Measurements

measurement numbers

The act of telling the size, length, weight, etc, of something, is called measurement which is all about numbers and fractions.

What Do We Mean by Measurements?

Anytime we use a process to find out the size, length, or amount of something, we’re measuring. We measure things including weight, time, length, and many other measurable things.

System of Measurement

A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other.

System of Measurement: Types

We have two types of systems of measurement:

The Metric System
The Imperial System

The Metric System

The Metric System, adopted in France in 1795, is a system of measurement that is now used officially in almost all countries. After the French Revolution, the government decided to have one standard system of measurement to unify the whole country. Since then, 'The Metric System', also called SI, has been the universal measurement system for nearly all countries except the USA.

examples of the measurement units

The Imperial System

The Imperial System of Units (also called imperial system or imperial units or British Imperial) was a system of measurement that was mainly used by countries like the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, USA, etc. However, the only country that currently uses this system for measurement is the USA. It is based on feet, inches, pounds, and Fahrenheit.

Volume

All three-dimensional objects occupy a space, we measure this space using units of 'volume'. Volume is the space occupied by an object in three-dimensional space. It is used to measure solids and liquids.

	abbreviation	equivalents of the same system(imperial)	metric equivalent
cubic yard	cu yd	27 cubic feet, or 46,656 cubic inches	0.765 cubic metre
cubic foot	cu ft	1,728 cubic inches, or 0.0370 cubic yard	0.028 cubic metre
cubic inch	cu in	0.00058 cubic foot, or 0.000021 cubic yard	16.387 cubic centimetres
acre-foot	ac ft	43,560 cubic feet, or 1,613 cubic yards	1,233 cubic metres
board foot	bd ft	144 cubic inches, or 1/12 cubic foot	2.36 litres
cord	cd	128 cubic feet	3.62 cubic metres

Weight

Weight measures the heaviness of objects, which can be food, a ball, human weight, etc. Let's see which units are used to measure weight in the imperial (US) and metric systems.

	abbreviation	equivalents of the same system(imperial)	metric equivalent
ton		20 hundredweight, or 2,240 pounds	1.016 metric tons
hundredweight	cwt	100 pounds, or 0.05 ton	45.359 kilograms
pound	lb	16 ounces, or 7,000 grains	0.454 kilogram
ounce	oz	16 drams, 437.5 grains, or 0.0625 pound	28.350 grams
dram	dr	27.344 grains, or 0.0625 ounce	1.772 grams
grain	gr	0.037 dram, or 0.002286 ounce	0.0648 gram
stone	st	0.14 hundredweight, or 14 pounds	6.35 kilograms

Area

The area of an object can be measured from several aspects. Length typically refers to the longest side or the distance between two points. Width refers to the horizontal dimension, while height refers to the vertical dimension. Finally, depth is the distance from the surface to the farthest point.
In the Imperial System, measurements of area are typically expressed in units such as inches, feet, miles, and acres.

Area

	abbreviation	equivalents of the same system(imperial)	metric equivalent
square mile	sq mi	640 acres, or 102,400 square rods	2.590 square kilometres
acre	--	4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet	0.405 hectare, or 4,047 square metres
square rod	sq rd	30.25 square yards, or 0.00625 acre	25.293 square metres
square yard	sq yd	1,296 square inches, or 9 square feet	0.836 square metre
square foot	sq ft	144 square inches, or 0.111 square yard	0.093 square metre
square inch	sq in	0.0069 square foot, or 0.00077 square yard	6.452 square centimetres

Length

	abbreviation	equivalents of the same system(imperial)	metric equivalent
nautical mile	nmi	6,076 feet, or 1.151 miles	1,852 metres
mile	mi	5,280 feet, 1,760 yards, or 320 rods	1,609 metres, or 1.609 kilometres
furlong	fur	660 feet, 220 yards, or 1/8 mile	201 metres
rod	rd	5.50 yards, or 16.5 feet	5.029 metres
fathom	fth	6 feet, or 72 inches	1.829 metres
yard	yd	3 feet, or 36 inches	0.9144 metre
foot	ft	12 inches, or 0.333 yard	30.48 centimetres
inch	in	0.083 foot, or 0.028 yard	2.54 centimetres

Temperature

When we want to talk about temperature, we must know that there are differences between they way the world analyzes it and the way Americans do it. We mainly use Celsius whereas, Fahrenheit is used among Americans. The difference between them is that the Celsius scale, or Centigrade scale, is based on water freezing at 0°C and boiling at 100°C. On the Fahrenheit scale, however, water freezes at 32°F and boils at 212°F. Look at the formula below:

1 Celsius = 33.80 Fahrenheit

By using the formula above, we can easily convert Celsius degrees to Fahrenheit.

Cooking measurments

When cooking, you might face different measurement units. Let's go through some of them:

Converting gallons, quarts, pints, cups, ounces, tablespoons and teaspoons.


1 gallon	4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups, 128 ounces and 3.8 liters
1 quart	2 pints, 4 cups, 32 ounces and 950 ml
1 pint	2 cups, 16 ounces and 480 ml
1 cup	16 tablespoons, 8 ounces and 240 ml
1 ounce	2 tablespoons and 30 ml
1 tablespoon	3 teaspoons, 1/2 ounce and 15 ml
1 teaspoon	5 ml

Expressions for measuring

There are some expressions you might face in the cooking books, here we have explained some of them:

Lightly packed
Firmly packed
Even / level
Heaping / heaped
Rounded

Lightly packed

The ingredient is pushed lightly into the measuring device, only tightly enough to make sure no air pockets.

Firmly packed

With a spoon, or by hand, the ingredient is pushed as tightly as possible into the measuring device.

Even / level

A precise measure of an ingredient, get rid of all of the ingredients that rise above the rim of the measuring device. Sweeping across the top of the measure using the back of a knife or something like that is a common leveling method.