# Outside of science, are most metric measurement units never used? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190 "2019-02-25T17:50:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/21 "2019-02-25T23:03:28Z")
In Israel and several other Middle Eastern countries, the dunam is used for measuring land - it’s equal to 1,000 square meters, or 1/10th of a hectare. ---
**Author:** ![Didactylos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Didactylos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didactylos)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/22 "2019-02-25T23:07:24Z")
Deciliter (dl) is a very common unit in recipes here in Denmark. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/23 "2019-02-25T23:25:29Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > That would be the **milli** helen. Because 1 Helen = 1000 ships. Thank you for that. It’s been a long day. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/24 "2019-02-25T23:59:00Z")
On programs about obesity from the UK, they always use the measurement ‘stone’ when discussing the weight of your bigger Brits. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/25 "2019-02-26T00:20:49Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Thank you for that. It’s been a long day. Americans will never learn the metric system. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/26 "2019-02-26T01:36:32Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I hear the word “furlong” mentioned three times a year: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. I don’t know what a “rod” is. > > And whatever anyone thinks a “cord” of wood is, they’re probably wrong. And that country guy who tells you he has a cord of firewood in the back of his pickup, he’s definitely lying. 4’x4’x8’ of neatly stacked wood is a cord (whether it is lumber, logs, or firewood). A “face” cord is a stack of firewood 4’ high by 8’ long one facing deep (12" to 16" long pieces, typically), thus a face cord is 1/4 to 1/3 of a full cord. For a full cord, firewood typically occupies 85 cubic feet of that 128 cubic foot stack, the rest being air space and voids. Unless you are in Maine, in which case there is a “thrown cord” which is defined depending on the length of the cut pieces. The cord in the back of thed pick-up is most likely closer to a face cord than a full cord, unless the sides are extended upwards to contain the higher pile. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/27 "2019-02-26T01:51:11Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > In the real world, most units of measure are ignored regardless of the system. How often do you use light-years, megatons, barleycorn, furlong, hogshead, bushel, or dram? It’s been light-years since I had a megaton of barleycorn furlong; it always gets used up quicker than a bushel of hogsheads; makes me wanna say goddrammit. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/28 "2019-02-26T01:55:07Z")
> [@Dancer\_Flight](#): > > 4’x4’x8’ of neatly stacked wood is a cord (whether it is lumber, logs, or firewood). A “face” cord is a stack of firewood 4’ high by 8’ long one facing deep (12" to 16" long pieces, typically), thus a face cord is 1/4 to 1/3 of a full cord. > > For a full cord, firewood typically occupies 85 cubic feet of that 128 cubic foot stack, the rest being air space and voids. > > Unless you are in Maine, in which case there is a “thrown cord” which is defined depending on the length of the cut pieces. > > The cord in the back of thed pick-up is most likely closer to a face cord than a full cord, unless the sides are extended upwards to contain the higher pile. Just get a full grapple load and be done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/29 "2019-02-26T02:02:00Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > That would be the **milli** helen. Because 1 Helen = 1000 ships. :smack: A microhelen is a unit of beauty sufficient to launch one rubber duckie. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/30 "2019-02-26T02:11:07Z")
It was about 48 gigabytes per nanojoule outside. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/31 "2019-02-26T03:08:41Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > On programs about obesity from the UK, they always use the measurement ‘stone’ when discussing the weight of your bigger Brits. I’ve got a lot of friends in the UK, they do occasionally use stone but we generally use kilograms when we’re talking to each other. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/32 "2019-02-26T04:23:30Z")
> [@Dancer\_Flight](#): > > 4’x4’x8’ of neatly stacked wood is a cord (whether it is lumber, logs, or firewood). A “face” cord is a stack of firewood 4’ high by 8’ long one facing deep (12" to 16" long pieces, typically), thus a face cord is 1/4 to 1/3 of a full cord. > > For a full cord, firewood typically occupies 85 cubic feet of that 128 cubic foot stack, the rest being air space and voids. > > Unless you are in Maine, in which case there is a “thrown cord” which is defined depending on the length of the cut pieces. > > The cord in the back of thed pick-up is most likely closer to a face cord than a full cord, unless the sides are extended upwards to contain the higher pile. Here in Missouri, we have a "rick,’ which the guy with the pickup calls a “half-cord”, but is actually what **Dancer\_Flight** calls a “face cord.” But whatever you call it. a 4’X4’X8’ stack of firewood is going to weigh several thousand pounds, so the guy driving an F-150 can’t haul that much, no matter how big his tires are! