...

[inamac.livejournal.com]

For the temperature one I need the option 'Neither' - I tend to think in terms of Sun Headlines - "Britain Swelters in Record Summer Temperatures!" "The Big Freeze Hits London!"

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Phew! What a scorcher!

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

[ ] Miles
[ ] Feet
[ ] Notional feet based on air pressure
[ ] Kilometres
[ ] Nautical miles
[x] All of the above, sometimes in quick succession

Did I mention how screwed up the units of distance are in aviation? :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Yep, that sounds pretty screwed up.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

You forgot sea miles (2,000 yds) and fathoms (6')

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

For the second question, I think about general weights in terms of grammes and kilogrammes, my own weight and that of normal people in stones and pounds and the weight of American football players in terms of pounds only. I don't think Americans use the stone as a measure.

[rustica.livejournal.com]

Hm.

Distances (travel): miles
Distances (astronomical): kilometers / lightyears.
Fabric : feet / yards / ells
Building & DIY: feet / inches
Most other "everyday" distances: metres
Most other small distances: centimetres

And so on... the only imperial measurement on your poll I don't use is Fahrenheit.

Basically, which one I use depends on what I'm using it *for* (and who has taught me that skill).

[asklepia.livejournal.com]

Height of people: feet and inches (though I am reasonably fast at converting to cms now)
Small distances: centimetres
Other distances: kilometres
but:
Quilting & piecing: inches
Buying fabric: metres (believe me, working out fabric requirements from a pattern is not easy at times)

Weights: kilos and grams, exclusively
Volumes: litres / mls, exclusively

Temperature: Celsius, exclusively - which means I always have a conversion chart handy for translating recipes that have oven temperatures in Fahrenheit. I still have no idea how to work out "Gas Mark 4" or what have you.