Goodbye gallon: Gulf News guide on how to speak metric

Dubai: The UAE has announced it is leaving the ever shortening list of countries still using the gallon in January.

The switch to the metric system will have a profound affect on every aspect of our lives, including the way we speak.

Gulf News brings you a few facts and a guide to changes in your language the metric system will bring.

The new metric language: 

• The 10 Gallon Hat is now know as the 45 Litre hat
• Jewellery stores begin selling the Litrez line of Swiss watches
• Pharmacies now have Dr. Scholl’s Athlete’s 30 centimetre spray
• McDonald’s begin serving 113 gram burger
• Actor Edward Furlong will be known as Edward 201 metres
• Book Stores begin selling Jules Verne’s 96,560 kilometres Under the Sea
• Fish now breathe through 142mililitres
• Vertically challenged people can no longer be called pint-sized but 568 millilitre-sized
• Winnie the Pooh now lives at 4 million square metre wood
• You now have to walk 1.6km in someone’s shoes to know them

A gallon of facts: 

• The Gallon was officially standardized in 1824.
• Before standardization the volume of a gallon depended on what was being measured like the corn gallon and the wine gallon.
• Britain adopted a close approximation to the ale gallon known as the Imperial gallon and abolished all other gallons in favour of it.
• The US gallon is 3.8 litres while the imperial gallon is 4.5 litres
• The Imperial gallon continues to be used as a unit of measurement in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Burma (Myanmar), Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana and Sierra Leone.

 Share your views
What will your favourite metric phrases be? What do you think of the switch? Which unit of measurement is used in your home country? Have you come across any quirky facts that you want to share with us? Tell us.