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The former Weights and Measures office in Seven Sisters, London (590 Seven Sisters Road). The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial [1] or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.
The definition of units of weight above a pound differed between the customary and the imperial system - the imperial system employed the stone of 14 pounds, the hundredweight of 8 stone [Note 6] and the ton of 2240 pounds (20 hundredweight), while the customary system of units did not employ the stone but has a hundredweight of 100 pounds and ...
The table of imperial avoirdupois mass is the same as the United States table up to one pound, but above that point, the tables differ. The imperial system has a hundredweight, defined as eight stone of 14 lb each, or 112 lb (50.802 345 44 kg), whereas a US hundredweight is 100 lb (45.359 237 kg). In both systems, 20 hundredweights make a ton.
The other units of length and mass, and all units of area, volume, and derived units such as density were derived from these two base units. Mesures usuelles ( French for customary measures ) were a system of measurement introduced as a compromise between the metric system and traditional measurements.
Only 0.4% would prefer to return to a purely Imperial system. [86] It was reported that the prime minister Rishi Sunak had abandoned Johnson's proposal to allow the sale of goods in Imperial units. [87] On 27 December 2023 the Government updated its website to further promote the use of the optional imperial units as supplementary units. [88]
United States customary units form a system of measurement units commonly used in the United States and most U.S. territories [1] since being standardized and adopted in 1832. [2] The United States customary system developed from English units that were in use in the British Empire before the U.S. became an
The basic unit of length in the imperial and U.S. customary systems is the yard, defined as exactly 0.9144 m by international treaty in 1959. [2] [10] Common imperial units and U.S. customary units of length include: [11] thou or mil (1 ⁄ 1000 of an inch) inch (25.4 mm) foot (12 inches, 0.3048 m) yard (3 feet, 0.9144 m)
The continuing use of U.S. customary units has caused writers to speculate in fiction set in the future about the adoption of the metric system. Many authors have assumed that the United States and the human race in general will use metric units. Others have assumed the continued use of U.S. customary units or have not taken metrication into ...