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Comment by the_unknown | Hacker News Reader

Hearing Fahrenheit in Toronto does surprise me on the few occasions that it happens (usually either retirement-age seniors or American visitors).

Recently I noticed the medical profession has come on board with cm/kilos for measurement which is pretty surprising since hearing inches/pounds is still fairly common.

Having grown up in the 70s and 80s I still find I float between the two fairly easily but I sure did find Scotland confusing last time I visited - as a metric country they sure do a lot of things non-metricy.

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Scotland (as part of Britain) is not metric as far as I know. The imperial measurement system was created by the British after all. The rest of the EU is metric, but not Britain.

Britain, including Scotland, is Metric. The fact that metrication happened in the 60s means people of a certain age describe the weather in both F or C, depending on the situation. The UK is certainly unique in the EU for its exceptions which include the use of miles per hour for speeds, miles for distances and, for example, 'pints' for beer. But much EU legislation on the sale of goods has been enshrined in UK law and means that most items have to be sold in metric units of weight/volume etc.

> The UK is certainly unique in the EU for its exceptions which include the use of miles per hour for speeds, miles for distances and, for example, 'pints' for beer.

Given that all official road signs for distances and speed limits in Britain are still in miles, I can't accept that it is a metric country.

We (Scotland / UK) are metric for almost everything - science/engineering, medicine, quantities of food etc.

There are a few exceptions in more human measurements - beer is measured in pints, burgers and steaks in ounces, distances on roads in miles and personal dimensions in feet and inches, barleycorns and stones.

I don't think you can blame the UK for the imperial system: that goes back as far as Rome at least.

I think you are correct, interesting history here: http://www.metric.org.uk/myths/imperial#imperial-was-invente...

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