Although Americans and English people measure liquids in gallons and pints, their volumes do not match. Therefore, it's important that when you come across a description with gallons or pints, you check which unit is actually being referred to.
Let's take a look at American and English volume units in a simple table.
| Unit | British Ounce | British Pint | Milliliter | Cubic Inch | American Ounce | American Pint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fluid ounce (fl oz) | 1 | 1/20 | 28.4130625 | 1.7339 | 0.96076 | 0.060047 |
| gill (gi) | 5 | ¼ | 142.0653125 | 8.6694 | 4.8038 | 0.30024 |
| pint (pt) | 20 | 1 | 568.26125 | 34.677 | 19.215 | 1.2009 |
| quart (qt) | 40 | 2 | 1136.5225 | 69.355 | 38.430 | 2.4019 |
| gallon (gal) | 160 | 8 | 4546.09 | 277.42 | 153.72 | 9.6076 |
There are three types of gallons:
The Imperial gallon, also known as the English gallon, is equivalent to the volume of 10 pounds (4.54 kg) of water at 17 degrees Celsius. This is 4.546 liters.
The US liquid gallon is 231 cubic inches, i.e., 3.785411784 liters. This is the volume of 3.78 kg of water at 17 degrees Celsius. So, the US gallon is 16.6% less than the English gallon.
The US dry gallon is approximately 4.405 liters.
The gallon does not have an official abbreviation; generally, the symbol for gallon is "gal."
A pint is 1/8th of a gallon. Since the American and English gallons differ, the pint also varies. The English pint is approximately 20% larger than the American pint. So, if you want to know how much a pint of beer is, first check if it's American or English beer.
The Imperial pint, also known as the English pint, is about 568 ml.
The US liquid pint is 473 ml.
The US dry pint is approximately 551 ml.
The symbol for pint is "pt."
Some cowboy hats
referred to as "ten-gallon hats". This term dates back to around 1925 when the Stetson hat company advertised its product as waterproof due to the dense weave of Stetson hats. So much so that they claimed you could use the Stetson hat as a bucket. In a contemporary printed advertisement, a cowboy was shown using his hat to water his horse. The "ten-gallon" hat name stuck, even though the Stetson company pointed out that the hat's volume was not actually ten gallons (38 liters) but only 3 quarts (approximately 3 liters).