# Two Potties in a gallon, a real UOM? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775 "2013-01-30T04:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/1 "2013-01-30T04:00:00Z")
I was playing with the kids with a unit conversion program on the iPad called MultiConvert and we were just doing gallons to quarts and all that. Multiconvert said that there was a unit of measurement know as potties and there were two potties in a US gallon. Obviously the kids found this almost as funny as if there was a unit of measurement known as underpants or bottoms. I googled around to check that it was correct, but could find no references to potties as a unit of measurement. So I turn to you, masters of the arcane and pointless trivia and possessors of epic google skills, is there a UOM known as potties or is the Multiconvert app just wrong? Also apparently there are 77286 barn-megaparsecs in a US Hogshead, which will be helpful if JJ Abrams or whoever needs a unit for the amount of smuggled Gulcutchian Medieval meed Han Solo had to dump. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/2 "2013-01-30T04:06:59Z")
It’s a [pottle](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pottle). No i, it’s an L. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/3 "2013-01-30T04:44:10Z")
Well so it is, substantially less funny to an 8 yo, and apparently I was also far to ready to see pottie as well. Never mind, move along, and thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/4 "2013-01-30T16:10:13Z")
Heh, one of my former professors measures the sugar for his tea in barn-megaparsecs (it’s about 0.6 teaspoons). And while we’re at it, one acre is 99 inch-miles. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/5 "2013-01-30T19:15:26Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > It’s a [pottle](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pottle). No i, it’s an L. Depends on how much beer you’ve drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/6 "2013-01-31T00:07:58Z")
[A pottle of whitebait.](http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/object/11713/whitebait-pottle) I read that New Zealanders are comfortable with the measure. I hope their autocorrect is, or they’re writing a lot about potatoes. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/7 "2013-01-31T18:17:23Z")
2 tablespoons = 1 ounce **4** ounces = 1 gill 2 gills = 1 cup 2 cups = 1 pint 2 pints = 1 quart 2 quarts = 1 pottle 2 pottles = 1 gallon ARGH!! WE NEED A MEASUREMENT FOR HALF A GILL TO RESTORE BALANCE TO THE UNIVERSE!!! ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/8 "2013-01-31T18:31:48Z")
If your kids are disappointed that there isn’t a unit called a “pottie”, you can always amuse them with the fact that a butt = 126 gallons (2 hogsheads). Or that an English butt is bigger than an American butt, and a Spanish butt is even bigger … ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/9 "2013-02-01T18:21:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Heh, one of my former professors measures the sugar for his tea in barn-megaparsecs (it’s about 0.6 teaspoons). > > And while we’re at it, one acre is 99 inch-miles. Also (I think I learned here) that a lightnanosecond is about a foot. In the oil drilling industry ( at least here in the US) we measure hole depth in feet, i have been unsuccessful in getting them to switch to light nanoseconds which is far cooler sounding. I think the kids will like the Butt measurment. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/10 "2013-02-01T21:51:10Z")
Previous thread, about a song with lyrics referencing liquid measurements: [Do people still sing elaborate drinking songs like "The Barley Mow"? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=540795) Perhaps the kids will enjoy working in a new verse about “pottles”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-potties-in-a-gallon-a-real-uom/648775/11 "2013-02-02T05:29:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Heh, one of my former professors measures the sugar for his tea in barn-megaparsecs (it’s about 0.6 teaspoons). > > And while we’re at it, one acre is 99 inch-miles. Back in undergrad Physics we would amuse ourselves by calculating the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight.