# Swedes, I have a question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919 "2010-08-29T21:33:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/1 "2010-08-29T21:33:13Z")
And I guess the other nordic types might be able to weigh in on as well. Has sweden always been metric, or did the country go metric sometime around the seventies ? Declan ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/2 "2010-08-29T21:35:05Z")
> **[Swedish units of measurement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_units_of_measurement)** > > Traditional Swedish units of measurement were standardized by law in 1665, prior to which they only existed as a number of related but differing local variants. The system was slightly revised in 1735. In 1855, a decimal reform was instituted that defined a new Swedish inch as .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-onl... > [@](#): > > Sweden adopted the metric system in 1889. Wikipedia FTW! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/3 "2010-08-29T22:41:55Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > [Swedish units of measurement - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_units_of_measurement) > > > [@](#): > > > > Sweden adopted the metric system in 1889. > > Wikipedia FTW! I am still curious about the purpose of the question though. There are metric countries and there are strict metric countries. The U.S. is ridiculed for not being a metric country but it is for many things especially some industries. Walk through any supermarket or hardware store and you will see metric units. We just never took it all the way but most people know and use some metric units. England is supposed to be a metric country but they still use other units like miles, pints, pounds, and stones commonly. Why is Sweden of particular interest for this question and what metric units are of the most interest? I don’t know that much about Sweden and they still could use the heightendeautcharuler to measure how tall school kids are for all I know. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/4 "2010-08-29T23:28:06Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > > [@antonio107](#): > > > > [Swedish units of measurement - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_units_of_measurement) > > > > Wikipedia FTW! > > I am still curious about the purpose of the question though. There are metric countries and there are strict metric countries. The U.S. is ridiculed for not being a metric country but it is for many things especially some industries. Walk through any supermarket or hardware store and you will see metric units. We just never took it all the way but most people know and use some metric units. England is supposed to be a metric country but they still use other units like miles, pints, pounds, and stones commonly. > > Why is Sweden of particular interest for this question and what metric units are of the most interest? I don’t know that much about Sweden and they still could use the heightendeautcharuler to measure how tall school kids are for all I know. The ansewer to why Sweden and the metric system would be better served in the cafe. I’m currently reading the girl with the dragon tattoo and its a novel set in sweden, with swedish characters and written by a swede. Yet I had always assumed that sweden was a metric country and that any swedes would use metric , even think metric. Yet there are several passages where Farenheit and miles are used, so far no metric at all, and this is set in the aughts. So if Mr Stieg Larrson was not an older generation that was pre switch, then the next available ansewer was the book may have been edited for the US market. declan ---
**Author:** ![Juggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/juggler/32/3194_2.png) [@Juggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juggler)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/5 "2010-08-30T00:01:51Z")
Just confirming that Sweden has been metric for a long time. Actually the inventor Anders Celsius was a swede. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/6 "2010-08-30T00:03:04Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > The ansewer to why Sweden and the metric system would be better served in the cafe. I’m currently reading the girl with the dragon tattoo and its a novel set in sweden, with swedish characters and written by a swede. > > Yet I had always assumed that sweden was a metric country and that any swedes would use metric , even think metric. Yet there are several passages where Farenheit and miles are used, so far no metric at all, and this is set in the aughts. > > So if Mr Stieg Larrson was not an older generation that was pre switch, then the next available ansewer was the book may have been edited for the US market. > > declan Well, anecdotally, Canada must’ve switched over to metric in what? The 70’s? I was born in the mid-80’s, and I still use pounds and inches, have a thermostat that works with Fahrenheit. So, I’d say it’s hard to infer age based solely on that! ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/7 "2010-08-30T00:47:27Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > So if Mr Stieg Larrson was not an older generation that was pre switch, then the next available ansewer was the book may have been edited for the US market. Assuming that you’re reading a translation, I would definitely suspect that the translator had converted the units for the American (or British) market. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/8 "2010-08-30T01:15:14Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > > [@Declan](#): > > > > So if Mr Stieg Larrson was not an older generation that was pre switch, then the next available ansewer was the book may have been edited for the US market. > > Assuming that you’re reading a translation, I would definitely suspect that the translator had converted the units for the American (or British) market. The translation by Reg Keeland (which is the one normally available in America, I believe) seems to have been written by someone familiar with British, rather than American, usage. It includes words such as “gaol”. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/9 "2010-08-30T01:27:36Z")
