I approximate a mile at 5,000 feet.
I also approximate a meter to be 3 feet, so a thousand meters (kilometer) comes out to 3,000 feet. or 3/5ths the distance of a mile. The kilometer is therefore, by approximation, a shorter distance than a mile.

1 mile = 5279.69 feet
1 kilometer (km) = 3280.8 feet
1 kilometer = .6214 mile


But then I know how to use and read the converter on my phone.

If the school where the teacher didn't know that a kilometer was less than a mile and the child was suspended for being correct is in the United States, then it is easier to understand why American children are falling behind educationally.

Americans are only given a cursory glance at metric measurements. I've been watching how they're learning. However, from what I can see with my own children who are truly bilingual French English and went to school in both places, it is really tough to learn the other system once you've been brought up on metric. I am fairly good and in fact, know square meters way better than I do square feet for houses or rooms.

Bruyere, that's because metric is based on the nice ten system. The other one is a bunch of random numbers strung together and labeled a measuring system.

You mean 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in yard, 1760 yards in a mile isn't easy to remember?

Or 2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, 4 quarts in a gallon...

...and then there's those pesky ounces that I never can remember...

And to think, if Jefferson had won the day, the USA would have been the first to introduce the metric system (or a close representation of it)....

see http://metricationmatters.com/docs/USAMetricSystemHistory.pdf for the story (the author was a friend of mine who sadly passed away a couple of years ago)

Actually the other systems are not as random as they appear next to the metric system. They're all based on some arbitrary measurement to give an idea to someone else in words with something they know. Horses measured in hands, the inch was the first joint of your thumb, feet were pretty much the same size.
The French use the old systems for a few things still. The older folks used to use 'une livre' for oranges when I lived there in the eighties my first stay. That's because they didn't need a kilo of oranges.

I think that we have a hodgepodge of many different units of measurement in the English/American world and now people are resisting the metric as it's one more thing to remember. I think I had to 'live it' before I got used to it.

Prior to 15th February 1971 we also had to work in 'old money' which was certainly a challenge for children.

Our coinage was...

4 farthings to 1 penny (still in use when I was a child)
2 halfpennies to 1 penny, that would be prounounced as a 'hapeknee'
A penny which were 12 to a shilling and 240 to the pound
Threepenny piece which was 4 to the shilling, known as thruppence or thruppenny piece
Sixpence were 24 to the pound, known sometimes as a tanner
Shillings were worth 12 pennies, could be a 'bob'
Florins were 24 pence and ten to the pound
Half crowns were 30 pennies, aka known as two and sixpence and were 8 to the pound
Crowns were legal tender but only really commemorative and not in general use
Ten shilling notes eventually replaced by the 50p coin shortly before decimalisation
One pound notes

Changing to decimal money made calculations easy but some of us still think in old money at times. A small bar of Cadbury's chocolate was 6d, that is how sixpence was written, so 2.5p in today's money. I look at the price of one now and cringe.

When it comes to other measurements, be it weight or distance, or fluids, I work in both systems but favour the old system. I still think of a pint of milk or a half pound of butter.

Sue, you forgot the guinea. 21 shillings.

That coinage system seems so confusing. I prefer my penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and dollar. Sometimes with a fancy 50 cent piece thrown in.

Indeed I did, that was a crafty pricing ploy which was still used until decimalisation, one would often see clothing priced at perhaps five and a half guineas, it sounded less than saying £5.15s.6d.

Junior school arithmetic was a nightmare and not a calculator in sight.

Do they still teach tables at school and if so do they still go up to 12x ? I am wondering if there is any need to go beyond 10x now since we are decimal.

I can't work out this newfangled decimal money at all, I keep hoping they'll change their minds and bring £sd back.

Those coin systems y'all had in the UK confuse me. When I think of a penny, I think of 100 to a dollar (or pound Sterling), not 240.

I'd heard of the halfpenny (from an old poem) and tuppence (got to love having watched Mary Poppins). The only mention to sixpence I'd heard was from "Sing a Song of Sixpence"! The shilling I'd heard from A Christmas Carol (first rendition I'd seen of that was with Mickey Mouse playing Bob Cratchit and Scrooge McDuck playing Scrooge).

I can convert some imperial to metric, back when we were taught the difference between the two methods. I tend to lean toward the imperial measurements, just because I'm more accustomed to them, but can use metric if needed. Most soft drinks are done in ounces, up to 20 or 24, then they are more in liters after that (1, 1.5, 2, or in rare cases, 3).

I still find it easier to convert decimal pence to old fashioned shillings and pence for mental calculations, but thanks to inflation these amounts are really meaningless. If I want to know how much cash I'm carrying, I'll count the notes in my wallet: I won't bother with the small change in my pocket. But as Sue points out, "small" change used to count for something: a tanner could buy you a small bar of chocolate. When I started drinking (at a perfectly legal age), a shilling and a tanner would get me a pint of bitter. So we calculated accurately because we had to: if you were overcharged by a few pence, you were definitely worse off.

