Show your age! Show your knowledge of Imperial Units!

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I'm not sure that this is the best place for such a thread. But then I think people who like the way words work, may also be intrigued by the absurdities of the Imperial Measurements system.

So, without anyone cutting and pasting a whole page of all the equivalents, can anyone remember any of the following:

How many yds in a mile? Why?
What is freezing point in degrees F
What is the length of a cricket pitch in its simplest unit?

Any other questions? I'm not very good on units of area that refer to farming etc.

If you reply, maybe give a bit of background as to the why's and where's.

And NO cutting and pasting from Wiki!

um an acre is about the size of a football pitch ignores OPs plea for accuracy, background and facts

I think an acre was seen as the area of land that could be sown with 1 man and 1 ox. I could be very wrong! (cos I didn't use wiki)

George the Third said with a smile,
1760 yards in a mile. (also when he came to the throne!)

Water freezes at 32F. Something obscure freezes and boils at 0 and 100F.

A cricket pitch is 1 chain which is 22 yards. Think they have to be at least 10 feet wide?

NotCitrus, I am impressed. The only one I knew was the freezing point of water, though I think a football pitch is more than an acre.

But I do know my oz in a lb, lbs in a stone, fluid oz in a pint, pints in a quart and a gallon, feet to a fathom and furlongs to a mile.

When we lived in the US, I used to know what a bushel of apples and a cord of firewood looked like.

I think 32F is indeed the freezing point of water.

I think 0 F is the freezing point of sea water.

Ooh yes, pints, quarts firkins and wotnot

I haven't a clue about them either.

(Though I have heard it said that the term "mind your p's and q's" may date back to when pubs would serve beer in pints and quarts (2 pints), and chalk the bill on the bar)

I knew the first two, but had no idea about the cricket! I still think in lbs and oz, feet and inches (born 1959), but can convert to metric in my head (approximately). Not the same, I know, but I do miss the absurdity/complexity of guineas, pounds, shillings and pence (even though I was only 11 when we went metric). There was something delightfully quirky about it.

I always thought 'ps and qs' came from Please and thankQ, but am probably wrong there!

An Imperial (UK) pint is 20 fluid oz. An American pint is 16, because Americans are lightweights who can't hold their piss-weak beer (or so I tell my cousins!) A quart is two pints either way, and is a quarter of a gallon. I have bought bushels of tomatoes etc.

My dad used to jokingly complain about the yoof of today not knowing about rods, poles and perches - I think they are all a quarter of a chain?

I did once make use of "a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter' when I was a student lacking a measuring jug but had scales!

112lb to a hundredweight and 20 hundredweight to a ton

That why potatoes are sold in 56lb sacks. (Half a hundredweight) Or they were when I was a girl

A litre of water's a pint and three quarters.

Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram.

"Schools should teach pupils mainly in imperial and not metric measurements, David Cameron has said.

Four decades since metres and litres replaced yards and pints on the curriculum, the prime minister suggested he would prefer to see a return to the old system.

“I think I’d still go for pounds and ounces, yes I do,” Cameron told BBC2’s Newsnight when asked which should be taught predominantly.

The present curriculum, which Tory ministers have said they will skew towards imperial measures, requires only that pupils “understand and use approximate equivalences between metric units and common imperial units such as inches, pounds and pints”. "

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/30/david-cameron-schools-should-teach-mainly-in-imperial-measurements

Of course! pre-decimal money was mad!

4 farthing = 1d (I don't know what the abbreviation for a farthing was)
12d = 1s
4d = 1 groat (I wish we still used groats, such a great name)
2s = 1 florin
5s = 1 crown (I have more memories of the 'half crown' coin)
20s = £1
21s = 1 guinea (mainly used within the horse trade?)

Seawater freezes at 0F, human temperature is 100F (although not quite).
Guineas were used by professionals (doctors/lawyers etc), still used in horse sales.
Pre decimal money was abbreviated:
L - Libre (or pound weight of silver)
S - shilling
D - denari (sp?) from the Roman times

16 ounces1 pound 454 grams
14 pounds 1 stone
8 stones 1 hundredweight
20 hundredweights 1 ton

Thanks caroldecker

Isn't it amazing that Roman terminology was still being used so recently (even if most people had no idea where it came from)

I did once make use of "a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter' when I was a student lacking a measuring jug but had scales!

Americans with our fewer ounces in a pound say 'a pint's a pound the world around'. Except of course, nobody in the world cares how many US pints in the US pound.

"Schools should teach pupils mainly in imperial and not metric measurements, David Cameron has said."

Seriously! Did he ever actually say that!

I really can't believe that a 21st century MP (in his position) could ever think that Imperial Measurements are anything other than an anachronism.

I am staggered, can you please provide a link Itsallgoingtobefine

Sorry, Itsallgoingtobefine

You did provide a link.

I'm embarrassed . Given that I'm ancient, I should have been able to answer the questions instantly. But I've been doing more learning about science since I retired, and I've been pushing out Imperial to make room in my brain for metric. Seems to have worked (mostly)!

A lot of Imperial measurements seem to have been based on human bodies. Wasn't the foot eventually standardised from the length of some king's foot? Maybe Henry VIII?

There's a measurement of, maybe, fabric, which is the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of an outstretched arm, but I can't remember what that is.

Then there's the fathom, which I think is 6 feet. And the ell, which only appears in crossword puzzles.

Thank goodness for metric; at least I can make sense of that. David Cameron's views are silly.

Though I have to say that I still measure my weight in stones and a bit - the numbers are lower than in kilogrammes.

I've even corrupted my DD to bake in imperial. 2oz per egg is so simple.

And in Shakespeare, Wanda

Full fathom five thy father lies; 
          Of his bones are coral made; 
Those are pearls that were his eyes: 
          Nothing of him that doth fade,