Conversion tables for feet and inches to centimeters (height) and pounds to kilograms (weight).

Hello, my dear readers! We all know the “golden rule” of an Internet shopaholic:

“Carefully study the reviews of a new brand or product before you buy it!”

How often have you seen reviews like this:

"I'm 5′ 8″ 180 and the large was huge on me, the length is above the ankles but well below the knee. I’ve always had a small waist for my size even after gaining 25lbs over the..."

« I'm a very large woman ( 5'6″ tall and 260lbs. Size 48DDD chest. I wanted a long dress that was basic and comfy vs a “moo-moo” This thing fit the bill. Of… «

“I bought one in every color! I am petite ( 5′ 2″) and I like that it comes right across the tops of my feet! Pairs perfectly with..."

What do these numbers, unusual for the Belarusian eye, mean? Just height and weight (yes, not parameters (90-60-90), as is customary here, but weight).

To measure length, Americans use feet And inches, and for measuring weight - pounds. So, the first review given as an example was written by a person with a height of 173 cm and a weight of 82 kg (5′ 8″ 180).

If you, like me, do not like to study reviews of happy and not so American customers with a calculator in hand, then here is a nice table for converting feet and inches to centimeters to help us all:

If you need a different length that does not fit in the table, you will still have to arm yourself with a calculator:

1 Foot = 30.48 cm

1 Inch = 2.54 cm

I still haven’t learned how to navigate clothing sizes based on a person’s weight. But what if you are the guru of this? Then this table for converting pounds to kilograms will help you:

1 Pound = 0.454 kg

Here is such a short, but, I hope, useful article.)))

P.S. Ask all your questions in the comments to this article - I will be happy to answer them! And don't forget SHOPOKlang so you don't miss new interesting articles!

Oops... Javascript not found.

Sorry, JavaScript is disabled or not supported in your browser.

Unfortunately, this site will not work without JavaScript. Check your browser settings, maybe JavaScript is disabled by accident?

A few facts about the British Imperial and American systems of weights and measures

Many people have heard that there are British Imperial and American systems of weights and measures. Do you know how they differ? These two systems are closely related, they both originated from the English system, which, in turn, is based on the system of measures Ancient Rome. The American and British systems of measures are so close that they are often confused. And it is not surprising, given that often in these systems the names of the units are the same, although their meanings may differ.

History of units of measurement

The units of measurement that are used today in the United States and partly in Great Britain became widespread during the Norman conquests. The yard is the only unit that has remained virtually unchanged since those times. The yard replaced the previously used elbow (ell). Chain is another measure that came from old Anglia, which has hardly changed. On the other hand, the foot that is in use today has changed from the original foot. Today there are 16.5 feet in a rod unit, but originally there were exactly 15. Furlong and acre have not changed much in the last thousand years. They were originally a measure of land value, but later became simply units of area.

Confusion with British pounds

Differences between the British and American systems

Probably the most unusual units are volume units. A US liquid gallon is 0.83 imperial gallons, and a US dry gallon is 0.97 imperial gallons. In the UK, there is a single gallon for liquid and bulk substances.

US independence

After the US Declaration of Independence, America seceded and developed its own system of weights and measures. That is why today the meanings of American and British gallons, pounds, and yards differ. Ultimately, the two governments decided to work together and introduce precise definitions of the yard and foot, based on copies of the official standards that the British Parliament adopted in 1850. True, I had to admit that these “official” standards were not of very high quality and cannot provide the accuracy required in modern world. Therefore, in 1960, two governments officially redefined the pound and yard based on the standards used in the metric system. And although the changes in 1960 were very small in magnitude, their consequence was the emergence of two parallel standards for measures of length in the United States - survey measures (the old standard) and international measures (the new one, tied to metric units).

The differences between US and UK units are often the subject of discussion and jokes among tourists. For example, in England, beer is sold in pints, with the British pint being larger than the American pint. This gives rise to endless jokes about Americans who can't calculate their drinking and the British who are always overpriced for a gallon of petrol.

What other differences are there in units?

Until 1960, the British yard and pound were not significantly different from their American counterparts, at least for everyday use - measuring not very long distances or selling, for example, products. But there were some differences even in this common usage. For example, in the USA short distances are usually denoted in feet, and in England - in yards.

It’s hard to believe, but there are still people alive who grew up among a different measurement system and other units. The old imperial system had a unit of stone equal to 14 pounds. Eight stone made a hundredweight (hundredweight), and a ton was equal to 20 hundredweight or 2240 pounds. In the American system there are no stones, and a hundredweight is equal to 100 pounds. Accordingly, a ton is equal to 2000 pounds. The round number 2000 is easier to remember than 2240, but having two different versions of tons and quintals leads to confusion, especially in international trade. So that people in different countries It was easier to understand the difference when talking about a ton, often the British ton is called long ton, and the American ton is short ton. But there is also a metric ton!

