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During Canada's transition to metric in the 1970's a lady called into the local radio station's call in program. She issued a challenge to anyone who supported

During Canada's transition to metric in the 1970's a lady called into the local radio station's call in program. She issued a challenge to anyone who supported the English system to call with the answer to this question: What is 5/8ths of 2 ounces, 4 drams and 5 grains? :-) She was an immigrant from Czechia and had to learn the British Apothecary system when she arrived in the 1950s. To her credit she had mastered it but it was lunacy.

User23 6y ago
1 1/4ths ounce, 2 1/2 drams and 3 1/8th grains is what I came up with off the top of my head. Is some additional normalization expected? US customary isn’t as complex in practical use we just use fractions of our units. Of course there are fun questions like “which ounce?” Not knowing that I don’t think I can do better.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  At minimum, 1¼ oz was probably expected to be expressed as 1 oz 2 dr, and so on for the others. But I understood "2 ounces, 4 drams and 5 grains" to be a single measurement. An apothecary dram (ʒ) is 60 grains, and an apothecary ounce (℥) is 480 grains, so we have 1205 grains. ⅝ of that is 753⅛ gr, which is 1 ℥ 4 ʒ 33⅛ gr. I think these measurements would have been in common use by pharmacists ... although [1] says they're still in use some times in the USA, or have only recently fallen out of use. It's also interesting to see the mixtures of units in common use there. The UK has Imperial units for several daily things (body height and weight, road distance and speed) yet the medical profession actively avoids use of the system -- equipment is only metric. This is to avoid any errors made during conversion, and ensure day-to-day familiarity with the units. [1] https://nursekey.com/u-s-customary-units-and-the-apothecary-system/ https://nursekey.com/u-s-customary-units-and-the-apothecary-...
  - lebuffon 6y ago
    But I understood "2 ounces, 4 drams and 5 grains" to be a single measurement. Correct. Three columns required, similar to the old British money system of Pounds, Shillings and Pence.

User23 6y ago

1 1/4ths ounce, 2 1/2 drams and 3 1/8th grains is what I came up with off the top of my head. Is some additional normalization expected? US customary isn’t as complex in practical use we just use fractions of our units. Of course there are fun questions like “which ounce?” Not knowing that I don’t think I can do better.

Symbiote 6y ago
At minimum, 1¼ oz was probably expected to be expressed as 1 oz 2 dr, and so on for the others. But I understood "2 ounces, 4 drams and 5 grains" to be a single measurement. An apothecary dram (ʒ) is 60 grains, and an apothecary ounce (℥) is 480 grains, so we have 1205 grains. ⅝ of that is 753⅛ gr, which is 1 ℥ 4 ʒ 33⅛ gr. I think these measurements would have been in common use by pharmacists ... although [1] says they're still in use some times in the USA, or have only recently fallen out of use. It's also interesting to see the mixtures of units in common use there. The UK has Imperial units for several daily things (body height and weight, road distance and speed) yet the medical profession actively avoids use of the system -- equipment is only metric. This is to avoid any errors made during conversion, and ensure day-to-day familiarity with the units. [1] https://nursekey.com/u-s-customary-units-and-the-apothecary-system/ https://nursekey.com/u-s-customary-units-and-the-apothecary-...
- lebuffon 6y ago
  But I understood "2 ounces, 4 drams and 5 grains" to be a single measurement. Correct. Three columns required, similar to the old British money system of Pounds, Shillings and Pence.