Ad
related to: is metric better than imperial weight system for food
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
British imperial measures distinguish between weight and volume. Weight is measured in ounces and pounds (avoirdupois) as in the U.S. Volume is measured in imperial gallons, quarts, pints, fluid ounces, fluid drachms, and minims. The imperial gallon was originally defined as 10 pounds (4.5359 kg) of water in 1824, and refined as exactly 4.54609 ...
However, apothecaries' weight has now been superseded by the metric system. One important difference is the widespread use in Britain of the stone of 14 pounds (6.350 293 18 kg) for body weight; this unit is not used in the United States, although flour was sold by a barrel of 196 pounds (14 stone) until World War II.
The former Weights and Measures office in Seven Sisters, London (590 Seven Sisters Road). The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial [1] or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.
The definition of units of weight above a pound differed between the customary and the imperial system - the imperial system employed the stone of 14 pounds, the hundredweight of 8 stone [Note 6] and the ton of 2240 pounds (20 hundredweight), while the customary system of units did not employ the stone but has a hundredweight of 100 pounds and ...
The avoirdupois units of mass and weight differ for units larger than a pound (lb). The British imperial system uses a stone of 14 lb, a long hundredweight of 112 lb and a long ton of 2,240 lb. The stone is not a measurement of weight used in the US.
The U.S. government passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, which made the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce". The legislation states that the federal government has a responsibility to assist industry as it voluntarily converts to the metric system, i.e., metrification. This is most ...
As such, the public is familiar with both metric and Imperial units, and may interchange measurements in conversation, for example: distance and body measurements. Adopting the metric system was discussed in Parliament as early as 1818 and some industries and government agencies had metricated, or were in the process of metricating by the mid ...
An example of this is butter, which is sold in a 454 gram package (and labelled as such), even though it represents one pound (and in many cases is also labelled with the imperial unit). This is known as "soft metric" (as opposed to a "hard metric" system, where packages and measures are generally sold in "round numbers"; in a hard metric ...