futurebird , (edited )
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Without looking it up what is closest to 8oz?

(Curious how well the relation between oz and metric is generally known.)

mattmcirvin ,
@mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@futurebird It was interesting. I guessed 200ml on the basis of a chain of rough mental estimations, based on the relation between fluid and weight ounces, pounds and kilograms, and kilograms and liters of water. The rounding errors got me. But the correct result is close to the boundary.

mattmcirvin ,
@mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@futurebird (I have never been able to think intuitively in any kind of ounces, even though they show up in recipes and packaging all the time. I have a much tighter grasp of milliliters and grams. I think metric is much more comprehensible for very small quantities because it works by consistently subdividing bigger ones.)

Infrapink ,
@Infrapink@mastodon.ie avatar

@mattmcirvin @futurebird To make things really fun, the rocks are measured with different ounces to everything else. Rock ounces are bigger than normal ounces, but there are fewer of them in a rock pound, which means that rock pounds are smaller than normal pounds.

futurebird OP ,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@Infrapink @mattmcirvin Did geologists do this too??

mattmcirvin ,
@mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@futurebird @Infrapink I think it's just precious metals/jewelry stuff. I don't know what geologists did before they adopted SI.

mattmcirvin ,
@mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@futurebird @Infrapink ...this page has a table converting 6 different kinds of pound and 3 kinds of ounce, which gives me a headache

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight

(one of them is the hilarious "metric pound" which is just half a kilogram--I guess if we call a megagram a "metric ton" that makes sense)

richpuchalsky ,
@richpuchalsky@mastodon.social avatar

@mattmcirvin @futurebird @Infrapink

My personal favorite is the long ton (2,240 pounds) as opposed to either the short ton or the metric ton

stevendbrewer ,
@stevendbrewer@wandering.shop avatar

@futurebird I knew because I measure everything in Coke bottles. Back in the day, they used to be pints (16 fluid ounces) and then they switched to 500ml.

I'm not kidding about Coke bottles. It turns out that Coke bottles are also a great way to measure inflation.

Virginicus ,
@Virginicus@universeodon.com avatar

@futurebird That was mean.

bk1e ,
@bk1e@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird My thought process: 12 oz. cans are labeled 330 mL in Japan, so 8 oz. is 220 mL.

What I got wrong: 12 oz. cans are 355 mL, and apparently they are slightly taller than Japanese 330 mL cans.

stevegis_ssg ,
@stevegis_ssg@mas.to avatar

@futurebird
But it's close!

furicle ,
@furicle@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird 250g?

TheDutchChief ,
@TheDutchChief@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird In The Netherlands there is no oz, so also no relation 😂

llewelly ,
@llewelly@sauropods.win avatar

@futurebird
unhelpfully, the us customary fluid ounce and the british imperial fluid ounce are not quite the same; the imperial is about 1 ml smaller .

edit: I forgot to add that in this case, it doesn't affect answers to the poll.

skydog ,
@skydog@sfba.social avatar

@futurebird

Next, we will move on to the airspeed velocity of the unladen swallow.

A liter and a quart are roughly equal. A quart is equal to 4 cups, so a cup (8 oz) is roughly equal to a quarter of a liter, .25 liter, or 250 ml.

kellogh ,
@kellogh@hachyderm.io avatar

@futurebird my rule of thumb is that a liter is about the same as a quart. a nalgene bottle has quart and liter markings at the top, almost the same. so 8oz is ~1/4 of a liter

mina ,
@mina@berlin.social avatar

@futurebird

British (Imperial) fluid ounces or US customary measures?

Actually, here the answer remains the same. With pints and gallons the numbers would vary wildly.

sb ,
@sb@fed.sbcloud.cc avatar

@futurebird
I feel like most Canucks have an advantage here - we've been using both measuring systems since the 60's. While we're officially metric, the majority of people measure certain things in imperial:

  • Body weight (in lbs instead of kilos)
  • Body height (in feet/inches)
  • Drugs (this is weirdly interchangable. We'll sell by the gram up to 28, then it's an ounce)
  • Cooking (again, just a potpourri of sae/metric)
dave_andersen ,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@futurebird So, you see, back in the previous millennium, the Americans and the British were so confused by the units that they used that they had to invent devices called computers to help them figure them out, and that's why we have ceiling cat.

vgarzareyna ,
@vgarzareyna@mstdn.mx avatar

@futurebird I responded randomly and apparently got it right

carstenfranke ,
@carstenfranke@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird the fun thing is that there are 3 different fluid ounces....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce

futurebird OP ,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@carstenfranke

We need to just go metric and never look back. This is disgusting.

carstenfranke ,
@carstenfranke@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird oh yes, had to deal with that all my work life... Built a factory for plastic film based on a machine from Germany, the machine was all metric (imperial would have added $5 million in cost). We converted the length of spools from meter to yard, then to pounds of plastic. Sold it to Korea, where they converted pounds to Kg, then to meter again. And then wondered why there always were errors in bookkeeping

apples_and_pears ,
@apples_and_pears@mastodon.world avatar

@futurebird I depends. You're comparing a dry measure to a liquid measure.

davidsinger ,
@davidsinger@sfba.social avatar

@futurebird Many years of studying soda and beer cans have taught me that 12 fluid ounces is close enough to 350 ml for government work. And I know a liter is just over a quart.

DrHyde ,
@DrHyde@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird none of the above because ounces are mass and ml are volume (I know what you mean really, and I have no clue off the top of my head, does doing sums in my head count as looking it up?)

futurebird OP ,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@DrHyde

Only if you roll your eyes in an upward direction.

DrHyde ,
@DrHyde@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird the sum i would do is that there are 20 fl oz in a pint, and 1.76 pints (or 35 fl oz) in a litre, so 1 fl oz is a bit under 30 ml, so 8 fl oz is a bit under 240 ml, so the answer is 250.

RogerBW ,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@futurebird only because I learned American beer measures for when I used to travel there.

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@futurebird Wildly different answers depending on whether it's an ounce of mercury or an ounce of hydrogen.

ersatzmaus ,
@ersatzmaus@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird Isn't the ounce a unit of weight, not a unit of volume? Or is imperial even weirder than I thought?

jacquiharper ,
@jacquiharper@mastodon.world avatar

@futurebird My high school chemistry teacher wrote on the board —
“JALMTAQ”
because a liter is
“Just A Little More Than A Quart”
and this has served me well for the last 45 years

pthane ,
@pthane@toot.wales avatar

@futurebird Makes no sense. Ounces are a measure for weight, Litres (or milllitres for volume.

stveje ,
@stveje@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird I had the wrong idea yet guessed right. I thought 8oz was close to a small can of soda (330ml), so I would've guessed 350 if I'd gone with my first instinct, but then I started doubting and went with a gut feeling instead.

hazelnot ,
@hazelnot@sunbeam.city avatar

@futurebird I literally have no idea, imperial measurements are a complete mystery to me, I just approximately know how much a foot is cause I know 10 ft is about 3 meters and I know my height in feet and inches cause I lived in the UK for a few years haha

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