What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality? m, 50, USA
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms? no, I think in millidays and convert to hours:minutes:seconds in my head
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
3a. When asked a measurement of distance, weight, or volume, do you first think of an answer in terms meters/kilograms/liters or feet/pounds/gallons? mixed bag, a bit more likely to think in “US standard / imperial” units but I’ve always hated them. I like metric better but don’t use it often enough to come natural
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do? yes
I find it very interesting that the vast majority of people seem to be comfortable with both measurement systems. It seems like everything is played out to be much more polarized than it is.
2a. 24-hour terms
2b. No
2c. I work second- and third-shift jobs that require lots of data entry, paperwork, and other forms that all require to-the-minute time entries. Using “military” time makes time entry less error-prone, obviates the need to use AM or PM, and makes clear the distinction between noon and midnight. I guess that’s a long-winded way of saying “it eliminates ambiguity.”
3a. Feet/gallon/lb. for everyday usage, though I think in metric when it comes to doing physics stuff in school.
3b. Yes.
3c. n/a
My answer to the questions of time and measure is that I think and converse with fluent bilingualism. I think I take my audience into consideration.
I work in aviation operations. If I am discussing work related matters, time is expressed in either 24h or UTC with other aviation people. However, if I am discussing time with a North American who is not from an aviation or medical background I will refer to time in a 12h local format.
Time gets to be fun when you’re dealing with an aircraft crossing the international date line and you are in a different time zone than your client trying to tell the client what time the plane is going to arrive at a destination. "The plane is enroute to Tokyo and will arrive there at 8am Tuesday Tokyo time, (which is Monday 2300 Zulu, which is 1800 Monday my time,) which makes it 4pm Monday where you are. Got that?
As with other Canadians of my generation, we were schooled in imperial until one day our text books were removed and replaced with metric versions. Imperial was never spoken of again. If I’m discussing weights, measures or distance, I can think in either format. However if the person to whom I’m speaking is older than me, I will usually speak in imperial; metric if the person is younger. My own internal dialogue is pretty task specific as to what I’m trying to envision or calculate.
3a. Feet/pounds/gallons (Edit) Now that I think about it, I use liters quite a bit - I sell bottled beverages, and many are in liter or 2-liter sizes, some even use milliliters, but not many.
Quick anecdote concerning the oddities of the mind: I was in high school during the supposed “Great Metric Changeover”. I was informed that 1 meter is ~6 feet; I had also read that David Prowse played Darth Vader and that he was about 6ft tall. For a decent amount of time, I thought of distance in terms of “Vaders”. My dad was just over 1 Vader tall, my bedroom was 2 Vaders by 3 Vaders, etc.
OK, maybe it’s just an anecdote about my mental oddity, but still…
2a. not military, but I do mentally tack in the “am” or “pm” to my 12-h answer.
3a. Metric, thank you much. I do automatically translate people’s heights to ft-inches. For other translations to Imperial Units, I need a calculator. I can also translate weights to Catalan and Castillian pounds, which of course aren’t the same as the Imperial pound. Metric has been standard in Spain almost since its inception (our old monetary unit, the peseta, was invented as part of the metric system, by folks who hadn’t heard of “inflation”).
Male, mid-30’s, American living in Japan (which uses metric)
2a. 12-hour
Incidentally, Japan seems kind of schizo in this regard. Most written instances use 24-hour system, but when speaking everybody switches to 12-hour.
3a. When asked a measurement of distance, weight, or volume, do you first think of an answer in terms meters/kilograms/liters or feet/pounds/gallons?
Weight - metric
Volume - metric
Distance - half & half. I still tend to think in inches and feet, and while I’ve internalized how far a kilometer is, “mile” trips off the tongue so much more easily. Whenever there are calculations involved, I use metric no matter what just because it’s so much simpler.
And I’ve almost switched myself to Celsius over Fahrenheit.
3b. Mostly.
3c. Even though everything in school was metric, everyday usage while growing up was almost all feet, pounds, gallons and degrees F. After moving overseas I went through an adjustment period of remembering the conversion rates and constantly doing the math in my head (which I fortunately had a knack for), and now after 13 years here I’m mostly adjusted.
What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality? Female, 25, Kiwi.
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms? 12 hour.
3a. When asked a measurement of distance, weight, or volume, do you first think of an answer in terms meters/kilograms/liters or feet/pounds/gallons? Primarily metric. I usually think of people’s heights in feet and inches, and fuel consumption in miles per (UK) gallon.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do? Yes - except for miles per gallon; km/litre is more commonly used.
What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality? Male; turn 40 next month; American
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms? 12 hour
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military? N/A (however, I did serve time in the Army)
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time? N/A
For a while after I got out of the service I thought in military time, then it was a 50-50 thing, but as of now I’ve pretty much gone back to the 12-hour clock as the default.
