I don't know why advertisers insist on using vague methods of measurements.
I shopped for a couple of items on Amazon and in each, the vendor used the sizing method of measure known as a CUP, I discovered the hard way that these ads indicated various values for the capacity.
One was 1 cup = 5 ounces, another 6 ounces, the third did however use the typical value of 8oz. !!
This then results in delays and having to send a product back due to this vague form of measurement.
(Rant Over). !

 

The length of your piece of string is 42.

 

I don't know why advertisers insist on using vague methods of measurements.
I shopped for a couple of items on Amazon and in each, the vendor used the sizing method of measure known as a CUP, I discovered the hard way that these ads indicated various values for the capacity.
One was 1 cup = 5 ounces, another 6 ounces, the third did however use the typical value of 8oz. !!
This then results in delays and having to send a product back due to this vague form of measurement.
(Rant Over). !

Not sure how any of this relates to the length of string????

Could you provide links to the ads that didn't use 1 cup = 8 U.S. fluid ounces? I'd be interested in looking at them to see if I can figure out where they are coming from (or whether they are the kind of ad trash that is so common these days).

Like many measurements, there are variations in definition stemming from historical evolution and still persisting to this day.

1 U.S. cup = 236.588 mL
1 metric cup = 250 mL
1 Imperial cup = ~284 mL

One potential source of the confusion could be that what is being measured is not volume, but mass. It's not uncommon for volume to be used as a proxy for mass measurement and the fact that two very different units use the same name, at least in shortened form, can make distinguishing when this is happening tricky. The fluid ounce is a measure of volume, while the avoirdupois (and troy and apothecaries) ounces are measures of mass. It is also commonly used as a measure of force, though it should properly be labeled as ounce-force (but seldom is).

 

I'd be interested in looking at them to see if I can figure out where they are coming from (or whether they are the kind of ad trash that is so common these days).

A standard "cup of coffee" is 6 oz. I've never seen 5oz referred to as a cup but it wouldn't surprise me.

I was once engaged in doing some research in the baking industry. I would prepare detailed instructions for my technician to follow, listing all ingredients, the times to mix, proof, bake and everything else. Anal retentive chef to the Nth degree. But results were all over the place. Natural variation is the bugaboo of baking research but this was ridiculous. What could possibly be going wrong?

It never dawned on me that my technician translated "cup of flour" to "any old container I can find full of flour". I suspect she was maliciously compliant and knew exactly what she was doing. A toss up. Switching to weighing all ingredients removed this degree of freedom.

 

A standard "cup of coffee" is 6 oz. I've never seen 5oz referred to as a cup but it wouldn't surprise me.

I don't know about "standard", but definitely agree that that is common. At first, I suspected that it was to trick customers into thinking they were getting more than they actually were. But I've since learned (though who knows what the true story is) that it is the result of one of two things (or both). First, you might start with 8 oz of water, but some of it is lost due to evaporation (particularly in the old percolator-style coffee makers) and retained in the grounds. But that's maybe one ounce or a bit more. Losing 25% seems a stretch. The other explanation is that it was adopted to leave room for milk and sugar when serving is a cup that is actually one cup in volume. I can also see rounding down to the nearest fluid ounce so that you know that if you start with N cups of water you are guaranteed of getting N cups of coffee.

I was once engaged in doing some research in the baking industry. I would prepare detailed instructions for my technician to follow, listing all ingredients, the times to mix, proof, bake and everything else. Anal retentive chef to the Nth degree. But results were all over the place. Natural variation is the bugaboo of baking research but this was ridiculous. What could possibly be going wrong?

It never dawned on me that my technician translated "cup of flour" to "any old container I can find full of flour". I suspect she was maliciously compliant and knew exactly what she was doing. A toss up. Switching to weighing all ingredients removed this degree of freedom.

A "pinch" of salt, anyone?

