Online Unit Converters • Common Unit Converters • Dry Volume and Common Cooking Measurements • Compact Calculator Measuring cup Overview Dry units of volume are used to measure substances other than liquids or gases. Often common volume units have two different values for the dry and the liquid measures. Some of these units became used for mass as well because they are employed to measure materials with similar density, thus they have become standardized as units of mass. Cooking Varier Bistrot in Osaka, Japan Using mass is preferable in the metric system, except when working with small quantities of ingredients such as spices, because they are difficult to measure on the regular kitchen scales. Volume is preferred to mass in recipes in some areas, such as in North America, Sweden, and Australia. Meats, fruit, vegetables, and eggs are usually measured by mass or count, while the liquid ingredients are measured by volume. Can of Sprats. Nutrition Facts Nutrition Labeling One has to pay close attention to volume units when looking at nutrition labels. Some food manufacturers specify dry volume on the packaging, while others indicate the volume of the cooked product, and they do not always clearly label which one they use.

The two may differ considerably because some foods measured in dry volume units, especially cereals, legumes and beans expand considerably when soaked in water and cooked. For example, one cup of rice will yield two to four cups of cooked rice, and a cup of dry beans such as pinto beans expands to about three cups, once cooked. Units Dry units are generally the same as liquid ones in the metric and imperial measurement systems, but they are different in the US customary units of volume where most units exist both in a dry and a liquid version with the same name and different values. Some History In the USA, commercial and household measures for volume, as well as weight, differ because historically they were developed for different needs and were regulated differently. Measures used in trade were heavily regulated and official measures were made for volume. The merchants had to buy and use them. Home cooking, on the other hand, depended on the experience of the cook and the quality of the ingredients. The recipes often allowed for approximate measures and creativity. Cooks using specific books usually had a basic understanding of what is required, therefore “add until it is enough” was an adequate guide for them.

There was no acute need for standardization, therefore the amounts that volumes correspond to in cooking differ to this day in some cases. Peck This unit is usually used for apples. One peck is two gallons, which is 9.09 liters in the imperial system and 8.81 liters in the US system. Dry Barrel The value of one barrel varies from one to two hundred liters, depending on the region where it is used. Dry barrels are used in the US and refer to 115.6 liters, or 95.5 liters in case of measuring cranberries. Barrels can also refer to measures of weight. Bushel One bushel is equal to eight gallons. It is usually used in farming, and it most commonly refers to mass. Hogshead This unit is traditionally used to measure tobacco and sugar. Historically it was also used to measure herring. One hogshead is about 238.48 liters and is the same for both the dry and the liquid variety. Two cords of firewood Cords and Steres Cords are usually used to measure firewood in North America. One cord is about 3.63 cubic meters.

Steres are used to measure cut wood such as firewood in the metric system. One stere equals one cubic meter. Bale Bales are almost exclusively used for cotton, although hay is also measured with these units. One bale of cotton is about 500 pounds, although it is not a well-defined unit and the quoted weight fluctuates. Dry Gallon, Quart, and Pint A dry gallon equals four quarts or eight pints. A US dry gallon is 4.4 liters, compared to 3.79 liters for a liquid gallon. A US dry quart and pint are also larger as a result, 1.1 and 0.55 liters respectively. Tablespoon of couscous US Cup, Tablespoon, and Teaspoon These units are equivalent in both dry and wet form, and equal 236.6, 14.79, and 4.93 milliliters respectively. This article was written by Kateryna Yuri You can hide articles if you use this converter often. Cookies must be allowed in your browser. You may be interested in another converters in the Common Unit Converters group: Learn Technical English with Our Videos!

You can use this online converter to convert between several hundred units (including metric, British and American) in 76 categories, or several thousand pairs including acceleration, area, electrical, energy, force, length, light, mass, mass flow, density, specific volume, power, pressure, stress, temperature, time, torque, velocity, viscosity, volume and capacity, volume flow, and more. Note: Integers (numbers without a decimal period or exponent notation) are considered accurate up to 15 digits and the maximum number of digits after the decimal point is 10. In this calculator, E notation is used to represent numbers that are too small or too large. E notation is an alternative format of the scientific notation a · 10x. For example: 1,103,000 = 1.103 · 106 = 1.103E+6. Here E (from exponent) represents “· 10^”, that is “times ten raised to the power of”. E-notation is commonly used in calculators and by scientists, mathematicians and engineers. Select the unit to convert from in the left box containing the list of units.