3a. When asked a measurement of distance, weight, or volume, do you first think of an answer in terms meters/kilograms/liters or feet/pounds/gallons? feet/pounds/gallons
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do? Yes
3c. If not, why? N/A
I’ll never “think metric.” Even for my job we are expressly prohibited from using metric units.
1. What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Male, 30, Polish.
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
24
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
That’s complicated, but “no” is answer closest to truth.
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
Almost everybody here uses 24h time. It’s normal. 12h time is for kiddies learning clock and old people.
As a funny sidenote, I sometimes use decimal time. Years ago I used that system when writing SF story (hours and days were pretty irrelevant for space ship crews), and it kinda stuck with me. So sometimes I say that something should be done in approx three kiloseconds
**
3a. When asked a measurement of distance, weight, or volume, do you first think of an answer in terms meters/kilograms/liters or feet/pounds/gallons?**
Primarily metric, but I’m multilingua… erm… multimetric? - I can use different systems depending on context. When talking with US people I switch to miles and gallons, when talking japanese weapons I think in shaku and sun etc.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Incidentally, yes. Metric and 24h time is standard here.
**3c. If not, why? **
Metric is most convenient system yet invented, but in some context it’s simply not used - so it’s easier to adapt to other units than convert everything.
What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality? Male, 26 ± 10 , German
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms? 12-hour if the context is clear, 24-hour otherwise.
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military? Nope.
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, Umm… This statement is a lie?
do you know why you think in military time? It’s not military over here, simply standard usage – our digital clocks are all 24-hour, there’s no AM/PM distinction.
3a. When asked a measurement of distance, weight, or volume, do you first think of an answer in terms meters/kilograms/liters or feet/pounds/gallons? Meters/kilograms/liters. We’ve pretty much always been metric over here, what with wanting to actually meaningfully communicate quantities, instead of always having to first figure out how many cubic furlongs there are to a quart.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do? Yes.
3a. Depends entirely on the thing being measured, and can vary even within that. For example, I would express my weight in stones and pounds, but be quite happy with the concept of a kilo of apples.
3b. I think this is fairly common, even ubiquitous, for Brits of my age group.
3a. metres/kilometres/litres
3b. Yes, although I think most of Canada still uses feet & inches and pounds to measure height and weight. For those I use centimetres and kilograms.
2a. 24-hour.
2b. No.
2c. I work in healthcare, and that’s just how we do it.
3a. Depending on context, I’ll switch back and forth. For example, I may speak in metric terms when talking about scientific stuff or talking about an episode of Mythbusters, but otherwise I mostly use Imperial.
3b. See 3a.
3c. See 3a.
Measures: I checked in this thread because as a Canadian my answer to 3a) is “all of the above, and more” but I see the other Canadians have beat me to it. ((waves))
Generally I seem to use whichever unit is closest to the size of the thing I’m measuring. If it’s a yard long, I’ll call it a yard. If it’s a metre, I’ll call it that. Convenient, if confusing. I often find myself remembering the quantity of some measurement but forgetting the unit (e.g. “I know it’s five miles away … or is it five kilometers …”). In general, I’m comfortable with either, but will always confirm if I need any certainty at all.
There are a few exceptions, tho. One is temperature. When it comes to weather I don’t speak Fahrenheit. But when it comes to oven temperatures I don’t speak Celsius.
The thing I never understood is that most coffee shops seem to price coffee by the pound but weigh it by the kilo. This led to some quite impressive mathematical feats when I had to sell a blend of 1/4lb each of differently priced coffees, but it has helped me to remember that 1 lb = .455 kilo … or is it the other way around? Sheesh.
At home I have a measuring cup with 4 different kinds of units marked on it, and I have a recipe (it comes from India) that gives amounts in three different units, and I still require extensive calculations in order to use that recipe. And it’s just a recipe for rice!
It’s not a generational thing. I don’t meet a lot of Canadians, older or younger, who have it all straight in their mind.
feet/pounds/gallons, altho when I was working in a lab I used metric, and there are some things in the US that use metric anyway like bottles and other food; sometimes if I’m drawing something diagrammic I’ll use centimeters. I can’t conceptulize when people tell me their weight or height in metric though.
3b. yes
2b. I did say twelve hour terms, but I did serve in the Army, for three years. In my MOS we operated on GMT.
2c. N/A
3a. I think in feet/pounds/gallons. But I am fluent in metric and use if quite a bit in my job as a baker. It’s easier to increase/decrease recipes that way.
3b. Pretty much. We Americans can and do use both systems but I think most of us use f/p/g more easily. Maps and highways are marked in miles, the majority of cars use miles for speed and speed limits are marked in m/p/h. Milk is sold by the gallon, but soda in big bottles is in liters. But while most food is marked in pounds and ounces, metric is usually also on the package.
