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Imperial Units

Learn about common imperial units and how they relate to other units of measurement

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Units of weight

Ton was standardised in the 13th century and should not be confused with the metric tonne that has a different spelling.

Stone derives from the use of stones for weights, a practice that dates back into antiquity

Pound is descended from the Roman libra (hence the abbreviation lb). The English word pound is derived from German Pfund, Dutch pond, and Swedish pund.

Ounce derived almost unchanged from the uncia, an ancient Roman unit of measurement.

1 ton = 160 stones1 stone = 14 pounds1 pound = 16 ounces

This is level 2: units of weight. You will be awarded a trophy if you get at least 14 correct and you do this activity online.

1

What is the abbreviation or symbol used for pounds?

2

What is the abbreviation or symbol used for tons?

3

What is the abbreviation or symbol used for ounces?

4

How many ounces are in a stone?

5

How many pounds are in a ton?

6

How many ounces are in a ton?

7

How many ounces are in 3 pounds?

8

How many pounds are in 6 stones?

9

How many stones are in 2 tons?

10

How many pounds are equivalent to 112 ounces?

11

How many stones are equivalent to 112 pounds?

12

How many stones are equivalent to 1120 ounces?

13

I planned to pick three stones of apples but only managed half of that. How many pounds of apples did I pick?

14

A small rowing boat weighs four and a half stones.
How many ounces is that weight equivalent to?

15

How many 8oz bags of sweets can be obtained from a three pound jar of sweets?

16

Lofty was seven stone five pounds when he first joined Aston Cottage School. He is now eight stone twelve pounds. By how many pounds has his weight increased?

17

Subtract 2st 9lb from 8st 4lb giving your answer as a number of pounds.

18

A bag of Cakewell flour weighs one pound and two ounces. What is the total weight, in pounds, of 24 bags of this flour?

19

How many times heavier is a rock weighing eleven stones than a rock weighting eleven pounds?

20

Find three quarters of thirteen tons. Give your answer as a number of stones.

Check

In the United Kingdom, the (Imperial) ton is defined as 2240 pounds.

In the United States and Canada, a ton is defined to be 2000 pounds!

This exercise refers to the United Kingdom ton.

This is Imperial Units level 2. You can also try:
Level 1 Level 3

Instructions

Try your best to answer the questions above. Type your answers into the boxes provided leaving no spaces. As you work through the exercise regularly click the "check" button. If you have any wrong answers, do your best to do corrections but if there is anything you don't understand, please ask your teacher for help.

When you have got all of the questions correct you may want to print out this page and paste it into your exercise book. If you keep your work in an ePortfolio you could take a screen shot of your answers and paste that into your Maths file.

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Striped Sweets

Colour the sweet wrappers so that no two are the same. A multi-level activity designed to encourage a systematic strategy for finding all of the different permutations.

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Description of Levels

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Level 1 - Units of length

Level 2 - Units of weight

Level 3 - Units of capacity

Exam Style Questions - A collection of problems in the style of GCSE or IB/A-level exam paper questions (worked solutions are available for Transum subscribers).

More on this topic including lesson Starters, visual aids, investigations and self-marking exercises.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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Curriculum Reference

See the National Curriculum page for links to related online activities and resources.

Conversion Information

1 mile = 1760 yards1 yard = 3 feet1 foot = 12 inches

1 ton = 160 stones1 stone = 14 pounds1 pound = 16 ounces

1 gallon = 4 quarts1 quart = 2 pints1 pint = 20 fluid ounces

 

Compared to metric units

The sign ≈ means approximately equal to.

1 inch ≈ 2.5cm

5 miles ≈ 8 km

2.2 lb (pounds) ≈ 1kg

1.75 pints ≈ 1 litre

1 gallon ≈ 4.5 litres

 

Don't wait until you have finished the exercise before you click on the 'Check' button. Click it often as you work through the questions to see if you are answering them correctly. You can double-click the 'Check' button to make it float at the bottom of your screen.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

Log in Sign up

Just when I thought I knew all of the imperial units I heard Matt Parker (Standup Maths) list them all, even the more obscure ones, in this wonderful monologue. When you hear their names and their relative sizes you cannot help but be grateful for the metric system which is more common today.

Matt Parker's Imperial Units

More or Less Podcast Matt Parker's Website Transum Podcast

This audio excerpt is from an excellent podcast from BBC Radio 4 called More or Less: Behind the Stats in which Tim Harford tries to make sense of the statistics which surround us. It's well worth a listen if you have an interest in mathematics and statistics and provides real world examples of the maths we learn in school.

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