Select the unit to convert to in the right box containing the list of units. Enter the value (for example “15”) into the left From box. The result will appear in the Result box and in the To box. Alternatively, you can enter the value into the right To box and read the result of conversion in the From and Result boxes. If you have noticed an error in the text or calculations, or you need another converter, which you did not find here, please let us know ! bsh. (British capacity unit) - Memidex dictionary/thesaurus en​.wiktionary​.org​/wiki​/bushel Columbia Encyclopedia: English units of measurement | British Imperial System of weights and measures | U.S. Customary System of weights and measures | apothecaries weight | troy weights | units of measurement | avoirdupois weights | barrel | bushel | ... principal system of weights and measures used in a few nations, the only major industrial one being the United States. It actually consists of two ... (25 of 79 words) Gallons - definition of Gallons by The Free Dictionary Gallons - definition of Gallons by The Free Dictionary n. 1. Abbr.

gal. a. A unit of volume in the US Customary System, used in liquid measure, equal to 4 quarts (3.785 liters). b. A unit of volume in the British Imperial System, used in liquid and dry measure, equal to 4 quarts (4.546 liters). See Table at measurement . 2. a. A container with a capacity of one gallon. b. The contents of such a container. [Middle English, a liquid measure, from Old North French galon.] gallon (ˈɡælən) n 1. (Units) Also called: imperial gallon Brit a unit of capacity equal to 277.42 cubic inches. 1 Brit gallon is equivalent to 1.20 US gallons or 4.55 litres 2. (Units) US a unit of capacity equal to 231 cubic inches. 1 US gallon is equivalent to 0.83 imperial gallon or 3.79 litres 3. (plural) great quantities [C13: from Old Northern French galon (Old French jalon), perhaps of Celtic origin] gal•lon (ˈgæl ən) n.

a common unit of capacity in English-speaking countries, equal to four quarts, the U.S. standard gallon being equal to 231 cubic inches (3.7853 liters), and the British imperial gallon to 277.42 cubic inches (4.546 liters). Abbr.: gal. [1250–1300; < Old North French galon, derivative from base of Medieval Latin gallēta jug, bucket] gal·lon (găl′ən) A unit of volume or capacity used for measuring liquids, equal to 4 quarts (3.79 liters). See Table at measurement . gallon (gal) A unit of liquid volume equal to eight pints. The US and UK gallons should not be confused: 1UK gal = 1.2 US gal.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: United States liquid unit - a liquid unit officially adopted in the United States Customary System quart - a United States liquid unit equal to 32 fluid ounces; four quarts equal one gallon bbl , barrel - any of various units of capacity; "a barrel of beer is 31 gallons and a barrel of oil is 42 gallons" 2.

congius , Imperial gallon British capacity unit , Imperial capacity unit - a unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System; British units are both dry and wet bbl , barrel - any of various units of capacity; "a barrel of beer is 31 gallons and a barrel of oil is 42 gallons" quart - a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 2 pints or 1.136 liters bushel - a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 4 pecks firkin - a British unit of capacity equal to 9 imperial gallons Translations [ˈgælən] N → galón m (Brit = 4,546 litros; US = 3,785 litros) IMPERIAL SYSTEM gallon [ˈgælən] n [water, oil] → gallon m 8 pints; BRIT = 4.543 l; US = 3.785 l gallon [ˈgælən] n → gallone m (Brit=4,55 litri; Am=3,79 litri) gallon (ˈgӕlən) noun a

 measure for liquids, eight pints (in Britain, 4.546 litres; in the United States, 3.785 litres).

gelling غالون галон galão galon die Gallone gallon γαλόνι galón gallon گالن gallona gallon גלון गैलन लगभग ४.५ लीटर galon gallon galon gallon gallone ガロン 갤런 galonas galons gelen gallon gallon galon ګيلن galão galon галлон galón galona galon gallon หน่วยวัดปริมาตรของของเหลว; แกลลอน galon 加崙 галон مائعات غلے وغیرہ کی مقدار کا پیمانہ galông 加仑 gallons (of) (loosely) a large amount (of something liquid). The children drank gallons of orange juice.

gellings كميّات كبيره من، غالونات من много litros moře (čeho) Liter , Unmengen spandevis μεγάλη ποσότητα (υγρού) litros de liitrite viisi مقدار زیادی suuri määrä des litres et des litres de גלון ढेर सारा velika količina tekućine literszám berliter-liter mikið magn litri 大量の 대량 ežerai, kibirai liels daudzums bergelen-gelen liters litervis , massevis morze جګ مقدار،زيات litros cantităţi industriale цистерна more, litre (čoho) na litre galoni litervis, hinkvis จำนวนมาก çok (散裝)大量的(液體) бочка بڑی مقدار 1 lượng lớn （散装）大量的（液体） Volume Calculators - Unit Conversion, Calculates Volume - Cube, Cone, Cylinder, Square or Rectange Room, Pyramid, Ellipsoid, Sphere Enter value and select a conversion from the buttons

 below and result will be displayed.

