How many pounds are in a stone?

Stone is an archaic unit of weight. The only place where I hear it used is from people in the UK describing their bodyweight and Americans using affected speech.

Stone is not metric, in fact it is the sort of odd-ball unit the metric system was meant to replace

yup 14 pounds to the stone

actually its 14 pounds to a stone

are you CRAZY? a stone is a measruement in weight so is a pound

Ounces, pounds and stones are part of what’s called the Imperial System of measurement (defined by the British Weights & Measures Act in 1824).

There are 14 pounds in 1 stone. (1pound is approx 454g & 1 stone is approx 6.35kg).

The Metric System has been taught and used exclusively as the system for measurement in UK schools since the early 70’s and almost everyone prefers it, but there are some habits that are hard to kick, like refering to your weight in stones and pounds, drinking pints and thinking of long distances in miles and speed in miles per hour.

The Imperial system was never used in Europe to my knowledge. It was used in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Burma, United Arab Emirates etc etc (the British Empire sadly covered over one third of the planet at one point), but I think all these countries are now metric or semi-metric but like the UK still have some social uses for the old terms.

NB I think American pounds might be different to Imperial pounds the American ton is definately different to the Imperial Ton (the Imperial Ton is almost the same as a Metric Tonne)