It’s definitely a translation thing. I’m reading a kindle version and it’s metric all the way. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/10 "2010-08-30T01:32:51Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > Well, anecdotally, Canada must’ve switched over to metric in what? The 70’s? I was born in the mid-80’s, and I still use pounds and inches, have a thermostat that works with Fahrenheit. So, I’d say it’s hard to infer age based solely on that! We switched over in the early seventies, I was in grade 4 when the first metric rulers came out, and then my dad got these little stickers for the speedometer on the car. So between 74 and 76ish. Mainly I was asking because of Mr Larssons wiki page had his bio listed and birthdate in the fifties, which would be about right for someone in Canada or England to have been forced to switch over from SA to Metric, but thinking mainly in SA. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Tassvarg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@Tassvarg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tassvarg)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/11 "2010-08-30T03:12:09Z")
Born and bred Swede chiming in. Born in the fifties and bred since then. Sweden has been one of the driving countries in the metrification of the civilized world. My father represented the Swedish government in the SI-conferenses from 1960 to the mid eighties. As mentioned the Celsius scale was defined by a Swede, and AFAIK Sweden has never used Farenheit. For some reason the lumber industry was the last bastion of archaic meusurement. When I was a kid lumber was measured and sold in inches, wood fasteners used inches and some arbitrary gauge system. This changed IIRC in the seventies. Engines and machinery used metric, but if you were mucking about with older stuff you would find screws and nuts in inches. And with different threads. Bothersome. Also some older plumbing used inches. Which reminds me of the British prime minister who, when Britain finally decided to use metric, said: We are now going metric, inch by inch. Yay, my first post, I actually registered bacause I could finally contribute (been lurking off and on though). ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/12 "2010-08-30T09:03:28Z")
> [@Tassvarg](#): > > For some reason the lumber industry was the last bastion of archaic meusurement. When I was a kid lumber was measured and sold in inches, wood fasteners used inches and some arbitrary gauge system. This changed IIRC in the seventies. That is because much of the lumber trade is done with non metric countries. There is one non metric measurement that has been introduced lately, though, the pint (at least in the Stockholm area), which is because all Irish and British style pubs that have popped up during the last 20-25 years. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/13 "2010-08-30T10:38:45Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > > [@Tassvarg](#): > > > > For some reason the lumber industry was the last bastion of archaic meusurement. When I was a kid lumber was measured and sold in inches, wood fasteners used inches and some arbitrary gauge system. This changed IIRC in the seventies. > > That is because much of the lumber trade is done with non metric countries. > > There is one non metric measurement that has been introduced lately, though, the pint (at least in the Stockholm area), which is because all Irish and British style pubs that have popped up during the last 20-25 years. A lot of industrial measurements are done in non-SI scales though. We still measure oil by the barrel, land by the hectare and pressure by the bar. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/14 "2010-08-30T10:46:04Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Yet I had always assumed that sweden was a metric country and that any swedes would use metric , even think metric. Yet there are several passages where Farenheit and miles are used, so far no metric at all, and this is set in the aughts. That may have been done by the translator, what you need to ask is about “Swedes who’ve read Larsson” and see if those passages use Celsius and km in the original. From English to Spanish, the only genre in which units are not translated is fantasy, among other things because your feet and pounds aren’t the same size as ours (we didn’t even have the same size of pounds all over what’s now Spain). Having the translator do the conversion makes it easier to read the translated book. And welcome, **Tassvarg**. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/15 "2010-08-30T13:31:41Z")
Even though it is convenient if the translator makes all sorts of conversions it gives me a strange feeling when someone in the US is talking about kilometers instead of miles. It just doesn’t feel right (and is one reason why I prefer to read books written in English in that language). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/16 "2010-08-30T14:00:26Z")
But you’re used to it; heck, you’re conscious that people in Parts Elsewhere use other units. Now try that with my grandparents, or even with many of my mother’s cohorts. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/17 "2010-08-30T14:03:49Z")
The only non-metric measurement I came across was the Tum (Inch) for timber and when Kodak were unable to supply materials in metric sizes and substituted imperial sizes that were loads of fun to cut down in pitch darkness. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/18 "2010-08-30T15:13:25Z")
Related question (and I know it’s wikipdeiable, but I’d like some Swedes to describe what it was like)… was it Sweden that switched which side of the road they drove on back in the (I think) 60s? If so, what was that like? ---
**Author:** ![zwede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ac91a4/32.png) [@zwede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwede)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/19 "2010-08-30T20:46:08Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Related question (and I know it’s wikipdeiable, but I’d like some Swedes to describe what it was like)… was it Sweden that switched which side of the road they drove on back in the (I think) 60s? If so, what was that like? Yes, late 60’s. I wasn’t around. I’m told a big blood bath was predicted, but in reality the accident rate went down instead. Probably due to most cars being left hand drive, even when Swedes drove on the left which made passing dangerous. So switching to the right actually increased visibility for the driver. ---
**Author:** ![zwede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ac91a4/32.png) [@zwede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwede)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919/20 "2010-08-30T20:48:58Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Yet there are several passages where Farenheit and miles are used As an anecdote, the term “mil” (mile), is common in Sweden but refers to a distance of 10km (6.25 US/English miles). Fahrenheits are not used at all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedes-i-have-a-question/551919.md?page=2)