Main Units Used in the US
This is pretty odd for a non-American, or at least was for me as a European. In America the measurement system is different. Here is a list of the most widely used measures in America:
Money
This is not really a measure, but I think its useful to include it here.
US Bills: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100.
US Coins: 1 cent, 5c (nickel), 10c (dime), 25c (quarter), 50c, and 1$.
Please note that the $2 bill and the 50c and $1 coins are quite rare. A peculiarity of the US coins is that the 10c (dime) physically is smaller than the 5c (nickel) coin.
Distances, Length
The largest distance is the mile.
1 mile = 1,60 km |
1 km = 0,62 miles |
1 yard = 0,91 m (approx = 1 m) |
1 m = 1,1 yard = 39 inch |
1 foot = 0,30 m (approx 3 feet = 1 m) |
1 cm = 0,39 inch |
1 inch = 2,54 cm |
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1 yard = 3 foot = 36 in
Does is sounds confusing at first sight? I bet you.
Volumes
Main unit is the gallon. Here is its breakdown.
1 gallon = 3,78 liter
1 quart = 1/4 gallon = 0,95 liter
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Shortly, 1 gallon is almost = 4 litres, and a quart is approximately a litre. Gallon is widely used, when you buy gasoline at the gas station is measured in gallons. When you buy milk in the grocery store is packed in gallon and half-gallon units. |
Temperatures
The temperatures in the US are measured in Fahrenheit. In Europe the temperatures are measured in Celsius. There is a fancy conversion formula:
F° = 32 + (9/5) C° |
C° = (5/9)x(F° - 32) |
You can approximate this roughly with
F° ~ 32 + 2xC°
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Again you can approximate this with
C° ~ (F° - 32) / 2
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Thus 30 C° = 32 + 2x30 = 92 F° roughly. |
Thus 90 F° = 0.5x (90 - 32) = 0.5 x 58 = 29 C° |
There are other units as well, but I did not used them almost at all during my normal casual city life, so I won't go into more details. You can take any dictionary and at the beginning or at the end of it there is usually a complete list of units.
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