I’m trying to figure out the correct term that describes the system of measurements used in the US. I search Google and, amazingly, there doesn’t seem to be a generally accepted term for the US system.
Imperial isn’t the answer. It never appears and may be reserved for what the Brits version this non-metric system. I have found references to “US Measure”, “US Measurement”, “Metric and US Equivalent”, “US units”… and on, and on.
What’s the definitive answer?
AFAIK it’s simply known as the “English” system.
We Canajans used to use only the (British) “Imperial” system… but that differed from the US system.
The Imperial gallon was 4.something litres, while the US gallon is 3.8 litres. AFAIK, the US system is called simply “the system of customary US measures” or something similar.
Thank Goddess the miles didn’t differ…
This probably doesn’t help even a little bit, but tools, and the things manipulated by tools, come in two types - metric and SAE, for “society of automotive engineers”.
All of the conversion tables I’ve seen call it the “English system”. Of course, half of those seem to “convert” by adding gratitious "U"s to some words, and making your beer warm.
In the UK it’d be metric vs imperial measures.
I have used the term standard - and it was the standard here -a long time ago. I know it’s not the proper term but people still know which wrench set to get me.
Well, if you were to ask my grandpa, he’d tell you- in Europe they use the ‘metric’ system, while here in the US we use the ‘normal’ or ‘right’ system.
I’ve always heard them referred to as “English units,” but I don’t think that’s completely correct.
This site says:
So perhaps U.S. Customary System is the more correct name for the United States’ system of units. It seems to be a subset of the disastrous (and often conflicting) hodge-podge collectively known as English Units.
Let’s use Imperial measurements in this example, Sunspace. The Imperial gallon is 160 fluid ounces while the US gallon is 128 fluid ounces.
(“Imperial”? Yes, I’m Canadian; that was the term I grew up using.)
Now, I think I’ll go for a pint. A proper 20-ounce Imperial pint, that is. 
This is what I was taught. The usual abbreviation is USCS. All USCS measures are now defined by the Office of Weights and Measures (a division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in terms of SI (loosely, “metric”) units. However, I wasn’t able to confirm that “USCS” is the term the OWM itself uses. For all I know, “USCS” may have been supplanted by a new designation for the system.
Let’s not forget there are two different systems of metric units - MKS (meter, kilogram, second) and CGS (centimeter, gram, second). And even in the MKS countries, there are wide disagreements on which units to use as a “standard”.
For example - the heating value of coal in the US is always expressed as “Btu/lbm”. Yet, in the rest of the “standardized metric World”, it is commonly expressed as:
kJ/kg
MJ/Mg
kcal/kg
Mcal/Mg
and I’ve also seen “base” units (numerically equivalent to the above) of “J/g”, “cal/g”, etc.
Yes, I know the calorie is not an SI unit - and yet it is often mixed with MKS or CGS units by countries other than the US (Spain, I’m looking in your direction…)
Of course, the most important difference between Imperial ans American units is the colonials only have a measly 16oz in a pint, whilst real men have 20oz.
Anthracite, correct me if I am wrong but I believe anyone is free to use any units he wants although certain units are preferred. I believe the different systems are defined by their fundamental units and which ones are derived from that. I also believe CGS is no longer used and it is the MKS which has evolved to be the S.I. which is internationally accepted. All other units, including American, are defined in terms of SI basic units. (For instance, the definition of inch is 25.4 mm)
Does anyone want to drink American beer in 20 oz. measures?!?
IIRC Imperial refers to the Roman Empire, not the British Empire. Pints, Ounces, Pounds etc were used on the European continent until Napoleon metricated measure. I have seen references to pounds and ounces in a museum in nineteenth century Finland and in Holland and Germany (thirty years ago at least, if you asked for a pound of vegetables you got half a kilo- referring back, I am sure, to the previous system of measurement, not kopw-towing to the Brits and Yanks.
Because the British system was not complete by 1607, nor by 1776, differences in usage were crystalized in US measures, and other changes have happened since:
Alcohol- pure spirit is 200 proof in the US, 180 proof in UK
Weight- UK retains a Stone of 14lb
Volume- UK has 20 pints to the ounce and no-one knows what ‘a fifth’ (of a gallon) means- bottles of spirits were however available before 1980 in 26 and 2/3 ounces- close to a fifth, but now come in 70 cl bottles.
IIRC, US and British uses of large volume measures (tunns, bushels etc also varied.)