Enter Value: Result: Volume of solid object is defined as three dimensional design of how much space it occupies and is defined numerically. Single dimensions and two dimensions shapes like straight line or square, circle, triangle have zero volume in three dimensional space. Some basic units of volume are Cubic Inches, Cubic Feet, Quarts, Cubic Yards, Cubic Meters, Gallons, Liters, Cubic Centimeters, Cubic Millimeter etc. SI unit of volume is Cubic Meters. The names of the traditional volume units are the names of standard containers. Until the eighteenth century, it was very difficult to measure the capacity of a container accurately in cubic units, so the standard containers were defined by specifying the weight of a particular substance, such as wheat or beer, that they could carry. Thus the gallon, the basic English unit of volume, was originally the volume of eight pounds of wheat. This custom led to a multiplicity of units, as different commodities were carried in containers of slightly different sizes. Gallons are always divided into 4 quarts, which are further divided into 2 pints each.

For larger volumes of dry commodities, there are 2 gallons in a peck and 4 pecks in a bushel. Larger volumes of liquids were carried in barrels, hogsheads, or other containers whose size in gallons tended to vary with the commodity, with wine units being different from beer and ale units or units for other liquids. The situation was still confused during the American colonial period, so the Americans were actually simplifying things by selecting just two of the many possible gallons. These two were the gallons that had become most common in British commerce by around 1700. For dry commodities, the Americans were familiar with the Winchester bushel, defined by Parliament in 1696 to be the volume of a cylindrical container 18.5 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep. The corresponding gallon, 1/8 of this bushel, is usually called the corn gallon in England. This corn gallon holds 268.8 cubic inches. For liquids Americans preferred to use the traditional British wine gallon, which Parliament defined as 231 cubic inches in 1707. As a result, the U.S.

volume system includes both dry and liquid units, with the dry units being about 1/6 larger than the corresponding liquid units. In 1824, the British Parliament abolished all the traditional gallons and established a new system based on the Imperial gallon of 277.42 cubic inches. The Imperial gallon was designed to hold exactly 10 pounds of water under certain specified conditions. Unfortunately, Americans were not inclined to adopt this new, larger gallon, so the traditional English system actually includes three different volume measurement systems: U.S. liquid, U.S. dry, and British Imperial. On both sides of the Atlantic, smaller volumes of liquid are traditionally measured in fluid ounces, which are at least roughly equal to the volume of one ounce of water. To accomplish this in the different systems, the smaller U.S. pint is divided into 16 fluid ounces, and the larger British pint is divided into 20 fluid ounces. Calculate Volume Of a Cube Enter value and click on calculate. Result will be displayed.

Enter your values: Volume Unit Converter - Measurement conversion J-Z Measurement conversion J-Z Most often used measurement conversion fluid ounces to pints (fluid) (fl oz to pt) conversion 1 fluid ounce (fl oz) is equal 0.0625 pint (fluid) (pt) pints (fluid) to fluid ounces (pt to fl oz) conversion 1 pint (fluid) (pt) is equal 16 fluid ounces (fl oz) barrels (petroleum) to gallons (fluid) (bbl to gals) conversion 1 barrel (petroleum) (bbl, bo) is equal 42 gallons (fluid) (gals) gallons (fluid) to barrels (petroleum) (gals to bbl) conversion 1 gallon (fluid) (gal) is equal 0.023809523809524 barrel (petroleum) (bbl, bo) cubic feet (ft³) to cubic yards (cu ft to yd³) conversion 1 cubic foot (ft³, cu ft) is equal 0.037037037037037 cubic yard (yd³) cubic yards to cubic

 feet (ft³) (yd³ to cu ft) conversion 1 cubic yard (yd³) is equal 27 cubic feet (ft³) (cu ft) cubic meters to cubic yards (m³ to yd³) conversion 1 cubic meter (m³) is equal 1.3079506193144 cubic yards (yd³) cubic yards to cubic meters (yd³ to m³) conversion 1 cubic yard (yd³) is equal 0.764554857984 cubic meter (m³) use this converter Definition Volume - a space any substance occupies or contains in a three dimensional space.

