Comparison of the imperial and US customary measurement systems metre, as 1852 metres. Traditionally, both Britain and the US used three different weight systems: troy weight for precious metals, avoirdupois weight for most other purposes and apothecaries' weight for medicines. However, apothecaries' weight has now been superseded by the metric system. One important difference is the widespread use in Britain of the stone of 14 pounds () for body weight. This unit is not used in the United States, although its influence was seen in the practice, until World War II, of selling flour by a barrel of 196 pounds (14 stone). Another difference arose when Britain abolished the
Specific weight Specific weight The specific weight (also known as the unit weight) is the weight per unit volume of a material. The symbol of specific weight is γ (the Greek letter Gamma). A commonly used value is the specific weight of water on Earth at 4°C which is 9.807 kN/m or 62.43 lbf/ft. The terms "specific gravity", and less often "specific weight", are also used for relative density. where Unlike density, specific weight is not absolute. It depends upon the value of the gravitational acceleration, which varies with location. A significant influence upon the value of specific gravity is the temperature