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[zing]

It would make make more sense if we hadn't lost some of the intermediate measurements.

Jack.......2.5 fl oz
Gill........5 fl oz
Cup.......10 fl oz
Pint.......20 fl oz
Quart....40 fl oz
Pottle....80 fl. oz
Gallon...160 fl oz


Bruce

Canada went to metric when I was in elementary but everyone older than me had already learned the old way in school and most were slow to change, so I grew up with both. In a lot of cases it is still both for no real sensible reason. Someone asks how much you weigh the answer will usually be in pounds, but for anything you buy by weight will be in grams and kilograms. Temperature is pretty much always in celsius but short distances are usually estimated in feet and inches rather than meters and centimeters. Gradually it is all turning to metric though. One of the biggest things holding us back is cultural bleed from the US, with television, internet, etc. It doesn't really bother me though, I am used to both and the conversion is unconscious for the most part, just like a mechanic deciding which wrench to use, you just switch as required.

I have to be honest though, American ounces drive me nuts. Is it mass or volume? It's both! I do the weekly groceries and my wife keeps sending me ingredients lists from websites, but of course if the person who posts the recipe is American the measurements are ounces, which I have no idea about. Are the number of fluid ounces in a pint the same as the number of weight ounces in a pound? Are the numbers even approximately equal? Like is a 10 fluid ounce can of tomatoes going to weigh about 10 ounces? Is it based on water? A liter of water weighs 1 kilogram, so does 10 fluid ounces of water equal 10 weight ounces? Does a quart of water equal a pound? Is there any connection at all between mass (lbs and ounces) and volume (pints and ounces)? Dammed if I know! But then even if the website has a converter to metric, the converter gets frigged up by ounces and tells you that you need 500 milliliters of tomatoes or a half a kilogram of milk, or something stupid like that. I am sure I could figure it out if I bothered to look it up, but I guess I just prefer to be periodically annoyed by it. By the way, is it just me or do cans sometimes come in either weight ounces OR volume (fluid) ounces, depending on what is inside of them. WTF?

Not a big deal in general, but that is my mini-rant about a minor annoyance in my life. Feel free to make fun of me for it, then carry on. :thumbsup:

 

[rd_macgregor]

When I was a kid, I was fooled in some measurements I was doing by using a decimal-foot surveyors tape of my father's. Later in life, I also owned a 1-ft. ruler with decimal inches, which I used a lot when laying out dimensions in model geodesic domes. Scaling the measurements was a lot easier using the decimal units.

Other than the convenience of using base 10, my biggest complaint with the English system is the indefinite meaning of the measures. Zing mentioned the volume vs. weight issue with ounces, but gallons, pints, etc are not the same number of milliliters, depending on where you live (or lived).

In my work life, a number of years ago, we wanted to measure bushel-weights of grain samples. You guessed it, there are different size bushels. These kinds of differences don't usually matter to most Americans, since, within the boundaries of the US, the measures ARE standardized (in the sense that a gallon is a specified and invariant fraction of a liter and a pound is a specified and invariant fraction of a kilogram, etc.). In my bushel-weight example, we were buying US-made instruments, so felt confident that the bushels were US bushels.
Since I grew up in the US, I am comfortable with US weights and measures; indeed, I think more easily in pounds and inches than kg & m. I am content that the supermarket still lists things sold by weight in price per pound (as well as $/kg), but wouldn't be too put out if they stopped using the English measures entirely.

One final example of the measurement confusion is the way RAM advertised their trucks in Canada. A few years ago, when shopping for a replacement truck, I was surprised to see what I thought were ridiculously-high advertised gas mileage claims in the RAM ads. When fuel efficiency is stated as liters/100km (the standard approach here), there is no ambiguity about what you mean. However, RAM was cleverly using IMPERIAL gallons as their divisor (without specifying the "Imperial" part), which boosted the apparent gas mileage of the trucks by 20% relative to the same truck sold in the US!

I have to say that, when travelling in the States, my rate of progress seems slower because the distances are listed in miles...which seem to roll by a lot slower than do kilometers!

 

[IslandTractor]

"A pint's a pound the world around" was a little singsong way of remembering. It only applies to US pints though as Imperial pints are 20 oz rather than 16. And, it is not quite accurate even in the US as 8 pints of water weigh a bit more than a pound.

 

[bcp]

"A pint's a pound the world around" was a little singsong way of remembering. It only applies to US pints though as Imperial pints are 20 oz rather than 16. And, it is not quite accurate even in the US as 8 pints of water weigh a bit more than a pound.

I once heard that wasn't a memory aid, but was the price of beer.

???

Bruce

 

[California]

"A pint's a pound the world around" was a little singsong way of remembering. It only applies to US pints though as Imperial pints are 20 oz rather than 16. And, it is not quite accurate even in the US as 8 pints of water weigh a bit more than a pound.

Depends on whose ounces. Hobby goldpanner here, we learned only 12 Troy ounces makes a pound of gold. "One troy ounce (abbreviated "oz" or "ozt") equals31.1034768 grams exactly (or about 1.0971 oz. avoirdupois)." (Wikipedia).

 

[tractorshopper]

I use both where I work, but also use the Avoir system of ounces which is French.

I really don't have a problem with most items having worked and learned the conversions over the years, but working for a European company, the one thing that always gets me is when on a teleconference and talking about the weather and hearing how hot or cold it is in Celsius and not really computing so easily in my head to compare to the temperature here. 30 just doesn't sound hot to me ;-) Also talking to colleagues that have just had children and hearing how many centimeters tall they are forces me to look it up as well to get an idea.

 

[tractorshopper]

Yes, California, there are 32.15073 toz per kg.

 

[tractorshopper]

And actually, it takes 14.58334 toz to make a lb.

 

[California]

I recall houses blowing up that had propane heat and had leaks.

Saw, or rather, heard, one. We were driving over the Sierras, 2-lane Hwy 88, with snow on the pavement and high walls of snow on either side. A fool in a BMW passed us too fast crowding us to the wall as he skidded and slewed into a blind corner, then minutes later we heard a boom. We expected to see him smashed on a granite wall. Instead we saw the BMW backward way down the slope with the occupants out waving at us. Since obviously no injuries we just waved back. Hey I just avoided an accident with you, you figure out this one.

Then we saw a couch in a parking area along the road. A yard sale in the dead of winter, or maybe a 'Free' tag on it ???

Later back home we read that an unoccupied cabin there exploded from a propane leak. That couch had been thrown 100 ft from the cabin. The boom wasn't the BMW, it was the cabin vanishing. We had heard it from at least a couple of miles away.

 

[California]

And actually, it takes 14.58334 toz to make a lb.

We never had occasion to think in pounds of gold working at our scale.

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