When did Americans stop using the stone (fourteen pounds) as a unit of weight? Is the American hundredweight a hundred pounds ( ours is 112 pounds ; eight stone )? It is quite a feat to translate quickly what a 17 stone rugby player or a 238 pound American footballer weighs ( the same). The stone is only used for bodyweight in everyday use, though even that is obsolete. Anyone under about 30 years old uses kilos, though they kindly retain a very rough idea of the old unit for use when addressing grandma !

I've never heard of the unit stone. Is it a unit of weight or mass?

According to the Office of Fair Trading the stone was not used in America.
This site also has some good comparisons of the units of weight.

Thanks T-I-E . Isn't that the beauty of the Web ? The Government of Queensland has an answer !

The best fact on this Australian Government site though is that the Aussies , given the task of deciding which parts of life and legislation belong together to create one department's remit, put Tourism, Racing and Fair Trading ( including Liquor Licensing) together .Only an Aussie or an Irishman can see the obvious connection between all those !

Kendor: The stone is a unit of weight used throughout Britain for human body weight. It is a very convenient one; it avoids big numbers. 'Eight stone ; twelve stone; fifteen stone; twenty stone' give us an instant picture of the build of the individual. We normally work(ed) in half stone rather than pounds if we were refining our description; 'eight and a half stone' etc. Anyway, 'nine stone' sounds slimmer than '126 pounds'; 'fifty-seven kilos' is a bit better than that, but not a lot !

[This message was edited by FredPuli on 08-22-03 at 01:10 PM.]

[This message was edited by FredPuli on 08-22-03 at 01:11 PM.]