How many Galons in a Galon.
How many Galons in a Galon.
(OP)
Many years ago, all the high schools in Canada taught the wrong conversion factor to convert from Imperial Gallons to U.S. galons. A generation later, (After I had been exposed to enough engineering to know the basis of the correct factor) I was passing an open door in a school and overheard a teacher still teaching the wrong factor. All my text-books in high scool had the wrong factor. I'm wondering if they have it right yet and if this was an issue in any other countries.
respectfully
respectfully





RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
*moves out*
Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer Consultant
France
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Yes, I usually round it off to 1.2 (6/5). That's still a lot better than the factor of 1.25 that was taught for generations.
respectfully
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
An ale gallon is 282 cubic inches. A wine gallon is 231 cubic inches. This is based on the difference between one pound avoirdupois and one pound troy. In 1826, they set the imperial gallon at 277.274 cubic inches. My reference was printed in 1835, so stuff may have happened since then.
JHG
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
The difference between the size of a U.S. ounce and an Imperial ounce is not as obvious.
The ratio that was taught in schools and was found in the high school textbooks was a simple division of the 160 ounces in an Imperial galon by the 128 ounces in a U.S. galon. 4/5 or 5/4
No thought was given that the ounces may also be a different size.
I was wondering if the Canadian school system now has textbooks with the correct conversion factor or is the 128/160 ratio still being taught in high schools?
respectfully
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
My book also says that there is a wet US gallon and dry US gallon, and they are different.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
By the way, I believe the oz as unit of force or mass is the same in Imperial and US. It's only the fluid oz unit of volume that differs.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Multiply Canadian gallon by 1.201 to get US gallon, wet.
Sorry, can't read.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html (great site for units, definitions, etc).
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
lol you wish
Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer Consultant
France
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
A great site for finding conversion factors (even really obscure ones) is www.onlineconversion.com/
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
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RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Barry1961
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Meanwhile here in UK, teachers are happily taeching our kids to measure things in centimetres. If we work hard, we could make the metric system almost as obscure as the good old imperial system.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Some USERS of the SI disprefer the prefixes that refer to powers of ten not divisible by 3, but I find no reference on the BIPM site to "preferred prefixes" (though this term is found elsewhere).
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Of course cms are legitimate - I didn't suggest they were not "real" SI units. I use centiPoise and hectares like everyone else. But the use of powers of 3 etc. is not just a user preference; it is endorsed by the ISO standard, which is the international standard for use of the metric system, rather than individual nations' systems.
I find DekaNewtons and decimetres and hectolitres confusing, but - hey - that's just me.
You prefer cm - that's OK by me - just don't use inches!
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
English units can be divided into decimal fractions as easily as metric units. Hundredths of an inch, mils, etc. Just as easily, I'm 1 6/7 meters (or is it metres?) tall.
I rarely need to mix units, so what's the big deal? I measure things I can hold in my hand in inches, modest distances (like between cities) in miles, and stellar distances in parsecs.
In fact, one might argue that having to convert one mile into 63,360 inches is better at teaching math skills than converting one kilometer into 1,000,000 millimeters. Yes, the degeneration of math skill in the US is attributable to the metric system!
In the states, a couple decades ago there were "Metric Moment" ads on the Saturday morning cartoons. I still remember their claim that buying milk by the liter would somehow be cheaper than by the quart. Apparently they figured stores wouldn't change the price for selling larger containers of milk.
And I'm still waiting for a metric scale to tell my weight properly in Newtons. (9.8 Newtons = 1 kG at sea level, well, it's *almost* a factor of ten.)
English units (and others) evolved because they had a particular utility, as boffintech alludes to. I don't see the utility of a measurement based on one ten millionth the distance from the equator to the north pole along the meridian that passes through Greenwich, England.
Incorrect units. Lying to children. Horrors!
Jim -- mostly kidding
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
At the age you want to start teaching measurement, lots of kids still have pretty poor coordination so the things they're measuring need to be on the same sort of scale as their hands.
At the same age, they're still pretty new to numbers, so most will have little clue about fractions, and some will still struggle with integers above ten.
If you teach measurement in cm or inches, children can learn the idea of measurement without being distracted by a load of unnecessary practical obstacles. As their motor and maths skills develop, the leap to mm and m is not all that difficult.
ISO is all very well, but the Sabbath was made for Man, not the other way round.
A.
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Neither do I. I'd say that that's as daft as basing it on the wavelenghth of light. Oh....
From ht
"At one time, the meter was defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange red line in the spectrum of Krypton-86 which corresponded to the radiation emitted by an electron moving from the orbital
2 p to the orbital 5 d
10 5
in an unperturbed fashion.
However, a scientist proceeded to measure the speed of light by performing an accurate measurement of the ratio between the wavelengths (and/or frequencies) of these two types of radiation. In Zen-like fashion, this convinced those responsible for the standards of the fundamental absurdity of the situation, and so now the definition of the second stands, but the definition of the meter has been replaced; now, the meter derives from the second, through the speed of light, which is, by definition,
8
2.99792458 * 10
meters per second.
Note that it is more convenient to measure the length of waves of light through interference fringes, and the time between oscillations of radio waves through electrical circuitry, however. So the dual definitions allowed both time and distance to be more accurately defined. Incidentally, as far back as 1927, a definition of the meter in terms of a light wavelength existed, but that definition was based on a line in the spectrum of cadmium"
Hmmm. I think some people need to get out more...
Rob
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
What is practical is being able to convert ton into kg into g into mg into ?g, in other words convert from extremely heavy to extremely lightweight just by moving the decimal point. And it works not only for weight but also distance and energy for example, and it would have even worked for time if the brilliant ideas from the French revolution (I'm being a little ironic here but anyway) would have been pushed through just a little harder.
All those endless discussions about US and UK gallons, tons, miles and nautical miles and survive a conversion from BTU/minute to horsepower and back...
@jimkirk, why would you want your metric weight to be a round number just because you happen to live on your particular location on this planet where g happens to be around 9.8 m/s2? Think big!
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
I understood that jimkirk was more interested in a weight measuring device calibrated in Newtons rather than kilograms that in the exact 10 to 1 ratio.
respectfully
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
NozzleTwister
Houston, Texas
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
ht
Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.
Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer Consultant
France
RE: How many Galons in a Galon.