# British weight: what does "st" mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225 "2003-06-11T23:25:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/61 "2003-08-26T17:14:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*Then why have American manufacturers, without any legislative pressure at all, switched over to specifying lengths in **decimal inches**? > > And why can I walk into any hardware store and find a tape measure calibrated in **tenths of a foot**? \*\* Probably because it works well in a CAD/CAM system. Which doesn’t alter my point that, for most of us in day-to-day life, a duodecimal or hexidecimal base works better much of the time. I’m not arguing that English is superior to metric in all circumstances, only that the supposed superiority of metric is not so compelling as to warrant, all by itself, converting if you do not already use it. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/62 "2003-08-26T19:14:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mascaroni \* > \*\*We weigh ourselves in _Stones_ and pounds… > Maybe sometimes in pounds. > > Never in Kilos. \*\* Not quite true … the British medical profession _always_ weigh in kilos and measure height, etc., in metres. I was told in hospital this is to facilitate the correct calculation of dosages, etc., which come in metric measures. Julie ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/63 "2003-08-26T23:06:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\*Not so. The pound is the British unit of weight, but there’s a different British unit for mass: the slug. (Pretty little name, in’it? them Brits with their quaintness and all.) > > From [Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics](http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Slug.html): While I admit that the slug isn’t very well known, with weight being confused with mass, our buddy Eric Weisstein is rather snuffy about that as well, […]:So there. > 😃 \*\* If we’re being nitpicking, the pound is _a_ British unit of weight, and slug is _a_ British unit of mass. When have you ever known us use just one unit for anything? I assure you giving masses in pounds[-mass] is astronomically more prevalent than giving them in slugs. As snotty as he is, Eric defines pounds-mass as well as pounds-weight, and in fact recommends using the qualifier for both. I think this justifies my assertion that “Imperial uses pounds for both.” So there 😃 BTW, it is obvious that I’m just trying to wriggle out of admitting I make an imprecise and technically false statement about a page ago, right? Don’t worry, I’m eating humble pie in my head, but I’m determined to fight this one to the end. It’s a matter of pride now. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/64 "2003-08-26T23:20:36Z")
Interesting (at least to me as curator at this British Coast Artillery Fort in Canada) is the fact that our British-made 1890s 6-inch gun barrels are marked by weight, for example: **4 - 19 - 0 - 6** which means 4 long tons, 19 cwt (hundredweight), zero quarterweight (which is two stone, incidentally), and 6 pounds. Well done Ellswick Ordnance Company! ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/65 "2003-08-27T01:39:14Z")
Okay, for the decimal inches, I can see how that might be appealing to the CAD/CAM designers sitting safely behind their desks. But the tenths of a foot on a tape measure? Carpenters and construction workers have to use these things every day. Presumably, this means that having to measure out “ten point eight feet” of something – and having to relay this information from the paper to the guy reading the paper to the guy that has to use the measurement – is every bit as easy as having to measure out “ten feet nine inches” of something. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/66 "2003-08-27T15:58:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rodd Hill \* > \*\*our British-made 1890s 6-inch gun barrels are marked by weight, for example: > > **4 - 19 - 0 - 6** which means 4 long tons, 19 cwt (hundredweight), zero quarterweight (which is two stone, incidentally), and 6 pounds.\*\* What, no cloves? ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/67 "2003-08-27T22:21:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shrinking Violet \* > \*\*Not quite true … the British medical profession _always_ weigh in kilos and measure height, etc., in metres. I was told in hospital this is to facilitate the correct calculation of dosages, etc., which come in metric measures. > > Julie \*\* by “we”, I meant the British people as individuals. A nurse might spend his/her whole day weighing people in kilos, but when he/she gets gets home the only things on the scales that count are stones and pounds… Sun headline: ‘Phew, What A Scorcher… 37c at Bournemouth’ We’ve got the best of both worlds… ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/68 "2003-08-28T21:07:21Z")
Do y’all still have to worry about Fahrenheit over on that side of the pond? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/69 "2003-08-28T21:18:56Z")
I don’t think we do much worrying about it. Weather forecasters give the temperature in Celsius and just add a translation for those of us more familiar with the old scale. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/70 "2003-08-28T22:45:50Z")
According to [this highly anti-metric article](http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Metrication/british_drag_feet.htm), a shopkeeper in Englad can be fined up to £5,000 for weighing goods in pounds and ounces rather than in kilograms. Can the government take action against you even if you weigh things in dual units, i.e. both ounces and grams? ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/71 "2003-08-28T23:43:27Z")
The reason that a survey foot is 12.000024 long is because, before 1960, the US inch was equal to 1.000012 modern US inches. Why is that the case? In 1960 (or 1959), the US Standard System of measurement was redefined (to some extent) to be a variation of the SI. The US “statute” inch was legally redefined to be 2.54 centimeters, _exactly_. Before then, it had actually been slightly longer. In matters of ordinary commerce, the difference wasn’t so large that it wouldn’t self-adjust as old equipment was replaced. However, the US Geological Survey had a lot of work done under the old standard. Two choices: Either re-calibrate all the maps or define a “survey inch” at 1.000021 statute inches. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/72 "2003-08-29T00:26:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*According to [this highly anti-metric article](http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Metrication/british_drag_feet.htm), a shopkeeper in Englad can be fined up to ?5,000 for weighing goods in pounds and ounces rather than in kilograms. > > Can the government take action against you even if you weigh things in dual units, i.e. both ounces and grams? \*\* No, in the UK weight’s are generally given in both imperial and metric. There are good reason for the fines as 1) Imperial only equipment is not standard euipment which means the shopkeeper could be on the fiddle 2) Johnny Foreigner and younger Brits like me who were taught only the metric system at school may have little idea of how much each imperial measurement is, which is inconvient and presents another oppurtunity for the shopkeeper to fiddle us out of our mooler. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/73 "2003-08-29T00:27:40Z")
opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225/74 "2003-08-29T00:55:46Z")
WWNY-TV in Watertown NY and CKWS-TV in Kingston, Ontario, about 40 miles apart and serving much the same audience, customarily give the temperatures in the official units for the two countries, so that Watertown might be 72 and Kingston 22 in summer, or Watertown 15 and Kingston -10 in winter. (And amusingly the weathermen never mention that the temperatures are on two different scales.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-weight-what-does-st-mean/181225.md?page=3)