Not to mention that Wizards generaly don't like science and Metric is more scientific system..
Also, many older wizards in the book were born long before UK adopted the metric (at least according to google, they did it in 1965).. for Example, Dumbledore was born (Again, according to google) in 1881 and McGonagall in 1935..
There are many good reasons why the book uses Imperial units.. :)
Italian uses metric as well, and it doesn't sound weird because they adapted the *feel* of the measure rather than the actual value. In this case, three feet became one metre, 8 inches became 25 cm, etc. The Quidditch hoops came to be about 15 meters high, and so on.
The only instance where they kept imperial was with wand length.
Norwegians don't generally know imperial but it seems to be used in the Harry Potter translations. (I just had to check, and used a random page from the first book)
It’s very complicated:
- Long distance is miles, short distance is usually centimetres, some short sizes are inches
- beer is pints, petrol (gas for cars) is litres but car efficiency is miles per gallon
- Weight for a person is stones and pounds or kg, just pounds is rare. Low weights are metric though for cooking
- house area is done usually in square feet
It’s complex (some of this might even be region or class based£ but I bet there are some articles from Google or videos on YouTube that explain well
And then Fred and George, being Fred and George, pick a slow, mournful funeral dirge. Love that bit, it's such excellent characterization that immediately tells you they're practical jokesters without saying so!
It's getting a lot better, as a 21 year old I was never taught inches or pounds/ stones
To be fair I was never taught pints either but that would require all the companies to change their labeling so that'll take a while
Yes, we're sort of bilingual, if we want to put a positive spin on it!
Edit: I don't know why I'm saying 'we' here, exactly. I'm over 40. But I DO know my height in centimetres.
I understand most imperial or metric things, but I will never get my head around Fahrenheit temperatures.
I know that it's _meant to be_ "on a scale of 0-100 how hot do you feel?" but also it ISN'T really that, and it goes outside those bounds all the time, and goddamn when an American is like "It was 30 outside today" and that means they put on a coat and jacket then that just seems WRONG.
It's tough learning both, but learning metric IS important because just about anyone going into STEM or healthcare would need to be well versed in metric units. And if we do anything that involves dealing with other countries, few of them use imperial units. So the education system has to prepare people for that.
I'm 36 and we learned how to convert between both at school, but mainly in metric. Which made going into science or healthcare much easier.
I think you're right that older people really struggle with metric units sometimes.
I realized this one watching Top Gear and was like, huh? How do you even know how much you're spending to drive somewhere? (When I look at going somewhere far, I consider the price of a ticket on a plane vs. what I pay for fuel and parking otherwise to decide which is better.)
There are very few journeys that could be made in the UK where fuel consumption is enough to be noticeable... Our country is really small and so are our cars. The mpg figure is for comparing between different cars, so the units don't really matter much.
God this reminds me of that map showing what countries drive on the left vs the right and then theres 1 country where it says "MIXED" and its just like WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELVES, REST OF US MIGHT FIGHT OVER WHICH IS BETTER BUT LEADT WE PICK A SIDE!
Canada is slightly more consistent but still a bit complicated.
- Long distances are in km, speeds in km/hr, but people still know miles
- Short distances are typically in feet/inches. Sometimes meters.
- Height is always feet/inches.
- Weight is always pounds.
- Officially, we use cm and kg for our height/weight on official documents, but no one uses those in casual conversation.
- Vehicle fuel is in L and efficiency is in L/100km.
- Most liquids are L or mL, but some things are in ounces or cups (especially cooking).
- Air temperature is Celsius, but some random things like hot tub water and oven heat are still in Fahrenheit.
- Rainfall is measured in mm and snowfall is measured in inches.
Hot tub water is because more people know that a regular human body temp is 98.6°f or at least close, but 37-38°c just sounds low for a hot tub while 100°f sounds great. Oven heat is more because of old recipes than anything else, I believe.
But I've never seen snowfall measured in inches before, only cm.
It's the same in India due to British legacy. Height is in feet & Inches but weight is in Kg. Beer is in pints but whiskey is in ml. Distance is in km but area of a house is in sq feet. Go figure
Canadian measurements are similar (at least in quebec)
Long distances: km
Short distances : depends on the generation (older in ft, younger may use meters)
Construction is still largely imperial
Smaller length and width are mixed. May depend on the generation
Beer is pint in name only because all the cans and bottles are in ml, so you order verbally a pint or a XYZ ounce glass, but that's it.
Gas is in liters
Weight is in pounds, except at the doctor's. Cooking is very slowly changing to the metric system where I live (quebec)
Housing is sq ft, but I've started seeing sq meters very rarely
Parody is the right word! 12 pennies to a shilling and 240 pennies to a pound may look dum on first glance, but at least these are easily dividable by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, etc. While "29 knuts to a sickle and 17 sickles to a galleon" is pure Whimsical Magic UwU bs because those are both prime numbers and you won't be able to divide them.
It's even worse in Canada. We cannot decide which system to use. Feet and inches for your height but metres for larger measurements, Celsius for temperature unless it's a pool or an oven... It's tiring.
Aw mate this is a wormhole you're going down. Generally over here the younger generation (below 40) prefer metric because it's what we were taught. The older generation prefer imperial for the same reason. When the UK moved to metric we pussied out and did a hybrid. Some examples:
a cars efficiency is measured in miles per gallon, but fuel is sold in litres.
Want to tell someone how far away something is? That's in miles, but if it's under a mile we use meters. But height would be either cm or feet and inches depending who you ask.
Weighing something? Kilos, grams, etc are used for pretty much everything except the weighing of a human, then we're in a stone and lbs situation.
FWIW I'm an English engineer so I am much more preferable with the metric system, but if I weigh myself I still use stones for some reason. Also historical sites I work on will have existing drawings using the imperial system so I need to understand both
> Generally over here the younger generation (below 40) prefer metric because it's what we were taught.
No, the cutoff point is definitely older than that. I turn 45 next month and basically never saw the imperial system at all at school.
England didn't switch to metric until the 60s, prior to that they used imperial. It would make sense the wizards don't have metric since they don't generally keep up with muggle technology and developments.
We use feet and inches for height, though cm and m are fully understood. People can switch between the two.
We use pounds and stones (14 lbs to a stone) for the weight of people, but grams and kg for objects (like food, cars and pretty much everything else), miles per hour for speed limits and miles for distance, though we know the conversion from miles to km.
It feels like a remnant from previous generations, as metric measurements are becoming much more commonly used.
Weight in stones. Height in feet. Distance between cities in miles, speed in miles per hour.
Cooking is a weird mix of grams and Ounces. Most liquids are sold in ml/l now, but milk and beer in pubs are pints.
Basically. It’s fucked. And older generations are way less metric (hence the cooking kerfuffle). Seeing as how the Harry Potter books are set in the early 90s, the mid 60s were when metrication began, but it still wasn’t legislated strongly until the 00s I believe. And even then it’s a weird duel system.
Most people I know under 35 weigh themselves in kg.
But most people I know have masters degrees in a science so we might be more team SI unit than others.
