Job Discussion Forums

Teacher Lindsay · Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 393 Location: Luxian, Sichuan

To all my Canadian friends (whom am I kidding, I don't have friends of any nationality), a recent post by Capergirl has pricked my curiosity.

Why hasn't Canada adopted The International System of Units, which is more commonly referred to as The Metric System?

Surely Canada doesn't allow itself to be held back by U.S.A. policies?

Cheers

Louis · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 275 Location: Beautiful Taiyuan

Um, we do, sometimes. The height and weight of a person are generally expressed in feet and pounds, respectively. Officially, we use kilograms and metres for everything, but in conversation the old units come up quite often. We refer to a 750ml bottle of booze and a 1.14 litre bottle of booze as a 26er and a 40, respectively (ie. ounces.) Car stuff (torque, tire pressure...) is never in metric. Am I missing any?

Capergirl · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 10:05 am Post subject:

Louis is absolutely right. Officially, of course, we use the Metric System. It quite simply makes sense (boiling 100 degrees, freezing 0 degrees, etc.).

TL: Is this thread inspired by one of my jokes? Surely you don't think I penned that one myself? Okay, the limerick was mine but the others were cut and paste jobbies. Cool

Shaman · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 446 Location: Hammertown

Capergirl · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 10:28 am Post subject:

LOL Shaman. Laughing

Thirty degrees F is a bit cooler than thirty C, n'est-ce-pas?

I actually went back and deleted my feet and inches comment from my OP in this thread because I see that Louis did in fact mention "height" in his post. That's what I get for reading too quickly.

Back to the self-caffeinating! Very Happy

latefordinner · Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 973

Think of it as a work in progress. I still refer to my height as 5 feet 10, rather than 1.78 metres. I have little difficulty however in telling people that I came to China 15 kilograms ago.

Teacher Lindsay · Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 393 Location: Luxian, Sichuan

Capergirl wrote:-

Capergirl · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 12:03 pm Post subject:

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Metric ? Bah humbug !

lagerlout2006 · Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 985

Canada went to the metric system somewhere around 1979. Who are these "friends."? (Is that punctuation OK.) Anyway do you have any lobster friends?---I hear they turn red in boiling water.

I think we should have stayed on the Imperial system but that's life.

I am 5 feet 11 inches tall and 160 pounds soaking wet.. EH? Wink

And I am going tpo walk 100 miles an hour to the nearest joint that sells quarts of beer. Cool

Over.

zaneth · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 3:24 pm Post subject:

I thought you Canadians were all enlightened and worldly and we were the only ones clinging to the old system.

What I really like are the folks who weigh themselves in "stone".

And shouldn't the adjective form of USA by US? As in US Foreign Policy?

anthyp · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 1320 Location: Chicago, IL USA

If you'll excuse me for the terrible joke I'm about to make ...

I weigh about 150 lbs. now after losing quite a bit of weight. Or, as you Canadians might say, aboot.

(Yikes that joke doesn't get any better no matter how many times you repeat it.)

Ludwig

nomadder · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 4:25 pm Post subject:

I think we say aboat. Anyone else agree.

Capergirl · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 5:21 pm Post subject: