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92-565: The imperial pint (≈   568  mL ) is used in the United Kingdom and Ireland and to a limited extent in Commonwealth nations. In the United States, two kinds of pint are used: a liquid pint (≈   473 mL ) and a less common dry pint (≈   551 mL ). Other former British colonies , such as Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, converted to the metric system in

184-410: A kentēnarion ( κεντηνάριον , "hundredweight"). Its weight seems to have decreased gradually from the original 324 g (11.4 oz) to 319 g (11.3 oz). Due to its association with gold, it was also known as the chrysaphikē litra ( χρυσαφική λίτρα , "gold pound") or thalassia litra ( θαλάσσια λίτρα , "maritime pound"), but it could also be used as a measure of land, equalling

276-514: A mass of almost exactly one kilogram , because the kilogram was originally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at the temperature of melting ice ( 0 °C ). Subsequent redefinitions of the metre and kilogram mean that this relationship is no longer exact. A litre is a cubic decimetre , which is the volume of a cube 10 centimetres × 10 centimetres × 10 centimetres (1 L ≡ 1 dm ≡ 1000 cm ). Hence 1 L ≡ 0.001  m ≡ 1000  cm ; and 1 m (i.e.

368-410: A "pint", is legally required to be an imperial pint (568 mL). With the allowed margin of error of 0.5 fluid ounces, a "pint" that is less than 554 mL of beer is an offence, though this regulation is often violated and rarely enforced. To avoid legal issues, many drinking establishments are moving away from using the term "pint" and are selling "glasses" or "sleeves" of beer, neither of which have

460-559: A cubic metre, which is the SI unit for volume) is exactly 1000 L. From 1901 to 1964, the litre was defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water at maximum density (+3.98 °C) and standard pressure . The kilogram was in turn specified as the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram (a specific platinum/iridium cylinder) and was intended to be of the same mass as

552-569: A fortieth of the thalassios modios . The soualia litra was specifically used for weighing olive oil or wood, and corresponded to 4/5 of the logarikē or 256 g (9.0 oz). Some outlying regions, especially in later times, adopted various local measures, based on Italian, Arab or Turkish measures. The most important of these was the argyrikē litra ( αργυρική λίτρα , "silver pound") of 333 g (11.7 oz), found in Trebizond and Cyprus , and probably of Arab origin. Since

644-603: A glass of a third of a litre in Cologne and the Rhineland . In South Australia , ordering "a pint of beer" results in 425 mL (15 fl oz) being served. Customers must specifically request "an Imperial pint of beer" to get 570 mL (20 fl oz). Australians from other states often contest the size of their beers in Adelaide . One US liquid pint of water weighs 1.04318 pounds (16.6909 oz), which gives rise to

736-523: A juice carton). In 1990, the International Committee for Weights and Measures stated that it was too early to choose a single symbol for the litre. Prior to 1979, the symbol ℓ came into common use in some countries; for example, it was recommended by South African Bureau of Standards publication M33 and Canada in the 1970s. This symbol can still be encountered occasionally in some English-speaking and European countries like Germany, and its use

828-502: A legal definition. A 375 mL bottle of liquor in the US and the Canadian maritime provinces is sometimes referred to as a "pint" and a 200 mL bottle is called a "half-pint", harking back to the days when liquor came in US pints, fifths, quarts, and half-gallons. Liquor in the US has been sold in metric-sized bottles since 1980 although beer is still sold in US traditional units. In France,

920-557: A liquid gallon of precisely 231 cubic inches. In the United States, the dry pint is one sixty-fourth of a bushel . The United States dry pint is equal to one eighth of a United States dry gallon. It is used in the United States, but is not as common as the liquid pint. A now-obsolete unit of measurement in Scotland , known as the Scottish pint , or joug , is equal to 1696 mL (2 pints 19.69 imp fl oz). It remained in use until

1012-408: A litre, known as one millilitre (1 mL), of water has a mass of about 1 g; 1000 litres of water has a mass of about 1000 kg (1  tonne or megagram). This relationship holds because the gram was originally defined as the mass of 1 mL of water; however, this definition was abandoned in 1799 because the density of water changes with temperature and, very slightly, with pressure. It