If you think the modern system is too confusing, think about those who lived in the 19th century. Thomas Jefferson, in his “Plan for the Establishment of Uniform Standards of Coinage, Weights and Measures,” noted that in the United States alone there were 14 different definitions of the gallon. The smallest gallon contained 224 cubic inches, and the largest contained 282 cubic inches. The difference is more than a quarter! Ultimately, the Queen Anne gallon was chosen as the official one.

To facilitate international oil trade, a single unit of measurement was chosen - the barrel. One barrel is 159 liters or 42 US gallons. Precious metals are traded in troy ounces, one troy ounce is equal to 31.10 grams.

Ultimately, it is likely that the whole world will come to a single measurement system. Most likely it will be the metric system. But for now we still live in a world where a wild mixture of systems and units coexists, including units that have the same name but with different meanings. Isn't it true that our world is a little crazy?

While the universal metric standard for measurements is used all over the world, in Great Britain, the USA and some other countries (former English colonies) an old, conservative and rather confusing system is in use, which is called imperial. All these inches, ounces, feet, gallons are an old English invention that will not go out of use, despite the obvious complexity compared to the metric system.

Meters, kilometers, kilograms and other units are gradually conquering England and the USA, but this is a very slow process. Officially, Great Britain has abandoned imperial measurements and uses the metric system, but in practice the old measures are still in use, although most Britons are well familiar with the measurements adopted in most countries. The Americans turned out to be more conservative on this issue and still use the imperial system of measures. This system is also common in Liberia and Myanmar.

The metric system is indeed simpler and more convenient than the English one, as the British themselves can admit. But while yards, feet and inches are in use among most of the English-speaking population of the world, students English language it will be useful to know their names and be able to compare them with units metric system to have an idea of ​​the approximate volumes, sizes, weights that are found in books, textbooks, product descriptions, and signs.

The most common units of the imperial system are:

• 1 inch 1 – inch – 2.54 centimeters
• 1 foot – 1 foot – 0.3048 meters
• 1 yard – 1 yard – 0.9144 meters
• 1 pound – 1 pound – 453 grams
• 1 ounce – 1 ounce – 28.3 grams
• 1 quart – 1 quart – 1.1365 liters
• 1 pint – 1 pint – 0.568 liters

In fact, there are more than a hundred units of measurement in the British system, and they are all interconnected: furlongs, leagues, nails, lines, ores, acres, square miles, centals, drachmas, grains and many others. There is no point in memorizing all of them and, of course, there is no point in memorizing the relationships between them. It is enough to use one of the converter tables for systems of measures, which are available in most dictionaries or on the Internet: http://www.convert-me.com/ru/convert/weight/

Americans even measure their temperature differently: in Fahrenheit! And here it’s already more difficult to quickly convert Fahrenheit to Celsius; they are connected by such an intricate formula: you need to subtract 32 from the temperature value in Fahrenheit, multiply the resulting number by 5 and divide by 9.

Do you want to find out Interesting Facts, customs, gets acquainted with the history of English-speaking countries? Subscribe to our blog posts!

Each country has its own systems of measures of length, weights, volume and other things. And if the kilograms we are familiar with turn into strange pounds, and kilometers into miles, then we begin to get confused in the calculations. It's not difficult to figure all this out. Especially if you use the acquired knowledge in practice.

Today we’ll talk about what English measures of length and weight there are, how many ounces are in a pound, what a pint is, what a stone is, and also how to correctly use other common English measures.

Units of measurement or measures of measurement are different for each country. In some places ounces are common, in others it is customary to show the weather in degrees Fahrenheit rather than Celsius. To immerse yourself in a foreign culture and better understand native speakers, you need to know how English measures of measurement differ from Russian ones and how to correctly translate them into the indicators we are familiar with.

For example, knowing the English unit of weight will help you quickly navigategrocery store or market, as well.But the English unit of length will come in handy when you need to estimate someone’s height or talk about your own, as well as determine the distance to the desired place. Well, don’t forget about the English unit of mass, which is useful for larger-scale calculations.

Weights

Most often, ounces and pounds are used to measure the weight of products (weight measure, or units of mass). 1 ounce is equal to approximately 30 grams. A pound contains 16 ounces and is equal to just over 450 grams, or almost half a kilogram. There is also such a measure of weight as a stone. It is equal to 14 pounds or 6.3 kg.

• Ounce (ounce) = 28.35 g
• Pound = 453.6 g (16 ounces)
• Stone = 6.35 kg (14 lbs)

You may also encounter measures such as short ton, which is used in the USA and is equal to 907.18 kg, and long ton, which is equal to 1016 kg and is typical for the UK.

It's easy to convert pounds to kilograms by dividing the number in half. The value, of course, will be approximate, but it will be easy to calculate. So, for example, 30 pounds is just under 15 kg. But if someone tells you that they have lost ten pounds, then this means that they have lost almost 5 kilos.

