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American Customary Measurements: Difference between revisions
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The following is intended as a primer for non-Americans to whom the customary units of measurement may seem foreign, cryptic or simply hard to visualize. In modern times, most of these units are defined by their metric equivalents.
'''Distance'''. The basic unit of distance is the foot (0.3048 m), which is divided into twelve inches (2.54 cm). Five centimeters is very close to two inches. When more precision than that is required, fractions of an inch are used (Generally power of 2 based (1/2, 1/4, 1/8)), except in certain engineering disciplines which use decimal inches. Measurements in feet and inches are commonly abbreviated using one apostrophe for feet and two apostrophes for inches - six-foot-four, for example, becomes 6' 4
Since 1959, the foot has been internationally defined as exactly 30.48 cm. For historical compatibility, though, real estate maps are still drawn in the older "survey feet", which are 1200⁄3937, or about .3048006 m long.
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Beverages sold in cartons or polyurethane jugs (dairy products and some fruit juices) are sold by the gallon, half-gallon, or quart. Milk often comes in Quarts, Half Gallons and Gallons,
Prescription drugs, on the other hand, are labeled in metric units, because the amounts in question are usually so tiny as to render the conventional units meaningless, plus the fact that we're deep into scientist territory here. One may occasionally find a medicine bottle with weight indicated in grains, though they're today extremely rare.
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