Gallon or Liter???

So today’s lunch conversation was rather humorous. I had the noble task of explaining exactly how much a gallon was and how our volume unit system worked. The question came up after I mentioned something about buying a gallon of milk. Let’s have a look at the break down.

1 Gallon = 4 Quarts = 8 Pints = 128 Ounces = 256 Tablespoons = 768 Teaspoons = 6144 Pinches

Now let’s look at the metric system which is used everywhere in Europe… and most of the world…

1 Liter = 100 Centiliters = 10 Deciliter = 1000 Milliliters = 1000 Cubic Centimeters

Which looks simpler to you? If you were a German (try to imagine this), what would you think of English units?? They were baffled that we followed such a system with normal products like pop, gas, and milk. Further, one gallon is about 3.79 liters, so it is naturally a larger volume to measure things with on a regular basis. This does lead to some interesting cultural observations.

First of all, Germans buy milk by the liter. It comes in a cardboard carton and larger sizes are not common. They buy these one or two at a time. Now consider our milk purchasing habits... I told them that my family would normally go through three gallons a week normally when I was younger. That is over 11 liters of milk per week! They nearly fell over when I told them this. What really got them was how our milk “jugs” have handles on them. They couldn’t get over how we would carry milk around with a “built-in” handle. The next question naturally was, “How do you fit them in your refrigerator?” My answer was that our refrigerators are much larger. Most Germans have what we would call a mini-fridge. They proceeded to awe at the fact that we had a kühlschrank nearly the size of a room (exaggeration). Further awed by the fact that our fridges produced ice on a regular basis, they went into a discussion on the wasted energy use. I assured them that new fridges really do not use up nearly as much energy as older models, and that ice is actually WONDERFUL with drinks.

I digress… units…

While we purchase gallons of milk in the USA, they purchase just about every other drink in 1 liter or 1.5 liter bottles. Want a bottle of water? I hope you are okay with a giant bottle, because that is all they have! Let’s look at some comparisons…

12 oz can of Dr. Pepper = 0.355 liters

20 oz bottle of Dr. Pepper = 0.590 liters

2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper = 2 liters (that was a hard one!)

You will also find that almost all beer in Germany is sold in 0.5 liter bottles, which is also more than our normal 12 ounce cans or bottles. Let’s not consider our price conversions…

0.5 liter bottle of Franziskaner German beer = 0.80 € = $1.13 … $2.26 / liter

12 oz bottle of Amber Bock USA beer = $1.00 … $2.82 / liter

My last bit on German drinks is that EVERY container that holds a drink from a restaurant will have a tiny measuring line on the side to indicate EXCATLY how much fluid is in the container. Even McDonald’s and Burger King have these lines. “No ice please… just give me the exact amount I purchased. I will check… don’t worry.” German precision…

While we are on this topic, let’s compare gas prices…

1 gallon of gas in America = $3.50 … $3.50 / gallon

1 liter of gas in Germany = 1.50€ … $2.12 / liter … $8.04 / gallon

So much for complaining about gas prices! This may explain why everyone in America drives and why everyone here hops a bus, train, or bicycle. Driving is NOT cheap.

So there is your science/cultural/math lesson for the day! Macht’s gut!

Corey