Right. You've explained some of this to me before, but I'm still not too clear on the US and UK differences. Is it only measures of volume that are different? Do you know why this is? Weights are the same, right? (Except for that we use stones here whereas I believe you don't?) And what do you call the measures if not 'Imperial'?
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Let me weigh in here:-D. The units used in the USA are known as customary units, and occaaionally American customary units if ambiguity is feared. Weights are not the same as in the UK. To the extent that pounds and ounces avoirdupois are still used in the UK, those would be the same. But the tons are different. Unless the rarely used long ton is specified an American ton is 2,000 pounds. I believe the old British ton was twenty stone or 2,280 pounds. That's pretty close to the metric tonne of 1,000 kilos.
Here in Canada we officially went metric long ago but pounds and ounces have survived for food, prices of which are always displayed and advertised in dollars per pound rather than per kilo. It's a bad situation because cashiers have to remember that $0.99 per pound is $2.18 per kilo, and so on for $0.79, $1.29 etc. Mistakes are inevitable and common.
I have no information on how the US gallon came to be five sixths of the Imperial gallon. Until we went metric Canada used the Imperial gallon, and the discrepancy in the size of gallons was a real nuisance to Canada/US trade, as well as to aviators.