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1104-663: A long series of Acts of Parliament, the intention of which has been to regulate the sale of commodities. Materials traded in the marketplace are quantified according to accepted units and standards in order to avoid fraud. The standards themselves are legally defined so as to facilitate the resolution of disputes brought to the courts; only legally defined measures will be recognised by the courts. Quantifying devices used by traders (weights, weighing machines, containers of volumes, measures of length) are subject to official inspection, and penalties apply if they are fraudulent. The Weights and Measures Act 1878 ( 41 & 42 Vict. c. 49) marked

1196-633: A major overhaul of the British system of weights and measures, and the definition of the pound given there remained in force until the 1960s. The pound was defined thus (Section 4) "The ... platinum weight ... deposited in the Standards department of the Board of Trade ... shall continue to be the imperial standard of ... weight ... and the said platinum weight shall continue to be the Imperial Standard for determining

1288-449: A millilitre or mL) is a unit of the cgs system, which preceded the MKS system , which later evolved into the SI system. The abbreviation "cc" is still commonly used in many fields, including medical dosage and sizing for combustion engine displacement . The microlitre (μL) has been known in the past as the lambda (λ), but this usage is now discouraged. In the medical field the microlitre

1380-501: A person with a speckled or dark complexion, often used as a surname in these languages. In France, the French word pinte is now used to describe a half-litre, slightly smaller than an Imperial pint, but in Quebec it is used to describe an Imperial quart and the French word chopine is used for an Imperial pint. In the United States, the liquid pint is legally defined as one eighth of

1472-453: A pint, which must be served in stamped, measured glasses or from government-stamped meters. Milk, in returnable containers may come in pints without the metric equivalent stated. However all other goods apart from the aforementioned exceptions must be sold or labelled in metric units. Milk in plastic containers mostly comes multiples of 1 pint sizes, but are required to display the metric equivalent on packaging. Filtered milk, and UHT Milk sold in

1564-668: A popular saying: "A pint's a pound the world around". However, the statement does not hold around the world because the British imperial pint, which was also the standard measure in Australia, India, Malaya, New Zealand, South Africa and other former British colonies, weighs 1.2528 pounds (20.0448 oz). This prompted the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge to coin a saying for use in Commonwealth countries: "a pint of pure water weighs

1656-491: A pound and a quarter". The pint is traditionally one eighth of a gallon . In the Latin of the apothecaries' system , the symbol O ( octarius or octavius ; plural octarii or octavii – reflecting the "eighth" concept in its octa- syllable) was used for the pint. Because of the variety of definitions of a gallon, there have been equally many versions of the pint. Britain's North American colonies adopted

1748-510: A series of measurements known as pounds ( Latin : libra , Ancient Greek : λίτρα , romanized :  litra ). The most common was the logarikē litra ( λογαρική λίτρα , "pound of account"), established by Constantine the Great in 309/310. It formed the basis of the Byzantine monetary system , with one litra of gold equivalent to 72 solidi . A hundred litrai were known as

1840-427: A standard 250 mL measure of beer is known as un demi ("a half"), originally meaning a half-pint. Millilitre The litre ( Commonwealth spelling ) or liter ( American spelling ) (SI symbols L and l , other symbol used: ℓ ) is a metric unit of volume . It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm ), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm ) or 0.001 cubic metres (m ). A cubic decimetre (or litre) occupies

1932-515: A troy pound, is still used for measurements of gems such as opals, and precious metals such as silver, platinum and particularly gold. A tower pound is equal to 12 tower ounces and to 5,400 troy grains , which equals around 350 grams. The tower pound is the historical weight standard that was used for England's coinage. Before the Norman conquest in 1066, the tower pound was known as the Saxon pound. During

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2024-624: A unit of mass effective 1 January 1840 by a decree of 4 July 1837, but is still used informally. Originally derived from the Roman libra, the definition varied throughout the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages and onward. For example, the measures and weights of the Habsburg monarchy were reformed in 1761 by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The unusually heavy Habsburg (civil) pound of 16 ounces

2116-423: A volume of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm (see figure) and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre. The original French metric system used the litre as a base unit . The word litre is derived from an older French unit, the litron , whose name came from Byzantine Greek —where it was a unit of weight, not volume —via Late Medieval Latin, and which equalled approximately 0.831 litres. The litre

