What English Measure Is Slightly Smaller Than A Liter

How do I adapt to English units faster?

You memorize a few facts, then settle on approximate results, unless of course you are doing scientific or engineering work.By this I mean there is no need in our daily lives to know the exact difference between a quart and a liter, or a square yard and a square meter, or a foot and a third of a meter.You only need to remember simple approximations, such as a a quart is a bit less than a liter, a gallon is a bit less than 4 liters, that a square yard is close to the size of a square meter.Even for folks who were born in the U.S., most do not remember or care that there are 5,280 feet in a mile.So why worry how many pounds are in a kilogram? It's far easier to simply treat a pound as about half a kilogram.Just as it is easier to think of 60 miles as being roughly 100 kilometers, although as Neil Bigger explained, when driving in the U.S. all car speedometers will display both miles and kilometers per hour.Even with temperature, you are best off learning a range of numbers, per Mr. Bigger's suggestion, since very few people can tell the difference between 15C and 16C, or 70F and 72F.  Just memorize what is very cold, cold, cool, warm and very warm per his answer.When I travel by car in Canada, I do not try to measure all things with a micrometer while I'm figuratively cutting with a chainsaw.  I've never gotten a speeding ticket for going 65 mph in a 100K zone, even though I should be going 62 mph.And I quickly learn that regardless what the temperature is in Celsius, I know it's hot when I'm sweating, and cold when I'm shivering.Approximation is a wonderful way to get through life regardless of what measurement system you use.  Perfection is often the enemy of good enough.Thank you for asking your question.

Why is an American pint of beer smaller than a British pint?

The answer lies in the difference between American and Imperial fluid measures.  British Imperial fluid measures were standardised in 1824, after American independence, so that an Imperial fluid ounce is the volume occupied by an ounce of water. An American fluid ounce is the volume occupied by an ounce of wine, so it's a bit  larger than an imperial one because alcohol is less dense than water.  Nowadays all  American and Imperial measurements are defined by reference to metric standards: the American fluid ounce is 29.5735295625ml and the Imperial one is 28.4130625ml. This makes the American ounce about 4% bigger than the British one, because of the alcohol it contains. However, the 1824 standardisation started with the gallon, and an Imperial gallon of water weighs ten pounds, or 160 ounces.   An American pint of wine weighs about a pound. A British pint, like an American pint, is one-eighth of a gallon, so it is 20 Imperial fluid ounces or about 568ml. An American pint is one-eighth of an American gallon, and is 16 American fluid ounces or about 473ml.   There's a bit in Orwell's 1984 where a prole complains that a half-litre isn't a proper pint, but it's more than an American one so it wouldn't make sense to American readers. Traditional British ales are drunk by the pint but pubs also used to have quart mugs. Most regular ales were quite weak by modern standards, intended to be drunk in large quantities and they were isotonic, helping manual workers replenish fluids and salts.  It is also customary to drink pints while standing.  Modern continental lagers are much stronger - typically 5% - and originally intended to be drunk while sitting down, in smaller quantities.  The combination of stronger beer and the British tradition of hosing it down while standing up is, in my opinion, dangerous.  I think that any beer stronger than about  3.5% should only be served to people sitting at tables.

Measurements: How did it come about that a pint in the US and a pint in the UK are different?

The difference can be traced back to the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824.This act standardized the various pints in use at the time to a single imperial pint throughout the British Empire. The US pints were unaffected by this and can be traced back to pre-1824  pints in England. Although both pints are defined as one eighth of the gallon, the definition of gallon itself varies across these countries. The UK pint (568 mL) is 20% larger than the US  pint (473 mL).The UK pint is divided into 20 ounces, whereas the US pint is divided into 16 ounces, making the UK ounce slightly smaller than the US ounce.No wonder the metric system is much easier to work with.Phew! Lets cool off with a (imperial) pint ;)Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint