What the Eff is a stone?

2

Replies

  • Sinisterly
    Sinisterly Posts: 10,913 Member
    Sorcerer's stone...

    Lfvr2Uw.png
  • adorable_aly
    adorable_aly Posts: 398 Member
    Sorcerer's stone...

    Lfvr2Uw.png

    Now in England that's called the Philosopher's stone.
  • Sreneesa
    Sreneesa Posts: 1,170 Member
    Should have googled harder.


    My exact thoughts. lol
  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
    This thread has inspired me to bring back the term "fortnight." This is happening.
  • Sinisterly
    Sinisterly Posts: 10,913 Member
    Sorcerer's stone...

    Lfvr2Uw.png

    Now in England that's called the Philosopher's stone.
    I'll trade you 14 pounds for it, but then you'd get money, instead :laugh:
  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
    Sorcerer's stone...

    Lfvr2Uw.png

    Now in England that's called the Philosopher's stone.
    I'll trade you 14 pounds for it, but then you'd get money, instead :laugh:

    I see what you did there! :smile:
  • adorable_aly
    adorable_aly Posts: 398 Member
    Sorcerer's stone...

    Lfvr2Uw.png

    Now in England that's called the Philosopher's stone.
    I'll trade you 14 pounds for it, but then you'd get money, instead :laugh:

    Haha. Oh to be English.
  • mbitely2004
    mbitely2004 Posts: 66 Member
    .It would appear from the OP that the poster was/is not aware that other countries use different units of measure. Being all, "why the Eff to people use this or that unit of measure" is classic "Murica, **** yeah" type of comment. It is ignorance, and being an American and all....and a well traveled one, I find it annoying that so many of us in the U.S. are completely ignorant of other people's customs and cultures.

    I definitely know that other countries use other measurements, however the one person I have seen use this was an American, and I thought when things (humans) in Britain that it was measured in kg, I had never heard of stones. Im not ignorant of other peoples customs and cultures, I just dont know everything. I for one may not be "well traveled" but that does not mean I'm completely ignorant.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    In the UK retailers all have to use grams now instead of oz. and liquids are in ml. Most people know their weight in stones and their height in feet and inches (unless they are nurses then they use kg and cm). BUT our road signs and speedometers still use miles and mph??!!

    But we have to buy our fuel by the litre - even though we measure our consumption in mpg!!! We move very slowly and reluctantly to metric.
  • anchiel
    anchiel Posts: 9
    In other strange measurement inquiries, what is a th? I was looking up meatloaf portions and that came up - no idea what it's referring to.
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    In the UK retailers all have to use grams now instead of oz. and liquids are in ml. Most people know their weight in stones and their height in feet and inches (unless they are nurses then they use kg and cm). BUT our road signs and speedometers still use miles and mph??!!

    But we have to buy our fuel by the litre - even though we measure our consumption in mpg!!! We move very slowly and reluctantly to metric.

    The move from MPH and Miles to Kilometers will be very slow, if it ever happens. The cost of moving to Kg and g in shops was borne by the retailer, the move to metric on the road would cost the government a lot of money and they haven't got money to waste, I mean how would they get to pay their second mortgages on expenses if they wasted it on new road signs?
  • fitgirlandfoodie
    fitgirlandfoodie Posts: 1,014 Member
    This thread has inspired me to bring back the term "fortnight." This is happening.

    wait..what?..did it ever go anywhere?? We use it all the time in Ireland....
  • QueenBishOTUniverse
    QueenBishOTUniverse Posts: 14,121 Member
    In the UK retailers all have to use grams now instead of oz. and liquids are in ml. Most people know their weight in stones and their height in feet and inches (unless they are nurses then they use kg and cm). BUT our road signs and speedometers still use miles and mph??!!

    But we have to buy our fuel by the litre - even though we measure our consumption in mpg!!! We move very slowly and reluctantly to metric.