If the technician was doing that, she deserved to be fired. It would be one thing to do it once, as a joke or even to underscore that other chefs following those directions were likely to interpret the measurements very loosely and wildly, but in any kind of a research environment, doing it beyond that should not only get them fired, but at least threatened with a civil suit for damages associated with all the time and effort that went into research that she rendered useless.

 

1 cup (Canada) = 8.8 oz (imperial) =250 ml
1 cup (US) = 8 oz (US) = 236.588 ml
1 cup (UK) = 10 oz (UK) = 284.130625

 

Could you provide links to the ads that didn't use 1 cup = 8 U.S. fluid ounces? I'd be interested in looking at them to see if I can figure out where they are coming from (or whether they are the kind of ad trash that is so common these days).

Like many measurements, there are variations in definition stemming from historical evolution and still persisting to this day.

1 U.S. cup = 236.588 mL
1 metric cup = 250 mL
1 Imperial cup = ~284 mL

Yes that too, I remember when I came to Canada, I had to deal with the Gallon of gas I put in the car, was not the same gallon in size I got when grocery shopping and buying a (US) gallon of cooking oil,
I recall hearing " A (US) pint is a pound the world around"
As opposed to my version, "A pint of water is a pound and a quarter"
BTW, The ads Were concerning Coffee percolators where cups were mentioned as sizing, I dug deeper and found that some referred to 5oz, some 6oz rarely did they mention the standard cooking measure of an 8 fl-oz, standard cup.
Fortunately Canada like my home land did, has now gone metric !

 

BTW, Google says : " In the United States, a standard cup of coffee is typically considered to be 8 fluid ounces (236.6 milliliters). "

 

Yes that too, I remember when I came to Canada, I had to deal with the Gallon of gas I put in the car, was not the same gallon in size I got when grocery shopping and buying a (US) gallon of cooking oil,
I recall hearing " A (US) pint is a pound the world around"
As opposed to my version, "A pint of water is a pound and a quarter"
BTW, The ads Were concerning Coffee percolators where cups were mentioned as sizing, I dug deeper and found that some referred to 5oz, some 6oz rarely did they mention the standard cooking measure of an 8 fl-oz, standard cup.
Fortunately Canada like my home land did, has now gone metric !

I've run into people that insist that a pint of water weighs exactly one pound, based on "a pint's a pound the world around."

At one point, the Imperial Gallon was defined as 10 lb of water at 62°F, making it exactly 1.25 lb (at that temperature).

Originally, I had assumed that the U.S. pint had been similarly defined such that, at some temperature, it was exactly 1 lb. That would have made completely reasonable sense back when these units were being standardized. But, it turns out, that was never the case and it was only ever a close and useful rule of thumb and it's always been about 1.04 lb.

If I need something real crude, a pint's a pound is good enough. If I need something better, I use U.S. gallon being 8 and 1/3 pounds. For larger quantities, I use that 6 U.S. gallons is almost exactly 50 lb (so 100 lb per 12 gallons, which is a pretty easy relationship to work with).

 

I grew up where 1 gallon of water weighs 10 lb.

 

I grew up where 1 gallon of water weighs 10 lb.

And you can easily see why that would have been a very natural way of defining a gallon.

The U.S. gallon, like most U.S. customary units, derived from British units. In this case, it was the wine gallon. Before 1700, there were a lot of different "gallons" (such as the wine, the ale, the corn, and the Winchester gallons, to name a few) and they became increasingly standardized within different industries for commerce purposes, but there was no central coordination across industries. This was true for LOTS of units -- just consider how big a "barrel" of something is or, heaven forbid, just what a 'bushel' is.

In 1707, under Queen Anne, the wine gallon was defined as exactly 231 cubic inches (this was based on a standard cylindrical container used in the industry having a diameter of 7" and a depth of 6" and using a value of π being 22/7.

