US gallons are indeed different from Imperial gallons. One USG is 128 fluid ounces while an Imperial gallon is 160 ounces. Similarly, a US quart is 32 fluid ounces while an Imperial quart is 40 ounces.
This is very confusing when following a recipe (thankfully, US and Imperial cups are the same).
It’s also confusing when you ask for a “pint” of beer in a bar in BC. Here’s an article from 2014 and I doubt the situation has changed: https://vancouversun.com/news/metro/vancouver-sun-investigation-more-than-half-our-local-bars-may-be-hosing-us-with-smaller-pints#:~:text=The%20average%20pint%20purchased%20by,an%20overcharging%20of%2077%20cents.
Unfortunately, converting litres per 100 km back and forth to miles per imperial gallon can't be done easily in your head. You need to divide 282.481 by the miles per imperial gallon to get litres per 100 km. Going the other way, if you have litres per 100 km, then divide 282.481 by that to get miles per imperial gallon. e.g. My old VW van is using 13 litres per 100 km. So it's getting 21.7 mpg. Who knew!
Hi Mike,
For better or worse, these numbers are hard wired in my limbic system now: 1 bbl oil = 42 US gallons; 1 m3 = 6.2898 bbl.
Like Jacquie G, I’m a retired Canadian engineer, Petroleum though if you couldn’t guess. In work every possible measurement system devised my man was used at some point and conversions were just a fact of life. Not a good one, but a fact nonetheless.
One other thing that Canada has that is not metric likely because because of our proximity to the US is 8 1/2 X 11 paper instead of A4 , A 5 etc. No conversion is necessary but frustrating if you have a A4 binder but not A4 paper or vis versa. This usually only happens to people like me who have lived where they use A4 and then returns to North America. Definitely a problem very low on anyone list of problems.
The company I worked for in Vancouver from 1982-1984 had A4 binders. Unfortunately, the office bookcases weren’t designed for them and they never fit on the shelves.
Mike Ayling wrote:
The troy ounce is a bit lighter than your ounce used for cooking etc.
A Troy ounce of gold is 31.1 grams
An ounce of water is 28.3 grams
I remember being surprised during a bike tour in Nova Scotia that fish markets sold fish by the pound, and real estate signs described land area in acres.
“You are indeed the devil's people....” Considering we’ve foisted McDonald’s, nuclear weaponry, Baywatch, and Coca-Cola onto the rest of the world, I find the statement hard to deny, but Ouch! Leo, you wound me. In trying to justify my way out of Hell’s Captaincy, I’ll just mention that the French gave us the guillotine, the Spanish gave us the Inquisition, and the British gave us Imperial units, our current topic, although in all likelihood McDonald’s alone has probably killed more than all the other three combined.
However, regarding Americans being “too feeble to grasp [the metric system],” I have to respectfully disagree, my erudite friend. Present company excluded, Americans are no more feebleminded than anyone else, and I don’t believe it’s a matter of us being unable to understand the more sensible metric system. The reason we still use Imperial units is simple, and it’s the same reason for many ills in the world: money.
Every time there was a discussion in Congress about switching to the metric system, the bill would be killed by big businesses who didn’t want to go to the time and, more importantly, the expense of changing the entire country’s infrastructure.
Un ciseau neuf? I’m glad the French have this mnemonic to help them to remember four digits. It would be almost impossible without it. :-)
And I thought a few recipes in my binders on A4 was frustrating. That would have driven me nuts.
Currency - one area where the land of the free was way ahead of Great Britain and the Colonies was in adopting decimal currency. South Africa where I grew up changed on 14 February 1961, Australia 14 February 1966 and the Mother country in about 1970 but also AFAICR also on 14 February.
Back to my experience, I started work as a trainee Chartered Accountant on 1 February 1961 and in those days a lot of acounting records were hand written and hand held calculators were unknown so most offices had a couple of desk calculators that were shared by the staff. I don't think that personal computers on every desk arrived until well into the nineteen eighties.
So back to February 1961. Chartered Accountants had to add up figures in those days so I spent the first three months of my working life adding up columns of pounds, shillings and pence.
Twelve pennies to a shilling, and twenty shillings to a pound so at the bottom of the column of pence we had to divide the result by twelve leave the remainder and carry to the shillings column. Rinse and repeat. I was very happy when all the records were in the new decimal currency!
r
1 year ago