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when an ounce is not an ounce

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over the past few years many people have purchased silver magnets from me
and i am very appreciative. i dont really make money from selling these, but what i appreciate is
that people are trying to do their part and not have silver in their waste stream.

i have used the term troy oz in the past when describing the weight of the silver on the cathode,
and this might be a source of confusion.
a troy oz is not the same as an " aviordupois oz"

the troy oz is a unit of measurement used in the precious metals industry
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight

in the avoirdupois system, there are 16 oz / lb, and in the troy system there are fewer.
 
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I always knew a Troy ounce weighed more than a standard ounce, I never gave a thought to how much they differed.
 
9.71% difference, Troy ounce heavier

troy ounce = 31.103g
avoirdupois ounce =28.349g
 
This confuses a lot of people, so glad you posted this.
Remember to old question: What weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? Must be feathers, because a pound of feathers weighs 16 oz., whereas a pound of gold only weighs 12 oz. As kids, we thought ounces were ounces.
 
And of course, to add further confusion on the liquid side of the equation.

An imperial ounce is a different volume that a US ounce, and as far as I know, neither liquid ounce has any correlation with a weight ounce/
 
MattKing said:
And of course, to add further confusion on the liquid side of the equation.

An imperial ounce is a different volume that a US ounce, and as far as I know, neither liquid ounce has any correlation with a weight ounce/
Click to expand...

One fluid ounce of water happens to also weigh 1 oz (avoirdupois)
 
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An ounce is not an ounce when the seller rolls a big one out of it before he sells it.
 
wiltw said:
One fluid ounce of water happens to also weigh 4 oz (avoirdupois)
Click to expand...

Are you sure?

That would mean a cup of water would weigh two pounds!

I think the answer might be closer to one ounce of water actually weighs one ounce (avoirdupois), at the right temperature.
 
silveror0 said:
'nough said. This is just a strong case in favor of the metric system.
Click to expand...

You've convinced me. I'll take a dozen pounds of those metric guys.

No. Wait a minute. Make that a baker's dozen.



Ken
 
MattKing said:
Are you sure?

That would mean a cup of water would weigh two pounds!

I think the answer might be closer to one ounce of water actually weighs one ounce (avoirdupois), at the right temperature.
Click to expand...

Weighed an empty container, zero'd the scale...poured in 4 fl.oz. of water from a 4 fl.oz measuring cup, scale went from zero to 4 oz/ 113g.

One cup is 8 fl.oz. weighing 8 oz. It would take 4 cups of water to weigh 2 lbs.
 
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wiltw said:
Weighed an empty cup, zero'd the scale...poured in 4 fl.oz. of water from a 4oz measuring cup, scale went from zero to 4 oz/ 113g.
Click to expand...

Ah - so your original post should not have said "One fluid ounce of water happens to weigh 4 oz (avoirdupois)".

It should have said "Four fluid ounce(s) of water happens to weigh 4 oz (avoirdupois)".
 
I fixed my earlier post to state what I meant to say.
 
  1. There is the fluid [liquid] ounce, both US Standard and Imperial.
  2. There is the dry ounce weight, both US Standard and Imperial.
  3. There is the Troy ounce, again weight but not the same as #2.
  4. There is the ounce of prevention which is none of the above.
 
There's an old saying, "A pint's a pound the world around". Which I guess made some sense at the time the sun didn't set on the British Empire.
 
Hmmm..I guess Dorothy actually met the Wizard of Ounce....
 
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