4 ms·

Very much a generational thing. I'm early 30s and think in miles for distance/speed, pints for beer, feet for height and metric for everything else. This has a

Very much a generational thing. I'm early 30s and think in miles for distance/speed, pints for beer, feet for height and metric for everything else. This has always been a niche issue for the baby boomer generation, I don't know anyone of my generation that gives a damn other than metric being more sensible for international compatibility. Much like Brexit certain parts of the older and more politically powerful / numerous generation go off the deep end about this stuff, e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs

ThePadawan 5y ago
Out of curiosity (as a non-brit), do you ever measure anything in pints that's not a beer? I'm somewhat aware that milk might still be sold in pints - I just find it interesting that the word has in common usage really lost the connotation of being a measurement and just mostly means "a beer" now. E.g. "I'm going out for a pint", "I've had a couple of pints", "I'm not much of a drinker, but I'll have a pint or two a month".
- UglyToad 5y ago
  I genuinely have forgotten now but I think you're right that milk is still pints. I just think of them as "the little one, the normal one and the big one" which I think are 1/2/4 pints respectively. I think where stuff is still normally discussed in pints it's due to that still being the standard measure for retail. For whatever reason milk and beer retained the pint. Also volume of blood in pints weirdly seems to be standard, e.g. when talking about medical stuff informally. The only measure that seems to have gone fully metric in day to day life outside of a few holdouts is temperature.
  - pmyteh 5y ago
    Milk is both. Reusable delivered glass bottles are pints. Small supermarket plastic bottles are 568ml (1pt). Larger ones are either 1136ml (2pt) or 1l. Big ones are 2l and 3l.
- pmyteh 5y ago
  The beer context still applies in other more metric countries too. The 250ml glass is known as the 'demi' in French, meaning half a (metricated) pint.

ThePadawan 5y ago

Out of curiosity (as a non-brit), do you ever measure anything in pints that's not a beer? I'm somewhat aware that milk might still be sold in pints - I just find it interesting that the word has in common usage really lost the connotation of being a measurement and just mostly means "a beer" now. E.g. "I'm going out for a pint", "I've had a couple of pints", "I'm not much of a drinker, but I'll have a pint or two a month".

UglyToad 5y ago
I genuinely have forgotten now but I think you're right that milk is still pints. I just think of them as "the little one, the normal one and the big one" which I think are 1/2/4 pints respectively. I think where stuff is still normally discussed in pints it's due to that still being the standard measure for retail. For whatever reason milk and beer retained the pint. Also volume of blood in pints weirdly seems to be standard, e.g. when talking about medical stuff informally. The only measure that seems to have gone fully metric in day to day life outside of a few holdouts is temperature.
- pmyteh 5y ago
  Milk is both. Reusable delivered glass bottles are pints. Small supermarket plastic bottles are 568ml (1pt). Larger ones are either 1136ml (2pt) or 1l. Big ones are 2l and 3l.
pmyteh 5y ago
The beer context still applies in other more metric countries too. The 250ml glass is known as the 'demi' in French, meaning half a (metricated) pint.