How much is a stone?

Daisy_May

I've always wondered! I read a lot of British books where I see this as well as I keep seeing it here, how much is a stone????

BerryH

It's 14lbs - the bit on the end is any other pounds. So 10 stone 3 would be 143 lbs.

Daisy_May

Can I ask where that measurement comes from, why you use it?

zydratethief

The stone was originally used for weighing agricultural commodities. Historically the number of pounds in a stone varied by commodity, and was not the same in all times and places even for one commodity.


Its not used as a legal measure of weight when buying and selling above mentioned goods, but is a common measurement for Human Body Weight !

BerryH

The UK is a bit schizophrenic over weights and measures. We're only taught metric at school. but our road signs are in miles, we weigh ourselves in stones and pounds and measure height in feet and inches. The food and drink we buy is in grams and litres, but the recipes we follow are often in pints and pounds!

We also mix up weather temperatures. If it's cold we say "Brr, it's below freezing" i.e. 0 Centigrade, and if it's hot we say "Phew, it's over 70 (Fahrenheit)"

The stone may sound archaic, but within my lifetime our per-decimal currency was 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound!

ArchyJill

The UK is a bit schizophrenic over weights and measures. We're only taught metric at school. but our road signs are in miles, we weigh ourselves in stones and pounds and measure height in feet and inches. The food and drink we buy is in grams and litres, but the recipes we follow are often in pints and pounds!

We also mix up weather temperatures. If it's cold we say "Brr, it's below freezing" i.e. 0 Centigrade, and if it's hot we say "Phew, it's over 70 (Fahrenheit)"

The stone may sound archaic, but within my lifetime our per-decimal currency was 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound!

Good grief! I am numerically challenged...I would never survive there!

westcoastSW

The UK is a bit schizophrenic over weights and measures. We're only taught metric at school. but our road signs are in miles, we weigh ourselves in stones and pounds and measure height in feet and inches. The food and drink we buy is in grams and litres, but the recipes we follow are often in pints and pounds!

We also mix up weather temperatures. If it's cold we say "Brr, it's below freezing" i.e. 0 Centigrade, and if it's hot we say "Phew, it's over 70 (Fahrenheit)"

The stone may sound archaic, but within my lifetime our per-decimal currency was 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound!

And I thought the U.S. was bad! Let alone having to combine both systems. I've always gotten a kick out of explaining American/English measurements to the eastern European kids that I used to work with every summer

zydratethief

Oddly enough ive always coped well with the differences in calculation.... and im dyscalculiac...