why are American miles (and gallons) slightly smaller than English ones?

Answer 1

The American mile is exactly 1.6 kilometres. The English one is slightly longer.

An American pint of water weighs one pound (16 ounces). An English pint of water weighs 20 ounces.

Why? Because when the American colonies broke away, these things were negotiable.

Answer 2

A mile in both the US and the UK is the same International Mile.
1 mile = 1.609344 km
The mile is used on roadsigns in the US, UK, Liberia, and Myanmar, with metric units used elsewhere.

Unless you're asking about a US Survey mile?
1 mile = 1.609347 km

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile

A gallon, however, can vary.

The US gallon is 3.80 liters.
An imperial gallon is approx. 4.54 liters.

Why? that's just how the naming was defined by differing standards agencies. (The UK abandoned the wine gallon (which is what the US gallon is based on) in favor of the ale gallon for definition of a single gallon term (where before they had several types of gallons).)

Imperial Gallon = approx. 277.4 cubic inches (defined by a UK Weights and Measures Act in 1824)
US Gallon = 231 cubic inches (based on the English wine gallon, an amount used for taxing wine in Britian through 1826)

http://www.sizes.com/units/gallon_US.htm
http://www.sizes.com/units/gallon_english_wine.htm
http://www.sizes.com/units/gallon_imperial.htm

More historical info and other gallons defined can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallon

Answer 3

At inception the America's, USA took on a negotiated measurement with Britain and Europe. IE' 5 US gallons = 20 litres

Answer 4

It has nothing to do with the metric system. Unlike the rest of Europe, we aren't completely metric anyway, and only switched relatively recently. A good many things, even at official level, is still imperial. The government still measures roads in miles and speed in mph for instant, not km and kph. At an unofficial level, few people know their height or weight in metric, generally using stones for weight (14 pounds is a stone) and feet and inches for height

Our pints are larger (which means we get more beer to the pint, beer being one of the things still sold in pints). I'm not completely sure why it is, but they've just changed a bit in the same way the languages and cultures of England and the US have changed with time.

To quote wikipedia:

"At one time, the volume of a gallon depended on what was being measured, and where it was being measured. But, by the end of the 18th century, three definitions were in common use:
The corn gallon, or “Winchester gallon”, of about 268.8 in³ (4.405 L),
the wine gallon, or “Queen Anne’s gallon”, which was 231 in³ (3.79 L), and
the ale gallon of 282 in³ (4.62 L).

The pint is defined as 1/8 of a gallon. Other versions of the gallon were defined for different commodities, and there were equally many versions of the pint.

America adopted the British wine gallon (defined in 1707 as 231 cubic inches) as its basic liquid measure, from which the U.S. wet pint is derived, and the British corn gallon (1/8 of a standard "Winchester" bushel of corn, or 268.8 cubic inches) as its dry measure, from which the U.S. dry pint is derived.

In 1824 the British parliament replaced all its variant gallons with a new "imperial" gallon based on ten pounds of distilled water at 62 °F (277.42 cubic inches), from which the UK pint is derived."

I don't think there is any difference in the generally used miles, but there are different types (at least according to wikipedia), so again I quote:

"The international mile is the distance typically meant when the word mile is used without qualification. It is defined to be precisely 1,760 international yards (by definition, 0.9144 m each) and is therefore exactly 1,609.344 metres (1.609344 km). It is used in the United States and the United Kingdom as part of the U.S. customary and Imperial systems of units, respectively. The international mile is equivalent to 8 furlongs, 80 chains or 5,280 international feet.

The U.S. survey mile is based on an inch defined by 1 metre = 39.37 inches exactly. It is equal to 5,280 U.S. survey feet, 6,336/3,937 km or approximately 1,609.347 metres. One international mile is equal to 0.999 998 survey miles. The survey mile is used by the United States Public Land Survey System."

So, for almost all intents and purposes, the UK and US miles are exactly the same.

Answer 5

I thought in England everything was in liters and kilometers? Also it actually means that measures are larger in America 1 American mile is about 1.6 Kilometers that means it takes over a km to make 1 mile

Answer 6

The Americans don't want to be depressed as to the actual mpg they get on their big, big cars - just like mine.LOL..

Answer 7

Because they are little more impatient than their english counterparts.

Answer 8

i never knew they were different, but id take a wild stab ans say its because in the UK we use the metric system and the USA doesnt.

check the wiki on the metric system, it will no doubt answer your question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system

Answer 9

So they think everything is bigger of course

Even their shoe sizes are smaller

Answer 10

WHAT I thought EVERYthing was biggar in the states
haha, i'll remember this one