Unit Use

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I find it interesting the different units used in different industries and for different products. For example, I learned today that dehumidifiers are rated in pints of capacity. Not quarts, or gallons, or liters, but pints.

We ran into something similar when we were in France because wine and beer was sold by the centiliter, rather than the milliliter or fluid oz.

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As Americans are used to ounces and milliliters, the first time it took a second for me to do the conversion in my head from fluid ounces to milliliters ((Especially because my conversion train went like this: “Ok, it’s “A pint a pound, the world around” and a pound is 16 oz and divide that by 2.2 to get kilograms which is is a thousand milliliters and a beer is only 12 oz so I need to multiply by 2/3 and carry the one and&ellip;”)) and then drop the decimal to get centiliters.

Wandering around my house in my mind, I have paint in both gallons and fluid ounces, milk in gallons and a liter of vodka. There are dry goods in ounces and grams and pounds, and at least one toxic chemical that is sold by volume (cubic centimeters) rather than weight. My house is an argument for basic math skills all by itself!

But dehumidifiers are measured in pints.

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