Is it universally consistent that wherever the Metric system is used, temperature is registered in Celsius, and wherever the Imperial system (feet, inches, miles) is used, the Fahrenheit system is used? Are there any exceptions?

According to Wikipedia , Celsius is used by all countries except the United States, the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands and Liberia.”

According to the CIA ,“At this time, only three countries – Burma, Liberia, and the US – have not adopted the International System of Units (SI, or metric system) as their official system of weights and measures.”

So, the overlap would be the USA, and Liberia.

The countries using Fahrenheit and Metric would be the Bahamas, Belize, and the Cayman Islands.

And the one country using Celsius and not using Metric would be Burma.

Perhaps related, the CIA is still calling Burma “Burma” rather than Myanmar.

Physicists use Kelvin.

In Canada it is the Metric system but it has Fahrenheit option tab on our weather as an example for tourists who do not understand metric etc. Makes it easier for all. Also road signs have both in KM or Miles and so on.

We use mainly celsius here in B.C Canada, the metric system is a far easier system to use than than the old Imperial system,example 0c is freezing and 100c is boiling, instead of 32f and 212f.
the confusing thing about temp is at -40 they both meet on the scale.
The easiest way to convert c to f is double it and and 30 you will get f, for those that are sticklers it’s not dead on but very close for the rest of us.

I can remember when the Soviets landed a heavy blow to American Pride with Sputnik. There was the serious realization that we might be at a significant disadvantage in being out of step with the rest of the world. Kennedy listened and endorsed physical fitness in the nation’s schools, and declared that we would land on the moon in a decade, but he declined to switch us toward the metric system against the nearly unanimous endorsement of everyone involved in the disciplines enabling those moonshots. This in the fleeting era when we could most afford the expense and inconvenience of transition. The ensuing decades have only accelerated our hapless country’s proclivity toward putting off the inevitable as we dumb ever further down.

People use whatever measures they think are convenient. Scientists use centigrade or absolute, whichever they happen to prefer at the moment. Americans are going to keep on using the American system of measures because it would be a major pita to switch, but they will use another system if it happens to be convenient.

Example: Bead polishers have always worked in millimeters, but necklaces have always been measured in inches. So it is common for catalogs to list a bead necklace as “8mm x 16in” and nobody thinks that is odd at all. Stones are weighed in carats but gold is weighed in grams, except sometimes stones are weighed in “postal” ounces or pounds and gold is weighed in troy ounces. Nobody bats an eye at any of these things.

As for the switch to metric, people have been calling it “inevitable” for something over 60 years. Well, the only thing that actually switched so far is pop, because it is convenient to sell pop in two liter bottles.

So much for “inevitable” baloney.

We use Kelvin when working with high or low temps and gasses.

Yes, and nearly every scientific discipline runs on liters and cubic centimeters, while the bulk of the public is left to scratch its needlessly vacant head.

I’m not sure if you are asking about temperature only or metric in general? The UK uses metric for most things, but unless it has changed, it still uses MPH on the roadways. Im thinking maybe for weight the UK still uses the imperial system since I think they still use the term “stone,” but I don’t know for sure.

In America, in the sciences, metric is used a lot. Most obvious and familiar to people is in the medical sciences. We take milligrams, micrograms, and cc’s of medicine

US mariners’ charts use nautical miles for the oceans but statute miles for the Great Lakes and inland waters. For surface distance, that is; I forget what they use for depth measurements.

It seems to me that of all the old measurement units, degrees Fahrenheit would be the easiest to get rid of.

@Zissou But Fahrenheit is experiential, and speaks directly to how we deal with weather every day.

A F degree is a reasonable interval, a. Elsie’s is just too damn big.

Zero C is just a cold day, it doesn’t really mean anything unless you are melting ice.

Zero F is really friggin’ cold, and for most people is about as cold as it gets.

100 F is a very hot day; 100 C means nothing to my everyday life, not hot enough for cooking and only observable at sea level.

@zenvelo I know more than one person who remembers living in a Fahrenheit country, who now lives in Celsius, and feels the same way.

I also know a couple of people who preferred ordering cold cuts in pounds.

My husband never got completely used to inches and feet. He’s still primarily metric for those in his head, but mostly he can do both.

The trick is not having to convert in my opinion, just knowing both systems. Like I use millimeters and centimeters as measurements, but I don’t think of them compared to an inch, it just is a millimeter or a centimeter.

@zenvelo @JLeslie I lived in a Celsius country for many years and there was no problem figuring out weather. i never needed to convert to F.
0 C means you need a coat and gloves
10 C means you need a sweater
20 C means it’s nice outside – unless it’s monsoon season
30 C is hot
40 C is unbearably hot.

@LuckyGuy That makes sense. I never lived in Celsius, but what sticks with me is 10 is 50 and 30 is mid 80’s. That’s enough for me to figure out the rest.

I also don’t see a problem with ordering a ¼ kilo of roast beef instead of a ½ pound, but I guess if you want very little then you switch to grams? How does that work? If I wanted a ¼ pound would I ask for a little over 100 grams? I’m just rounding. I say “a little over” even in our system sometimes.

I think very shortly I would stop converting though, I still think that’s the trick. It sounds like you weren’t converting either. It’s just like speaking two languages, once you’re more fluent you stop translating.