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Subject:Re: Standards of converting to metric From:"Janet M. Swisher" <swisher -at- enthought -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:35:38 -0600
"Fred Ridder" wrote:
>
> That's only true to a first approximation. 1 US gallon (4 US quarts)
> is equal to 3.785 litres. 1 Imperial gallon (4 Imperial quarts) is equal
> to 4.546 litres. That makes 1 Imperial gallon equal to 1.201 US gallons
> or 4.804 US quarts. So your ballpark conversion factor is off by
> about 4%.
>
> The same proportional difference applies to US vs. Imperial versions of
> gallons, quarts (quarter gallons), and pints (half quarts), but does
*not*
> apply to fluid ounces since there are 16 fl oz in a US pint (128 in a US
> gallon) but 20 fl oz in an Imperial pint (160 in an Imperial gallon),
making
> the Imperial fluid ounce about 4% *smaller* than the US fl oz even
> thoughe Imperial gallons are bigger.
Interesting. The software that I document has a module devoted to
converting between Imperial and Metric quantities. As it's for the oil
industry, the volume units for Imperial are cubic feet and barrels
(unaccountably abbreviated "bbl"), so I hadn't come across the issues of
US vs. UK volume units. However, a barrel of oil is conveniently 42 US
gallons or 159 liters.
--
Janet Swisher --- Senior Technical Writer
Enthought, Inc. htttp://www.enthought.com
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