On 2004-05-23 04:01:47 +0100, "Gabby" > said:

>
> "Tony Walton" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> Depends what sort of gallon. A US gallon is 3.785-ish litres, a UK
>> (Imperial) gallon is 4.546-ish litres.
>>
>> It comes from the differing pints. A US pint is 16 fluid ounces (so a
>> US pint of water weighs 1lb), a UK pint is 20 fluid ounces (so a UK
>> gallon of water weighs 10lb). Yes, to be pedantic the fluid ounces also
>> differ a little.
>
> How do the [fluid] ounces differ?

Only marginally
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce says
++++++++
The U.S. fluid ounce is 1/128 gallon, about 1.805 cubic inches or 29.573531ml.
This volume of water weighs about 1.04 ounces.

The Imperial fluid ounce is (1/160) gallon or 8 fluid drams, about
1.734 cubic inches or 28.413063 ml.
This volume of water weighs exactly 1 ounce under certain temperature
and pressure conditions.
+++++++

> I remember having a real problem in school when they taught us:
> 8 oz = 1 cup
> 2 cups = 1 pint
> 2 pints = 1 quart
> 4 quarts = 1 gallon
> But then they told us that our gallon in Canada was bigger than the gallon
> in the US.

So that's an Imperial gallon. The gallon you've calculated above is a
US gallon.

> I remember asking why that was but my teachers never explained.
> It was only in the past few years that I learned that the British pint isn't
> 2 cups but 4 gills with a gill=5 ounces.

You have to watch it with gills in the UK. It's still an "official"
standard measure over here but is almost completely unused nowadays -
the "official" usage is 1/4 (UK) pint, as you say, but some dialects
use "gill" as 1/2 (UK) pint.

About the only wide use for decades was in the standard measure for
liquor in pubs, where a measure was 1/6 of a gill (1/5 of a gill in
Scotland). The standard is now 25ml, which has made us happy in England
but less so in Scotland!

> Finally, the question my grade
> school teachers had ignored was explained.

Isn't it good when that happens!

--
Tony