Metric and Standard measurements

Oct 05, 2012

Hi All:

I'm working on a project where I let the user choose Metric or Standard measurements. For all of you who use Metric (i.e., the world other than the U.S.), what unit is most common to use when referring to a person's height? Do you say that person is 'x' meters tall or 'x' centimeters tall? Random question I know, but important to this module. From the U.S. perspective, we say, "John is 6 feet, 2 inches," rather than, "John is 74 inches tall."

8 Replies

Nancy Woinoski
Hero

over 11 years ago10/06/12 at 9:33 am (UTC)

Hi David, I'm from Canada and we use the metric system but I still refer to height in feet and inches. I don't think there is a hard and fast rule but I would probably use centimetres because it would be more accurate.

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro

over 11 years ago10/06/12 at 10:30 am (UTC)

Hi David,

I'm not from Europe, but I did a quick Google and the one article I skimmed plus a metric converter from feet and pounds to metric affirms Nancy's post.

Understanding body weight and height in metric units

Weight and Height Converter (metric/standard)

Oh, and John is 188 cm

Sarah Tinson

over 11 years ago10/10/12 at 6:16 pm (UTC)

Hi David,

We use metric in New Zealand officially, (but a lot of people stil use the old imperial measurements.)

I would always say: I am 1.63 metres tall. I would never say: I am 163 centimetres tall.

(If we go back to imperial, I am 5 foot 3 and 3/4 - and boy that 3/4 is important to me!)

Cheers,

Sarah.

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro

over 11 years ago10/11/12 at 4:34 am (UTC)

Interesting. So is there no standard? Do some countries using metric state in meters and others in centimeters (or metres/centimetres)?

Sarah Tinson

over 11 years ago10/11/12 at 12:17 pm (UTC)

I don't believe there are standards as such. To me, 1.63m sounds better than 163 cm. To me it would be the same as saying something costs $1.50 vs 150 cents.

However, I was watching a police show last night, and part of it shows criminals on the run here (we don't have that many!) and when they described them they referred to their height in cms - eg dark hair, 188 cms.

Thanks for using my spelling Rebecca!