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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.
SI (metric) Traditional definition Line: 2.12 mm = 1 ⁄ 4 of a barleycorn, [13] (thus 1 ⁄ 12 of an inch). Barleycorn: 8.47 mm = 1 ⁄ 3 of an inch, the notional base unit under the Composition of Yards and Perches. Digit: 19.05 mm = 3 ⁄ 4 inch Finger: 22.23 mm = 7 ⁄ 8 inch Inch: 25.4 mm: 3 barleycorns (the historical legal definition ...
Imperial units were mostly used in the former British Empire and the British Commonwealth, but in all these countries they have been largely supplanted by the metric system. They are still used for some applications in the United Kingdom but have been mostly replaced by the metric system in commercial, scientific, and industrial applications.
The Winchester measure was made obsolete in the British Empire but remained in use in the US. [c] The Winchester bushel was replaced with an imperial bushel of eight imperial gallons. The subdivisions of the bushel were maintained. As with US dry measures, the imperial system divides the bushel into 4 pecks, 8 gallons, 32 quarts or 64 pints.
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] [5] Common imperial units and U.S. customary units of length include: [6] 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 inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British Imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to 1 / 36 yard or 1 / 12 of a foot . Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth"), the word inch is also sometimes used to translate similar units in other measurement systems, usually ...
The imperial system of units was developed and used in the United Kingdom and its empire beginning in 1824. The metric system has, to varying degrees, replaced the imperial system in the countries that once used it. Most of the units of measure have been adapted in one way or another since the Norman Conquest (1066).
The report showed that 98.7% of 100,938 responses preferred the metric system; 17.6% wanted a purely metric system whereas 81.1% opted for the status quo (being as per the current legislation, which is imperial units can be displayed only as optional, less prevalent, supplementary units).