Personally I have never seen a cooker in the UK that has deg F used on
them.
As far as weather is concerned, we have a peculiar situation in the UK
in that during the winter the TV weather tends to use deg C only
(occasionally using deg F) - probably due to the senstionalism of being
around zero (it hardly gets below zero in the UK, only occasionally).
However in the summer as temperatures raise then you get to hear deg F a
lot more.  Depending on forecaster this "break off point" could be 70 or
80F.  I've noticed that all radio staions (well the ones I listen too)
quote both deg C and deg F.  Radio One don't even mention temperatures -
they rely on descriptions (ie muggy, humid, freezing, chilly, etc etc).
Personally I am fluent in both F and C but actually prefer C in the
winter and F in the summer.
I don't think the forecaster says deg F for old people (whom I don't
regard as "lazy").  The reason why I say this is that my peer group
(which is young) eaily works with deg F in the summer just like I do.
Some prefer Celsius but that's not the majority in the summer months).
In my peer group only I am a BWMA member but being an I.T. professional
I cannot hold my hand up and say that I am  'too loath to live in the
modern word' as I tend to embrace new tech-stuff like faster processors,
Ipaq's, SKY+ digital eyc, etc.  I could try to loath these things just
so that 'certain' people could generalise me, but I don't think I could
get away with it!

BTW - I found some handy conversions:

82F is 28F (you simply swap the numbers) - handy for warm days in the
UK.
1966 is the year England won the (soccer) world cup - notice anything
perculiar about those numbers?




-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of David King
Sent: 04 January 2005 20:18
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:31812] Re: Canadian Question


I would be interested to hear from people in other countries, too, in 
regards to this.

Here in the UK, all electric cookers that I have seen that are not older

than me, have temperatures only in degrees C, no F at all. When I was at

school, I remember in the cookery class that they had some really old 
cookers that F on them, but most had only C on them. That was around
1979.

It is rare to see F anywhere in the UK, other than in some newspapers 
when trying to sensationalise the temperatures in summer, and a minority

of papers who give out forecast temps primarily in F. Some give F 
equivalents to the C temps as well, but most use C only or at least as 
the primary temp system. On TV all weather forecasting has shown C temps

on maps for many years (at least since the late 1970s) and sometimes the

forecaster will say what a temp is in F, probably for the sake of old 
people who are too lazy to learn C and BWMA members (who are too loath 
to live in the modern world).

Most people in the UK, regardless of their general usage of metric, 
understand and use temperatures in Celsius. Some people have no idea of 
metres, km, kg, etc., but are quite comfortable knowing what 20 degrees 
Celsius is.

David King

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Mike Panfil wrote:

> I have a question for those of you who reside in Canada...
>  
> When you converted to Celsius was the switch from Fahrenheit
> complete?  In other words, were all references to Fahrenheit on oven 
> and other household devices replaced with Celsius on temperature dials

> and/or gauges?
>  
> Thank you,
>  
> Mike

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