Speed Limits in Canada

km too big gram too small? do you not understand the system. move the decimal. base units meter or gram. milli, centi, deci, deka, hecto, kilo............ super simple.

I haven't done a lot of "backyard mechanic" work on my Ford pickup but I suspect that the only "American" nuts and bolts on that vehicle are the battery cable clamps and the lug nuts, the rest are probably all metric!

I'm comfortable with metric except with our measuring tapes that are calibrated in both systems, seems that when I'm measuring 2X4's for 16 inch centers the metric side of the tape always is on the side that I'm trying to read. Time to buy an "all American" tape measure next winter in the US!

I too live in a world of pounds, ounces, gallons, miles, inches & feet as well as fahrenheit and always will. :E

I understand celsius but it just leaves me too cold, kilometers are simply too long and grams are definitely too small! :B

Pipeman wrote:
I'm byhandual in metric & imperial but I speak in imperial. Metric was crammed down our throats, so I rebel.

hello neighbor

VE3ESN wrote:

paulj wrote:
I thought Canadians measured fuel usage in l/km? Don't they also measure speed in hr/km?

Our fuel usage is measured in liters per 100 km. (l/100 km).
Our speed is measured in kilometers per hour, (km/h)

BTW, even though the US had a revolution to get rid of British control, they are one of the only countries in the world still using the British system of measurement (albeit a modified version called "US Customary")

Virtually the rest of the world uses Metric!

For most things. Aircraft and ships still use knots and feet except for east block countries and China.

I move between both worlds, usually with ease. Not with tape measure tho. But for fuel, distance..oh..not my weight. Or the chickens. I peg my speed control at the same point. Bottle of bourbon is the same no matter what side of the border. And 12 beer is always 12 beer. Gas is always expensive.

Maybe it's because now that I am retired and used to that...I really don't care.


Gary Haupt

I can go both ways with measurements, probably a little more than the average Canadian of my age, maybe because of my science based interests.
However, I still prefer the 'old' measurements in some instances. I do prefer Fahrenheit, and cannot think of any disadvantages to it. With the exception of one year, I have never lived in a place where the temperature range is more than 0-100F, so this suits me. In addition, the Fahrenheit scale is a more finely graduated scale.
I prefer the MPG method, rather than the, to me, bizarre system of Litres per 100Km. in which the lower the number, the better. BTW, the 'magic' number to convert L per 100KM to MPG is '280'. Divide the metric number into 280 to get the MPG, so that 7L per 100km is 40mpg. Cumbersome, but it does work.
I can also remember being very confused when helping a friend with some house construction, when we ended up using a metric only tape measure. 8ft 11 3/4 inches is easy to see, but 239cm plus 7? caused some problems initially!

The smaller US gallon is based on an old English measurement sometimes called the Queen Anne's gallon. It was abandoned by the British about 50 years after the US War of Independence but the US stayed with the older measure.

The US actually has a long history with the metric system. Metric is now used by much of the industrial, commercial and scientific communities as well as by the military. In fact, most if not all of the current US “customary” measures are now legally defined in terms of metric units.

But many of us who grew up with the inch-foot-lb system will never have the same innate “feel” for the metric measures as we do for the old system. As I understand it Canada decided to go metric partly on the basis that the US was going to change over too, but the US initiative stalled. In contrast our Canadian government made it compulsory. I think it's safe to say that Canada would not have gone metric either if the people had been given a choice.

I know that the US gallon is smaller than a real gallon, as is a US ton, but inches, feet, yards, miles, ounces, pounds etc. are all the same.
I was born and raised in the UK, and when I drive down to the US with all the mile signs on the roads and the pounds and ounces in the shops, it's almost like going home again, and I often find myself whistling 'God Save the Queen'! :)

4X4Dodger wrote:

VE3ESN wrote:

paulj wrote:
I thought Canadians measured fuel usage in l/km? Don't they also measure speed in hr/km?

Our fuel usage is measured in liters per 100 km. (l/100 km).
Our speed is measured in kilometers per hour, (km/h)

BTW, even though the US had a revolution to get rid of British control, they are one of the only countries in the world still using the British system of measurement (albeit a modified version called "US Customary")

Virtually the rest of the world uses Metric!

It is NOT the British system. You need to check your history. We modified the British system, that is why you have an "imperial" gallons as YOU did in Canada before metric and our gallons.

Secondly the weights and measures of the late 18th century England do not resemble what we changed them to in many cases. Later GB changed again to a more modern system although they still measure human weight in "Stone".

Perhaps you missed the part in brackets above where I qualified the term "British system" by stating the following:

(albeit a modified version called "US Customary").

However, and with all due respect to you and all our American friends, the measurement system presently used in the US is MUCH closer to the old British system than the measurement system used in virtually any other major nation, wouldn't you agree?