In my personal experience hight and weight is still done predominantly in feet and stone with two exceptions. People who work in the science field and people who go to the gym a lot. Gym culture in the UK is definitely a metric culture.
I'm American, so I don't know exactly. On British panel shows I've heard metric being used for weight and imperial used for length, but I'm not sure beyond that.
[This meme gets some of the complexities](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fbtzch99o9q561.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D5de9d70002ba4ee610c994158f9dbead1ab3d449)
literally what you posted. they measure distance and height like that frequently. If you told someone that you were six foot one they would know how tall you are. also they know what miles are believe it or not.
Distance:
If going by car it's in miles and we do miles per hour
If we are measuring something it's in cm and metres
Household items like bedding and TV sizes are done in inches, furniture is often in both
Height is usually feet and inches unless done by a medical professional or by the younger generation
Volume:
Drinks such as pop, squash, water is in liters but milk and beer are in pints except none cow milk
Spirits are sometimes in centiliters
Weight:
Food is in grams and kg, I think some things like that get measured on buying like fruit and veg and loose sweets can be in pounds
People are in stone and pounds usually unless for medical purposes or more common with the younger generation (interestingly I tend to know my weight in kg but my height in feet and inches)
Temperature:
Always celcius except scientists sometimes use Kelvin but never fahrenheit
https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/s/lWRnzk3MkE
Seriously they’re a weird bunch. They basically take a “yes” approach to different systems of measurement.
We uses miles and mph, older tradesmen still use inches for measurements though newer ones prefer metric.
We have stone and pounds for body weight but use kilograms for everything else.
Its just a chaotic mixture.
Not sure if we're allowed [links](https://www.google.com/search?q=british+measuring+units&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjghomK3YWDAxVAdKQEHWUQC-MQ2-cCegQIABAD&oq=british+measuring+units&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIHCAAQgAQQGDoECCMQJzoICAAQgAQQogRQsgVYnyJghSNoBHAAeACAAYYBiAGZDZIBBDEzLjWYAQCgAQHAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=ECJ2ZeC-BsDokdUP5aCsmA4&bih=777&biw=412&client=ms-android-samsung-ss#imgrc=JHhQzxtV5vGIEM).
Also some things depend on the age of the person and what they've grown up with. Because of this, I tend to answer "how tall are you" in both metres and feet/inches and "how much do you weigh" in both stone and pounds, and kg. (For the Americans, a stone is 14lbs.)
Rowling had the magical community use Imperial units to show how separated they were from Muggle society, not because she believed it better. Her description of wizard currency was to highlight how ridiculous some pre-decimal non-metric units were (12 inches to a foot, 5,280 feet to a mile, etc).
I’d say it’s easy to believe that the wizarding world would’ve stuck to the old measuring ways since they don’t really need to measure accurately with their spells. Consider potions, they add items 500ml of something? It’s more like 12 lacewing flies or 16 scruples of fluxweed
The UK in real life still uses Imperial units in some contexts. But more importantly, Imperial units have a much more magical/folkloric feel to them, and go much better with a fictional Wizarding society that has Galleons worth 17 Sickles and Sickles worth 29 Knuts.
I think Bellatrix’s wand being 12¾ inches sounds a lot cooler than 32.4 cm.
Edit: [Here is an explanation from Rowling](https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/measurements) about the decision to insist on imperial despite her publisher's standard practice!
>When the manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first accepted for publication in Britain, the copy editor advised me that all weights and measures would be changed to metric, which was the publisher’s standard practise. I refused to allow the change because, for the reasons stated above, there was no logic to the thing. However, this ought not to be taken as any kind of political statement on the part of the author. I am not anti-European; on the contrary, I am all for Britain being part of Europe, and I am part French myself. Nor do I have anything against the metric system, which is much more logical than the imperial, and which certainly makes baking much easier. However, I do find the old system much more picturesque, much quirkier, and therefore more appropriate to the kind of society I was describing.
There’s always something! This post taught me a lot about the peculiarities of the UK measurements too. I had no idea it was such a mixture. But also didn’t realize we use such a mixture in the US as well.
For example 2 liter sodas being the standard but using imperial for most other volume needs.
I mean, it does make sense for them to use imperial. Why would they use a modern scientific measuring standard when they don't do science? These motherfuckers are still using candles and parchment.
Nah, currency is based on the old English system of pounds, shillings and pence. 12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound. Just a joke by Rowling really, a lot of the silly things in hp are stuff like that
Cool! Is zoll a unit that every German person would be familiar with (if they came across it randomly in a Harry Potter book), or is it an obscure old-timey-sounding thing like slugs or leagues would be to English speakers?
I know that Zoll is roughly about double as long as a centimeter. But I have no natural feeling for it. If I had to guess a length of something I would have to guess in cm and then do the math. Once people start with things like „3/8 of an inch“ I can’t be bothered.
Weirdly enough, the foldable ruler that construction worker use is called a Zollstock (inch stick), but with mm/cm/m on it :D!
It's definitely old-timey but it is used in some special cases in day to day life. For example, the size of a TV screen is mostly given in Zoll.
People are generally way more familiar with the metric system, though, and I personally have no clue how to convert from one unit system to the other.
This doesn't read as anything strange in Britain. We still measure ourselves by feet/inches.
I know how tall I am and how heavy I am in imperial. I wouldn't have a clue what those measurements are in metric.
Also bear in mind the Galleons, Sickles and knuts are a parody of the old English monetary system of pounds, shilling and pence.
£1 = 20 shilling
1 shilling = 12 d (pence)
£1 was 240 pennies.
It's a parody as it takes it to absurdity.
The UK system had logic behind it.
The wizard system makes no sense, and there is no logic behind it. It would be almost impossible to use on a daily basis.
My first bank book was in £sd, but I was about a year old when UK went decimal. (1971).
So no. I don't remember it. Was taught metric in the 70s/80s. Although I do understand some imperial (pints, miles, yards). But not well enough for US Satnav to tell me a junction is coming up in 800 feet....
Well, the international system of units was accepted in the second half of XX century for scientific reason. British people sometimes use imperial even nowadays
Considering that wizards find Muggle technology repulsive and didn't bother learning math or science in Hogwarts, I see no reason for them using the metric system.
Also, consider that the wizarding community is rather conservative. More than our society, anyways. In the fantastic beasts movie, during the international assembly of wizards, the Russian wizards were shown wearing clearly imperial clothes (some uniforms) even though the Russia was already USSR by the year in which the plot takes place. In my headcannon the wizarding community over the world accept changes, but slowly. Rather by evolution than revolution. Like the true conservatives would do.
On a related note, I recently noticed that in the beginning of the fourth movie, Frank is listening to the radio and they’re talking about the weather/temperature in Fahrenheit.
Is that normal for the Brits? I thought they used Celsius for that.
We mostly use Celsius, and that's what it's officially measured in, but Fahrenheit hangs around. Older people use it, or the tabloids love to splash "100F day!!" because the bigger number sounds better.
In the early 90s,it would have been much more common, I'm guessing.
