Us liquid measurements8/12/2023 ![]() This is only likely to be a problem in recipes. In the British imperial system, 20 fluid ounces = 1 pint, and ‘cups’ are not used at all. In the American system: 8 fluid ounces (fl oz) = 1 cup Note that the symbols ' and " (a prime and double prime) are not the same as ‘ (an apostrophe) or “ (a quotation mark).įluids are measured in fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons. 6 feet and 2 inches can be written as 6'2". When writing lengths in feet and inches it is common to abbreviate. Lengths and distances are measured in inches, feet, yards and miles: 12 inches (in) = 1 foot (ft) ![]() The following are the most commonly used and officially recognised imperial units: Length or distance Others are used in very specific applications, such as ‘furlong’, which is still the recognised unit of distance in horse racing, and ‘chain’, which is a unit of distance used in the railway industry. Some of them are no longer in common usage, such as ‘fathom’, which is a unit of length used for measuring the depth of water. There are 20 or more ‘base units’ in the imperial system, unlike the metric system, which has fewer than 10. The British Imperial System of Measurement Such was its almost universal appeal, the decimal system is now known globally as the SI system of units (International System or Système Internationale, in its original French). This is much easier to work out in your head and is easily adaptable in all sorts of applications, particularly in science and engineering. It means that calculations can be done as decimals, so multiples of units can be calculated by dividing and multiplying by 10 and its powers. Believe it or not, the length of a ‘metre’ was derived from measurements of the earth’s circumference, which at the time aroused much curiosity and suspicion! However, it is the simplicity of the system that led to its rapid adoption throughout much of the industrialised world.Īll the units in the metric system are in multiples of 10: there are 10mm in 1cm, 100cm in a metre, 1000m in a kilometre, and so on. The metric system was officially adopted as a standardised system of measurement by the French in the late 18th century, although it was ‘invented’ over a century earlier. What’s more, because the units aren’t in nice easy numbers, it can make converting quantities from one unit to another a bit of a challenge, so it really helps if you have a good understanding of fractions. For example, there are 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, and 16 ounces in a pound. It’s not a simple or intuitive system and its origins have baffled many scientists over the decades. The British Imperial System uses units such as pounds and ounces for mass, miles, yards, feet and inches for distance, and pints and gallons for volume. The two are predominantly the same, but there are some differences, such as the measurement of volumes-something to watch out for in recipes! However, this was half a century after American independence, and the system used in the US is based on earlier 18th Century British systems. ![]() The imperial system was originally formalised by the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824 in order to provide a rapidly-developing industrial society with much-needed consistency. ![]() Customary systems of measurement both originate from an amalgamation of early British systems of measurement. This page explains the two most common systems of measurement: the metric system, used widely in Europe and most of the rest of the world, and the Imperial or British system, a form of which is now chiefly used in the USA. When you want to tell someone how big or how far away something is, you need a ‘common system’ for communicating this information.ĭespite what you may read in newspapers, the length of a London bus, the height of the Eiffel Tower, or an area the size of Texas are not common units of measurement, and they are not universally understood! ![]()
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