What is a stone?

2

Replies

  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
    I just started watching "Fat Doctor" on YouTube, which is a British TV series about obese people undergoing gastric surgery to lose weight (I'm not really interested in the surgery angle, but enjoy hearing of their struggles and successes).

    They refer to their weight in "stones", and I had to plug it into my measurement conversion app to figure out what they were talking about. If your mind has a grasp of what that measurement represents, it is a nice compact number to work with.

    Personally, with weight loss, I prefer to use pounds because every small amount of loss is obvious (it takes longer to lose a kilo than a pound). I'd hate to have to wait until I lost 14 pounds to have a change in my recorded weight!

    No you wouldn't. You'd go from 13st13 to 13st12, or whatever. Not all apps can cope with it, though, and refer to stones as if it were a decimal measure, e.g 13.5 stone which is actually 13st7.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    Use 12 hour clock plenty in the UK (I'm british, but born in Botswana and grew up in Papua New Guinea just to confuse things).
    Only really use 24 hour when doing techy stuff like programming or flying I'd say.

    Any time I hear 'ton' in the UK people are talking about tonne or 1000kg I would say.

    Technically our billion is a million million; but we're adopted the US system of it meaning a thousand million.

    Plenty of stuff is still sold in fairly imperial sizes - for instance you'll get an 8x4 sheet or wood, or 2440mmx1220mm.

    So, if "billion" is a million million, what's the word for a thousand million?
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    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.

    :huh:
    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.

    When I grew up in the states, I could never get my head around "quarter of". "Quarter to" makes much more sense. I think we said quarter past, though. Or maybe that's quarter of? Who knows.

    Perhaps it's a regional thing? The "quarter of" thing sounds alien to me. We use "quarter to" (or rather, "quarter till" ie - 15 minutes until X o'clock), and "quarter after" or "half past" around here. According to the comments on this site - http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-quarter-of.html - it seems it may be a New England thing (the midwesterner, southern, and northwesterner comments all mention that "quarter of" sounds absurd, and they only encounter it in New York or Massachusetts).
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
    So, if "billion" is a million million, what's the word for a thousand million?
    That would be a thousand million :).
    Though, google tells me it was also a 'milliard'.

    http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-61424,00.html

    It seems a lot of non-English speaking countries still use billion to mean a million million - which it seems was the original meaning some time ago.
  • chatogal
    chatogal Posts: 436 Member
    Stones is the popular metric weight term used in the UK, there are 14lbs in 1 Stone

    not metric.... but imperial!!!!
  • henriettevanittersum
    henriettevanittersum Posts: 179 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.
  • chatogal
    chatogal Posts: 436 Member
    we love our imperials in the uk - be in pounds, stones, inches, feet, pints - the metric system has just passed us by (much like euros, but lets not get into that one!)

    not in baby weights....we weigh and measure new born babies in grams/cms....then have to translate for the general UK population...tho NOT for our European immigrants!!
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,566 Member
    I'm Canadian - I think in sometimes it depends on when you were born also - when I was going to grade school the metric system was introduced but everyone at home was still using imperial measures - all my cookbooks use imperial measures so I often have to go to a converter to figure things out.

    I am getting more used to measuring my foods in grams now rather than ounces though.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,993 Member
    The English ****ed up metrics. I really wish that the US would have adopted the metric system instead of the English standard of measurements. Would have made calculations so much easier to do.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • MsMacL
    MsMacL Posts: 75 Member
    .....what do the pounds add up to?

    For me, they add up to fat. :sad:

    HA!HA! I like that. It was all getting too serious.:laugh:
  • chatogal
    chatogal Posts: 436 Member
    I think we're generally a bit muddled in the UK. I personally would weigh myself in stones and pounds, but would use 200 grams of flour in a recipe. And I might drive 3 miles, but run 5k. Our roadsigns are all in miles. And I'd tell you my height in feet and inches, but measure a parcel in centimetres. And if you tell me it's 20 degrees over there I'd have to convert it to centigrade to understand how warm or cold it was....

    Ha yes exactly! Also a pint of beer or a 250ml glass of wine :P

    oh god YESSSSS!!!!!
  • Napier_mum
    Napier_mum Posts: 88 Member
    We get a lot of TV from the US and UK here in NZ so have a reasonable understanding of all the different measures.

    We do use cups as a unit of measurement especially in baking but our cup is 250ml and I think the US cup is around 230mls/240mls? Then the imperial is something different again possibly.

    Metric is way easier for my numerically challenged brain!
  • Tigg_er
    Tigg_er Posts: 22,001 Member
    Stones is the popular metric weight term used in the UK, there are 14lbs in 1 Stone

    it isn't metric in any way shape or form, it's an imperial measure the Americans forgot.

    14 pounds in a stone, 8 stones in a hundredweight (cwt), 20 cwt in a ton.