2208-424: Is "a litre of water's a pint and three-quarters"; this is very close, as a litre is about 1.76 imperial pints. A cubic foot has an exact volume of 28.316846592 litres. Originally, the only symbol for the litre was l (lowercase letter L), following the SI convention that only those unit symbols that abbreviate the name of a person start with a capital letter. In many English-speaking countries, however,

2300-448: Is colloquially used for roughly half a litre. In Spanish holiday resorts frequented by British tourists, 'pint' is often taken to mean a beer glass (especially a dimple mug). Half-pint 285 mL, and pint mugs, 570 mL, may therefore be referred to as media jarra ('half jar/jug') and jarra (grande) ('large jar/jug'). In the British and Irish metrication processes, the pint

2392-578: Is designated as une chopine . However, in practice and according to Quebec’s Board of the French Language, une pinte commonly refers to the same 568 mL imperial pint as in English. In Flanders , the word pintje , meaning 'little pint', refers only to a 250 mL glass of lager. Some West- and East-Flemish dialects use it as a word for beaker . The equivalent word in German, Pintchen , refers to

2484-524: Is now equivalent to 328.9 g (11.60 oz). It was divided into 12 unciae (singular: uncia ), or ounces. The libra is the origin of the abbreviation for pound, "lb". A number of different definitions of the pound have historically been used in Britain. Among these are the avoirdupois pound , which is the common pound used for weights, and the obsolete tower , merchants' and London pounds. The troy pound and ounce remain in use only for

2576-596: Is now known that the density of water also depends on the isotopic ratios of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in a particular sample. Modern measurements of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water , which is pure distilled water with an isotopic composition representative of the average of the world's oceans, show that it has a density of 0.999 975 ± 0.000 001  kg/L at its point of maximum density (3.984 °C) under one standard atmosphere (101.325  kPa ) of pressure. The litre, though not an official SI unit, may be used with SI prefixes . The most commonly used derived unit

2668-409: Is sometimes abbreviated as mcL on test results. In the SI system, apart from prefixes for powers of 1000, use of the "centi" (10 ), "deci" (10 ), "deca" (10 ) and "hecto" (10 ) prefixes with litres is common. For example, in many European countries, the hectolitre is the typical unit for production and export volumes of beverages (milk, beer, soft drinks, wine, etc.) and for measuring the size of

2760-537: Is the ablative singular of the Latin noun pondus ('weight'). The United States and the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard . Since 1 July 1959, the international avoirdupois pound (symbol lb) has been defined as exactly 0.453 592 37  kg . In the United Kingdom, the use of the international pound was implemented in the Weights and Measures Act 1963 . The yard or

2852-470: Is the millilitre, defined as one-thousandth of a litre, and also often referred to by the SI derived unit name "cubic centimetre". It is a commonly used measure, especially in medicine, cooking and automotive engineering. Other units may be found in the table below, where the more often used terms are in bold. However, some authorities advise against some of them; for example, in the United States, NIST advocates using

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2944-661: Is ubiquitous in Japan and South Korea. Fonts covering the CJK characters usually include not only the script small ℓ but also four precomposed characters: ㎕, ㎖, ㎗, and ㎘ for the microlitre, millilitre, decilitre and kilolitre to allow correct rendering for vertically written scripts. These have Unicode equivalents for compatibility, which are not recommended for use with new documents: The CJK Compatibility block also includes U+3351 ㍑ SQUARE RITTORU corresponding to リットル rittoru , Japanese for 'litre'. The first name of

3036-475: The funt was the basic unit of weight, and all other units of weight were formed from it; in particular, a zolotnik was 1 ⁄ 96 of a funt, and a pood was 40 fúnty . The Skålpund was a Scandinavian measurement that varied in weight between regions. From the 17th century onward, it was equal to 425.076 g (14.9941 oz) in Sweden but was abandoned in 1889 when Sweden switched to

3128-414: The Norman conquest the Saxon pound was known as the tower pound or moneyer's pound. In 1528, during the reign of Henry VIII , the coinage standard was changed by parliament from the tower pound to the troy pound . The avoirdupois pound, also known as the wool pound, first came into general use c. 1300. It was initially equal to 6,992 troy grains. The pound avoirdupois was divided into 16 ounces. During

3220-525: The Northern Territory Government for measuring water consumption, reservoir capacities and river flows, although cubic metres are also used. Cubic metres are generally used for non-liquid commodities, such as sand and gravel, or storage space. Pound (mass) The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in both the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement . Various definitions have been used;

