I hate to crush your childhood memories, but I think you’ll find that Darth Vader was actually approximately 2 Vaders tall…
1. What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
male, mid-40s, Canadian
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
depends which language I’m using at the time. if English, 12 hour; if French, 24 hour.
2b If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
No.
2c. If you answer to 2c [sic - should be 2b?] was No, do you know why you think in military time?
It’s not military time in French, it’s a common way to express 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?
See leaffan’s answer. When driving, kilometres; when measuring things around the house, probably Imperial. When buying meat, sometimes pounds and sometimes kilos. Buying gas - litres, since that’s what the pumps use. Temperature is Celsius.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
I don’t know what the majority of Canadians use.
3c. If not, why?
See answer to 3b, and leaffan’s answer.
- What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Male, 40, American
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
24 hour terms
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
Yes
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
NA
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?
A lot of this is going to depend upon what I’m measuring and for what purpose. Gasoline is in gallons. Cooking measures are all cups and tablespoons. Food purchases are in pounds or pints. General volume is metric, as is distance. Mail is measured in grams, then converted back to ounces to see if I need to add postage.
I’d prefer to be able to use metric for everything, but there are so many things that it’s just so much effort to use here in the US that I remain using Imperial units for a lot of things.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
For the most part, yes. If only because of the need to communicate measurements to other people.
- What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
29
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
12
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
Yes
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
I never got hang of the 24 hour clock. It was always a mental conversion for me. First thought was in 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?
Feet/pounds/gallons. Exceptions can be made when working with blueprints and products that are in metric.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Yup
3c. If not, why?
1. What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Male, mid-30s, American living abroad.
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
I usually say the time in 12-hour terms because it’s sometimes confusing to to other people if I answer in “military” time, but I think in both. It kind of depends on the clock I look at, my mood, or the phase of the moon. IOW, dunno why sometimes one and sometimes the other.
I prefer keeping clocks on 24-hour and writing or otherwise presenting non-current times in 24-hour. Shorter, no chance of confusion, and you don’t have to worry about the punctuation for the abbreviations.
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
No.
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
I had a watch with 24-hour time when I was a kid. It made a lot of sense and I wondered why everyone didn’t use it. Both 12- and 24-hour time is commonly used in Japan, so there’s more social acceptance in my current circumstances for using it. My quirk became almost mainstream with a simple 6,000 mile move 
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?
I’ve largely internalized both systems.
I usually estimate shorter measurements in feet and inches, but know roughly what the equivalent would be in cm without actually doing any calculations. Medium distances I usually think of in meters, which is close enough to yards that I probably picked up a feel for that before getting really comfortable with centimeter measurements for things like people’s heights and furniture.
My runs are done in metric: commonly 400 and 800 m legs in between other exercises, and 5 km or so for longer ones. On the schedule I see that I’m going to have to do a 10 km run in the next couple of weeks, and will have a 15 km one coming sooner or later. I know what those feel like, and would have to convert them to miles to know how much something like a 5 mile run would hurt.
Longer distances, like over 100 km or so, feel better in miles. I sometimes have to work out what an estimated distance is in km so that I can tell Japanese how far that is. Speed also feels more natural in mph than kph, despite a long time driving here.
For weight, I think most naturally in kilograms now. Almost all of my weightlifting has been in kg, though the program I follow gives the prescribed weight in pounds. I have a visceral appreciation for what an 80 kg clean or 140 kg deadlift feels like, but I have to work the numbers to figure out what weight I should be lifting when it’s given in pounds.
I also know how much of most common foods would be on a plate if given a gram measurement. Ounces, on the other hand… Food measurement in the US is a weird grab bag. You’ll get diet recommendations for protein, for example, given in grams per pound of body weight (?)
Recipes that give grams for most ingredients are easier to use than volume measurements, in my opinion, particularly when measuring dry goods like flour or rice. On the other hand, I think in cups and gallons for some liquid volumes, though I can deal with liters and milliliters pretty easily too.
Temps are mixed. I know what a 36ºC day feels like in Japan, and what a 100ºF day feels like in California, where I grew up. I have to convert temperatures to figure out what one or the other would be like in the other place. And even then it’s not really the same considering the usual humidity difference. Frankly, I’d rather deal with a 100ºF California day, even though I know that it’s actually a higher temperature. Summer in Japan is hellish, at least for me. I hate high humidity.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Mostly, but not always.
