Re: Measurements

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 18:22:13 +0100 (BST)

Andrew Barton on Imperial( unit)s:
> I wouldn't be surprised if they were called 'English' units in
> the US (an 'English Muffin' was until recently completely
> unknown in England) but they aren't quite the same.
>
> A US gallon is about six-sevenths of a UK gallon. AFAIK most
> of the other units are the same for all practical purposes, but
> there are some fine differences in the legal definitions.

Indeed yes. Didn't mean to imply equivalence of anything other than the names... Though inches (etc) do agree, though it required a certain amount of difference-splitting before this was precisely true...

> Before the Romans came the British system was largely decimal
> (it's not an accident that a gallon of water weighs exactly ten pounds).

Pounds and gallons are _Brythonic_? Hrm...

Cheers,
Alex.

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