Why don’t you ask around at the gym – do it in a roundabout way so that they do not know that you are actually doing a survey. You will probably be surprised how many people use metric units. Pay particular attention to any South Africans and Aussies who you might know – stones were never used in South Africa (at least not when I lived there until 1978 bu which time they had adopted metric units).
From: Stephen Humphreys [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 23 May 2020 22:44 To: Martin Vlietstra Cc: Paul Trusten; Metric List Postings Subject: Re: [USMA 1415] Re: Ancestry survey The weights are mainly in kg. Not sure why that has relevance to personal weight. I use stones because I dont know of anyone who doesn’t - check the slimming schemes, adverts, programmes etc On 23 May 2020, at 9:50 pm, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> wrote: When I used a gym, the various weights that one could pick up were all measured in kilograms. Is your gym the same? If so, why do you use stones for personal weight? When my son, who is an army officer, does any training, his criteria (taken from army textbooks) is to calculate the weight carried in a backpack as a percentage of your own body weight. When he was training from home, he used two litre bottles of water as ballast – two litres of water is two kilograms (plus the weight of the plastic). I have no idea how many stones such a bottle is. From: Stephen Humphreys [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 23 May 2020 21:36 To: Martin Vlietstra Cc: Paul Trusten; Metric List Postings Subject: Re: [USMA 1415] Re: Ancestry survey TBF I can’t remember the last time I checked my BMI - Being a regular gym goer I’m hoping to gain ’the right weight’ which skews the BMI stuff On 23 May 2020, at 9:29 pm, Martin Vlietstra < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: … but it is still a pain working out your BMI using imperial units unless you have an ap. It is a bit simpler using customary units (pounds only, not stones and pounds) and simplest of all using metric units. Compare trying to work out the BMI of somebody who is 17.5 stone, height 5’9” rather than somebody who weighs 110 kg and is 175 cm tall. Both should give the same answer of 36 km/m^2 (though the units are usually omitted).. From: Stephen Humphreys [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 23 May 2020 18:42 To: Martin Vlietstra Cc: Paul Trusten; Metric List Postings Subject: Re: [USMA 1415] Re: Ancestry survey For purposes of the conversation I just said ‘a little over a stone’ in answer to his question. It was only a brief interlude before the proper business stuff. My main point was that thanks to a pandemic virus, people are getting healthier. Strange times. On 23 May 2020, at 3:12 pm, Martin Vlietstra < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: So how would you normally have spoken of 16 pounds – “One stone, two” or “One and an eighth stone” or “A little over a stone”? From: Stephen Humphreys [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 22 May 2020 21:39 To: Martin Vlietstra Cc: Paul Trusten; Metric List Postings Subject: Re: [USMA 1415] Re: Ancestry survey It’s not older members of the public Martin. Also at private hospitals and NHS ones I’ve always noticed guides on walls behind weighing scales. Re ‘Older’ - In a zoom meeting at work we discussed health regarding this virus. The audience was Brits and Americans I mentioned that I had lost 16 lbs since the lockdown (due to 3 hours exercise per day). I used pounds due to the type of audience. The youngest person (late 20’s) made a comment you might find funny. He said - Whats 16 pounds? I dont use the new stuff I still use stones. I had to say ‘just over a stone’ :-) On 22 May 2020, at 6:14 pm, Martin Vlietstra < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: A number of years ago I read of a death in the United Kingdom that resulted from misuse of imperial units. Unfortunately I no longer have the details, but as far as I can remember, the baby concerned had an underlying condition. Two different midwives checked and weighed the baby at the post-natal clinic – one used metric units and the other insisted on using imperial units. The result was that no-one noticed that the baby was not putting on weight. The resultant death went to the coroners court and the midwife who insisted on using “proper” units was criticised by the coroner, as was the health authority concerned for allowing “dual” units to be used. Any switch to metric units HAS to be authorised from the top (or at any rate the organisation that looks after the database concerned). The norm in the United Kingdom is that data entry is in metric units, but most health workers have a conversion chart readily to hands to “translate” for the “older” members of the population. From: USMA [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Trusten Sent: 22 May 2020 17:05 To: Metric List Postings Subject: [USMA 1412] Re: Ancestry survey Dear ListServer Folks, As a hospital pharmacist, I regret to say that, generally, true U.S. metrication of this patient data (patient height and body mass)may not yet be complete. Because American society AND American healthcare workers continue to use feet/inches and pounds on an everyday, colloquial basis, those legacy units persist strongly in the culture, and in most U.S. healthcare cultures, the legacy units continue to be the spoken units of measurement, I.e., when asked for height and weight, patients quote them in feet and pounds, and the nurse or doctor initially records them as such. Once entered into the electronic health information system, however, they are substituted with metric measurements, and posted in kilograms and centimeters only. But they have not yet been exorcized from our midst. SI units are simply not yet “in the entire lingo“ of American healthcare. In the absence of early metric education, pounds and feet are frames of reference that we Americans are unwilling to abandon without good reason, and I fear that good reason will come in the form of a medical Mars Orbiter or Gimli Glider. Paul Trusten Midland, Texas <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] On May 22, 2020, at 10:28, Michael Payne < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: I believe all US hospitals also use kilogram body mass and centimetres as well as celsius. On 20 May 2020, at 22:24, Martin Vlietstra < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: In the UK hospitals use metric units for height and weight measurements while in Australia everybody uses kilograms. Since <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fancestry.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C8f1cb392e4054b8f56c508d80020d875%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637259488369172238&sdata=FqkoXEBxmb5wFd1kxwrKKOWvNhtaCv1GA%2FDdGyx8418%3D&reserved=0> Ancestry.com is a world-wide organisation, it makes sense to give users the option of either units. From: USMA [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Payne Sent: 20 May 2020 06:29 To: USMA List Server Subject: [USMA 1410] Ancestry survey I recently received a survey from <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fancestry.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C8f1cb392e4054b8f56c508d80020d875%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637259488369172238&sdata=FqkoXEBxmb5wFd1kxwrKKOWvNhtaCv1GA%2FDdGyx8418%3D&reserved=0> Ancestry.com regarding a genetic survey on Covid19, they want to see if anyone who’s had a DNA test with Ancestry has had or been exposed to Covid 19. One of the interesting aspects were when it got near the end of the survey they asked for your height and weight, apart from “American Standard” as they termed it you could choose metric which gave you the option of cm and kg for height and weight. Mike Payne _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.colostate.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fusma&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C8f1cb392e4054b8f56c508d80020d875%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637259488369172238&sdata=hTfYFAkvHqLkA2uvhDnIb8ISu1fvEDvA30XSXxjIQl8%3D&reserved=0> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.colostate.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fusma&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C8f1cb392e4054b8f56c508d80020d875%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637259488369172238&sdata=hTfYFAkvHqLkA2uvhDnIb8ISu1fvEDvA30XSXxjIQl8%3D&reserved=0> https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.colostate.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fusma&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C8f1cb392e4054b8f56c508d80020d875%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637259488369177230&sdata=OX2IxkWGPyMAmFJEgLHoY9XyDJyHsGs9cmOXpXUabWA%3D&reserved=0
_______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
