NursingABC™

American Units
Now to do conversions of quantities from one set of units to another we must know how different units compare to one another. The first system of units we'll work with is the set used in America and several other countries. We'll call this system the American system of units and we should realize that it is not very widely used, but necessary for us to learn because we'll sometimes be converting quantities within this system and from this system to another more commonly used system (the Metric system).

In any system of units it's important to realize that we'll being working with four types of quantities—(1) mass (or weight), (2) distance, (3) volume and (4) time. So it will be important to know the common units of each of these quantities within each system of units and how each of these compare to one another. Most of you will be familiar with the following American units and their equivalencies:
AMERICAN WEIGHT : 1 pound (lb) = 16 ounces (oz) 1 ton = 2000 pounds
AMERICAN DISTANCE: 1 foot (ft) = 12 inches (in) 1 yard (yd) = 3 feet
AMERICAN VOLUME: 1 quart (qt) = 2 pints (pt) 1 gallon (gal) = 4 quarts
AMERICAN TIME: 1 minute (min) = 60 seconds (sec) 1 hour (hr) = 60 minutes

Link to next section - Metric Units and Prefixes