Pounds vs Kilos

Math is not my strongest subject (yes, I am an accountant, but that is beside the point), so converting things, whether foreign currency, Celsius to Fahrenheit or kilos to pounds, I always have some difficulties. The problem is even more of an issue when I don’t know what system (empirical vs. metric) I am dealing with.

The other day, I was discussing metric vs. empirical system with some friends, mentioning that I am finally getting used to the metric system, but it is nice that the produce in grocery stores are in pounds. Note Confusion Point Number 1: For some reason, this entire time I have been in Europe, I have been automatically been converting things to pounds when buying produce. And when I say “converting”, I just thought the price listed for bananas was the price per pound, not kilo. I know, ridiculous. So when this tiny little bubble burst for me, I automatically did the conversion to kilos and concluded that produce was WAY more expensive than I had previously thought, and therefore Zurich was way more expensive. Yes, in my “conversion” I multiplied the price per kilo by 2.2 to get the price per pound.

But wait, “isn’t it the other way around you ask?”. Why yes, I finally came to the conclusion that my math was wrong and the price should be divided. However, this didn’t seem right either, because then Zurich produce is even LESS than I thought, which didn’t agree with anything else I had experienced. Note Confusion Point Number 2: I lost all trust in my ability to convert kilos to pounds and vice versa.

Jump forward one week where I had to make potato salad for a fourth of July BBQ. At this point, I have: no confidence in my converting skills, a 2.5 kilogram bag of potatoes and a recipe that calls for only 3 lbs. Being ever resourceful, I decide to use the bathroom scale. So I took the bag of potatoes into the bathroom and put it on the scale. Unfortunately the scale apparently doesn’t register anything that light, so I came up with another ingenious plan. I weighed myself without the bag of potatoes, then again with the bag and subtracted the two to get the total weight of the potatoes. Just pause and imagine this scene for a moment.

It turns out that 2.5kilos is approximately 6 lbs, if you are ever in a similar bind.