r/OldSchoolCool Oct 09 '25

1950s A ton-up girl fixing her Triumph, 1950s

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u/SandboxSurvivalist Oct 09 '25

TIL the British didn't start adopting the metric system until 1965.

27

u/HoveringPorridge Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

No one really wanted to though, and as a result a horrible mix of imperial and metric is used in current day.

The only one that's completely set in stone is distance; miles/yards/feet/inches. Kilometres are beyond my realm of understanding.

Milk and beer are sold by the pint but fuel is in litres for some godforsaken reason. Thermometers tend to have Centigrade and Fahrenheit listed etc.

I wish we could just decide on one or the other!

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u/arpw Oct 09 '25

And while fuel is in litres, fuel economy is still talked about in miles per gallon...

4

u/HoveringPorridge Oct 09 '25

This is the one that infuriates me above all.

I have to do the maths in my head when I filling up the car to work out how many gallons I've put in so I can work out rough MPG later.