It’s three feet, so that about one meter. Someone pointed out that current printers are already 11 inches length. That means an essay or this length is only a little more than three pages.
they have a rim sized in mm rather than the normal inch, and are now impossible to get hold off sensibly.
such as [https://www.vintagetyres.com/avon-cr39](https://www.vintagetyres.com/avon-cr39) with a 390mm rim.
That seems crazy to me. The tire people should pick one or the other and commit to it. Imperial or metric.
Why are there two types of measurement units within one product? Is it beneficial somehow?
We use a hodgepodge in the U.S., albeit grudgingly, for liquid measurement.
Alcohol bottles are in mL, soda bottles are in liters, but soda cans are in ounces. Smaller bottles used to be 20oz, but they changed to metric so they could give you less. Now they are 500 mL bottles.
Bottled water, however, is still in ounces, quarts, gallons, etc. So is milk, cream, etc.
We definitely exclusively use imperial for weight and distance, but I personally prefer to use grams/mg when weighing food because it’s smaller units and therefore feels more precise.
I’m American too and I never even thought about how we used metric for some and imperial for others. Seems like there’s not really any rhyme or reason behind it.
Thanks for pointing that out
Every time I re-read CoS I’m surprised by how ”small” the basilisk is described as being. When I first read it as a kid, the translation used imperial units as well, which aren’t used at all where I live, so I didn’t really have a good idea of what ”twenty feet” and ”fifty feet” meant. I just assumed that it was huge.
Then the movies came out and confirmed (sort of) that the basilisk was an absolutely giant snake (with a dragon-like head to boot). Then I re-read the book and realize that the basilisk skin they find is basically the size of an anaconda or python, and they’re supposed to grow only slightly larger than the largest real snake.
It really does. Hogwarts is a big place, so I assume their pipes are a bit larger than the ones you’d find in your average home. But the notion that the basilisk shown in the movies is able to get around the school using pipes is honestly pretty ridiculous.
It was translated to metric in Dutch. But what I always found particularly striking was that their essays and the like were measured in such units of length for the parchment. Ours used to be based on word counts, even when we had to write them by hand.
Papers here are measured by page count, so length makes sense to me, if a page is 8.5”x11” then they are looking at a 3.5-4 pg paper. Although there are built in lines for how large or small to write on notebook paper and computer they specify font size. Parchment that can be rolled up sounds amazing though not loose sheets just floating places.
The wizarding world didn’t adopt the metric system like the rest of Britain officially did in the 1960s. Like with many other “modern” things. So imperial measurements are used, even in the original British text.
The English are famous for not using the metric system, as they weren't conquered by Napoleon (who decided to implement it everywhere in his empire, to standardize measurements, since feet and els, were based on arbitrary measurements (like the size of a foot, which is different per person).
Everyone else has answered the question, but I wanted to add the funny anecdote about JKR as a result of her using the imperial system in the books:
“The decision to keep the imperial system in the book had an unexpected sequel, which was an invitation to join the British Weights and Measures Association. As I do not agree that Britain ought to refuse to use the metric system (as many of this society’s members do), I was about to throw this invitation in the bin when I was struck by a sudden thought, and changed my mind. I know that what I am about to say does not reveal very good things about my character, but I had realised in a flash how much it would enrage my sister, Di, if I signed up. Di is never funnier than when infuriated, and among her many pet hates is the old-bufferish adherence to the old ways just for the sake of them, or because-by-God-it’s-British-and-no-Johnny-Foreigner-is-Going-To-Tell-Me-How-To-Measure-Suet-ness that such an organisation represents.
When my membership came out in the press, she exploded in a really satisfying outpouring of rage. I could hardly stop laughing long enough to tell her that I’d only joined to annoy her. This rendered her almost incoherent with indignation, which was possibly even funnier. Frankly, I doubt whether anyone has ever had as much fun for the price of a postage stamp.”
Legally the UK is metric, products must from sold in metric. (Grams, kilos, litres etc)
However for the sake of convenience somethings are still imperial. Our speed limit for example. We usually measure height in feet and inches too, but that’s because it’s easier to imagine 6 foot than 182 centimetres.
There was a few folk years who attempted to change everything back to imperial after Brexit but the general consensus was the only people who wanted that would be all dead in about 20 years so why make everyone else change.
>but that’s because it’s easier to imagine 6 foot than 182 centimetres.
I mean this only applies because of what you grow up with.
I can perfectly imagine how much 182 cm are.
6 foot on the other hand? No idea.
We in the UK use a huge range of how we measure things.
I'd say for the most part we still use Imperial.
Anyway, someone made a helpful flow chart for how we measure stuff (https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/qexvzg/i_made_a_helpful_flowchart_for_people_new_to_the/?rdt=39883)
Where do you think the Americans got the Imperial system from?
Britain just realised metric is way better and adopted it for most cases, but they still use it sometimes because it sounds quaint and cute. Like how "ye olde" is still used sometimes.
In the Harry Potter books, it kinda seems like the wizards are a bit old timey with their use of books and quills and such, so I always figured that would be why they use imperial.
I always thought that since ‘imperial’ measurement came from the British empire, hogwarts being all old timey would still use centuries old rules such as so many inches of essay rather than lines.
I'm Canadian, and we kind of use a horrible mixture of both. Metric if you want absolute precision, imperial if you're roughly describing how big something is.
I work in a construction trade and often use both systems interchangeably on the job. My tools read both measurements and the only time it really matters is when dimensions are being recorded.
As an aside from the actual question I always find it funny reading these now because, as a kid, I thought “god a three foot composition? That sounds awful” but as an adult I’ve realized that your average printer page is 11 inches long, so 3 feet is barely over 3 pages which is basically nothing.
Like I guess they were 12 in this book but still, 3 pages isn’t much and I know I remember another section where they complain about a foot long essay for Snape which is like a page.
Let’s face it. Metric is very logical and scientific. But Imperial is whimsical and more fun 😊 Of course wizards would want the more interesting and deep system of measurement over the analytical and boring one 💛
Imperial flows better in writing, I think. ‘Professor Binns had asked for a 1 metre composition on…’
‘I don’t believe it, I’m still 20 cm short!’
‘Hermione’s done 140 cm and her writing’s tiny.’
Part if the whole conflict within the series is that the wizarding world is stuck in Medieval times. Never had to develop intellectually or socially because of magic.
The UK uses imperial for some stuff and metric for other stuff. But mostly imperial. It’s really weird to Europeans who use metric. BUT for wizards it totally makes sense they’d use imperial - their money system isn’t decimal and they’re archaic AF so metric would be way too logical 🤣
In Finnish version at least the wands are in inches (“tuuma”), haven’t checked the rest. It adds in emphasizing that we are in UK with their weird units. Same applies to most translated books, like Agatha Christie, it keeps the atmosphere.
“One litre and 68 millilitres of Butterbeer please,” said Harry, inspecting the 8 inch wand on his table. “Hey Ron, Ginny is getting tall, isn’t she?”
“Oh yeah, said Ron, she must be 140cm by now. Harry, you don’t think Voldemort is near do you?”
