Weights & Measures

Call me an ultramodern European metriphile, but didn't imperial measures go out with imperialism? Either way, try as I might, I simply can't get my head round American weights and measures.

The cup is a classic example. Up to now, I thought this was a receptacle for things like coffee or tea. Silly me. It's actually a unit of dry or fluid volume equal to 2 gills - no, not fish lungs - or 19 tablespoons (I just love nice round numbers).

Next up: the peck. Again, this is not a kiss on the cheek or what a bird does, but the equivalent of 8 quarts, a quarter of a bushel or 16 dry pints (which I always thought meant it's time to get another round).

Fahrenheit, a unit of temperature, is another great one. Water freezes not at a memorable value like 0° Fahrenheit, but at 32°F. And it boils at a similarly mnemonic 212°F. From this mathematically-oriented souls could probably deduce a formula for converting Fahrenheit to Celsius. But get this: -40°F equals -40°C.

Miles are another oddity. Rather than having a simple pattern like 1km=1000m, 1m=100cm and 1cm=10mm, a mile comprises 1760 yards - "gardens" to you and me - or 5280 feet of indeterminate shoe size. And a foot consists of not 10, but 12 inches. So there are 63,360 inches to the mile; another wonderfully round number. But that's not all: there are 36 inches to the yard, and inches are divided not into tenths or hundredths, but eighths.

Last, but by no means least, there is the gallon, a unit you are confronted with every time you fill up your American car at a gas (i.e. petrol) station. Luckily for New World newbies like myself, there is a very simple rule for this: there are very few miles to the gallon.