This article is about the post-1824 measures used in the British Empire and countries in the British sphere of influence. For the units used in England before 1824, see English units. For the system of weight, see Avoirdupois. For United States customary units, see United States customary units. For an overview of UK and US units, see Imperial and US customary measurement systems. For the political ideology, see Imperialism.
The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial[1] or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 74) and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.
The imperial system developed from earlier English units as did the related but differing system of customary units of the United States. The imperial units replaced the Winchester Standards, which were in effect from 1588 to 1825.[2] The system came into official use across the British Empire in 1826.
By the late 20th century, most nations of the former empire had officially adopted the metric system as their main system of measurement, but imperial units are still used alongside metric units in the United Kingdom and in some other parts of the former empire, notably Canada.
The modern UK legislation defining the imperial system of units is given in the Weights and Measures Act 1985 (c. 72) (as amended).[3]
^Britannica Educational Publishing (2010). The Britannica Guide to Numbers and Measurement. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 241. ISBN 978-1-61530-218-5. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
^Chaney, Henry James (1897). A Practical Treatise on the Standard Weights and Measures in Use in the British Empire with some account of the metric system. Eyre and Spottiswoode. p. 3. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
^"Weights and Measures Act 1985". legislation.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperialunits (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first...
traced back to Ancient Roman units of measurement, and Carolingian and Saxon units of measure. The US Customary system of units was developed and used in...
A system of units of measurement, also known as a system of units or system of measurement, is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating...
United States customary units (often incorrectly referred to as imperialunits) form a system of measurement units commonly used in the United States and...
English units were the units of measurement used in England up to 1826 (when they were replaced by Imperialunits), which evolved as a combination of...
all other SI units are derived from these base units.: 132 Systems of measurement in modern use include the metric system, the imperial system, and United...
English units and later imperialunits were used in Britain, the Commonwealth and the United States. The system came to be known as U.S. customary units in...
Canada still offers an imperialunit option beside metric units. Many food and retail products are sold according to metric units, though this is not always...
A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal...
or The Imperial may also refer to: Imperial, California Imperial, Missouri Imperial, Nebraska Imperial, Pennsylvania Imperial, Texas Imperial, West Virginia...
The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British Imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to 1/36 yard...
are the metric units, used in every country globally. In the United States the U.S. customary units are also in use. British Imperialunits are still used...
Japanese Carpentry Museum Japanese units (in Japanese) Convert traditional Japanese units to metric and imperialunits (lengths, areas, volumes, weights)...
with specific volume units. The units of cubic length (the cubic inch, cubic foot, cubic mile, etc.) are the same in the imperial and US customary systems...
troy ounce. Metric units must be used when selling other packaged or loose goods, and imperialunits can stand alongside the metric units, but it cannot stand...
still also have traditional units called pints (such as for beverages), the volume varies by regional custom. The imperial pint (≈ 568 mL) is used in the...
gallon is a unit of volume in British imperialunits and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: the imperial gallon (imp...
A thousandth of an inch is a derived unit of length in a system of units using inches. Equal to 1⁄1000 of an inch, a thousandth is commonly called a thou...
formulated and expressed in imperialunits. Since 1999, the Laws of the Game have preferred metric units, with imperial equivalents given only in brackets...
distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States customary units) and the long ton (British imperialunits). It is equivalent to approximately...
Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the shìzhì ("market system"), are the traditional units of measurement of the Han Chinese. Although...
The acre (/ˈeɪkər/ AY-kər) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as...
consumption, the units barrel of oil equivalent and ton of oil equivalent are often used. The British imperialunits and U.S. customary units for both energy...
facilitate trade with the United States, the option to include imperialsunits alongside metric units could continue indefinitely. The United Kingdom and the...