    Ah We didn't forget stones, we use em for sidewalks and walls and such. :smokin:
  • farway
    farway Posts: 1,264 Member

    I don know if trying standards are still jumping on people for not using metric but this guy made the news:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1354395/Greengrocer-faces-court-for-refusing-to-go-metric.html

    Because of this sort of petty "jobsworth" prosecutions by Trading Standards the law was changed to allow prices to be shown in both per pound & per Kilo

    Most small traders, like greengrocers, butchers use price per pound, with the Kg price in smaller writing

    I
  • _EndGame_
    _EndGame_ Posts: 770 Member
    A stone is 14lbs.
  • sfbaumgarten
    sfbaumgarten Posts: 912 Member
    In for cultural differences.
  • TX_Rhon
    TX_Rhon Posts: 1,549 Member
    Do you not have google?

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
    I totally thought the same thing! The MPF message boards are now the new google. There should have been a msg in your inbox.
  • killerbunneh4
    killerbunneh4 Posts: 6
    Though Google doesn't invite the cultural discussion of metric/imperial WTFery like MFP can.
  • martymum
    martymum Posts: 413 Member
    all my local shops...north west uk...measure in lbs but when I lived on the south coast (yuk) everything was metric...so much easier in imperial but I have to say I bake with both and sometimes break the cardinal rule and mix and match metric and imperial in the same recipe!! hehe
  • steengod
    steengod Posts: 35 Member
    In Denmark we actually use these numbers

    Number Danish American
    10(6) Million Million
    10(9) Milliard Billion
    10(12) Billion Trillion
    10(15) Billiard Quadrillion
    10(18) Trillion Quintillion
    10(21) Trilliard Sextillion
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    Do you not have google?

    Hey, somebody asked what a great northern bean was the other day. 40 responses, yet I thought...umm...yep how about google. Interesting.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    we love our imperials in the uk - be in pounds, stones, inches, feet, pints - the metric system has just passed us by

    Depends on context, and of course generation.

    We do end up with a combination though
  • littleburgy
    littleburgy Posts: 570 Member
    the-rolling-stones-logo.png
  • toddabrown
    toddabrown Posts: 14
    Do you not have google?

    Yeah, I have google and actually googled it after I posted the question. I was thinking it was a weight loss, fitness, or mfp specific term for this community and does seems like a pretty silly question to be posting here in hindsight, but I do enjoy reading all of this dialogue about the diversity around measurement standards. By the way, thanks to MFP I can now say that I weigh less than 3 Babylonian talents, but my goal is to be under 3 Egyptian talents.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 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.

    Well, she was just an ignorant girl who never learned how to tell time (or maybe really young, and never learned time on an analog clock or watch), because "quarter past" and "quarter to" are definitely part of the American (U.S.) terminology for telling time.
  • VBnotbitter
    VBnotbitter Posts: 820 Member
    We get a lot of TV from the US and UK here in NZ so have a reasonable understanding of all the different measures.

    We do use cups as a unit of measurement especially in baking but our cup is 250ml and I think the US cup is around 230mls/240mls? Then the imperial is something different again possibly.

    Metric is way easier for my numerically challenged brain!

    I know when I lived in the states trying to make Australian recipes with measuring cups bought in the US lead to a lot of cake disasters until I worked that one out.
  • SeaTurtleJenni
    SeaTurtleJenni Posts: 58 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.

    Well, she was just an ignorant girl who never learned how to tell time (or maybe really young, and never learned time on an analog clock or watch), because "quarter past" and "quarter to" are definitely part of the American (U.S.) terminology for telling time.

    Where in America could she possibly have been from that she never learned these extremely common expressions? How did she get through grade school without even reading a book where these were used? Movies? Has she never seen Flavor Flav?
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    I bake with both and sometimes break the cardinal rule and mix and match metric and imperial in the same recipe!! hehe

    Lol. Living life on the wild side eh?
  • ali4579
    ali4579 Posts: 24 Member
    We get a lot of TV from the US and UK here in NZ so have a reasonable understanding of all the different measures.

    We do use cups as a unit of measurement especially in baking but our cup is 250ml and I think the US cup is around 230mls/240mls? Then the imperial is something different again possibly.

    Metric is way easier for my numerically challenged brain!

    I know when I lived in the states trying to make Australian recipes with measuring cups bought in the US lead to a lot of cake disasters until I worked that one out.

    Drives me batty when I go to buy measuring spoons in Australia and find the tablespoon only measures 15ml. That's a whole teaspoon I'm missing out on! (I'm guessing tablespoons are 15ml in the States?)

    I do everything metric, but as the child of a Briton, certain things are measured in imperial - most notably babies and sewing :)
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    Thanks, I guess I need to get out of the States more often.

    Haha have sympathy for us poor Brits who like to weigh ourselves in stones or pounds but our weight plates are kilos - have to get the calculators out to see if we're lifting as much as our American friends :D

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