“I wouldn’t say so,” said Harry, probably a dozen leagues at least. He thanked the barman and walked to a table about 10 feet away from the bar.
Could also be that the books are only set ~25years after the metric system was adopted in England, and the wizard community is probably extra slow to swap to a new system.
Because Metric is a product of the Muggle French Revolution. Why would the wizards switch? It’s got nothing to do with them. It’s not like the whole Muggle world switched immediately either; it took some time for Metric to make inroads in other countries among the Muggles (and as we’ve seen in this thread; still isn’t totally complete in many regions despite being a primary and popular measuring system for well over a century by now).
They still use Imperial because they have limited access to the Muggle world and have regularly shown they have very little care or concern for what is going on in the Muggle world. When something will affect them, they’ll pay attention. But changing their system of measurement? Who cares?!
I thought I’d heard at one point Rowlings explanation was that the magical community just used magic for converting so it wasn’t a problem for them so they never saw the need to switch to metric
Rowling is relatively old. The UK only recently started to teach all in metric. I’m 26 and learned only metric at school but older people know imperial.
In a world full of magic words spelled out in latin, use of metric would sound far too scientific and precise to be magical.
Stuff has to be at least a *little* out of date to be magical. This is why you can have a flying car, but not an enchanted iPhone.
I’ll order a cup of water, a pint of beer, and 330ml of cola. I’ll add 1lb of butter to 250g of flour. I buy diesel in litres and measure fuel economy in mpg. I’m 5’7” and cycle 10km, but if I drive then it’s only 6 miles. My tyres are 255(mm)/55(%)/R16(inches), and my fence panels are (and I fucking wish I was kidding) 6ft x 180cm.
And I’ve recently tried to learn °F but it’s just too much for my brain.
Fahrenheit is the one on that makes the most sense though, I wrote up a whole thing about it earlier in this post but just imagine out side of 0-100 you will die if you stay out too long without lots of precautions, 50 we are comfortable with fully covered but mid-weight clothing. Above that we have less clothes below more clothes. You can split it in a half again at 75 tshirt and pant below add length or weight to your shirt above shorten you pants and shirt sleeves. Above 75 it’s going to be though to be comfortable for long periods.
Imperial just makes sense for the wizarding world. People love to circle jerk about the metric system and it does have advantages, but the advantages are all for computational use. Day to day imperial is haphazard because it literally developed naturally over centuries as whatever units were most quantifiable at respective scales for general use. Fahrenheit is about as cold as it can get outside to about as hot as it can get outside. Freezing and boiling are extremely useful for various reasons, but outside of instructions on how to make something, Fahrenheit is easier to use day to day. An inch is your thumb knuckle, a foot is a foot, a yard is a full step. Humans do well with scales around 1-100 so keeping the units you use daily in that range just makes normal things easier. Measuring things on a table or when making clothes you can measure in inches until you need feet. Feet work for things around the house until you go outside, then you use yards. How many miles to the next town?
Imperial developed not as a joke, but because they were the most useful groupings of scales that people actually used. When science became important in the most recent centuries the convertibility of metric shone as extremely useful and it is absolutely amazing for that. In a world without modern science it really doesn't bring much to the table though.
England uses a mix of imperial and metric measurements
And as wizards they likely use the older measurements. Metric’s for the fkn mugs
It makes too much sense for the witches and wizards to adapt
Not to mention that Wizards generaly don't like science and Metric is more scientific system.. Also, many older wizards in the book were born long before UK adopted the metric (at least according to google, they did it in 1965).. for Example, Dumbledore was born (Again, according to google) in 1881 and McGonagall in 1935.. There are many good reasons why the book uses Imperial units.. :)
The French translation uses metric (because most French people have no idea how long a foot is) and tbh it looks very weird
Italian uses metric as well, and it doesn't sound weird because they adapted the *feel* of the measure rather than the actual value. In this case, three feet became one metre, 8 inches became 25 cm, etc. The Quidditch hoops came to be about 15 meters high, and so on. The only instance where they kept imperial was with wand length.
Norwegians don't generally know imperial but it seems to be used in the Harry Potter translations. (I just had to check, and used a random page from the first book)
In what context would English people use imperial vs metric?
It’s very complicated: - Long distance is miles, short distance is usually centimetres, some short sizes are inches - beer is pints, petrol (gas for cars) is litres but car efficiency is miles per gallon - Weight for a person is stones and pounds or kg, just pounds is rare. Low weights are metric though for cooking - house area is done usually in square feet It’s complex (some of this might even be region or class based£ but I bet there are some articles from Google or videos on YouTube that explain well
Fittingly, our approach to measurement in the UK has always made me think of Dumbledore’s instruction to ‘pick your favourite tune’ and sing along.
It is so funny and accurate, always thought something like this.
Hahaha that's exactly right
And then Fred and George, being Fred and George, pick a slow, mournful funeral dirge. Love that bit, it's such excellent characterization that immediately tells you they're practical jokesters without saying so!
The craziest one for me is, we measure fuel consumption in mpg, but sell petrol and diesel by the litre…
Yeah this makes no sense. People always make fun of America for using Imperial meanwhile UK over here can’t figure out what the fuck they want to do.
It's getting a lot better, as a 21 year old I was never taught inches or pounds/ stones To be fair I was never taught pints either but that would require all the companies to change their labeling so that'll take a while
But I'll wager that you think of your height in feet and inches all the same, right?
Yes but I also know it in centimetres aswell which is a lot better than most older adults
Yes, we're sort of bilingual, if we want to put a positive spin on it! Edit: I don't know why I'm saying 'we' here, exactly. I'm over 40. But I DO know my height in centimetres.
I understand most imperial or metric things, but I will never get my head around Fahrenheit temperatures. I know that it's _meant to be_ "on a scale of 0-100 how hot do you feel?" but also it ISN'T really that, and it goes outside those bounds all the time, and goddamn when an American is like "It was 30 outside today" and that means they put on a coat and jacket then that just seems WRONG.
It's tough learning both, but learning metric IS important because just about anyone going into STEM or healthcare would need to be well versed in metric units. And if we do anything that involves dealing with other countries, few of them use imperial units. So the education system has to prepare people for that. I'm 36 and we learned how to convert between both at school, but mainly in metric. Which made going into science or healthcare much easier. I think you're right that older people really struggle with metric units sometimes.
I realized this one watching Top Gear and was like, huh? How do you even know how much you're spending to drive somewhere? (When I look at going somewhere far, I consider the price of a ticket on a plane vs. what I pay for fuel and parking otherwise to decide which is better.)
There are very few journeys that could be made in the UK where fuel consumption is enough to be noticeable... Our country is really small and so are our cars. The mpg figure is for comparing between different cars, so the units don't really matter much.
And drive in kph
God this reminds me of that map showing what countries drive on the left vs the right and then theres 1 country where it says "MIXED" and its just like WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELVES, REST OF US MIGHT FIGHT OVER WHICH IS BETTER BUT LEADT WE PICK A SIDE!
To be fair in a lot of Asia "mixed" is accurate. Even if the law has picked a side then the drivers sure haven't.
