Dry measure

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Dry volume)
Jump to: navigation, search

Dry measures are units of volume used to measure bulk commodities which are not liquid. They are typically used in agriculture, agronomy, and commodity markets to measure grain, dried beans, and dried and fresh fruit (e.g. a peck of apples is a retail unit); formerly also salt pork and fish. They are also used in fishing for clams, crabs, etc. and formerly for many other substances (e.g. coal, cement, lime) which were typically shipped and delivered in a standardized container such as a barrel.

They are often confused or conflated with units of mass, assuming a nominal density, and indeed many units of dry measure are now largely units of mass (see bushel).

Contents

In the original metric system, the unit of dry volume was the stere, but this is not part of the modern metric system; the liter and the cubic meter (m³) are now used. However, the stere is still widely used for firewood.

In Imperial and U.S. customary units, most units of volume exist both in a dry and a liquid version, with the same name, but different values: the dry hogshead, dry barrel, dry gallon, dry quart, dry pint, etc. The bushel and the peck are only used for dry goods.

Many of the units are associated with particular goods, so for instance the dry hogshead has been used for sugar and for tobacco and the peck for apples. There are also special measures for special goods, such as the cord of wood, the sack, the bale of cotton, the box of fruit, etc.

Because it is difficult to measure actual volume and easy to measure mass, many of these units are now also defined as units of mass, specific to each commodity, so a bushel of apples is a different weight from a bushel of wheat (weighed at a specific moisture level). Indeed, the bushel, the best-known unit of dry measure because it is the quoted unit in commodity markets, is in fact a unit of mass in those contexts.

Conversely, the ton used in specifying tonnage and in freight calculations is often a volume measurement rather than a mass measurement.

In U.S. cooking, dry and liquid measures are the same: the cup, the tablespoon, the teaspoon.

US dry measures are 16% larger than liquid measures; this is advantageous when cooking with fresh produce, as a dry pint of vegetables after trimming ends up being about a cooking (liquid) pint.

The volume of bulk goods is usually measured by filling a standard container, so the containers' names and the units' names are often the same, and indeed both are called "measures". Normally, a level or struck measure is assumed, with the excess being swept off level ("struck") with the measure's brim—the stick used for this is called a "strickle". Sometimes heaped or heaping measures are used, with the commodity heaped in a cone above the measure.

  • 1 pint (pt) ≈ 550.610 mL
  • 1 quart (qt) = 2 pt ≈ 1.101 L
  • 1 gallon (gal) = 4 qt = 268.8025 in³ = 4.404 842 803 2 L
  • 1 peck (pk) = 8 qt = 2 gal ≈ 8.81 L
  • 1 bushel (bu) = 2150.42 cu in = 4 pk ≈ 35.239 L
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.