Post by @tiggy@mastodonapp.uk

2026-09-27 12:38 UTC

@SteveClough@metalhead.club @John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot I have both pints and litres of milk in my fridge. Eggs are still sold in 6s or 12s. Fabric was sold by length in metres but width in inches for a while but is now fully metric. Meanwhile many children don't know what clockwise means because they only use digital clocks. I think one reason younger people have more problems with arithmetic isn't just they can do it all online but also that as young children we had to be able to use £sd, weird weight measures, use analogue clocks, etc.

Replies (3)

@munki@stranger.social 2026-09-27 12:56

@tiggy@mastodonapp.uk @SteveClough@metalhead.club @John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot I remember working for a fashion company, and a staff member only worked in (UK) imperial measures, but put in a request to a European supplier (accidentally) in metric. I wish she'd ordered in single figures, rather than "ice cream style" - in hundreds and thousands...

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@eyebee@mstdn.social 2026-09-30 19:06

@tiggy@mastodonapp.uk @SteveClough@metalhead.club @John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot I go into my local pub. I buy a pint of beer. After I have drunk it, I decide to leave, but take a bottle of the same beer home with me. However, I’m then sold a 500ml bottle. Both are legal measures. The draught beer has to be sold as a pint, half pint or third of a pint, but not metric. That only applies to said bottle.

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@JdeBP@mastodonapp.uk 2026-10-01 00:58

@tiggy@mastodonapp.uk One of the things that really brought the point home about how nonsensical the 'It's too difficult to switch over!' claim is, was a documentary that I saw on Channel 4 in the 1980s (if memory serves). After all of the fuss beforehand in the usual newspapers about the 'old people' never being able to manage Decimalization, and that famously stupid request to let them die out first, the documentary makers set up a market stall with everything priced in £sd, and challenged people to calculate prices and make change. No-one, young or old, could cope. All of the 'old people' had in fact switched over to decimal currency with the same ease as everyone else, and even by the end of the 1970s it had become a non-issue. @SteveClough@metalhead.club @John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot #DecimalCurrency #metric

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