This is from the main thread, so I thought it better to transfer here
The UK enjoys being different to everyone else and loves sticking with tradition, especially if it doesn't make a lot of sense. Obviously a metric system would make things much easier, but we would have to relearn everything and that's not for us! Especially us oldies. So, many of us stick with Lbs and ozs, £ and d (pence) (would actually prefer to keep the s. as well, but that has been taken away from us). What could make more sense than having a coinage which includes 12 pence (made up of farthings thrupences, sixpences and halfpennies) to a shilling and 20 shillings to the £ (pound) and which also included the regrettably long lost guineas, sovereigns, crowns, half crowns, groats etc?
There is, of course, the very sensible way that we measured liquids - gallons, pints, gills, fluid ounces - so much more sensible than litres and millilitres. And anyway, what does a kilometer look like compared to a mile? Are there more kilometers in a mile, or more miles in a kilometer? I know that Stornoway is 7 miles from our house, but no idea how many kilometers that is. Unfortunately, these days, we have to sell things using the metric system (EC ruled that). So we can't buy a pint or half pint of milk. The smallest quantity of milk we can buy is a half litre - not good if what you want is around the 250 ml mark - just not available anywhere that I know of.
Fuel for the car is sold in litres and that leaves many of us not sure how much we are paying for the fuel that we used to buy by the gallon (I remember my Dad getting very angry when he found he had to pay 1/6d for a gallon of petrol - that's 71/2 p in new money).
Measuring areas of land is another matter altogether and I have to admit that I don't really understand how it works. I know what 31/2 acres looks like because that's the land that we have here, but what is that in hectares? And what do rods, poles and perches look like? I do understand inches, feet and yards but links, chains and furlongs are pretty meaningless to me. Then there are the nautical measurements that my husband was very familiar with, but which were always a mystery to me (fathoms, shackles, cables, nautical miles). Some of our measurement date back to Roman times but, perhaps just as well, we have forgotten some of them - hands, palms, nails, fingers. cubits, ells, bolts, leagues.
So, I have to admit that the metric system is sensible - my husband frequently used to extol the virtues of it, but I am rather attached to the ones I understand and the ones I don't understand, I don't use anyway.