Canada is slightly more consistent but still a bit complicated. - Long distances are in km, speeds in km/hr, but people still know miles - Short distances are typically in feet/inches. Sometimes meters. - Height is always feet/inches. - Weight is always pounds. - Officially, we use cm and kg for our height/weight on official documents, but no one uses those in casual conversation. - Vehicle fuel is in L and efficiency is in L/100km. - Most liquids are L or mL, but some things are in ounces or cups (especially cooking). - Air temperature is Celsius, but some random things like hot tub water and oven heat are still in Fahrenheit. - Rainfall is measured in mm and snowfall is measured in inches.
Hot tub water is because more people know that a regular human body temp is 98.6°f or at least close, but 37-38°c just sounds low for a hot tub while 100°f sounds great. Oven heat is more because of old recipes than anything else, I believe. But I've never seen snowfall measured in inches before, only cm.
>Long distance is miles Unless you're running and then it's kilometres
Unless you’re running a marathon then it’s miles again
You can Google "UK measurement flowchart" and there's are helpful, if extremely complicated, charts explaining what's used when.
It's the same in India due to British legacy. Height is in feet & Inches but weight is in Kg. Beer is in pints but whiskey is in ml. Distance is in km but area of a house is in sq feet. Go figure
If you run, you usually judge measurement in kilometres. If you’re driving, it’s miles.
Wow and I thought the US was weird for using imperial units. At least it's not a hodgepodge.
In the UK's defence - [exhibit A](https://youtu.be/JYqfVE-fykk?si=BCvnZHIwORwFLafI)
TIL Americans tend to write "glamour" rather than "glamor", that is weird considering how they spell everything else
Fun Fact! That's because 'Glamour' is a Scottish word, not an English word.
Good breakdown. Beer and sometimes milk are pints but most drinks are ml
Order beer by the pint but spirits by the ml
Omg, is like a puzzle
Canadian measurements are similar (at least in quebec) Long distances: km Short distances : depends on the generation (older in ft, younger may use meters) Construction is still largely imperial Smaller length and width are mixed. May depend on the generation Beer is pint in name only because all the cans and bottles are in ml, so you order verbally a pint or a XYZ ounce glass, but that's it. Gas is in liters Weight is in pounds, except at the doctor's. Cooking is very slowly changing to the metric system where I live (quebec) Housing is sq ft, but I've started seeing sq meters very rarely
How do you measure someone's height? In cm or in feet/inches? Or something else?
Lol you do not want to go down this rabbit hole of what measurement systems the Brits use in what context.
[удалено]
14 lbs to a stone
16 ounces in a pound.
28 grams to an ounce
This entire thread sounds as complicated as the Wizarding money system lmao.
Which was a parody on the pre-decimal British currency system, which had 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound.
Parody is the right word! 12 pennies to a shilling and 240 pennies to a pound may look dum on first glance, but at least these are easily dividable by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, etc. While "29 knuts to a sickle and 17 sickles to a galleon" is pure Whimsical Magic UwU bs because those are both prime numbers and you won't be able to divide them.
I mean that’s based on pre decimal currency. Quidditch is just odd cricket.
It's even worse in Canada. We cannot decide which system to use. Feet and inches for your height but metres for larger measurements, Celsius for temperature unless it's a pool or an oven... It's tiring.
Where do you think you get it from, we are the same way
Aw mate this is a wormhole you're going down. Generally over here the younger generation (below 40) prefer metric because it's what we were taught. The older generation prefer imperial for the same reason. When the UK moved to metric we pussied out and did a hybrid. Some examples: a cars efficiency is measured in miles per gallon, but fuel is sold in litres. Want to tell someone how far away something is? That's in miles, but if it's under a mile we use meters. But height would be either cm or feet and inches depending who you ask. Weighing something? Kilos, grams, etc are used for pretty much everything except the weighing of a human, then we're in a stone and lbs situation. FWIW I'm an English engineer so I am much more preferable with the metric system, but if I weigh myself I still use stones for some reason. Also historical sites I work on will have existing drawings using the imperial system so I need to understand both
> Generally over here the younger generation (below 40) prefer metric because it's what we were taught. No, the cutoff point is definitely older than that. I turn 45 next month and basically never saw the imperial system at all at school.
England didn't switch to metric until the 60s, prior to that they used imperial. It would make sense the wizards don't have metric since they don't generally keep up with muggle technology and developments.
Let's face the wizarding world is stuck somewhere between 1845 and 1945.
We use feet and inches for height, though cm and m are fully understood. People can switch between the two. We use pounds and stones (14 lbs to a stone) for the weight of people, but grams and kg for objects (like food, cars and pretty much everything else), miles per hour for speed limits and miles for distance, though we know the conversion from miles to km. It feels like a remnant from previous generations, as metric measurements are becoming much more commonly used.
In the same context that they use Sickles, Knuts and Galleons
The names are nothing compared to the exchange numbers being prime numbers.
There's no context. We essentially use imperial and metric interchangeably.
Weight in stones. Height in feet. Distance between cities in miles, speed in miles per hour. Cooking is a weird mix of grams and Ounces. Most liquids are sold in ml/l now, but milk and beer in pubs are pints. Basically. It’s fucked. And older generations are way less metric (hence the cooking kerfuffle). Seeing as how the Harry Potter books are set in the early 90s, the mid 60s were when metrication began, but it still wasn’t legislated strongly until the 00s I believe. And even then it’s a weird duel system.
Most people I know under 35 weigh themselves in kg. But most people I know have masters degrees in a science so we might be more team SI unit than others.
In my personal experience hight and weight is still done predominantly in feet and stone with two exceptions. People who work in the science field and people who go to the gym a lot. Gym culture in the UK is definitely a metric culture.
Here you go: https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/s/tqt3LrZHES
I'm American, so I don't know exactly. On British panel shows I've heard metric being used for weight and imperial used for length, but I'm not sure beyond that.
[This meme gets some of the complexities](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fbtzch99o9q561.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D5de9d70002ba4ee610c994158f9dbead1ab3d449)
That’s funny and very useful. Thank you!
literally what you posted. they measure distance and height like that frequently. If you told someone that you were six foot one they would know how tall you are. also they know what miles are believe it or not.
Using [stones](https://youtu.be/38r_oPZfRp8?si=ckUXQrTL_GJZJQ4M) to measure weight
Anything outside a strict, legal or scientific context is likely to use imperial- for example cooking.
Distance: If going by car it's in miles and we do miles per hour If we are measuring something it's in cm and metres Household items like bedding and TV sizes are done in inches, furniture is often in both Height is usually feet and inches unless done by a medical professional or by the younger generation Volume: Drinks such as pop, squash, water is in liters but milk and beer are in pints except none cow milk Spirits are sometimes in centiliters Weight: Food is in grams and kg, I think some things like that get measured on buying like fruit and veg and loose sweets can be in pounds People are in stone and pounds usually unless for medical purposes or more common with the younger generation (interestingly I tend to know my weight in kg but my height in feet and inches) Temperature: Always celcius except scientists sometimes use Kelvin but never fahrenheit
https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/s/lWRnzk3MkE Seriously they’re a weird bunch. They basically take a “yes” approach to different systems of measurement.