    At least you're moving. Here in 'Murica we like to crash multibillion dollar Mars landers because we can't be bothered to mark our units and refuse to use metric outside of the sciences.
  • Mummysskinnymission
    Mummysskinnymission Posts: 91
    In the UK retailers all have to use grams now instead of oz. and liquids are in ml. Most people know their weight in stones and their height in feet and inches (unless they are nurses then they use kg and cm). BUT our road signs and speedometers still use miles and mph??!!

    But we have to buy our fuel by the litre - even though we measure our consumption in mpg!!! We move very slowly and reluctantly to metric.

    The move from MPH and Miles to Kilometers will be very slow, if it ever happens. The cost of moving to Kg and g in shops was borne by the retailer, the move to metric on the road would cost the government a lot of money and they haven't got money to waste, I mean how would they get to pay their second mortgages on expenses if they wasted it on new road signs?


    ^^^^^ dont forget there orgies in hotel rooms and luxury holidays ahha
  • litchfieldd
    litchfieldd Posts: 43 Member
    I'm British but I find stones, pounds, feet, inches etc pretty hard to use without converting to metric. MPH is simply keeping the car dial to the numbers on the signs, but I walk and run in km! But I'll fight anyone trying to take my pint of beer!!
  • Sharonmdenham
    Sharonmdenham Posts: 163 Member
    From what I understand its a weight measurement? Am I right? Why use stones not lbs?

    Why are you so rude in your title question? It shouldn't matter but if you need to know it is a measurement the British people use to measure their weight.

    To all the British people out there, I apologize for the ignorance and rudeness of this fellow American. Not all Americans are ignorant and rude, most are fairly intelligent and don't act like they are better than other people of other nations.
  • tappae
    tappae Posts: 568 Member
    At least you're moving. Here in 'Murica we like to crash multibillion dollar Mars landers because we can't be bothered to mark our units and refuse to use metric outside of the sciences.

    At work, we weigh all of our patients in pounds, and then immediately convert it to kilos, which we use for all the dosage calculations, etc. This seems so pointless to me. We never use the pounds for anything (except maybe when talking to the owners). I can't change the larger scale, but I set the smaller scale on kilos, thinking this would save us a step. The boss told me I had to change it back because some of my coworkers were weighing the patients and then writing the kilos down on the line for pounds. How could you place an 11-pound cat on a scale and then write down that it weighs 5 pounds? How could they not tell the difference?
  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
    This thread has inspired me to bring back the term "fortnight." This is happening.

    wait..what?..did it ever go anywhere?? We use it all the time in Ireland....

    I love that!
  • Slacker16
    Slacker16 Posts: 1,184 Member
    I'm British but I find stones, pounds, feet, inches etc pretty hard to use without converting to metric. MPH is simply keeping the car dial to the numbers on the signs, but I walk and run in km! But I'll fight anyone trying to take my pint of beer!!
    Fun fact, the US pint is different from the (traditional) British pint.

    US pint = ~480 ml
    UK pint = ~570 ml
  • QueenBishOTUniverse
    QueenBishOTUniverse Posts: 14,121 Member
    At least you're moving. Here in 'Murica we like to crash multibillion dollar Mars landers because we can't be bothered to mark our units and refuse to use metric outside of the sciences.

    At work, we weigh all of our patients in pounds, and then immediately convert it to kilos, which we use for all the dosage calculations, etc. This seems so pointless to me. We never use the pounds for anything (except maybe when talking to the owners). I can't change the larger scale, but I set the smaller scale on kilos, thinking this would save us a step. The boss told me I had to change it back because some of my coworkers were weighing the patients and then writing the kilos down on the line for pounds. How could you place an 11-pound cat on a scale and then write down that it weighs 5 pounds? How could they not tell the difference?

    LOL, it does always amaze me how many people can't approximate the weight of an object, but not being able to tell the difference between an 11 pound cat and a 5 pound cat..... yikes.
  • jeslaughter
    jeslaughter Posts: 131 Member
    From what I understand its a weight measurement? Am I right? Why use stones not lbs?