Oz is the symbol for ounce, which makes sense. But the abbreviation for pound, which can be found in stores, is lb. This is explained by the fact that the word pound comes from a combination of the Latin words libra (scales) and pondo (weight). Over time, the phrase was transformed into pound, but the abbreviated version lb remained in use.

By the way, when you go to a store or market to buy groceries, you may come across such an unusual measure as dozen or dozen. This means 12 pieces of some thing. For example, you can ask to weigh half a dozen of pears, and the seller will count out 6 pieces for you.

Measures of liquids and solids

As in the case of weight, liquid measures (or units of capacity) may at first glance be unusual for Russian-speaking people.

In addition to the generally accepted liters and milliliters, there is a fluid ounce, which is equal to 28.4 ml. For example, according to popular belief, a person needs to drink 2 liters of water per day. One liter contains approximately 35 fluid ounces. This means that 2 liters of water in ounces will be equal to 70.

By the way, in stores abroad or on perfume labels, you have probably come across such a designation as fl.oz. This is short for the aforementioned fluid ounce.

Another popular measure of liquid is the pint. Moreover, in the UK and the USA it has different meaning. In the USA, a pint is 0.473 liters, and in England it is 0.57 liters. Even glasses for foamy drinks in the UK are “tailored” to the local pint. There is also a quart, which is equal in volume to two pints. So if someone says they drank a quart of beer, that means they downed two pint glasses.

As for barrel (barrel) and gallon (gallon), their meanings also differ in the United States (US) and Great Britain (GB). The British gallon is slightly less than a liter larger than the American one, but the difference in barrels is already almost 45 liters. The barrel itself, in turn, can still be simple and “oil”, which also differs from the generally accepted meaning. It is about oil barrels and their prices that we constantly hear in the news.

• Gallon = 4.546 L (GB)/3.784 L (US)
• Barrel = 163.65 L (GB)/119.2 L (US)
• Barrel (oil) = 158.988 l

Dry and bulk substances can be measured in the following units:

• Quart (quart) = 1.136 l
• Peck = 9.09 l
• Bushel = 36.37 l

Linear measures

The English system of length measures (linear measure, units of length) is based on inches, feet, yards and miles. Their values ​​are specified in the British Imperial System of Measurement and are used both in the UK and in the USA and other countries. Let's figure out what's what.

The inch is one of those measures that you are more likely to encounter in real life than others. One inch is equal to 2.5 centimeters. It is quite easy to convert this measure into the one we are familiar with - simply multiply the value in inches by 2.5. So, 10 inches will be equal to 25 centimeters, 50 - 125 cm and so on.

A foot is a popular unit of measurement that is equal to 12 inches (approximately 30 cm). As you probably guessed from the name, this measure used to be equal to the length of a man's foot, and you could measure the length with your steps or with your feet. By the way, there is also such a measure as hand, equal to 4 inches or 10 centimeters. You probably already guessed how it is measured.

There is also a yard, which is equal to 3 feet or almost 1 meter (0.91 m). Converting yards to meters is also quite easy. If you don’t focus on errors, but look at the approximate distance, then the yards will be equal to our meters.

As for the mile, in which all distances between points on the map are measured, it is equal to 1.609 km. By the way, a nautical mile differs from a land mile and is equal to 1.853 km. To convert the value in miles to approximately the usual kilometers, multiply the number in miles by 1.5.

• Inch (inch) = 25.4 mm (2.54 cm)
• Foot = 0.3048 m (12 inches)
• Hand = 10.16 cm (4 inches)
• Yard = 0.9144 m (3 feet)
• Furlong = 201 m (220 yards)
• Mile = 1.609 km (8 furlongs)

This is not to say that we do not use English measurements at all. Thus, inches are well known to us from the sizes of TV screens and other devices: you need to multiply the value in inches by 2.5 and you get the length in centimeters. But we are accustomed to this designation and already have difficulty perceiving the screen diagonal in centimeters and meters.

Area measures

Since we're talking about distances, let's look at the English square measure, units of area.

Everything here is quite logical. Where we have square centimeters, in England and the USA we use square inches. Where square meters are square feet and so on. They are also calculated by analogy: inch by inch and pound by pound are multiplied.

The same goes for yards and miles.

• Square inch = 6.45 cm²
• Square foot = 929 cm²
• Square yard = 0.836 m²
• Square mile = 2.59 km²

In the English system of measurement there is another measure that is often used to indicate the area of ​​land. This is an acre. It is equal to 0.405 hectares or 4046.86 m². So, in two hectares of land there will be almost five acres. This concept is often used in agriculture and news. For example, when they say that farmers harvested 50 acres of wheat this year, this means that 20 hectares were sown with grain, or just over 200,000 square meters land.

Volume measures

According to the measurement system, volume (cubic measure) in English-speaking countries is also measured using inches, pounds and yards. In order to measure volume, you need to multiply three values: length, width and height.

• Cubic inch = 16.39 cm³
• Cubic foot = 0.028 m³
• Cubic yard = 0.76 m³