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Comment by dphnx | Hacker News Reader

Funny you should mention beer – I've noticed an increasing tendency for pint glasses to be marked "568ml". Milk also doesn't come in pints any more, but does come in 568ml and 1 litre varieties. Still, as a nation we ask for and think of our beer and milk in pints.

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That's another problem: you can re-label all you want, but the glasses, packings and tins are still the same size. Now if you are confronted with remembering 1 pint or fivehundredsixty... that compilcated other number, you will always opt for the easier one. Weather it's about remembering or mentioning. For the same reason we have more easily rememberable increments of 250ml, 330ml and 500ml.

The 2 cartons of milk in my fridge right now, say "2272ml 4 pints" on them.

This is because in both the US and the UK, imperial measures are legally defined in metric units. A pint is 568ml, by definition (well, in the UK, the US believes a pint is 454ml, but that's another argument).

The milk is clearly sold in pints though, if they were selling it in litres they would've sold 2 litres, not 2.272 litres.

In Canada beer is sold in 532ml cans and bottles (18fl oz?). It's funny to put imported and local beer cans next to each other, although they look the same, the local is slightly higher.

In Franconia you still ask for a "Seidla" which traditionally is 535ml but you get 500ml. In Bavaria you still ask for a "Maß" and you get 1000ml instead of 1069ml.

Ugh US vs UK!

US gallon = 3.79 Litres where as UK gallon = 4.5 Litres

US pint = 473 mL where as UK pint = 568 mL

people order beer in pints in Italy, everyone just thinks a pint is a fancy name for half a liter.

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