What is a stone?

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Replies

  • smc864
    smc864 Posts: 570 Member
    American here... although the metric system would be more practical to implement I think we'd all lose our minds if they did away with imperial. When I read posts on MFP by people using stones or kg I always have to bust out the calculator and convert my weight to those units to try to relate, or vice versa.

    I do like the idea of using stones though. It is a nice short term goal to lose a stone. Easy way to break up your weight loss into sections.
  • otillie03103
    otillie03103 Posts: 107 Member
    I prefer to measure everything in grams or milliliters (I'm in Canada), but because I live near the US, I am familiar with their units and can enlighten you about the 'cup' thing: it's 250 mLs. (And for some reason they use it for solids, such as flour, as well as for liquids.) It's used fairly extensively in Canada as well, but on our packaging, anything where the serving size is in cups will usually also have the milliliters or grams in parentheses.

    Wouldn't this be more like 240 mLs?? 30 mLs per ounce and a cup is 8 ounces...I am an RN and while working in my job, that is how I would measure it.
  • ActuarialChef
    ActuarialChef Posts: 1,413 Member
    I rarely use the 24 hour clock, if I'm talking I'd say 2 o clock. I was working out in the states a couple of years ago and the one thing that really used to confuse them was we'd arrange to meet at half 7 a lot, took them a while to realise this was half past 7, or 7.30. One girl thought we were expressing 3.30 in a strange way!!

    I used to work with an American girl here in the UK and we had to explain what we meant by "a quarter past" or " a quarter to" when telling the time.

    Not all Americans don't understand the "quarter past" and "quarter to" - I am American and know full well that "quarter past 10" means 10:15 and "quarter to 4" means 3:45.
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
    I always have to bust out the calculator and convert my weight to those units to try to relate, or vice versa.

    If you don't know, you can put it into google - if you put in say
    181lb in stone
    It'll show the result, though with a decimal after the stone.
    The other way works with lb, so you do...
    13 stone 1lb in lb

    You can also do more complex things. For instance working out how much a journey will cost me, I can put in...
    1.33*253 miles / 70 miles per imperial gallon
    And it will tell me a value in litres - in this case multiplied by 1.33 which is the price per litre so it's how much I would pay.
  • ActuarialChef
    ActuarialChef Posts: 1,413 Member
    I always have to bust out the calculator and convert my weight to those units to try to relate, or vice versa.

    If you don't know, you can put it into google - if you put in say
    181lb in stone
    It'll show the result, though with a decimal after the stone.
    The other way works with lb, so you do...
    13 stone 1lb in lb

    You can also do more complex things. For instance working out how much a journey will cost me, I can put in...
    1.33*253 miles / 70 miles per imperial gallon
    And it will tell me a value in litres - in this case multiplied by 1.33 which is the price per litre so it's how much I would pay.

    I love google.
  • toddabrown
    toddabrown Posts: 14
    Hey Hey, I just weighed myself. Just passed my first stone!
  • girldownsouth
    girldownsouth Posts: 920 Member
    Hey Hey, I just weighed myself. Just passed my first stone!

    Good for you - feels great when you hit the stone mark!! Next you'll find yourself inexplicably drinking lots of tea or something.
  • farway
    farway Posts: 1,253 Member
    Hey Hey, I just weighed myself. Just passed my first stone!

    Good for you - feels great when you hit the stone mark!! Next you'll find yourself inexplicably drinking lots of tea or something.

    As long as you do not get a taste for fish & chips or that stone will be back PDQ
  • toddabrown
    toddabrown Posts: 14
    Hey Hey, I just weighed myself. Just passed my first stone!

    Good for you - feels great when you hit the stone mark!! Next you'll find yourself inexplicably drinking lots of tea or something.

    As long as you do not get a taste for fish & chips or that stone will be back PDQ

    Oh man, plenty of fish & chips here in New England, how good would that be? Yum, battered and wrapped in newspaper, smother it all in tarter sauce. Tea sounds do-able though, especially if it comes with a long afternoon break from work everyday.
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
    Not allowed newspaper these days.

    You might just get it wrapped in specific fish and chip wrapping paper THEN in newspaper, but generally not.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Wouldn't this be more like 240 mLs?? 30 mLs per ounce and a cup is 8 ounces...I am an RN and while working in my job, that is how I would measure it.

    yes, 240 ml sounds more likely - 16 tablespoons of 15 ml.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    Stones is the popular metric weight term used in the UK, there are 14lbs in 1 Stone

    A metric pound is 500 grams, here in North America a pound is 454 grams... to add to the confusion.

    Hence the metric ton joke for Fat B*astard in the Austin Powers movies. :laugh:

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