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/33 "2019-02-26T04:36:49Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > It was about 48 gigabytes per nanojoule outside. I stumbled across that unit in a discussion of … temperature, I think, and it makes NO sense to me whatsoever. [sub](GiB/nJ or GB/nJ?)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/34 "2019-02-26T06:11:25Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Units of centilitres (occasionally decilitres) occur on any old bottle of spirits, as has been noted. Units like candelas, Siemens, teslas, and katals are the type one might imagine less known outside of science. I’ve been seeing candelas on lightbulbs lately. For several years, LED bulbs have been saying they were equivalent to an incandescent lightbulb of thismuch or thatmuch wattage; now that everybody is already expecting LED, some brands are starting to provide the actual luminosity value. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/35 "2019-02-26T06:35:53Z")
I was in grade school in the 1970s, when the U.S. embarked on its original, ill-fated attempt to switch to metric. Due to this, learning the metric system was a big part of our school curriculum for several years. There were educational TV shows (sort of like The Electric Company, only all about learning metric measures), and lots of workbooks. One thing that I remember us having to spend a lot of time on was mastering the metric prefixes, and what they meant. In retrospect, some of those prefixes are in everyday use a lot more than others – kilo-, centi-, and milli- all come into play reasonably often, but the others (particularly deca- and hecta-) come up far more rarely, if at all, in metric context, “hectare” being the one example I can think of. For those who do use metric measures in daily life – how often do you find that you actually need to be converting from one prefix to another (i.e., from millimeters to centimeters, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/36 "2019-02-26T09:20:25Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’ve been seeing candelas on lightbulbs lately. For several years, LED bulbs have been saying they were equivalent to an incandescent lightbulb of thismuch or thatmuch wattage; now that everybody is already expecting LED, some brands are starting to provide the actual luminosity value. I was going to mention this. Lightbulbs are a nightmare to buy to begin with — umpteen different sizes, shapes and connector types and sizes, arranged in no particular order — but if I’m having to choose between incandescent, halogen, compact fluorescent or LED as well, and work out which is the nearest equivalent to a 60w incandescent, or whatever, I can feel one of my headaches coming on. Much simpler to go by how bright the damn things are. Though the ones I have are labelled in Lumens; so if yours are in Candelas, we’re not much further forward, and I’m back on the paracetamol. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/37 "2019-02-26T09:44:34Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I’ve got a lot of friends in the UK, they do occasionally use stone but we generally use kilograms when we’re talking to each other. My parents’ quite modern-looking bathroom scale is in stone and pounds. Just out of interest I checked up some stores and stone+pounds scales still seem to be on sale there, despite the official metricisation (not as common as kilo scales though) ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/38 "2019-02-26T11:25:44Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > For capacity, I’ve only seen milliliters and liters. Kilolitres is used on water bills, and occasionally when describing larger volumes, they’ll be in mega- or giga- litres. There used to be roadside signs in Canberra telling us how many megalitres of water we’d used the previous day to remind us to go easy during dry periods. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > For those who do use metric measures in daily life – how often do you find that you actually need to be converting from one prefix to another (i.e., from millimeters to centimeters, etc.) Well, the quantity will usually come with the right qualifier eg no one will be described as 1760mm tall. But even if they were, 1760mm, 176cm or 1.76m are instinctively understood as all the same, if that’s what you mean by converting. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/39 "2019-02-26T11:58:27Z")
> [@Cugel](#): > > Well, the quantity will usually come with the right qualifier eg no one will be described as 1760mm tall. But even if they were, 1760mm, 176cm or 1.76m are instinctively understood as all the same, if that’s what you mean by converting. In engineering/manufacturing (in aus), dimensions are all always given in mm. Because decimal conversions are not instinctively understood. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190/40 "2019-02-26T12:26:25Z")
Natural gas trading in Canada has contracts quoted in gigajoules (compared to millions of BTUs for U.S. trading). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-of-science-are-most-metric-measurement-units-never-used/830190.md?page=3)