3c. If not, why?
Probably don’t need to spell it out by this point, but I was raised on a different system. I had to work with SI measurements in most of my science courses and they’d introduced metrics in grade school. Even after several years here, and those early introductions, I still have a few things that I prefer to use imperial measurements for, though.
1. What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Male, 40s, German
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
24 hours.
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
No.
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
24-hour time is not considered a military-specific thing here. (it’s expressed as e.g. 17:05 not 1705 anyway)
*
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?*
<smartass>meters/Newtons/liters</smartass>
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Yes.
- **What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
**Male, mid-40’s, US Expat + Israeli, living in Israel nearly all my life.
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
Depends… “what time is it?” will get a 12-hour + AM/PM answer; my wrist-watch is set in 12-hour time. But all computerized clocks are set to 24-hour, and I always make myself notes in 24-hour time.
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military?
Yes, 7 years in the IAF (Israeli Air Force)
2c. If you answer to 2c was No, do you know why you think in military time?
I was in the military, but outside the US I don’t think “military” has anything to do with 24-hour 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?
Metric all the way, also Celsius rather than Farenheit – but I “feel” the US measurements instinctively, too. I don’t have to convert in my head.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Yes
**What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
**Female, early 40’s, New Zealander.
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 metres/kilograms/litres or feet/pounds/gallons?
Metric for everything except people, I seem stuck in feet and inches and stones and pounds for people.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Mostly
[quote=“Skald_the_Rhymer, post:1, topic:462051”]
Thread title’s pretty clear, I think. Here’s the specific questions:
- What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
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?
[quote]
- Female, 35 years, German
2a. 24 hour and 12 hr (before noon=vormittag, afternoon=nachmittag, late at night/early in the morning when informally)
2b. No (but 24 hr is offically used in my country)
2c. But military time is not 15:00 o’clock, it’s 1500 (fifteeen-hundred), right? I don’t think in military time, therefore.
3a. Meters, kilograms, liters (a pound is informally half of a kilogram.)
3b. Yes, same as above
3c. I know how to convert in my head feet (1 foot =30 cm) and inches (1 in. =2.5 cm, so 4 in = 10 cm), and 1 yard = 1 m, because of the many American novels who give people’s height in feet and inches. I have trouble with stones, which occasionally appear in English novels. (1 stone = 6 kg?) 1 gallon = 3.7 liter, but 1 quart = 1 liter, so that’s handy enough. But I have to use a conversion tool to get from mpg to l/100 km, mph to kmh or $/gallon to Euros/liter.
- M, late 30’s, American
- 12 hour
3a. feet/pounds/gallons
3b. Yep. Makes no sense to use different measurements than everyone else around me.
- What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Canadian, approximately male, mid-20s.
2a. When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms?
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?
Not really, except if I’ve been speaking French for a really lng 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?
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
3c. If not, why?
I think of most measurements in metric terms, except for height and weight of people and cup-tablespoon-teaspoon recipe measurements. (I use metric in cookery for anything beyond that – I never learned and am still quite unclear on fluid ounces, pints, quarts, etc., so I convert to metric and then to 250 mL = 1 cup.)
- What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Male, 35, USA
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?
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?
Feet, Pounds, & Gallons
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Yep.
3c. If not, why?
Male, 39, United Statesian
When asked the time, do you first think of the answer in 24-hour or 12-hour terms? Usually, but not always 12-hour
2b. If you said 24-hour terms, have you ever served in the military? No, but I work with the military on operational issues every so often that go by a 24-hour hour clock.
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
- Female, 41, Canadian.
2a. 12 hour (but fluent in 24 hour).
2b. No military.
2c. Hospital worker.
3a. Distance - kilometers/meters
Weight - pounds
Volume - liters
3b. Yes. It’s a trick question, though - Canadians are stuck on imperial measurements for some things.
1. What’s your gender, approximate age (± 10 years), and nationality?
Male, 23, American
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?
Feet/miles/etc. for distance, pounds for weight, but usually liters for volume.
3b. Do you automatically use the measuring system that the majority of people in your country do?
Yup, even though I think the metric system makes more sense.