3312-454: The Tower of London . The tower system ran concurrently with the avoirdupois and troy systems until the reign of Henry VIII , when a royal proclamation dated 1526 required that the troy pound be used for mint purposes instead of the tower pound. No standards of the tower pound are known to have survived. The tower pound was also called the moneyers' pound (referring to the Saxon moneyers before

3404-423: The Weights and Measures Act (R.S. 1985) defines a pint in English as one eighth of a gallon, but defines a pinte in French as one quarter of a gallon. Thus, if "a pint of beer" is ordered in English, servers are legally required to serve an imperial pint (568 mL) of beer, but under the federal Act , " une pinte de bière " legally refers to the larger imperial quart (1136 mL), while an imperial pint

3496-455: The apothecaries' system of weights. Troy weight may take its name from the French market town of Troyes in France where English merchants traded at least as early as the early 9th century. The troy pound is no longer in general use or a legal unit for trade (it was abolished in the United Kingdom on 6 January 1879 by the Weights and Measures Act 1878 ), but the troy ounce, 1 ⁄ 12 of

3588-514: The departements : Roer , Sarre , Rhin-et-Moselle , and Mont-Tonnerre . As a result of the Congress of Vienna , these regions again became part of various German states. However, many of these regions retained the metric system and adopted a metric pound of precisely 500 g (17.64 oz). In 1854, the pound of 500 g also became the official mass standard of the German Customs Union and

3680-482: The metre shall be the unit of measurement of length and the pound or the kilogram shall be the unit of measurement of mass by reference to which any measurement involving a measurement of length or mass shall be made in the United Kingdom; and- (a) the yard shall be 0.9144 metre exactly; (b) the pound shall be 0.453 592 37 kilogram exactly. An avoirdupois pound is equal to 16 avoirdupois ounces and to exactly 7,000 grains . The conversion factor between

3772-403: The metric system . Usage of the unqualified term pound reflects the historical conflation of mass and weight . This accounts for the modern distinguishing terms pound-mass and pound-force . The word 'pound' and its cognates ultimately derive from a borrowing into Proto-Germanic of the Latin expression libra pondo ('the weight measured in libra '), in which the word pondo

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3864-411: The 1 litre of water referred to above. It was subsequently discovered that the cylinder was around 28 parts per million too large and thus, during this time, a litre was about 1.000 028  dm . Additionally, the mass–volume relationship of water (as with any fluid) depends on temperature, pressure, purity and isotopic uniformity. In 1964, the definition relating the litre to mass was superseded by

3956-641: The 14th century for goods other than money and medicine (" electuaries "). The London pound is that of the Hansa , as used in their various trading places. The London pound is based on 16 ounces, each ounce divided as the tower ounce. It never became a legal standard in England; the use of this pound waxed and waned with the influence of the Hansa itself. A London pound was equal to 7,200 troy grains (16 troy ounces) or, equivalently, 10,240 tower grains (16 tower ounces). In

4048-459: The 16th CGPM conference, the alternative symbol L (uppercase letter L) was adopted. It also expressed a preference that in the future only one of these two symbols should be retained, but in 1990 said it was still too early to do so. In spoken English, the symbol "mL" (for millilitre) can be pronounced as "mil". This can potentially cause confusion with some other measurement words such as: The abbreviation "cc" (for cubic centimetre , equal to

4140-618: The 1960s and 1970s; so while the term pint may still be in common use in these countries, it may no longer refer to the British imperial pint once used throughout the British Empire . Pint comes from the Old French word pinte and perhaps ultimately from Vulgar Latin pincta meaning "painted", for marks painted on the side of a container to show capacity. It is linguistically related, though greatly diverging in meaning, to Pinto – an Italian , Spanish , and Portuguese name for

4232-583: The 19th century, surviving significantly longer than most of the old Scottish measurements. The word pint is one of numerous false friends between English and French. They are not the same unit although they have the same linguistic origin. The French word pinte is etymologically related, but historically described a larger unit. The Royal pint ( pinte du roi ) was 48 French cubic inches (952.1 mL), but regional pints varied in size depending on locality and on commodity (usually wine or olive oil) varying from 0.95 L to over 2 L. In Canada ,