While the Si unit for volume is the cubic meter, it is too big for common use and has been replaced with the liter (1 cubic decimeter) in everyday life.

Units of measurement barrel (petroleum) (bbl, bo), bushel (UK) (bu), bushel (US dry) (bu), centiliter (cl), cubic centimeter (cc, cm³), cubic decimeter (dm³), cubic foot (ft³, cu ft), cubic inch (in³, cu in) , cubic meter (m³), cubic millimeter (mm³), cubic yard (yd³), dekaliter (dal), fluid dram (fl dr), fluid ounce (fl oz), fluid ounce (UK) (fl oz), gallon (fluid) (gal), gallon (UK) (gal), gill (gi), hectoliter (hl), kiloliter (kl), liter (l), microliter (µl), milliliter (ml), minim (min), peck (US dry) (pk), pint (fluid) (pt), pint (UK) (pt), pint (US dry) (pt), quart (fluid) (qt), quart (UK) (qt), quart (US dry) (qt) About Volume Unit Converter tool. We use rounding at unit-conversion.info. This means that some results will be rounded to avoid the numbers getting too long.

While often rounding works up to a specific decimal place, we’ve decided that limiting the length of the result to 13 digits would be more favorable to keep the results consistent. The converters accept scientific notation and converts immediately. gallon - Wiktionary gallon ( US ) 231 cubic inches or approximately 3.785 liters for liquids (a "U.S. liquid gallon") ( US ) one-eighth of a U.S. bushel or approximately 4.405 liters for dry goods (a "U.S. dry gallon"). (in the plural , informal ) A large quantity (of any liquid). The pipe burst and gallons of water flooded into the kitchen. a unit of volume used for liquids Bulgarian: галон m ‎(galon) English weights and measures: Quick reference Unit of area, equal to 4840 square yards. Still very much in use. Bag Obscure unit of volume, equal to 24 gallons. Barleycorn Unit of length. Three to the inch. A very old measure, not used for centuries. Barrel (beer) Unit of volume, equal to 36 gallons, or 4 firkins. Still in use.

Barrel (wine) Unit of volume, equal to 31.5 gallons. No longer in use Barrel (oil) A US measure, not English. Equals 42 US gallons. British Thermal Unit, or Btu. Unit of energy or work Bucket Obscure unit of volume, equal to 4 gallons. Bushel Unit of volume, equal to 8 gallons, or 4 pecks. Not in use much at all these days, but beware that the US bushel is different. Butt Unit of volume, usually for wine or beer. Can be 108 or 126 gallons, depending. No longer used. Cable Unit of length, at sea. Defined as 1 tenth of a nautical mile. Chain Unit of length, equal to 22 yards, which is the length of a cricket pitch. When I was at school, we were given such chains to measure things with - each chain made up of 100 links. There are 10 chains to the furlong. Not seen much these days, but still seen on not-so-old maps etc.

Clove Obscure unit of weight, equal to 7 pounds (av.) Drachm (fluid) Unit of volume, equal to 60 minims. 8 fluid drachms to the fluid ounce. Dram [also spelled as Drachm] (avoirdupois) Unit of weight. 16 drams to the (av.) ounce. Dram [also spelled as Drachm] (troy) Unit of weight. Equal to 60 grains. 8 drams to the (troy) ounce. Ell Unit of length. Very, very old. The English ell should be taken as 45 inches, or a yard and a quarter, and the Scots ell is 37 Scots inches, or 72.2 English inches. Very much not used. Fathom Unit of length, or rather depth, equal to 6 feet. Still encountered. Firkin Unit of volume, especially beer. Equals 9 gallons. Extremely popular in pub names! Foot Unit of length. 12 inches, 3 feet to the yard. Very, very common. Furlong Unit of length, equal to 220 yards, or 10 chains.