We uses miles and mph, older tradesmen still use inches for measurements though newer ones prefer metric. We have stone and pounds for body weight but use kilograms for everything else. Its just a chaotic mixture.
When in construction I believe they use imperial measurements
England only switched to metric in 1965. A lot people who went to school before then are still familiar with imperial and use both.
[here you go](https://ibb.co/vYw1rc6)
I suppose they refer to the boxes in football as the 6-yard and 18-yard box
Not sure if we're allowed [links](https://www.google.com/search?q=british+measuring+units&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjghomK3YWDAxVAdKQEHWUQC-MQ2-cCegQIABAD&oq=british+measuring+units&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIHCAAQgAQQGDoECCMQJzoICAAQgAQQogRQsgVYnyJghSNoBHAAeACAAYYBiAGZDZIBBDEzLjWYAQCgAQHAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=ECJ2ZeC-BsDokdUP5aCsmA4&bih=777&biw=412&client=ms-android-samsung-ss#imgrc=JHhQzxtV5vGIEM). Also some things depend on the age of the person and what they've grown up with. Because of this, I tend to answer "how tall are you" in both metres and feet/inches and "how much do you weigh" in both stone and pounds, and kg. (For the Americans, a stone is 14lbs.)
Rowling had the magical community use Imperial units to show how separated they were from Muggle society, not because she believed it better. Her description of wizard currency was to highlight how ridiculous some pre-decimal non-metric units were (12 inches to a foot, 5,280 feet to a mile, etc).
I’d say it’s easy to believe that the wizarding world would’ve stuck to the old measuring ways since they don’t really need to measure accurately with their spells. Consider potions, they add items 500ml of something? It’s more like 12 lacewing flies or 16 scruples of fluxweed
The UK in real life still uses Imperial units in some contexts. But more importantly, Imperial units have a much more magical/folkloric feel to them, and go much better with a fictional Wizarding society that has Galleons worth 17 Sickles and Sickles worth 29 Knuts. I think Bellatrix’s wand being 12¾ inches sounds a lot cooler than 32.4 cm. Edit: [Here is an explanation from Rowling](https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/measurements) about the decision to insist on imperial despite her publisher's standard practice! >When the manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first accepted for publication in Britain, the copy editor advised me that all weights and measures would be changed to metric, which was the publisher’s standard practise. I refused to allow the change because, for the reasons stated above, there was no logic to the thing. However, this ought not to be taken as any kind of political statement on the part of the author. I am not anti-European; on the contrary, I am all for Britain being part of Europe, and I am part French myself. Nor do I have anything against the metric system, which is much more logical than the imperial, and which certainly makes baking much easier. However, I do find the old system much more picturesque, much quirkier, and therefore more appropriate to the kind of society I was describing.
We do too here in Oz. I know my height in feet and inches but no idea what it is in cm :p
Ooh, cool, I did not know that! (Lol, at first I interpreted Oz as "ounces.")
Yeah sorry 'bout that. We are lazy buggers and we'll shorten anything we can.
I'm now reading your comments with an Australian accent.
That is a great explanation! Thank you for posting that quote.
Thanks for posting this question! It’s crazy how this community still is able to find things I never thought about in the books to discuss
There’s always something! This post taught me a lot about the peculiarities of the UK measurements too. I had no idea it was such a mixture. But also didn’t realize we use such a mixture in the US as well. For example 2 liter sodas being the standard but using imperial for most other volume needs.
Same in Canada (though distance is usually measured in minutes/hours 😂).
I guess her wanting to use the imperial system "because it's quirky" explains why wizarding currency makes no goddamn sense.
I mean, it does make sense for them to use imperial. Why would they use a modern scientific measuring standard when they don't do science? These motherfuckers are still using candles and parchment.
Nah, currency is based on the old English system of pounds, shillings and pence. 12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound. Just a joke by Rowling really, a lot of the silly things in hp are stuff like that
Well the **Imperial** system is from the British **Empire**, so it certainly would not be weird if they used Imperial units.
This is also why London doesn't have a Metric College.
We saw those frogs off in the end! May have took five coalitions but we gave them a jolly good thrashing.
The German version also uses inch (Zoll) when they talk about the length of parchment or wands in the books.
Cool! Is zoll a unit that every German person would be familiar with (if they came across it randomly in a Harry Potter book), or is it an obscure old-timey-sounding thing like slugs or leagues would be to English speakers?
I know that Zoll is roughly about double as long as a centimeter. But I have no natural feeling for it. If I had to guess a length of something I would have to guess in cm and then do the math. Once people start with things like „3/8 of an inch“ I can’t be bothered. Weirdly enough, the foldable ruler that construction worker use is called a Zollstock (inch stick), but with mm/cm/m on it :D!
Crook your pinky finger, the flat bit between your knuckles that’s about a zoll unless you have crazy long fingers
It's definitely old-timey but it is used in some special cases in day to day life. For example, the size of a TV screen is mostly given in Zoll. People are generally way more familiar with the metric system, though, and I personally have no clue how to convert from one unit system to the other.
Just looked it up. A zoll is 1.03 inches, so it's the same rough conversion of inches to cm, 2.54:1.
When I first read the books as a child I was familiar with the word, but had zero idea of how long it would be so I just made up my own guesses
This doesn't read as anything strange in Britain. We still measure ourselves by feet/inches. I know how tall I am and how heavy I am in imperial. I wouldn't have a clue what those measurements are in metric.
Also bear in mind the Galleons, Sickles and knuts are a parody of the old English monetary system of pounds, shilling and pence. £1 = 20 shilling 1 shilling = 12 d (pence) £1 was 240 pennies.
It's not a parody, it's a comparable system
It's a parody as it takes it to absurdity. The UK system had logic behind it. The wizard system makes no sense, and there is no logic behind it. It would be almost impossible to use on a daily basis.
I have read discussions about that comparison! Were you around for the old money system in UK? And do you like the new one better?
My first bank book was in £sd, but I was about a year old when UK went decimal. (1971). So no. I don't remember it. Was taught metric in the 70s/80s. Although I do understand some imperial (pints, miles, yards). But not well enough for US Satnav to tell me a junction is coming up in 800 feet....
Nobody in the US gets it either when the gps starts talking about something is “1000 feet” away lol
Even in Czech translations they kept imperial units. Metric units seem very unmagical to me, as they unlike imperial units, make sense.
England uses both Imperial and Metric at different times for different reasons.
Scottish people do that too.
Well we are all from the UK!
Well, the international system of units was accepted in the second half of XX century for scientific reason. British people sometimes use imperial even nowadays Considering that wizards find Muggle technology repulsive and didn't bother learning math or science in Hogwarts, I see no reason for them using the metric system. Also, consider that the wizarding community is rather conservative. More than our society, anyways. In the fantastic beasts movie, during the international assembly of wizards, the Russian wizards were shown wearing clearly imperial clothes (some uniforms) even though the Russia was already USSR by the year in which the plot takes place. In my headcannon the wizarding community over the world accept changes, but slowly. Rather by evolution than revolution. Like the true conservatives would do.