4324-591: The American ones. Historically, units called a pint (or the equivalent in the local language) were used across much of Europe, with values varying between countries from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, these pints were replaced with liquid measures based on the metric system during the 19th century. The term is still in limited use in parts of France and Central Europe , notably some areas of Germany and Switzerland , where ein Schoppen

4416-654: The American pint, but after 1824 it was incompatible with the British pint. The traditional French pinte used in Lower Canada ( Quebec ) was twice the size of the traditional English "pint" used in Upper Canada ( Ontario ). After four of the British provinces united in the Canadian Confederation in 1867, Canada legally adopted the British imperial system of measure in 1873, making Canadian liquid units incompatible with American ones from that year forward. In 1873,

4508-409: The British wine gallon , defined in 1707 as 231 cubic inches exactly (3 in × 7 in × 11 in) as their basic liquid measure, from which the US wet pint is derived; and the British corn gallon ( 1 ⁄ 8 of a standard "Winchester" bushel of corn , or 268.8 cubic inches) as its dry measure, from which the US dry pint is derived. In 1824, the British parliament replaced all

4600-459: The Cologne standard. This arrátel was introduced in 1499 by Manuel I , king of Portugal . Based on an evaluation of bronze nesting weight piles distributed by Manuel I to different towns, the arrátel of Manuel I has been estimated to be of 457.8 g (16.15 oz). In the early 19th century, the arrátel was evaluated at 459 g (16.2 oz). In the 15th century, the arrátel

4692-566: The French Canadian pinte was defined as being one imperial quart or two imperial pints, while the imperial pint was legally called a chopine in French Canada. Canadian imperial units of liquid measure remain incompatible with American traditional units to this day, and although the Canadian pint, quart, and gallon are still legal units of measure in Canada, they are still 20% larger than

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4784-521: The Imperial Standard Pound for the United Kingdom". Paragraph 13 states that the weight in vacuo of this standard shall be called the Imperial Standard Pound, and that all other weights mentioned in the act and permissible for commerce shall be ascertained from it alone. The first schedule of the act gave more details of the standard pound: it is a platinum cylinder nearly 1.35 inches (34 mm) high, and 1.15 inches (29 mm) diameter, and

4876-412: The Middle Ages, various pounds ( livre ) have been used in France. Since the 19th century, a livre has referred to the metric pound , 500 g. The livre esterlin is equivalent to about 367.1 grams (5,665 gr) and was used between the late 9th century and the mid-14th century. The livre poids de marc or livre de Paris is equivalent to about 489.5 grams (7,554 gr) and

4968-801: The Norman conquest); the easterling pound , which may refer to traders of eastern Germany, or to traders on the shore of the eastern Baltic sea , or dealers of Asiatic goods who settled at the London Steelyard wharf ; and the Rochelle pound by French writers, because it was also in use at La Rochelle . An almost identical weight was employed by the Germans for weighing gold and silver. The mercantile pound (1304) of 6750 troy grains, or 9600 Tower grains, derives from this pound, as 25 shilling -weights or 15 Tower ounces, for general commercial use. Multiple pounds based on

5060-419: The SI means that the pound is now defined precisely in terms of fundamental constants, ending the era of its definition in terms of physical prototypes. A troy pound (abbreviated lb t ) is equal to 12 troy ounces and to 5,760 grains, that is exactly 373.241 7216 grams. Troy weights were used in England by jewellers. Apothecaries also used the troy pound and ounce, but added the drachms and scruples unit in

5152-553: The U.S. ), and ℔ or ″̶ (specifically for the apothecaries' pound ). The unit is descended from the Roman libra (hence the symbol lb , descended from the scribal abbreviation , ℔ ). The English word pound comes from the Roman libra pondo ('the weight measured in libra '), and is cognate with, among others, German Pfund , Dutch pond , and Swedish pund . These units are now designated as historical and are no longer in common usage, being replaced by

5244-454: The UK is commonly sold in multiples of 1 litre bottles or containers. Recipes published in the UK and Ireland would have given ingredient quantities in imperial, where the pint is used as a unit for larger liquid quantities, as well as the metric measure - though recipes written now are more likely to use metric units. In Australia and New Zealand, a subtle change was made to 1 pint milk bottles during