There are 8 furlongs to the mile. The name seems to derive from the length of a furrow, somehow. This unit is still used, especially so in horse-racing. Gallon Unit of volume. Equal to 8 pints. The Imperial gallon was defined in the act of 1824 as the volume of 10lb of water at 62°F. Before this, the gallon was redefined over the years (especially around the time of the American revolution) with consequent problems for our colonial cousins, which is why we have 8 of our gallons to one of our bushels, but the Americans have 9.309177 of their gallons (or 7.751512 of ours) to one of their bushels. To get around this, they have a dry gallon and a liquid gallon, which are different. To summarise: Imperial gallon 231 cubic inches Gill Unit of volume. Normally taken as a quarter of a pint, it can also be a third or a half pint, especially in conversation. The legal definition is a 1/4 of a pint. The word Gill is pronouced with a hard G (as Jill).

Grain The basic unit of weight in the imperial system. There are 5760 grains to the Troy pound, and 7000 to the avoirdupois pound. Hand Unit of length, or normally height, equal to 4 inches. Still (almost) universally used in England to measure horses. Hogshead Unit of volume (wine only). 52.5 gallons. Until 1824 it was 63 gallons, a figure still used by the Americans. Horsepower (common) A unit of power. Equal to 33000 foot-pound-force per minute. Very much in use today. Horsepower (RAC) A strange unit, used only to tax cars in the first decades to the 20th century. It was based on the cylinder diameter, not the swept volume or power, which seems to have inspired W O Bentley at least to design long-stroke engines to get them into a lower taxation class. Horsepower (misc.) There are all sorts of other horsepowers (boiler, metric, electric, metric etc.) - beware! Hundredweight Unit of weight, equal to 8 stones. 20 hundredweight to a ton.

This unit is commonly abbreviated to 'cwt'. Hundredweight (short) Unit of weight, not much used in England, but apparently used still in the US. Equals 100 pounds, 20 to the Short ton. Inch Very basic unit of length. 12 to the foot. Very much in use. Kilderkin Obscure unit of volume, equal to 18 gallons. Kip Obscure unit of force - equal to 1000 pound-force. Knot Unit of speed or velocity, equal to 1 nautical mile per hour. Universally used to control the speed of ships and aircraft. Last Very obscure unit of volume - equal to 640 gallons. League Unit of length. Equal to 3 miles, so a league at sea is different to a league on land. Much used by poets, but nobody else. Lb The abbreviation used for 'pound'. It comes from the Latin word Libra which translates to 'pound'. This is where the fancy 'L' comes from when talking about the pound sterling (i.e. the unit of currency in the UK). Line Unit of length.

Some authorities (generally American) say 10 lines to the inch, and some say 12. This seems to be a printing term. Link Unit of length, there being 100 links to a chain. Virtually never seen these days. Mil Unit of length. Shown as 1/1000 of an inch in some books, I have never known anyone use this in England, as a millimetre (an obscure French measure) is known colloquially as a 'mill'. See thou . However, many friends from across the Atlantic have pointed out that the mill is very much in use in the US, for measuring paper, plastic (rubbish bags/garbage sacks etc.) and wire. Mile (statute) Unit of length, equal to 1760 yards, or 8 furlongs. This unit is universal in England for measuring distances between places etc., and is always used on road-signs (eg LONDON 180 miles) and speedometers (as in miles per hour), and consequently is always quoted by drivers when talking about fuel consumption (as in miles per gallon). Mile (nautical) Unit of length, normally at sea or in the air.

Originally, the Admiralty fixed it at 6080 feet. This unit is universally used by international law by ships and aircraft, as is the derived unit of the knot . In the 20th century, an international nautical mile was defined as 1852 metres, and so you will sometimes see the 6080ft nautical mile called the British nautical mile. Minim Unit of volume. 60 minims to the fluid ounce. Nail Obscure unit of length, equal to 2 and a quarter inches. Noggin Unit of volume - maybe a colloquism. Same as the gill . This word is quite often used in pubs etc. in certain parts of England, but not in a technical sense! Ounce - avoirdupois Unit of weigh, equal to 437.5 grains. 16 drams to the ounce, 16 ounces to the pound. This unit is still very much used in England. Ounce - fluid Unit of volume, equal to 8 fluid drachms. 20 fluid ounces = 1 pint. This unit is still used, especially in recipes.

Ounce - troy Unit of weight, equal to 480 grains, or 24 scruples. or 20 pennyweights or 8 drams. 12 ounces to the pound.Used for weighing bullion, and as an apocatheries measure. Pace Obscure unit of length. Equal to 2.5 feet. Palm Obscure unit of length. Equal to 3 inches. Peck Unit of volume, equal to 2 gallons. Not much in use these days. Pennyweight Unit of weight, equal to 24 grains. There are 20 to the Troy ounce. Perch Old unit of length - same as rod and pole. 16.5 feet. Pint Unit of volume. The universal measure for beer. There are 20 fluid ounces to the pint, and 8 pints to the gallon. Different to US pints - beware! Pole Old unit of length - same as rod and perch. 16.5 feet. Pound - avoirdupois Unit of weight, equal to 7000 grains, or 16 avoirdupois ounces. 14 pounds = 1 stone.

