CHAT: measures (was: browsers)

Tristan scripsit:

> > The U.S. fl. oz. is about 29.6 ml, and there are 16 of them in
> > a gallon.  In the U.K., though, the fl. oz. is about 28.4 ml, but there
> > are 20 of them in a gallon.
Of course this was a blunder: 16 fl. oz. U.S make a U.S. pint, and 20 fl. oz.
Imperial make an Imperial pint.  8 pints of whichever size make a gallon,
as Dirk says.

> (I think. I worked it out because I knew that Australia used
> to have a pint that sat somewhere between 500 and 600 mL,* and America
> has one that's less than 500 mL,
Imperial pints are ~ 568 ml, which I'm sure was the Australian value also.
Hence the British beer-drinker's lament:  a litre is too much, half a
litre is too little, but a pint, ah, a pint is just right!  Won't work
in the U.S., of course, since our pint is only ~ 473 ml.

> > I don't buy honey, but I believe it's sold the same way.  Genuine solids
> > are usually sold by weight, that being easier to measure automatically
> > (breakfast cereal, e.g., has a notice saying "Contents sold by weight,
> > not by volume; settling may have occurred during shipping").
>
> They do that here too. I never understood why (cereal boxes are good
> material to teach children to read with, because they're on the brekky
> table when children aren't doing much but eating. The reasonably
> complicated language also results in a better education than Spot
> books). If it says 800 g, of course it's sold by weight, not volume.
So you won't complain to retailer or manufacturer when the box appears to
be only 2/3 full or so.

> Hm? So weight is done in only pounds?
Oh, no, the ounce, unqualified, is still a measure of weight.  There are
16 oz. to a pound (1 oz. = ~28.34 g, 1 lb = ~ 454 g).  However, gold and
silver are measured in troy pounds, which have only 12 troy oz. each.
(1 troy oz. = ~ 31.1 g, 1 troy lb. = ~ 373 g.)  Hence the old question,
"Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?" to which
the answer is "A pound of feathers", because it is an ordinary (aka
"avoirdupois") pound.  If lead is substituted for gold, of course they
weigh the same.

But I thought you were talking about *dry ounces*, which are a measure
of volume for solids only.  1 dry oz. = ~ 1.16 fl. oz.  These are
extremely obsolete, fortunately.  A bushel, however, is 8 dry gallons.
(The bushels in which grain is sold, however, are weight-based, and
their size depends on what the grain is.)

> (Apparently Americans don't use
> stones, either, and there goes my knowledge of weight measurements.)
No, no stones in these parts.  People's weight is in pounds.

> > BTW, a tablespoon (unit of volume in cooking) is 20 ml in Australia,
> > 15 ml in the U.K., and approximately 14.7 ml (exactly half a fl. oz.) in
> > the U.S.
>
> I have a feeling teaspoons are different too. Cups are obviously
> different between Australia and America, but given that a cup here is
> 250 mL (quarter of a litre), I'm guessing they're the same in the UK.
Nope, a cup is half a pint or 4 fl. oz., which in the U.K. is ~ 284 ml.
The smaller cup in the U.S. holds ~ 237 ml.

> Not that cookbooks are compatible at the best of times; mince here is
> (mince) meat, over in America it's apparently some fruit-based thing,
Mincemeat is mincemeat everywhere.  Mince is the chopped dried fruit
used to make mince pies, which presumably once contained mincemeat.
Ray Brown (IIRC) told me that mince pies were so-called in the U.K. as well,
and likewise did not contain meat.

> you have sticks of butter, we measure it in grams,
A stick = 1/4 lb = ~ 113.4 g.  A stick is almost exactly 4 fl. oz. (8
tablespoons), the density of butter being just a hair less than that of
water, and is marked off in tablespoons and fl. oz.

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