Working on the assumption that you are a little bit interested in the use of number, this page addresses units you might well use or find in use, that need some explanation.
Cooking: A gas oven in the UK and across the Commonwealth may be marked in apparent single units. The conversion is one ‘gas mark’ unit for each 25ºF. working from 1 at 275ºF to 9 at 475ºF. I’d recommend an oven thermometer if it matters to you. Convert F to C by the usual C= 5(F-32)/9. Gas Mark X is also called Regulo Mark X. Your great-grandmama will remember this.
French ovens use Thermostat readings, where 1 means 30ºC, going up in units of 30º, so Th 6 is 180ºC. German ovens step in mainly twenties; stufe 2 is 160ºC and Stufe 8 is 280ºC.
A Barrel varies: 31 gallons for beer, 40 for whiskey and 42 for petroleum. Other barrels are 31.5 gallons. A typical ‘oil drum’ is not a barrel, it is a 55 gallon drum, not a standard measure, even though you might think so.
Wheat, corn and barley are measured in bushels, which is a volume, 2150.42 cubic inches US. Typical weights are 32-34 pounds for oats, 48 lbs for barley, 56 lbs for corn and 60 for wheat.
A Horsepower is 745.7 Watts, though I learned 746 Watts, being 550 foot pounds per second, produced by an averaging and rounding of 33000 foot-pounds per minute from a working horse across a four-hour shift. If you research this, you’ll find James Watt’s name included.
Shoe sizes:
UK units is based on a size 12 (a whole foot, 12 inches) and counts back-wards in barleycorn units, three per inch. So a size 9 is 11 inches. A child’s size zero is a hand (4 inches, 10.16cm), up by an inch each three sizes to 13½ at 8½ inches; the next half size up is an adult size 1, but that builds in a disagreement, since working back from size 12 being 12 inches says a size zero is 8 inches, not the 8.33 described which makes a size 13 the whole foot.
American sizes are very similar, being one barleycorn different and getting the 12 for 12 right. American women’s shoes are 1.5 sizes different from the men - a man’s 8½ is a woman’s 10. Kiddies shoes continue to be 1/3 inch different from the British measurement, ending at 13. So US sizes are a third of a size smaller all the time.
European sizes are also based on thirds, two/thirds of a centimetre between point sizes, called a Paris point (perhaps pronounced French-style, as pwahn). 120mm on a child’s foot starts size 20 and so 180mm starts size 29. Size 30 and UK 11½ are very close, as are size 23 and size 6. On adults, 220mm of foot matches the start of size 35, size 37 matches a US 5 very well, 300mm is where size 47 begins, and 305mm is the end of US size 13 and the start of UK size 13, being a foot long, still in the range of size 47, which ends at 306.66mm. Americans also have ‘athletic’ sizes, which span a greater range across the same ‘sizes’; the nines are the same, a standard 2 is an athletic 3 and a standard 15 is an athletic 14.
Mondopoint takes the Euro size, adds ten and multiplies by five, so a Euro 36 moves to a 230. Working the other way, read the 3 figure number, divide by ten, double that and deduct ten; your UK size 10 is a Euro 44 and Mondo 280. Actually, while much quoted to me, that conversion fails unless you’re a size 4-7; guys should add/subtract 11-13, not 10. Mondopoint is an inter-national sizing system, ISO 9407, A size (says Wikipedia) labelled 280 or possibly 280/110 will fit a foot of length 280 mm and width 110mm. The other systems describe the shoe (the last used), not the targeted foot size. The wikipedia page underlines that a shoe size is to fit a range of length, which emphasises how you might feel you are a ‘5 or a 6’, a ‘9 or a 9½’, and similar expressions.
- 1.1. Which gas mark is nearest 150ºC? 400ºF?
- 2.2.Does the French Th8 = Stufe 6? What’s that in Celsius?
- 3.3.3. How many litres in a 55 gallon drum, to 3 sig.fig??
- 4.4.Your new girl-friend wears UK size 5; what size is she likely to wear in Euro and US units? Your new boy-friend wears Euro 45; what sizes is this?
- 1.1.2 is 150ºC, 6 is 400ºF and 204ºC; 9 is 246ºC
- 2.2.Yes: both are 240ºC, close to gas Mark 9.
- 3.3.55x4.54609 = 250 litres, 250.03495 is too precise to match the use of a drum.
- 4.4.UK 5 is probably 8.5 US women, 38 Euro and 240 Asian/Mondopoint. Euro 45 is probably a UK 10, a US 11.5 (just might be an eleven) and an Asian 285 or 290.