5336-557: The United States, the avoirdupois pound as a unit of mass has been officially defined in terms of the kilogram since the Mendenhall Order of 1893 . That order defined the pound to be 2.204 62 pounds to a kilogram. The following year, this relationship was refined as 2.204 622 34 pounds to a kilogram, following a determination of the British pound. In 1959, the United States National Bureau of Standards redefined

5428-491: The capacity or size of their container, whereas cubic metres (and derived units) are most commonly used for items measured either by their dimensions or their displacements. The litre is often also used in some calculated measurements, such as density (kg/L), allowing an easy comparison with the density of water. One litre of water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram when measured at its maximal density, which occurs at about 4 °C. It follows, therefore, that 1000th of

5520-507: The catch and quotas for fishing boats; decilitres are common in Croatia , Switzerland and Scandinavia and often found in cookbooks, and restaurant and café menus; centilitres indicate the capacity of drinking glasses and of small bottles. In colloquial Dutch in Belgium , a " vijfentwintiger " and a " drieëndertiger " (literally "twenty-fiver" and "thirty-threer") are the common beer glasses,

5612-450: The conversion from imperial to metric in the 1970s. The height and diameter of the milk bottle remained unchanged, so that existing equipment for handling and storing the bottles was unaffected, but the shape was adjusted to increase the capacity from 568 mL to 600 mL—a conveniently rounded metric measure. Such milk bottles are no longer officially referred to as pints. However, the "pint glass" in pubs in Australia remains closer to

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5704-399: The corresponding bottles mention 25 cL and 33 cL. Bottles may also be 75 cL or half size at 37.5 cL for "artisanal" brews or 70 cL for wines or spirits. Cans come in 25 cL, 33 cL and 50 cL. Similarly, alcohol shots are often marked in cL in restaurant menus, typically 3 cL (1.06 imp fl oz; 1.01 US fl oz). In countries where the metric system was adopted as

5796-522: The courts to be made according to the Imperial units defined in the Act, and a table of metric equivalents was supplied so that the Imperial equivalents could be legally calculated. This defined, in UK law, metric units in terms of Imperial ones. The equivalence for the pound was given as 1 lb = 453.592 65  g or 0.45359 kg, which made the kilogram equivalent to about 2.204 6213  lb . In 1883, it

5888-528: The current one. Although the litre is not an SI unit, it is accepted by the CGPM (the standards body that defines the SI) for use with the SI. CGPM defines the litre and its acceptable symbols. A litre is equal in volume to the millistere , an obsolete non-SI metric unit formerly customarily used for dry measure . Litres are most commonly used for items (such as fluids and solids that can be poured) which are measured by

5980-520: The edges are carefully rounded off. It has a groove about 0.34 inches (8.6 mm) from the top, to allow the cylinder to be lifted using an ivory fork. It was constructed following the destruction of the Houses of Parliament by fire in 1834, and is stamped "P.S. 1844, 1 lb" (P.S. stands for "Parliamentary Standard"). The British Weights and Measures Act 1878 ( 41 & 42 Vict. c. 49) said that contracts worded in terms of metric units would be deemed by

6072-401: The existing legal definition of the UK pound differed from the international standard pound by 0.06 milligrams . To remedy this, the pound was again redefined in the United Kingdom by the Weights and Measures Act 1963 to match the international pound, stating: "the pound shall be 0.453 592 37 kilogramme exactly", a definition which remains valid to the present day. The 2019 revision of

6164-481: The kilogram and the international pound was therefore chosen to be divisible by 7 with a terminating decimal representation, and an (international) grain is thus equal to exactly 64.798 91   milligrams . In the United Kingdom, the process of metrication and European units of measurement directives were expected to eliminate the use of the pound and ounce, but in 2007 the European Commission abandoned

6256-581: The litre was "cadil"; standards are shown at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. The litre was introduced in France in 1795 as one of the new "republican units of measurement" and defined as one cubic decimetre . One litre of liquid water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram , due to the gram being defined in 1795 as one cubic centimetre of water at the temperature of melting ice. The original decimetre length

6348-430: The metric system, despite many efforts to do so , and the pound remains widely used as one of the key customary units. Historically, in different parts of the world, at different points in time, and for different applications, the pound (or its translation) has referred to broadly similar but not identical standards of mass or force. The libra (Latin for 'scale'/'balance') is an ancient Roman unit of mass that

