How many Kilometres in a Mile...

I guess that I'm pretty much converted to the metric system by now. Got the kilometer thing sorted even if they do drive on the wrong side of the road still! But there is one thing that is just odd! Why is the male pride and joy still measured in inches?

A kilometre is almost exactly five furlongs ... but then we abolished the furlong in 1985 and, never having ploughed, I can't say how long a furrow should be. I bet that you know the height of Salisbury's spire in metres as well as in feet (but you didn't tell me because I am (a) English and (b) of an age that I would be more likely understand that kind of measurement). I think that I have pretty much come to terms with centigrade ... 15 is chilly, 18 is tolerable and anything over 23 is getting to be sweaty (in England, at any rate).

1 km = 0.621371 miles. OR 0 miles and 1093.6 yards Talk about stick in the muds! 40 years to make the conversion??

They tried that here back in the 70s when I was in high school. The only thing they succeeded in doing was changing liquor and soft drink measurements to metric. LOL By the way, I believe it's 2.2 Kilometers to a mile.

I really struggle with metrics because of the fact that they were something that was only briefly covered when I went to school. My knowledge is almost all in the standard system. However, my husband is a machinist and the majority of the work that he has to do is in the metric system, so he is quite agile with metrics and not as familiar with the standard system. Honestly, I think that everything needs to be converted to one system so that there will not be so much confusion in the world when it comes to measurements.

oh dear P1ke, same here the other way round. I love new recipes and I love the British and American stuff. But when I see these US measurements of cups etc. I am not good at converting that to my used Gram and millilitres and Kilos. So you are not alone struggling with foreign measurements. By the way a Mile is 1,6 kilometers.

I still work in imperial measurements, I like the name better. I ask for a quarter of sweets, a yard of cloth, how many miles to London town. Others can do the maths. I have told my grandson that people of our age must have been cleverer to have coped with pounds, shillings and pence and imperial weights and measures, we needed to remember a lot more than he does. 100p to the pound indeed.

I'm right there with you. Not only is it hard to convert, I keep getting confused which measurement is which. Fortunately, I live in the US and we haven't switched over.

Good question - we don't use metric, but I when I talk to people in other countries, I go to a conversion site online and plug it in.

What about two by fours? They're neither. They're roughly about 1.5" by 3.5"

I believe I'm a little younger than you, and as a result I think half in metric and half in imperial. I'm not young enough for metric to have filtered down entirely! Small distances are in metres, longer distances are miles. Weight is always in kilos, unless we're talking about people who I think of in stones and pounds. Height of people too actually, which I think of in feet and inches even though for everything else I'd think in metres. Despite thinking in both, I actually had no idea how many feet there were to a meter, or pounds to a kilo or whatever. Still don't. The only one I learnt was kilometers to the mile as I was driving a UK car on the continent and had to work out whether I was within the speed limit or not.

We had to learn both, but we rarely ever use the metric system. It gets very confusing when using tools, though, because most are in fractional inches, but there are some that are in metric, and you need both sets to work on various things. I use the adjustable ones whenever possible, because then it takes less time and effort.

It is a mind teaser conversion. Well, your foot is around 30 centmeters. Holy cow you have long feet! Well, maybe that is what is says on a ruler. That’s how I remember it. Six inches is 15 centmeters. 1 inch is 2.54 or 2 and half centmeters. With miles I think of car speed. Around 60 miles an hour the speedo says 100 kilometers (double) so one mile is about 1 and half kilometers. You figure that out by staring at the car speedo but don’t run into anything doing it. You are right all this math leaves little time for anything else like sayings such as give them an inch and they will take a ________ just wait i am figurin’

the thing for me being canadian and 21yrs old ive only ever used the metric system, its what we use nationally and its what i use scientifically. i am a quite intelligent girl but i couldnt tell you about miles or yards, i just didnt grow up with them!! so i am on the same side as you.

I live with metric but I still "see" measurements in imperial. It's easier to visualise a foot or and inch rather than 30cms (ok so that's an easy one). I still convert back to imperial to visualise a measurement. Daft, I know.

I absolutely cannot figure those things, I use a converter online if I need to express metric measurements! I suppose if I immersed myself in metric and never again used feet and inches I could get used to it but I hope I never have to.

pikey hi I still do not know how many kilometers are in a mile.In Baha California the road signs are all in kilometers too.yet in the real state of California we are smart and use miles.Yes and I never got the hang of the new maths either. lol lol I canot convert America dollars into English pounds either,. I am math stupid.

I am the opposite. I grew up with the metric system and while I understand the imperial system (we learned that too) I find the metric system much easier to use and understand. It is just a far more logical system of measurement with everything being in tens. You just add zeros!