What is a stone?

Options
13

Replies

  • chatogal
    chatogal Posts: 436 Member
    Options
    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
    Options
    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
    Options
    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
    Options

    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
    Options
    A stone is 14lbs.
  • sfbaumgarten
    sfbaumgarten Posts: 912 Member
    Options
    In for cultural differences.
  • TX_Rhon
    TX_Rhon Posts: 1,549 Member
    Options
    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
    Options
    Though Google doesn't invite the cultural discussion of metric/imperial WTFery like MFP can.
  • martymum
    martymum Posts: 413 Member
    Options
    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
    Options
    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: 4,302 Member
    Options
    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
    Options
    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
    Options
    the-rolling-stones-logo.png
  • toddabrown
    toddabrown Posts: 14
    Options
    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: 9,986 Member
    Options
    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
    Options
    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
    Options
    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
    Options
    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
    Options
    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: 3,070 Member
    Options
    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

Categories