Almost the whole world has been using the usual units of the metric system for many years - meters, liters, kilograms. However, there are also those whose government and population prefer the old standards: not so convenient, but more familiar. It is very easy for an outsider to get confused in them, but still, knowing the American units of measurement will be quite useful for every person.
What system of measurement is used in the US
The United States of America emerged as an independent state relatively recently: only at the end of the eighteenth century. Prior to this, the territory, occupied by thirteen states, was only a colony of the mighty British Empire. Many local residents were from England, and the entire government was British subjects. Not surprisingly, the system for measuring weight, length and volume was completely taken from the UK.
Since then, the government has repeatedly tried to switch to the metric system of measurements, but something constantly interfered. The last attempt to change the outdated system was made under the PresidentRichard Nixon in 1971. However, even then there were no firm orders, only recommendations. As a result, ordinary people who do not want to wean themselves from the system familiar from childhood forgot about them after a few years. Therefore, the United States remains one of the three countries in the world where obsolete English units of measurement are officially used, the company is the former British colony of Myanmar, as well as Liberia artificially created by the US government. By the way, England itself many decades ago preferred the metric system as more convenient and simple.
What is weight measured in
To begin with, let's figure out what American weight units are used today. In general, there are quite a lot of them: grains, ounces, pounds, quarters, cloves, stones, tods, slugs, centals, quintals, wei, cheldrons and a number of others. The smallest of the above - a grain - is only 65 milligrams, and the largest - a cheldron - as much as 2700 kilograms.
However, most of these units are not known to many Americans. And if they have, they have a very vague idea of what weight they mean.
Pounds remain the most popular. They are usually used in everyday life when buying building materials, products and any other goods. One pound equals 16 ounces, 7000 grains or 454 grams. Of course, it seems to our compatriots to measure cereals, vegetables or meat in such units of measurement as complete savagery. But the locals have somehow adapted and cannotimagine a different life. Converting pounds to kilograms is quite difficult: you need to divide, for example, 5 pounds of vegetables by a factor of 2.2, you get 2.3 kilograms.
Ounces are sometimes measured - 28 grams, but this usually applies to jewelers and dealers in precious metals. However, they more often use a troy ounce equal to 31 grams.
And gun lovers use another measure - gran. They measure the weight of gunpowder in cartridges.
Volume units
It's about the same when it comes to US volume units. Initially, there were quite a lot of them, and now they all exist. But at the same time, only a few are used in everyday life. Moreover, although they were adopted from the English system, the American units are slightly different. For example, an American pint is 0.551 liters, and an English pint is 0.568 liters. For a gallon, this ratio is 4.405 and 4.546.
So, the units of measure used in the US for measuring volume, in ascending order, are pint, quart, gallon, peck, bushel, barrel, koum, and quarter.
Pints and gallons are used in everyday life. The former are usually used to measure liquid products (milk, spirits, juices), as already mentioned, one pint is equal to 550 ml. The second measure is fuel and other technical liquids - one gallon is equal to 4405 ml.
Converting these unusual units to liters is quite simple. For example, pints should be divided by 1, 8, and gallons should be multiplied by 4, 4 to get a clear volume.
But the unit of measure is the American oil barrel, equal to 159 liters, usually used by specialists working on the exchanges. Black gold is measured in barrels, not liters or tons.
How to measure length
Now you can switch to US length units. Understanding them is no easier than pints, pounds and ounces.
The smallest unit is 1 mil. It is only 0.025 millimeters or one thousandth of an inch. Then come points, lines, inches, hands, feet, yards, rods, chains, cables, miles, and leagues. The latter is the longest unit of measurement and equals three miles or 4828 meters - quite an impressive distance.
Of course, ordinary Americans never use all of these units, being content with just a few: inches, feet, yards and miles. The rest remain the lot of specialists. For example, mils are used to measure clearances when working with electronics. And they use the line when talking about weapon calibers (remember the Mosin rifle - a three-ruler). Cables are still used throughout the world in the navy. This unit, equal to 185 meters, perfectly complements the usual meters and nautical miles.
So, 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters. Therefore, to translate, it is enough to multiply by this coefficient. There are 30 centimeters in one foot. To convert feet to meters, you need to divide the number by 3.3. The next popular unit is the yard. It is equal to 3 feet or 91 centimeters. Converting yards to meters is easy - you just need to multiply them by 0,91. So, 200 feet equals 182 meters. Finally, one mile is equal to 1609 meters. If you want to convert the odd miles into kilometers, multiply the distance by a factor of 1.6 and get an approximate figure in kilometers.
When 50 degrees is cool
Even Americans measure temperature not in the usual degrees Celsius, but on the Fahrenheit scale. Here, 100 degrees is hot, 50 is relatively warm, and zero forces you to wear a warm jacket.
Transferring degrees from Fahrenheit to Celsius is more complicated than the above. To get the result, you need to use complex formulas, but for most people for whom an error of 1-2 degrees is not critical, the following formula will be more convenient. Subtract 32 from degrees Fahrenheit, divide the result by 2, and add 2. This formula turns 100 degrees Fahrenheit into 36 degrees Celsius - a fairly accurate result.
Conclusion
Well, that's it. Now you know all the most popular US units for volume, length and weight. And if necessary, you can easily convert them into the usual liters, meters and kilograms.
