> In the US we call it the "English System of Measurements". The UK calls it
>> the "Imperial System".
>
> No it's not. An Imperial Pint has 20 fl ounces.
I have traveled to Canada on occasion. Canada uses the Imperial Gallon as
4.5 liters. Where the US Gallon is 3.7 liters for gasoline containers.
So can I assume we both learned something here? You now know what the English System is now?
And that we both need to be conscious of the English vs Imperial differences? In the US every day life people use the English System. In the Science Arena is the only area in the US that uses the Metric System in which I am also familure with.
But as you stated you seem to use a mixed system, Celsius for temperature and inches for measurement. Is this common to mix it up in your part of the world? Here in the US the two systems are separate, no mix. It is one or the other.
Perhaps in the future I should use the term "Gallon:US" and others us "gallon:UK" So in your part of the world, do you have Five Gallon Buckets? if so I wonder what the size difference is.
This being Usenet my guess has as much relevance as any ;) I have gleaned from the regular posts that we are not a bunch of teenagers and this being the case, those of us from the UK or Aus will have been taught the imperial system at school and then "converted" to Metric at some time in our working lives. Like FarmI I know what 2 inches looks like I know what a foot looks like I just have to mentally convert them when speaking to the youngsters or risk the blank stares. However "they" do not think of us older people when they tell us the fence must be 198cm high ( 6 foot 6 inches) not an easy sum to do if your hats on tight. So no, in every day life we use the Metric system its just some of us are better at visualising feet and inches.
Military was already metric when I enlisted in 1978. There was legacy stuff in place but anything new was metric. By now the amount of legacy stuff will be pretty small.
I was in Guatemala once. Small size drink bottles were 12 oz, larger ones were 1 litre. Mixes of measures are not uncommon.
Here in Britain: Petrol is sold in litres but roads are measured in miles. Unfortunately fuel consumption is only available in mpg or litres/100km, when it would make much more sense if it was reported as miles/litre or litres/100 miles. Some oldies have to convert litres to gallons in their head, to understand what they are buying, but I haven't discussed gallons with anyone for many years, except hidden in mpg fuel consumption measures.
The weather forecast is given in celcius as the prime measure, (with Frankenstein in parenthesis on occasion). Although a few over 50s still think in Frankenstein, celcius (often given its old name centigrade) is what is in common use.
Beer and milk are sold in pints, but all other liquids are sold in litres. So there is still an understanding of pints for consumable liquids.
Recipe books and scales still use pounds/oz with metric alternative. So although food is sold in kg in shops, pounds/oz remain deeply engrained. Personally I mainly use metric, though certain recipes I've been using for decades I still think in oz. US recipes in cups confuse us terribly. I have stuck a label on my scales 1 cup = 225g, for translation from US recipe books.
Even though in theory metric, a lot of packaged things are sold in amounts of "about a pound", sometimes precisely 454g, but often 400g,
450g, 500g. Although certain things have legally prescribed package sizes: wine can be sold as 375ml, 500ml, 750ml, 1000ml, and no other sizes in this range. So the old practice of selling you 720ml, 700ml, even 690ml I saw once, is outlawed.
Everything in DIY shops is metric. Working off plans, builders use mm. But people know their height in feet and inches and it is a rare person who readily knows it in mm, although that is how the doctor will record it on your medical records. People still give approximations in inches, even young people, though they never do any sums at school in such amounts.
So, apart from miles for roads (in fact it is illegal to measure roads in km, a council who put up some metric signs had to take them down) and pints for beer and milk, just about everything else is legally required to be metric in Britain. After 30-40 years, we are are increasingly getting used to them. But inches/feet and pounds/oz remain engrained in the culture, even for young people, even though they learn nothing about them at school.
So I see said the blind man. Here in the US I have noticed most modern books on baking no longer measure dry goods by volume. Many of the newer books on baking measure dry goods by weight because items like flour can very from different sources. When they go by weight the baked goods tend to more consistent.
But remember the first line. A gallon is not same as a gallon in Canada. A pint in the US is sixteen ounces, some countries a pint is twenty ounces ( I think ).
It's worse than the difference in ounces per pint (or gallon). The US fluid ounce is not the same as the Imperial fluid ounce either.
The interesting thing is you can agree over what is in a bottle of scotch. A US fifth (one fifth of a US gal) is the same as one sixth of an Imperial gallon which was the traditional size for wine and spirit bottles. So all those bottles of Laphroaig were despatched for US consumption only needed new labels. With metric conversion those scotch bottles were rounded to
750ml and now somehow to 700ml. The universe is clearly shrinking.