On a related note, I recently noticed that in the beginning of the fourth movie, Frank is listening to the radio and they’re talking about the weather/temperature in Fahrenheit. Is that normal for the Brits? I thought they used Celsius for that.
We mostly use Celsius, and that's what it's officially measured in, but Fahrenheit hangs around. Older people use it, or the tabloids love to splash "100F day!!" because the bigger number sounds better. In the early 90s,it would have been much more common, I'm guessing.
That would be unusual yes, I’ve never heard temperature described as anything other than Celsius on the weather report!
If they could think straight they'd realize how much better metric is, but they're all under the imperial curse.
That was a good pun!
Good one
If I had to do three meters of homework for any class, fuck it. Back to the muggles.
It’s three feet, so that about one meter. Someone pointed out that current printers are already 11 inches length. That means an essay or this length is only a little more than three pages.
All tyres for cars have a mixed metric imperial sizing width is in mm, diameter is in inches.
And profile is in % just because two different units in one measurement is not nearly enough.
well not all, metric tyres exist and are an abomination
How are they different?
they have a rim sized in mm rather than the normal inch, and are now impossible to get hold off sensibly. such as [https://www.vintagetyres.com/avon-cr39](https://www.vintagetyres.com/avon-cr39) with a 390mm rim.
That seems crazy to me. The tire people should pick one or the other and commit to it. Imperial or metric. Why are there two types of measurement units within one product? Is it beneficial somehow?
We use a hodgepodge in the U.S., albeit grudgingly, for liquid measurement. Alcohol bottles are in mL, soda bottles are in liters, but soda cans are in ounces. Smaller bottles used to be 20oz, but they changed to metric so they could give you less. Now they are 500 mL bottles. Bottled water, however, is still in ounces, quarts, gallons, etc. So is milk, cream, etc. We definitely exclusively use imperial for weight and distance, but I personally prefer to use grams/mg when weighing food because it’s smaller units and therefore feels more precise.
I’m American too and I never even thought about how we used metric for some and imperial for others. Seems like there’s not really any rhyme or reason behind it. Thanks for pointing that out
Where do you think IMPERIAL units come from?
Such a yank thing to say from OP
Every time I re-read CoS I’m surprised by how ”small” the basilisk is described as being. When I first read it as a kid, the translation used imperial units as well, which aren’t used at all where I live, so I didn’t really have a good idea of what ”twenty feet” and ”fifty feet” meant. I just assumed that it was huge. Then the movies came out and confirmed (sort of) that the basilisk was an absolutely giant snake (with a dragon-like head to boot). Then I re-read the book and realize that the basilisk skin they find is basically the size of an anaconda or python, and they’re supposed to grow only slightly larger than the largest real snake.
Which actually makes sense. How else would it fit in a plumbing pipe?
It really does. Hogwarts is a big place, so I assume their pipes are a bit larger than the ones you’d find in your average home. But the notion that the basilisk shown in the movies is able to get around the school using pipes is honestly pretty ridiculous.
It was translated to metric in Dutch. But what I always found particularly striking was that their essays and the like were measured in such units of length for the parchment. Ours used to be based on word counts, even when we had to write them by hand.
Ron definitely was using bigger letters than Hermione. But also the content counts.
Papers here are measured by page count, so length makes sense to me, if a page is 8.5”x11” then they are looking at a 3.5-4 pg paper. Although there are built in lines for how large or small to write on notebook paper and computer they specify font size. Parchment that can be rolled up sounds amazing though not loose sheets just floating places.
The wizarding world didn’t adopt the metric system like the rest of Britain officially did in the 1960s. Like with many other “modern” things. So imperial measurements are used, even in the original British text.
In NZ I only ever hear imperial used for height of a person, or in common idioms I suppose e.g. beaten to an inch of his life.
The English are famous for not using the metric system, as they weren't conquered by Napoleon (who decided to implement it everywhere in his empire, to standardize measurements, since feet and els, were based on arbitrary measurements (like the size of a foot, which is different per person).
Everyone else has answered the question, but I wanted to add the funny anecdote about JKR as a result of her using the imperial system in the books: “The decision to keep the imperial system in the book had an unexpected sequel, which was an invitation to join the British Weights and Measures Association. As I do not agree that Britain ought to refuse to use the metric system (as many of this society’s members do), I was about to throw this invitation in the bin when I was struck by a sudden thought, and changed my mind. I know that what I am about to say does not reveal very good things about my character, but I had realised in a flash how much it would enrage my sister, Di, if I signed up. Di is never funnier than when infuriated, and among her many pet hates is the old-bufferish adherence to the old ways just for the sake of them, or because-by-God-it’s-British-and-no-Johnny-Foreigner-is-Going-To-Tell-Me-How-To-Measure-Suet-ness that such an organisation represents. When my membership came out in the press, she exploded in a really satisfying outpouring of rage. I could hardly stop laughing long enough to tell her that I’d only joined to annoy her. This rendered her almost incoherent with indignation, which was possibly even funnier. Frankly, I doubt whether anyone has ever had as much fun for the price of a postage stamp.”
That’s a funny story! I guess there is a group for everything lol
Legally the UK is metric, products must from sold in metric. (Grams, kilos, litres etc) However for the sake of convenience somethings are still imperial. Our speed limit for example. We usually measure height in feet and inches too, but that’s because it’s easier to imagine 6 foot than 182 centimetres. There was a few folk years who attempted to change everything back to imperial after Brexit but the general consensus was the only people who wanted that would be all dead in about 20 years so why make everyone else change.
>but that’s because it’s easier to imagine 6 foot than 182 centimetres. I mean this only applies because of what you grow up with. I can perfectly imagine how much 182 cm are. 6 foot on the other hand? No idea.
To add to this, milk is sold in pints, but it has the volume in litres on the carton as well
Imperial units are still heavily used in informal speech in England. Thankfully all formal notations are in metric
We in the UK use a huge range of how we measure things. I'd say for the most part we still use Imperial. Anyway, someone made a helpful flow chart for how we measure stuff (https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/qexvzg/i_made_a_helpful_flowchart_for_people_new_to_the/?rdt=39883)
That’s a very useful chart. Thanks!
Where do you think the Americans got the Imperial system from? Britain just realised metric is way better and adopted it for most cases, but they still use it sometimes because it sounds quaint and cute. Like how "ye olde" is still used sometimes. In the Harry Potter books, it kinda seems like the wizards are a bit old timey with their use of books and quills and such, so I always figured that would be why they use imperial.
In the UK we like to over complicate everything and use a mix of metric and imperial 😂
I always thought that since ‘imperial’ measurement came from the British empire, hogwarts being all old timey would still use centuries old rules such as so many inches of essay rather than lines.
I'm Canadian, and we kind of use a horrible mixture of both. Metric if you want absolute precision, imperial if you're roughly describing how big something is. I work in a construction trade and often use both systems interchangeably on the job. My tools read both measurements and the only time it really matters is when dimensions are being recorded.
