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A pennyweight (dwt) is a unit of mass equal to 24 grains, 1 ⁄ 20 of a troy ounce, 1 ⁄ 240 of a troy pound, 48 ⁄ 875 avoirdupois ounce [1] and exactly 1.55517384 grams. [2] It is abbreviated dwt , d standing for denarius – (an ancient Roman coin), and later used as the symbol of an old British penny (see £sd ).
The pennyweight symbol is dwt. One pennyweight weighs 24 grains, and 20 pennyweights make one troy ounce. [15] Because there were 12 troy ounces in the old troy pound, there would have been 240 pennyweights to the pound (mass) – just as there were 240 pennies in the original pound-sterling.
The apothecaries and troy pounds are divided into 12 ounces (of 480 grains) while the avoirdupois pound has 16 ounces (of 437.5 grains). The unit of volume, the gallon , has different values in the United States and in the United Kingdom, with the US gallon being 83.26742% of the imperial gallon: the US gallon is based on the wine gallon used ...
Another difference arises in that Britain deleted the troy pound (373.241 7216 g) and the pennyweight from the relevant statute on 1 January 1879, leaving only the troy ounce (31.103 4768 g) and its decimal subdivisions, whereas the troy pound (of 12 troy ounces) and pennyweight are still legal in the United States, although they are no longer ...
English-speaking countries also used a system of units of fluid measure, or in modern terminology volume units, based on the apothecaries' system. Originally, the terms and symbols used to describe the volume measurements of liquids were the same as or similar to those used to describe weight measurements of solids [33] (for example, the pound by weight and the fluid pint were both referred to ...
The conversion rates 1 solidus = 24 carats, 1 carat = 4 grains still stand. [16] Woolhouse's Measures, Weights and Moneys of All Nations [ 17 ] gives gold fineness in carats of 4 grains, and silver in troy pounds [ 17 ] of 12 troy ounces of 20 pennyweight each.
See Weight for detail of mass/weight distinction and conversion. Avoirdupois is a system of mass based on a pound of 16 ounces, while Troy weight is the system of mass where 12 troy ounces equals one troy pound. The symbol g 0 is used to denote standard gravity in order to avoid confusion with the (upright) g symbol for gram.
In the evolutionary approach, the foot was to be derived from these lengths by a simple integer factor, which would be either three (pendulum) or five (rod), i.e. lengthening it from the traditional value of about 304 mm by slightly over 1 inch to ca. 331 mm or shortening it by about a quarter of an inch to ca. 298 mm.