6440-410: The metric system. In Norway, the same name was used for a weight of 425.076 g (14.9941 oz). In Denmark, it equaled 471 g (16.6 oz). In the 19th century, Denmark followed Germany's lead and redefined the pound as 500 g (18 oz). The Portuguese unit that corresponds to the pounds of different nations is the arrátel , equivalent to 16 ounces of Colonha , a variant of

6532-496: The millilitre or litre instead of the centilitre. There are two international standard symbols for the litre: L and l. In the United States the former is preferred because of the risk that (in some fonts) the letter l and the digit 1 may be confused. See also Imperial units and US customary units . One litre is slightly larger than a US liquid quart and slightly less than an imperial quart or one US dry quart . A mnemonic for its volume relative to an imperial pint

6624-531: The most common shape of a handwritten Arabic digit 1 is just a vertical stroke ; that is, it lacks the upstroke added in many other cultures. Therefore, the digit "1" may easily be confused with the letter "l" . In some computer typefaces, the two characters are barely distinguishable. As a result, L (uppercase letter L) was adopted by the CIPM as an alternative symbol for litre in 1979. The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology now recommends

6716-416: The most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defined as exactly 0.453 592 37   kilograms , and which is divided into 16 avoirdupois ounces . The international standard symbol for the avoirdupois pound is lb ; an alternative symbol (when there might otherwise be a risk of confusion with the pound-force ) is lb m (for most pound definitions), # ( chiefly in

6808-546: The official measuring system after the SI standard was established, common usage eschews prefixes that are not powers of 1000. For example, in Canada , Australia , and New Zealand , consumer beverages are labelled almost exclusively using litres and millilitres. An exception is in pathology, where for instance blood lead level and blood sugar level may be measured in micrograms/milligrams per decilitre. For larger volumes, kilolitres, megalitres, and gigalitres, have been used by

6900-493: The pound (avoirdupois) to be exactly equal to 0.453 592 37 kilograms, as had been declared by the International Yard and Pound Agreement of that year. According to a 1959 NIST publication, the United States 1894 pound differed from the international pound by approximately one part in 10 million. The difference is so insignificant that it can be ignored for almost all practical purposes. The Byzantines used

6992-418: The reign of King Offa (757–96) of Mercia , a Saxon pound of silver was used to set the original weight of a pound sterling . From one Saxon pound of silver (that is a tower pound) the king had 240 silver pennies minted. In the pound sterling monetary system, twelve pennies equaled a shilling and twenty shillings equaled a pound sterling. The tower pound was referenced to a standard prototype found in

7084-420: The reign of Queen Elizabeth I , the avoirdupois pound was redefined as 7,000 troy grains. Since then, the grain has often been an integral part of the avoirdupois system. By 1758, two Elizabethan Exchequer standard weights for the avoirdupois pound existed, and when measured in troy grains they were found to be of 7,002 grains and 6,999 grains. In the United Kingdom, weights and measures have been defined by

7176-516: The requirement for metric-only labelling on packaged goods there, and allowed for dual metric – imperial marking to continue indefinitely. In the United States, the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 declared the metric system to be the "preferred system of weights and measures" but did not suspend use of United States customary units , and the United States is the only industrialised country where commercial activities do not predominantly use

7268-413: The same ounce were quite common. In much of Europe, the apothecaries' and commercial pounds were different numbers of the same ounce. The merchants' pound ( mercantile pound , libra mercantoria , or commercial pound ) was considered to be composed of 25 rather than 20 Tower shillings of 12 pence . It was equal to 9,600 wheat grains (15 tower ounces or 6,750 grains) and was used in England until

7360-694: The standard imperial pint, at 570 mL. It holds about 500 mL of beer and about 70 mL of froth, except in South Australia, where a pint is served in a 425 mL glass and a 570 mL glass is called an "imperial pint". In New Zealand, there is no longer any legal requirement for beer to be served in standard measures: in pubs, the largest size of glass, which is referred to as a pint, varies, but usually contains 425 mL. After metrication in Canada , milk and other liquids in pre-packaged containers came in metric sizes so conversion issues could no longer arise. Draft beer in Canada, when advertised as

7452-453: The temperature of its maximum density (3.98 °C) under a pressure of 1  atm . This made the litre equal to about 1.000 028  dm (earlier reference works usually put it at 1.000 027  dm ). In 1964, at the 12th CGPM conference, the original definition was reverted to, and thus the litre was once again defined in exact relation to the metre, as another name for the cubic decimetre, that is, exactly 1 dm . In 1979, at

7544-485: The use of the uppercase letter L, a practice that is also widely followed in Canada and Australia . In these countries, the symbol L is also used with prefixes, as in mL and μL, instead of the traditional ml and μl used in Europe. In the UK and Ireland , as well as the rest of Europe, lowercase l is used with prefixes, though whole litres are often written in full (so, "750 ml" on a wine bottle, but often "1 litre" on

7636-478: The various gallons with a new imperial gallon based on ten pounds of distilled water at 62  °F (16.667  °C ) (277.42 cubic inches), from which the current UK pint is derived. The various Canadian provinces continued to use the Queen Anne Winchester wine gallon as a basis for their pint until 1873, well after Britain adopted the imperial system in 1824. This made the Canadian pint compatible with

7728-429: The weight of precious metals , especially in their trade. The weights of traded precious metals, such as gold and silver, are normally quoted just in ounces (e.g. "500 ounces") and, when the type of ounce is not explicitly stated, the troy system is assumed. The pound sterling money system, which was introduced during the reign of King Offa of Mercia (757–96), was based originally on a Saxon pound of silver. After

7820-420: Was 44.344 lignes , which was revised in 1798 to 44.3296 lignes . This made the original litre 1.000 974 of today's cubic decimetre. It was against this litre that the kilogram was constructed. In 1879, the CIPM adopted the definition of the litre, with the symbol l (lowercase letter L). In 1901, at the 3rd CGPM conference, the litre was redefined as the space occupied by 1 kg of pure water at

7912-545: Was also used in several subsequent versions of the metric system and is accepted for use with the SI, although not an SI unit —the SI unit of volume is the cubic metre (m ). The spelling used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is "litre", a spelling which is shared by most English-speaking countries. The spelling "liter" is predominantly used in American English . One litre of liquid water has

8004-724: Was determined jointly by the standards department of the British Board of Trade and the Bureau International that 0.453 592 4277  kg was a better approximation, and this figure, rounded to 0.453 592 43  kg was given legal status by an Order in Council in May 1898. In 1959, based on further measurements and international coordination, the International Yard and Pound Agreement defined an "international pound" as being equivalent to exactly 0.453 592 37  kg . This meant that

8096-604: Was later defined in terms of 560.012 g (19.7538 oz). Bavarian reforms in 1809 and 1811 adopted essentially the same standard as the Austrian pound. In Prussia , a reform in 1816 defined a uniform civil pound in terms of the Prussian foot and distilled water, resulting in a Prussian pound of 467.711 g (16.4980 oz). Between 1803 and 1815, all German regions west of the River Rhine were under French control, organised in

8188-483: Was of 14 ounces of Colonha or 400.6 g (14.13 oz). The Portuguese libra was the same as 2 arráteis . There were also arráteis of 12.5 and 13 ounces and libras of 15 and 16 ounces. The Troyes or Tria standard was also used. A Jersey pound is an obsolete unit of mass used on the island of Jersey from the 14th century to the 19th century. It was equivalent to about 7,561 grains (490 g (17 oz)). It may have been derived from

8280-497: Was renamed the Zollpfund , but local pounds continued to co-exist with the Zollverein pound for some time in some German states. Nowadays, the term Pfund is sometimes still in use and universally refers to a pound of 500 g. The Russian pound ( Фунт , funt ) is an obsolete Russian unit of measurement of mass. It is equal to 409.51718 g (14.445293 oz). In 1899,

8372-416: Was replaced by metric units as the legally defined primary unit of measure for trading by volume or capacity, except for the sale of draught beer and cider, and milk in returnable containers . As a supplementary unit, the pint can still be used in those countries in all circumstances. UK legislation mandates that draught beer and cider must be sold in a third of a pint, two thirds of a pint or multiples of half

8464-401: Was used between the 1350s and the late 18th century. It was introduced by the government of John II . The livre métrique was set equal to the kilogram by the decree of 13 Brumaire an IX between 1800 and 1812. This was a form of official metric pound. The livre usuelle (customary unit) was defined as 500 g (18 oz) by the decree of 28 March 1812. It was abolished as

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