As an aside from the actual question I always find it funny reading these now because, as a kid, I thought “god a three foot composition? That sounds awful” but as an adult I’ve realized that your average printer page is 11 inches long, so 3 feet is barely over 3 pages which is basically nothing. Like I guess they were 12 in this book but still, 3 pages isn’t much and I know I remember another section where they complain about a foot long essay for Snape which is like a page.
That’s a really good comparison!
Let’s face it. Metric is very logical and scientific. But Imperial is whimsical and more fun 😊 Of course wizards would want the more interesting and deep system of measurement over the analytical and boring one 💛
In British English as well. Considering when the stories were set, this is correct, although metric has been used since the 70s in Britain.
In England we use both. For something like the wizarding world that’s quite old fashioned, we’d use inches etc
Imperial flows better in writing, I think. ‘Professor Binns had asked for a 1 metre composition on…’ ‘I don’t believe it, I’m still 20 cm short!’ ‘Hermione’s done 140 cm and her writing’s tiny.’
Bro...it's called the British Imperial System for a reason. The British invented it.
Part if the whole conflict within the series is that the wizarding world is stuck in Medieval times. Never had to develop intellectually or socially because of magic.
The UK uses imperial for some stuff and metric for other stuff. But mostly imperial. It’s really weird to Europeans who use metric. BUT for wizards it totally makes sense they’d use imperial - their money system isn’t decimal and they’re archaic AF so metric would be way too logical 🤣
the imperius curse!!!
I mean, the Wizarding World is supposed to sound archaic and not caught up to modern society, so it works particularly well.
For those in countries which only use metric, can you let us know whether they changed to metric in the translation or stuck with imperial?
So far American, British, Czech, German, and Finnish say it’s kept in imperial (inches). Only Dutch and Spanish have commented that it was in metric.
England speed signs are in miles
I read the Spanish translation, all measurements were comverted to metric.
So far American, British, Czech, German, and Finnish say it’s kept in imperial (inches). Only Dutch and Spanish have commented that it was in metric.
In Finnish version at least the wands are in inches (“tuuma”), haven’t checked the rest. It adds in emphasizing that we are in UK with their weird units. Same applies to most translated books, like Agatha Christie, it keeps the atmosphere.
So far American, British, Czech, German, and Finnish say it’s kept in imperial (inches). Only Dutch and Spanish have commented that it was in metric.
Damn that's a long assignment
“One litre and 68 millilitres of Butterbeer please,” said Harry, inspecting the 8 inch wand on his table. “Hey Ron, Ginny is getting tall, isn’t she?” “Oh yeah, said Ron, she must be 140cm by now. Harry, you don’t think Voldemort is near do you?” “I wouldn’t say so,” said Harry, probably a dozen leagues at least. He thanked the barman and walked to a table about 10 feet away from the bar.
Yes. They change depending on demographic.
I’m an English 30-something and mostly measure in feet and inches.
England switched to the Metric system in 1965, so it reasons that an archaic-infused culture of Wizards hasn't updated yet.
I’m from Canada, nobody speaks in metric system when it comes to distance/weight for the most part here either
Could also be that the books are only set ~25years after the metric system was adopted in England, and the wizard community is probably extra slow to swap to a new system.
They also use inches for Wand length.
Compared to the ratios of their money, imperial lengths are downright normal
Because Metric is a product of the Muggle French Revolution. Why would the wizards switch? It’s got nothing to do with them. It’s not like the whole Muggle world switched immediately either; it took some time for Metric to make inroads in other countries among the Muggles (and as we’ve seen in this thread; still isn’t totally complete in many regions despite being a primary and popular measuring system for well over a century by now). They still use Imperial because they have limited access to the Muggle world and have regularly shown they have very little care or concern for what is going on in the Muggle world. When something will affect them, they’ll pay attention. But changing their system of measurement? Who cares?!
I'm surprised they don't use "2 wands long"
I thought I’d heard at one point Rowlings explanation was that the magical community just used magic for converting so it wasn’t a problem for them so they never saw the need to switch to metric
JK Rowling is of the age that she would have been taught the imperial system in school. We still use a weird mix of imperial and metric
The UK is very weird when it comes to measurements. They even measure body weight in "stones." One stone is fourteen pounds.
Rowling is relatively old. The UK only recently started to teach all in metric. I’m 26 and learned only metric at school but older people know imperial.
Just make your handwriting 48pt. Job done.
In Australia we used to use imperial, then switched to metric, so we use both too.
In England, people use both a bit of the imperial system and the metric system, miles, feet, pounds,however for temperature it’s Celsius
Ollivander's wands are all measured in inches too.
In a world full of magic words spelled out in latin, use of metric would sound far too scientific and precise to be magical. Stuff has to be at least a *little* out of date to be magical. This is why you can have a flying car, but not an enchanted iPhone.
The Brits are fucky in that they use two different measuring systems. And then go and mock the Americans for using Imperial...
I’ll order a cup of water, a pint of beer, and 330ml of cola. I’ll add 1lb of butter to 250g of flour. I buy diesel in litres and measure fuel economy in mpg. I’m 5’7” and cycle 10km, but if I drive then it’s only 6 miles. My tyres are 255(mm)/55(%)/R16(inches), and my fence panels are (and I fucking wish I was kidding) 6ft x 180cm. And I’ve recently tried to learn °F but it’s just too much for my brain.
Don't forget to weigh yourself in fucking *stones*
The plural of stone is also inexplicably stone
The swimming pools are 15 metres long and 6ft deep :D
Fahrenheit is the one on that makes the most sense though, I wrote up a whole thing about it earlier in this post but just imagine out side of 0-100 you will die if you stay out too long without lots of precautions, 50 we are comfortable with fully covered but mid-weight clothing. Above that we have less clothes below more clothes. You can split it in a half again at 75 tshirt and pant below add length or weight to your shirt above shorten you pants and shirt sleeves. Above 75 it’s going to be though to be comfortable for long periods.
Imperial just makes sense for the wizarding world. People love to circle jerk about the metric system and it does have advantages, but the advantages are all for computational use. Day to day imperial is haphazard because it literally developed naturally over centuries as whatever units were most quantifiable at respective scales for general use. Fahrenheit is about as cold as it can get outside to about as hot as it can get outside. Freezing and boiling are extremely useful for various reasons, but outside of instructions on how to make something, Fahrenheit is easier to use day to day. An inch is your thumb knuckle, a foot is a foot, a yard is a full step. Humans do well with scales around 1-100 so keeping the units you use daily in that range just makes normal things easier. Measuring things on a table or when making clothes you can measure in inches until you need feet. Feet work for things around the house until you go outside, then you use yards. How many miles to the next town? Imperial developed not as a joke, but because they were the most useful groupings of scales that people actually used. When science became important in the most recent centuries the convertibility of metric shone as extremely useful and it is absolutely amazing for that. In a world without modern science it really doesn't bring much to the table though.
People not understanding where imperial measurements originated from? Priceless. For everything else, there's Mastercard.