This unit is still very much used in England. Pound - troy Unit of weight, equal to 5760 grains, or 12 troy ounces. Used for weighing bullion, and as an apocatheries measure. The troy pound was outlawed in 1878. Poundal Unit of force. There are 32.174 to the pound-force (acceleration to to gravity being 32.174 feet per second per second). Pound-force Unit of pressure - an abbreviation for pounds per square inch. Puncheon Obscure unit of volume - equal to 70 gallons. Quart Unit of volume, equal to 2 pints. 4 quarts = 1 gallon. The use of this unit has declined sharply over the last 20 years. Quarter Unit of weight, equal to 2 stones. 4 quarters = 1 hundredweight. General use of this unit seems to have died out around the time of WWII. Quarter Unit of volume, equal to 64 gallons. Rod Unit of length; It is 16.5 feet, which is strange even by English standards. It is better to define it in terms of the rood .

Rope Obscure unit of length - equal to 20 feet. Rood Unit of area; an area of 1 furlong long by 1 rod wide, or 1210 square yards. There are 4 roods to the acre. Rope Obscure unit of length - equal to 20 feet. Sack Obscure unit of weight, equal to 26 stones. Scruple Unit of weight. Equals 20 grains. 3 to the Troy dram. Scruple (fluid). Unit of volume. Equals 20 minims. Seam Obscure unit of volume, equal to 64 gallons. Slug Strange unit of weight - equal to 32.174 pounds (av.) - see poundal . Span Obscure unit of length - equal to 9 inches. Stone Unit of weight, equal to 14 pounds (av.). Often used in England for weighing people. 8 stones = 1 hundredweight. Still quite common in England, although its use seems to be declining. Thou An unofficial unit of length - one thousandth of an inch. Tod An obscure unit of weight - same as the quarter .

Ton Unit of weight, sometimes (especially in the US) known as a long ton. Equals 20 hundredweight, or 2240 pounds. Still very much in use. Ton (register). Unit of capacity - for measuring ships. 100 cubic feet. Ton (short). Imperial Measures of Volume The U.S. fluid ounce is 1/128 gallon (American) about 1.805 cubic inches or 29.573531 ml. This volume of water weighs about 1.04 ounces. The Imperial fluid ounce is 1/160 gallon (Imperial) or 8 fluid drams about 1.734 cubic inches or 28.413063 ml. This volume of water weighs exactly 1 ounce under certain temperature and pressure conditions. These measures are not only different sizes to the British units of the same name, but different to each other. The wet U.S. units are 86% of the dry U.S. units with the same name. They are both smaller than the British units. The U.S. wet unit is 83% of the British unit, and the U.S.

dry unit is 97% of the British unit. So if someone from the UK buys a gallon of gas in the United States, he will only get 83% of what he thinks he will get. While an American will probably flood the forecourt of the British filling station! I was particularly worried about the American habit of using volume for measuring ingredients for cooking, i.e. they use cups (or half-pints) rather than pounds as the British do (or rather we are now starting to use kilos). We need scales, but at least weight is well-defined! My problem was: Is there a 'dry' cup as well as a 'wet' cup, and are they of different sizes?

(There was a subsidary question as to whether butter and cream and peanut butter were wet or dry, and was there a difference between double cream and single cream?) I have had several very interesting comments on this, varying from "Of course we only use one cup" to "Of course we use two cups!" And most people point out that the volumes of butter are marked on the side of the pack (well, so there are in Britain sometimes, but I've usually already started the pack of butter when I come to use it for a cake!) However, eventually one correspondent said that there ARE two types of cup. They vary in design to make it easy to measure wet or dry ingredients, but they are the same size. They are all 8 fluid ounces. This sounded as if it answered all questions, so I checked it out. It seems that the cup used for measuring is a 'wet' cup, and there is no cup measuring half a dry pint. The dry measures of volume seem to be mostly used for amounts greater than a pint (if we ignore spoon measures). The name 'pint' and 'quart' are used in both systems (and are different sizes, so watch out!) However, there is one peculiarity.