All technical measures in the UK are now metric, and most goods are based on metric measures, although milk and beer are still available in pints. Almost no-one thinks in metric measures except when following recipes, even those young enough to have only been taught only metric. It is rare to hear anyone ask for a half kilo or litre of anything that is not pre-packaged. I can think in both systems, but even when cooking to a metric recipe, will buy in imperial measures.
Always check cites first 
Imperial Measures first referred to in 1824 and are probably referring to the British Empire.
However, the system that was standardized on the pound, foot, pint etc, was based on Roman measures as handed down and varied over the centuries.
My point was that even though the units are convertable, sometimes decimally convertable even, that the US is not the only country that uses an inconsistant set of measures. I agree that CGS is not a “standard”, however, I meet people that still work exclusively in CGS, and it makes things a little more difficult. I also have no explaination for the Joule vs. calorie preference amongst non-US engineers.
Even just the way people measure things is different. In the UK, France, Poland, Germany, and Italy they measure boiler dimensions using “meters”. That is, a waterwall depth might be “6.234 m”. In Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and South Africa they would use “milimeters” to measure it - “6234 mm”. And this is not just one company or one group of engineers that do this - they all seem to. And each group bitterly complains at me about it. If I modify my program so “m” is the default type of measurement, they say “you stupid Americans still can’t understand the metric system - you use mm not m. Hmmmph!” And the same thing happens with the other countries if I switch the program to display in “mm”. (Yes, I modified the program so that they can choose between “m” and “mm” as a default, and then I found some crazy galoot in Spain who insists on “cm” as a default. Then the client we had from Denmark, who wanted “dm” as a default…sigh.)
My point once again - just because the US has a crazy, mixed-up set of units, people should not assume that the rest of the World is a consistant, monolithic, uniform group of “enlightened” metric units users. Human nature prevents that.
And I still don’t understand the UK, where you buy your petrol in liters and then get in your car and drive on roads with speed limit signs in “miles/hr”.
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Dividing or multiplying by 10, 100 or 1000 makes the systems essentially interchangeable. Multiplying by 2.54, 2.2, .456 etc makes systems confusing.
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All goods must be sold in metric quantities. Miles traveled are not goods. Changing all the road signs can wait until we decide to drive on the right ;). BTW, how is fuel sold in Canada- I believe national distances are marked in kilometres (kilometers or kliks). And BTW we only buy petrol in litres.
Yes, fuel is sold by the litre in Canada. Roads are marked in kilometres and metres. Spedometers are in kilometres per hour. Maps are in kilometres, and are at decimal scale factors (1 to 250 000 rather than 1 to 86 000).
I’m not sure of things like bushels–I do not own a house or have a family, and therefore tend not to deal with things in those quantities. However, things like manure and grass seed and such seem to be in plastic bags, marked either in kilograms or litres.
Bulk food is measured in kilograms, but marked in both pounds and kilograms, often with the pounds much more prominent. But nobaoy complains if I request 250 grams of something at the deli. Liquids are in litres.
Often, however, though marked omly in metric, the packaging is in some non-even number of units (the 355-mL can of Coke for instance) which indicates that it is actually a non-metric container relabelled.
However…
When I was in architecture school (1981-2), we designed and dimensioned buildings in millimetres! And then all the parts would be in feet and inches, because everyone, even now, still uses the traditional measures for land sales (acres), and room dimensions (feet and inches). And because buildings are renewed only on a timescale of decades, all the new parts (sheets of plywood, studs, piping, etc) have to fit with the old, which is why we still have the four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood and the two-by-four (inch) piece of lumber, for instance.
Due to lumber-company economising and the increasing scarcity of wood, the two-by-four is no longer two inches by four inches in cross-section. It can be quite a bit less, as much as 1/4-inch less in each direction! Might as well be metric.
I still think we should have had a ‘flag day’ back in the eighties and changed, finally, once and for all, like Australia did. We could have done new installations in metric and had piping adapters, etc, on hand for connections to old installations.
This might have been better than the unpleasant ‘halfway between’ situation that Canadians have lived with for the past 25 years or so. That is the true ‘crazy mixed-up situation’, to be avoided as much as possible.
>> I also have no explaination for the Joule vs. calorie preference amongst non-US engineers
Well, sometimes it is just a question of what you grow accustomed to (which is the only reason the US system still exists). In my case I find getting from Joule/s to watts much easier than using calories, not to mention the confusion when people say calorie and you are not sure if they mean calorie or kilocalorie.