Lesson 13 — Activity 1:

Length

The imperial system is an older system of measuring that is still used in the United States and a few other countries. If you are in the building industry, many of your measurements will be imperial. Many of your tools will be imperial as well. Therefore, it is important that you also know about imperial units of measure.

You read a little bit about the imperial system of measurement in L2—A1. In this lesson, you will look at it more closely.

As you learned in the previous lessons, Canada mainly uses the metric system. However, you will notice that not everything you see is measured this way. Some things are still measured in imperial units.

For example, you probably know how tall you are in feet and inches and how much you weigh in pounds. These are imperial units. However, if you look on your driver's license, you will notice that your height and weight are measured in centimetres and kilograms. These are metric units.

The most common imperial units of length are inch, foot, yard, and mile.

In restaurants, wine is usually served by the litre or bottle (750 mL), but a wine glass is measured in ounces! Similarly, fast food restaurants (e.g., the McDonald's Quarter Pounder) often advertise measurements of food and drink in the US customary imperial units. Although Canadians still call it the Quarter Pounder, in other countries that use the metric system only, it is called the Royale!

Unlike the metric system that you just learned about where every measurement is based on 10, the imperial system does not follow any simple pattern.

For the imperial system of measurement, you will learn about inches, feet, yards, and miles and how they are used to measure length.

Inch

An inch is a measure of length. One inch is exactly 2.54 centimetres long.

1 inch = 2.54 centimetres

It is the smallest unit of measure that you will use in the imperial system. An inch can be abbreviated as in. Sometimes you will see the double quotation mark (i.e. ") to show inches.

For example, 16 inches can be written as 16 in or 16".

You will often see someone's height as measured in feet. For example, "The man was six feet tall."

Foot

When we have 12 inches together, it is known as a foot. 

1 foot = 12 inches

A long time ago, people used their feet to measure things. But everyone has different sized feet, so it did not work very well! 

Using 12 inches put together to make one foot lets everyone have an accurate picture of what exactly a "foot" of length is. A foot can be abbreviated as ft. Sometimes you will see the apostrophe (i.e., ') to show feet.

For example, 5 feet can be written as 5 ft or 5'.

Yard

When three feet are together, it is called a yard. This isn’t the same thing as a garden, though they are both referred to as a "yard"! One yard is equal to 3 feet, or 36 inches.

1 yard = 3 feet

1 yard = 36 inches

A yard can be abbreviated as yd.

You often see distances in miles. For example, the distance between Edmonton and Fort McMurray is 271 mi.

Mile

When we put together 1,760 yards, we have a mile.

1 mile = 1,760 yards

1 mile = 5,280 feet

Miles are long distances and are mostly used to measure the distance between places that are far away from each other. Most people refer to miles when they are driving, biking, or jogging. A mile can be abbreviated as mi.