One reference work described 'fluid ounces' and 'dry ounces'. But here the 'dry ounce' was a measure of weight and the 'fluid ounce' was a measure of volume. In fact, this went on to say "Measures are classified as either dry measures or fluid measures. Fluid measures are measures of volume, while dry measures are measures of weight. Whether the ingredient you are measuring is dry or fluid really doesn't matter, and will only confuse you. Simply use the measure that is specified in your recipe." So you use a wet measure like a cup to measure flour! I like the comment "Simply use the measure that is specified in your recipe" since the words 'pint', 'quart' and indeed 'ounce' occur in both wet and dry forms. At least one reference work used 'ounce' when they really meant 'fluid ounce'. Another correspondent says "Dry measure is actually little used in the U.S. A cup of flour or a cup of milk in a recipe are measured in the same measuring cup. Unless specified otherwise, all measurements are struck even with the top of the container.

The only survival of the identically named and slight differently sized dry units is that they are the officially sanctioned units for the purchase of fresh fruit, like buying a pint of strawberries. Most people are completely unaware that a pint of blueberries isn't the same pint as a pint of milk." Another correspondent has made the following points: "Some ingredients will differ in weight if loose or packed, so a recipe will further specify if the ingredient is to be packed or loose. When not specified the usage is to pour the ingredient into the measure until the desired level is reached. Sometimes a note tells the cook not to shake or pack, but this is considered unnecessary.Nuts can be whole, broken, ground etc. Each form will have a different weight for a given measure, but for the purposes of a recipe that is irrelevant. " (I disagree with him there I think the weight of nuts matter more than their volume!) "Measuring in this manner has an ancient history. In Ali Baba & the Fourty Thieves a volume (wet) measure was used to count gold coins :)" I still think the British method of weighing ingredients is better. I'd prefer to weigh gold coins to measuring them by volume!

Still, I would like to thank all my correspondents for illuminating me on this important subject, even if you confused me horribly en route! A further comment: "One thing I'm surprised you didn't mention is that, while UK volume measures are based on water under specified conditions, liquid and dry volume measures in the US are all based on the cubic inch. They were originally based on the volume of cylinders of specified dimensions, but early in the Nineteenth Century Congress standardized on a gallon of exactly 231 in^3 and a bushel of exactly 2150.42 in^3." I didn't mention it as I didn't know it! Another correspondent quoted a saying that he learned as a kid, "A pint a pound, the world around." This is not strictly true. It IS true to say that 1 ml of water is 1 gram, because it's defined as so. A pound is 454 grams. An American wet pint is 471 grams, which is approximately the same. A British pint is 567 grams, which is definitely more. But this is only talking about water.

Since the same amount of different materials will weigh different amounts, this can only be regarded as an extremely approximate conversion. Interestingly enough, the Americans have 16 fluid oz to a pint, while the British have 20 fluid oz to the pint. It turns out that an American dry pint is close to a British pint, while an American fluid oz (wet) is close to the British fluid oz. I don't know if this has any historical significance in the origins of the units! However, another correspondent, reading the above, says "As I learned this rhyme it is 'A pint's a pound the world around.' This is a mnemonic to help remember the number of ounces in a pint. That is, there are the same number of liquid ounces in a pint as there are (weight) ounces in a pound -- i.e. 16. It is not about the weight of a pint of anything. I suppose people found it easier to remember ounces in a pound." However, it doesn't explain why it's "the world round" since the British pint has 20 ounces! Also it's not a very good mnemonic, since it seems that people misunderstand it.

Another correspondent from Australia says "When my mother taught me to cook, she used, as a rough rule of thumb, one pound of sugar to one pint of vinegar when making chutneys, relishes, pickles and ketchups; and when making jam, one pound of sugar to one pint of cooked fruit." That seems very sensible! An English correspondent says "With regard to pint measures and mnemonics, I was always taught that 'a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter'. As you mention, a pint of water actually weighs 20 oz so this works. I have never heard before the one about 'a pint's a pound the world around'." Well, it doesn't in the UK! I must admit that I hadn't realised that a fluid ounce of water weighed an ounce. But it is very close: 1 fluid ounce (of water) weighs 28.35 gram and an ounce is 28.375 gram. The correspondent goes on to say "As a small boy during holidays in Cornwall in the late 1960s, I remember often being sent to the village shop by my grandmother for 'a gallon of potatoes'.

