# Bushels and Foot-Poundals: the UK is back on the cutting edge!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [February 24, 2022, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044 "2022-02-24T10:49:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/21 "2022-05-29T22:13:55Z")
There is a vast resource here:
> **[List of unusual units of measurement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
>
> An unusual unit of measurement is a unit of measurement that does not form part of a coherent system of measurement, especially because its exact quantity may not be well known or because it may be an inconvenient multiple or fraction of a base unit.
> Many of the unusual units of measurements listed here are colloquial measurements, units devised to compare a measurement to common and familiar objects.
Which someone has taken the trouble to refine further:
> **[List of humorous units of measurement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_measurement)**
>
> Many people have made use of, or invented, units of measurement intended primarily for their humor value. This is a list of such units invented by sources that are notable for reasons other than having made the unit itself, and that are widely known in the anglophone world for their humor value.
> Most countries use the International System of Units (SI). In contrast, the furlong/firkin/fortnight system of units of measurement draws attention by being extremely old fashioned and off-beat at t...
I think my favorite might be the **beard-second** , approximately 10 nanometers.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/22 "2022-05-29T22:43:08Z")
“Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles”
[. . .]
“Some kind of innocence is measured out in years”
– The Beatles “Hey Bulldog”
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2022, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/23 "2022-05-30T02:19:16Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#):
>
> > [@Alessan](#):
> >
> > They also weigh people in “stones”, whatever the fuck _those_ are.
>
> Fourteen pounds - whatever _they_ are. 😉
They’re a unit of weight, not of mass like that heathen kilogram 😉
Who measures weight using a unit of mass? 😜
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2022, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/24 "2022-05-30T04:32:15Z")
> [@Riemann](#):
>
> I think my favorite might be the **beard-second** , approximately 10 nanometers.
John Allen Paulos, in his book _Innumeracy_, mentions that he liked to challenge his students to estimate the rate of their hair growth in miles per hour. His point was that most students had no concept that hair grows in miles per hour.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2022, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/25 "2022-05-30T05:29:11Z")
Can we start measuring distances in [poronkusema](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poronkusema)
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2022, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/26 "2022-05-30T05:31:41Z")
> [@lum\_s\_husband](#):
>
> Thank god SI invented standardized weights and measures.
A largely French driven movement. Fuck those cheese eating surrender monkeys! We’ve shot ourselves in the foot once with Brexit, but it doesn’t stop there - we can blow the other foot off by de-metrification
Take that Froggies!
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/27 "2022-06-07T18:30:26Z")
That’s the kind of lyrics that sound like they _should_ have a meaning, something profound.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2022, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/28 "2022-06-07T23:32:41Z")
No, especially for those measurements. A UK Imperial gallon is 160 oz and a US Customary gallon 124. Similarly, quarts are 32/40, and pints 16/20. But wait! The US ounce is 4% bigger, so they don’t match up. And of course ounce weights are the same in both, because why not?
The whole exercise is silly, the US routinely uses non-metric alongside metric as colloquial units, but as far as official defintions are concerned the base units are metric and have been for a long time, and the customary units are translated from those. In other words, nobody is forced to use metric, but they’re not saying you can’t.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2022, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/29 "2022-06-07T23:42:28Z")
Well, you know what they say: in for a penny (plus 19 schillings and 11 more pennies), in for a pound.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2022, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/30 "2022-06-07T23:50:34Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> No, especially for those measurements. A UK Imperial gallon is 160 oz and a US Customary gallon 124. Similarly, quarts are 32/40, and pints 16/20. But wait! The US ounce is 4% bigger, so they don’t match up.
I think you may have missed my point. I said:
> [@dtilque](#):
>
> But to get the most for your money, you’d have to go back to using the Queen Ann gallon – none of those newfangled Imperial gallons.
The US uses the Queen Anne gallon, which is what Britain used before the Imperial gallon was introduced in the 1820s. The Imperial gallon was a half-hearted attempt to “metrify” the English system of measurements, since its definition was the volume of ten pounds of water at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But all it actually did was introduce yet another incompatible unit.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2022, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/31 "2022-06-08T01:32:06Z")
> [@dtilque](#):
>
> The Imperial gallon was a half-hearted attempt to “metrify” the English system of measurements, since its definition was the volume of ten pounds of water at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But all it actually did was introduce yet another incompatible unit.
This well-known, much-quoted commentary is relevant here:
> **[Standards](https://xkcd.com/927/)**
>
> Fortunately, the charging one has been solved now that we've all standardized on mini-USB. Or is it micro-USB? Shit.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2022, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/32 "2022-06-08T04:04:21Z")
Ah, I had looked it up, and the Wikipedia page mentions it but doesn’t explicitly say it’s the same, though it gives the same quantities.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2022, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/33 "2022-06-08T13:01:47Z")
In order to tell whether they are the same, you would need some sort of “international system of units”, with reproducible reference standards, to compare the two.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2022, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/34 "2022-06-09T05:56:20Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> In order to tell whether they are the same, you would need some sort of “international system of units”, with reproducible reference standards, to compare the two.
Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity showed that this is impossible. There can be no universal absolute reference frame.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2022, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/35 "2022-06-09T06:04:00Z")
Typical woke, lefty nonsense.
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### Author:  [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2022, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushels-and-foot-poundals-the-uk-is-back-on-the-cutting-edge/960044/36 "2022-06-09T12:50:38Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> Who measures weight using a unit of mass?
It’s super Terranormative to assume that someone’s weight is equal to their mass.
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