Well I would have thought that you'd already know about Imperial measures. I was very surprised to find that you didn't.
Yep, but I certainly will never use such a term. It's what I've always called US measurements as they relate to Pints and Gallons. Other measures used by USians are Imperial but for some unknown reason they are not called that in the US.
I always have been conscious of those differences and use my knowledge of those differences on a regualar basis.
I am a keen cook so since sometime in the 1970s, I have always needed to know if I'm dealing with an old Imperial recipe or a US recipe (although I rarely cook any modern US recipes).
In addition, the only manufacturers of measuring jugs with ounce measures notated on them these days are US manufacturers. Wwhenever I use one of my big measuring jugs that tries to tell me that a Pint only contains 16 ounces, I tell it that it's being parochial and I might possibly want to use the 20 ounce Pint. It never manages to see the error of it's way though and insists that 16 ounce Pint is the only option.
It's not a 'mix up' as I explained in an earlier post. It's two different systems used in parallell by older people who grew up under an earlier system and who had to learn to use a new system, but who have not yet died out leaving the only a younger generation who knows only the new system.
Here in the US the two systems are separate, no mix. It is one or
That should be Imperial Gallon. The UK is only one place on the globe that uses that form of meaure.
When I see a US site that refers to 5 gallon buckets, I know exactly what size they are referring to - its a 20 litre bucket although you'd never want to put a full 20 litres of liquid into it. More common here for household use in the 9 litre bucket which would hold 10 litre is filled right to the brim but it would be ineffective to do so.
LOL. That says it in a nutshell, methinks. But don't you have a whole collection of 20 litre lidded buckets? My potting shed has lots of them although I use the smaller ones (perhaps 15 litres???) without their lids for weeding, carting manure aroudn in etc. Very, very handy things are those tough poly buckets without their lids (with or without handles).
Indeed. USians call it 'math' whereas Australians call it 'maths' (always with an 's' on the end and I presume that might be because it [perhaps] liguistically, derives from 'mathmatics' as opposed to 'arithmetic'). Must check my big OED some day.
I like this item called the Bucket Boss for my five gallon buckets. One holds my pruning tools and another empty bucket for the weeds. A nice item for those five gallon buckets.
think I prefer the Fiskars one on that same page - I like the fact that the Fiskars only sits on the outside of the bucket and doesn't go over the lip of the bucket. I dont't use the big 5 gall buckets in my garden as they hang too low - the smaller (15 litre?) ones are a better size for someone of my height and perhaps the Fiskars might fit one of those as I think the diameter would be the same - must check.
I currently drag my smaller tools around my acreage in a plastic rectangular shaped, plastic tool caddy thingo and I have 2 of them, one larger than the other.
I love that seat for the 5 gallon bucket! I really, really want one! I might even break my own rule and buy one online from bloody Amazon (spit!).
The seat does look desirable, not sure if the bucket will hold me up. The friskers holder sags too much for heavier items. I have the 35 pocket bucket boss and not the one listed. The one I have has mesh pockets for wet items. I bought my bucket boss at the local big box hardware store.
I like the five gallon bucket, some items are long, like the compost temperature probe and I keep a rubber mallet when taking down and putting back up the wire fencing when i turn the compost piles. Pruning saw and other smaller tools are in it... Like the almighty cell phone or my iPad.
I have a garden wagon that I have on occasion let the sides down and sit in it on occasion. I use the wagon for shovels and carrying large pots from inside to outside the home.
I saw that also, however a cup is a liquid measure and thought it may be different than ours. Also 225g is less than one fourth a kilogram, not one half.
Dry measure of flour can be different from product to product. For baking measuring flour is best done by weight rather than by volume.
My other thought was they have A cup that weighs 225g :)
"American system", "US system", "UK system", "imperial system", "Metric System" almost every country has a measurement system with minor differences. There is even an "Australian System".
However most are the two camps, "English and Imperial" with liquid measure having the greatest difference with the same named units.
Yes, the US for the most part IS the English System.
Delete any possible international inclusiveness by the use of that 'you' Billy.
I've just looked up my OED (the 20 volume version) and it says that 'math is used as an abbreviation in written English in the UK but not in speech, the normal form being 'maths'. For 'maths' it says that it is an abreviation of 'mathematics'. It's the same in Australian English.
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