Those were the days..." That certainly is a new one on me! I wonder what the shopkeeper said. (British potatoes were always sold by the pound, or even by the stone). Another correspondent explains this: "The story given me was that during the war years (WWII), when all the brass weights (along with the church bells) went to become shell cases, the villagers bought their potatoes in the ubiqutious galvanised bucket - which held two gallons of water and weighed about a stone (14 pounds) if I remember rightly! It carried on after the war years because it took time to get the brass back and people had become used to it." Click here for information about some American measuring cups. The American pound cake was originally so-called, because it used a pound each of its main ingredients, flour, sugar, butter, eggs. The Americans must have weighed ingredients then! The cake was baked in a special tin which makes a hole in the middle of the cake. One explanation for this is that it is easier to cut the cake, but I think that it is to help the cooking of the cake. Cakes cook from the tin towards the centre of the cake.

If there is part of the tin at the centre of the cake, it would speed up cooking time, and for such a massive cake (four pounds in weight!) this would be very important. There is a British cake called a Victoria sponge, made from a quarter pound each of self-raising flour, fat (such as butter) and sugar, and two eggs. I was very pleased to discover that two eggs also weigh a quarter of a pound! However, a correspondent has told me that pound cakes no longer have a hole in the middle, but are cooked in loaf tins. Bundt cakes and angel food cakes are the ones with a hole in the middle. Another correspondent says "US pound cakes are still baked in the tin with the whole. These tins are called Bundt pans and pound cake is most certainly baked in Bundt tins. Supermarkets in my part of the US (North Carolina) sell ready made pound cakes that were baked in Bundt pans too so it's not just a homemade cake thing. It's simply the preference of the baker as to which kind of tin to bake pound cake in." U.S.

Barrels Most fruits, vegetables, and other dry commodities - 7,056 cubic inches Except for cranberry barrels which are - 5,826 cubic inches Wine barrel - 31.5 gallons Ale and beer barrel - 36 gallons Proof spirits barrel - 40 gallons Calculation of federal taxes on fermented liquors - 31 gallons Petroleum barrel - 42 gallons Fish, beef, and pork barrel - 200 pounds Cement barrel - 376 pounds among others ... The sound you hear is me banging my head against the wall. I particularly admire the cranberry growers. And HOW do you calculate a tax on an alcohol barrel size which is different from all known barrel sizes? However, I have had an email saying that beer and whisky barrrels in the U.S. are 31 gallons. An old gallon measure On the left is an old gallon measure from Canada sent by one of my correspondents. While it seems to say George II, it is actually George V, and the 2 refers to London City. This is confirmed by the crest, which has been used by London for centuries.

However, another correspondent said "The measure you have pictured (on the left) wasn't verified in Canada during the reign of George V, as the Canadian system of controlling weights and measures was well established by 1911. The measure could very well have been found in Canada but would not be legal for trade here unless reinspected and rebranded with Canadian verification sequences." He supplies photos of a Canadian bentwood measure (centre, above) and its verification sequence (right). He has been collecting and researching Canadian Measures for about 25 years now and has a small website here . Rough conversion between Imperial and Metric Remember that British Imperial units of volume are different to American units. See above for details. I find many Imperial to Metric conversions very irritating, because they are far too precise. So here are some rough conversions which you can carry in your head. "A litre of water's a pint and three quarters." Or, of course, anything else. (It rhymes to help you remember it). A half litre is definately less than a pint. A quarter litre is less than a half pint. While the British don't mind buying their petrol in litres, there was (and is) considerable opposition to drinking metric beer or milk!

5 litres is more than a gallon. 4 litres is just over 7 pints. 5 ml is a teaspoon. It gets used for medicine. If you want an accurate conversion: 1 fl.oz Dry measure - definition of dry measure by The Free Dictionary Dry measure - definition of dry measure by The Free Dictionary A system of units for measuring dry commodities such as grains, fruits, and vegetables. dry measure n (Units) a unit or a system of units for measuring dry goods, such as fruit, grains, etc dry′ meas′ure the system of volumetric units used in measuring dry commodities, as grain. [1680–90] A system of units for measuring dry commodities, such as grains, fruits, and vegetables. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: British capacity unit , Imperial capacity unit - a unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System; British units are both dry and wet ardeb - a unit of dry measure used in Egypt epha , ephah - an ancient Hebrew unit of dry measure equal to about a bushel United States dry unit - a unit of measurement of capacity for dry substances officially adopted in the United States Customary System Translations

Question: Which unit of dry volume was defined as containing eight gallons?
Answer: (Imperial) Bushel