[dworth]

The situation in Britain is quite bizarre with regard to this. We used Imperial measurements for centuries and then metric was introduced relatively recently. Since this was an initiative from the EU it was resisted by some as being 'foreign' and to be honest, most people thought in Imperial anyway and it's too ingrained in the language and culture to change overnight.

Except that the school system only teaches metric. The result is that people my age think in both for different things. I weigh sugar in kilos but people in stones. I measure tiny things in millimetres, small things in centimetres, then inches, feet, metres and miles.

You see this inconsistency applied in the real world. Swimming pools have their lengths measured in metres, but depths measured in feet. Signs on the motorway tell you that the turn off you want is so many miles away. Get closer and it may give the distance in metres. Cars have their speeds in miles per hour, but the petrol tank gauges show litres. if you buy food it will be sold in metric, but in amounts that correspond to exact imperial amounts (things are often sold in multiples of 454g which equals one imperial pound). Beer is served in pints in pubs, but in metric if you buy it in a can.