I bought some eggs yesterday. Okay, so they were Marks & Sparks eggs, and they were free range but when I was a child free range was the only sort of eggs there were. Anyway, six eggs, medium size, cost £1.35 which is 22.5p per egg. Or, in old money, 4s6d. Four shillings and sixpence for ONE egg. I can hear my mother turning in her grave. If she'd gone on keeping chickens after rationing stopped we might have been rich!

That's rather more than one used to pay for a dozen. When I was dragged out shopping with my mother, I think the usual price in Sainsbury's was about 3s 9d a dozen (threepence three-farthings each, three and nine a dozen). But then, I don't suppose my mother ever had much more than a fiver a week to keep house on in those days.

That is exactly my thoughts before seeing your post Tom, eggs were definitely under 4/- per dozen.

Of course back then there was also fixed pricing by manufacturers and little or no inflation, washing powder was 1/10d for the normal large box and this amount would actually be printed on the box. Inflation really kicked in on 15th February 1971 when many businesses just removed the / in their pricing of goods so the shepherds pie in the pub which had cost 1/9d suddenly became 19p.

The dating system needs metrification. Who can keep track of whether on the 30th of the month tomorrow is the day to flip the page on the calendar or not? And then there's the odd cousin February and even then you have to remember which year it is because you might have to add a day. For the young there is no rhyme nor reason to the naming and duration of the months. I propose we go First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth with each month having 60 days, except for the Sixth which gets 6 extra (holidays) for being sixth. And to account for the 3/4 day overage, we subtract 3 days off the First every 4 years, starting First on the fourth day so we can avoid the New Year's Day hangovers. During the conversion period ladies, think of how many years you could shave off your ages!

That sounds a bit like the French Revolutionary calendar of twelve 30-day months with a five- or six-day holiday period tagged on to the end. Although the French metric system caught on, the calendar never did.

The French 'metric' calendar did last a few years before it was scrapped. What was never accepted was the metric day of ten hours. You can find some interesting images of the clocks and watches that were made simply by googling 'French metric clock image'.

The lunar calendar wasn't such a bad idea. Think of it this way, a full term pregnancy is 280 days or exactly ten moon term. With our calendar though it's nine and a half months.

I remember story problems being a nightmare of uncharted territory with all the conversions. Even feet to yards etc! Or feet to inches.

As to currency, most French people in the eighties dated themselves by speaking in 'francs anciens' or nouveaux. Older people would get confused as you had lots more zeros before it converted in the seventies. Most of the post war generation still used the old system for large sums, like the price of a home as well as slang for that price. Then came the Euro which for very old people was the coup de grace. It was really confusing for them.

Yes, I remember the changeover in France. They kept the old banknote designs for several years. So my wallet would have identical banknotes with portraits of Victor Hugo and Cardinal Richelieu, but some of them would show the value as 500 or 1,000 francs and others would show 5 or 10 francs. I always found it easier to count as most people did, in old francs: my portrait of Richelieu was a "billet de mille".

Often it's best not to do that ...

After all, a first-class inland letter now costs 63p which is about 12s. 7d. (!) in pre-decimal money. Even with the high rates of inflation we've had in Britain that really takes some beating. I remember the days when the main distinction was between ordinary post and printed matter and an ordinary inland letter cost 2½d (until 1960, I think) - just marginally more than 1p - and no, I'm not kidding. (If I remember rightly you could even send a letter at that rate to anywhere in the British Commonwealth and Empire, though the letter was sent by surface mail).

I can certainly remember it costing 3d and the horror of it increasing to 4d. You could mail a letter before 9am and it would be delivered in the same town at about 11am. I don't remember when they stopped the second deliveries but they were useful, paticularly on 14th February if you received a card and hadn't sent one to that person! Also, if you went to the 'main' post office there was a list on the wall telling you the latest posting time for next day delivery in various parts of the country, you could post letters up to about 10pm for next day delivery.

The postal service in the UK went to pot when they introduced the two-tiered system, 1st and 2nd class. A few years ago they tried that here in Jersey and needless to say we voted with our feet, if something was urgent we delivered it by hand rather than pay the additional postage. As if they thought that a two-tiered system would work in an island which is 9 miles by 5! After about a year it was disbanded and went back to a single tier system. Well how stupid, it must have cost a lot of money to separate the mail and it just annoyed us.

I remember... swearing that when I got old I'd never say things like "I remember..."

I remember when one or other of my Cornish aunts would send us a postcard early in the morning saying "something for you on the two o'clock train" - we would get the card late morning and speculate all through lunch what was on the train this time: some of Aunt Mabel's peaches from her fan-trained tree (a miracle of horticulture and Cornish sunshine)? or maybe a saffron cake? or some pasties? We would eat lunch and dash to the train station and when the train arrived the guard would hand over a carefully wrapped parcel and a tin. The tin always contained the same thing - a quart of clotted cream for my mother. Sometimes, oh the excitement, the goodies would be accompanied by one of the aunts who would have time for a cup of tea in the station buffet before hopping back on board to finish the journey to London.