Some people latch onto the use of the approximation of π as being a big deal, ignoring the elephant in the room which is that, at that time, the inch was defined as the length of three barley corns placed end to end). A physical standard (marks on a brass rod) wouldn't be adopted in England until 1758 (King George III's yard). So using the fractional definition of π is pretty insignificant compared to the variation in the lengths of barleycorns. But barley was ubiquitous, being used for both bread and beer, so it was always available. While the min and max lengths vary a lot (a factor of three or four), the tend to cluster pretty tightly about the mean, so if you scoop up a handful of barleycorns and intentionally pick out three "average" kernels, you'll be pretty close (say ±5% to ±10%), which was more than good enough for the time. They also had the advantage of a pretty uniform shape with about a 2:1 elongation making them easy to place end-to-end).

When I was first learning about the history of measurements in high school, it seemed like such imprecise unit definitions should have made it impossible to build the kinds of structures that were built at the time (and even worse going back through the ages). But this came from my assuming that different workers would being using measuring tools that were uncorrelated, since today I would use the tape measure in my toolbox to make something that had to mate with what you made using the tape measure in yours. What I soon discovered, however, is that it was common for someone (usually the architect supervising the initial build) to take a stick and put marks on it and define that as being the unit of measure for that structure. So it didn't matter if the "inch" (or whatever it was called) on this cathedral didn't match the inch on that castle.

 

When I came to Canada I Would get in to it with servers and bar staff as they would always insist on serving me a 16oz pint, where the legal Canadian pint is 20oz !
I suspect that it was the US made it this way to make it the same digits as the Weight value e.g. 16oz to the pound, 16 oz to the pint

 

I suspect that it was the US made it this way to make it the same digits as the Weight value e.g. 16oz to the pound, 16 oz to the pint

I've assumed that too. Hence the US gallon is 5/8 of an Imperial gallon.

 

In my first year of engineering at university, I was given a zero mark on a question because I used the value of 1 ton = 2240 lbs in my calculations, the value that I was taught in high school.

 

I've assumed that too. Hence the US gallon is 5/8 of an Imperial gallon.

I am pretty sure the US will join the 90% of us that uses metric some time in the near future, I notice it has crept in to a few areas there already.
After all, the metric system was incorporated originally in order to make all measuremnts conform to one standard.

 

Grok's opinion:

Here are the most common standards people refer to:

• Coffee maker / drip machine "cup": Typically 5–6 fl oz (about 148–177 ml).
This is the traditional small unit used on many home coffee pots (e.g., a 12-cup machine usually makes ~60–72 oz total).
• "Coffee cup" measure in recipes or industry standards (e.g., Specialty Coffee Association style): Often 6 fl oz (≈ 177 ml), though some older or European contexts use around 150 ml / 5 oz.
• Standard US measuring cup (what most people think of as "a cup" in everyday life): 8 fl oz (≈ 237 ml).
This is what you'll see quoted when people say "a cup of coffee" in casual conversation or when comparing to food measurements.
• Typical café / mug serving (what you actually drink): Usually 8–12 fl oz (≈ 237–355 ml), with 12 oz being very common for a regular "medium" coffee in places like Starbucks or diner-style servings.

 

I know of no one or have never met anyone that uses a 5oz cup to drink coffee !!

 

furlongs per fortnight. The speed of light is 1.8026 terafurlongs per fortnight.

 

I've assumed that too. Hence the US gallon is 5/8 of an Imperial gallon.

Imperial gallon = 8 imperial pints each of which is 20 fl.oz. = 4.546 litres

 

I know of no one or have never met anyone that uses a 5oz cup to drink coffee !!

Well I didn't just make it up.

https://espressocoffeeguide.com/how-much-coffee-per-cup/
https://coffeeplusthree.com/why-is-a-cup-of-coffee-5-oz/
https://allfoodfaq.com/how-big-is-a-5oz-cup/
https://www.freshroastedcoffee.com/...t-the-cup-an-updated-coffee-measurement-guide