    Why use lbs and not Kgs? :tongue:
    ^^^^^:drinker:
  • litchfieldd
    litchfieldd Posts: 43 Member
    I'm British but I find stones, pounds, feet, inches etc pretty hard to use without converting to metric. MPH is simply keeping the car dial to the numbers on the signs, but I walk and run in km! But I'll fight anyone trying to take my pint of beer!!
    Fun fact, the US pint is different from the (traditional) British pint.

    US pint = ~480 ml
    UK pint = ~570 ml

    Its a crucial 90 ml too :)
  • jeslaughter
    jeslaughter Posts: 131 Member
    if you google what is a stone its not very helpful........ lol considering its a rock.

    Then google a convernsion chart. You can assume when someone says they "weigh **stone" that it's a measurement.

    GOOGLE HARDER.

    ^lol, this. Clearly, people are not weighing themselves with rocks. :laugh:
    Ah but would you not think that it was how they came up with the "stone" way of measurement using stones or rocks!
  • BlueButterfly94
    BlueButterfly94 Posts: 303 Member
    I thought it was 12lbs :o Well I was wrong xD This thread is helpful
  • laineybz
    laineybz Posts: 704 Member
    Im british and i have been brought up with stone and lbs but since using this site i speak to friends in lbs and they haven't got a clue what im on about hahah the english way i suppose

    Same here.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    My ridiculous Americans don't get metric story (by American I mean me, of course).

    Back in summer '04 I was running and swimming a lot, running races, etc., and was also having trouble sleeping whenever I was kind of stressed. One early morning around 3 am I couldn't sleep and decided to watch a bit of the summer Olympics. Turned on the TV and saw there was some longer running race on, which was the kind of thing I was most interested in. So I starting watching and noticed it was described as a 5000 m race. Hmm, I thought, wonder how long that is in a unit of measurement I understand. Well, I knew a meter was similar to a yard, since 100 m and 100 yard pools were about the same, so in my head I figured that it was about 5000 divided by three or about 1700 feet. And I happened to recall that there are 5280 feet to a mile, so that meant it was about 3 miles, which I understood and also knew was about a 5K. Followed, of course, by the realization that 5000 m is, of course, a 5K.
  • SrJoben
    SrJoben Posts: 484 Member
    if you google what is a stone its not very helpful........ lol considering its a rock.

    False.

    If you Google "What is a stone" it presents you with a dictionary listing, which includes it's use as a weight measurement.

    Right below that the math tool presents in large type the information that 1 stone = 6.35 kilograms.

    Below that is the first web search result which is the Wikipedia page for "Stone (Unit)"
    You don't even need to click the link, the preview text alone again tells you that it's 14 pounds.

    If you just Google the word "Stone" the first result is still that Wikipedia page.

    You literally can't Google this without learning the correct answer.
  • GardenGirlie
    GardenGirlie Posts: 241 Member
    It's a great big world we live in.....and believe it or not it is not just about us Americans. LOL
  • PJPrimrose
    PJPrimrose Posts: 916 Member
    I wish everyone would just go to Metric and be done with it! (USA).
    The world is shrinking and we need to be on the same page, so to speak. It's used in marketing and sciences. Everyone is familiar with it so let's just go with it! Even an American that has never left their hometown knows what a liter of soda is!
  • aka_Kamalevantis
    aka_Kamalevantis Posts: 133
    The stone is a unit of measure equal to 14lb used in Great Britain and Ireland for measuring human body weight.

    In many Northwestern European countries the stone was formerly used for trade, though its value ranged from about 5 to 40 local pounds. With the advent of the metric system from the mid-19th century on, it was superseded by the kilogram. It remained in limited use for trade in the United Kingdom and in Ireland until prohibited by the Weights and Measures Act.

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