- For the Chinese unit of mass, see Stone (Chinese mass). Stone is the English name of the Chinese unit of mass which is called the shek (石 in Cantonese.
The stone is a unit of mass. Mass is a fundamental concept in Physics, roughly corresponding to the Intuitive idea of how much Matter there is in an object It is part of the Imperial system of weights and measures used in the British Isles, and formerly used in most Commonwealth countries. Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824 The British Isles (Irish variously Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha, Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa, Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór; Ellanyn Goaldagh Eileanan It is equal to 14 pounds and to 6. The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass 35029318 kilograms.
Eight stone make a hundredweight in the Imperial system. Hundred weight or hundredweight is a Unit of measurement for Mass in U
When used as the unit of measurement, the plural form of stone is correctly stone (as in, "11 stone"), though stones is sometimes used, not usually by natives of the British Isles. The abbreviation is st. When describing the units, the correct plural is stones (as in, "please enter your weight in stones and pounds").
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History
The stone was historically used for weighing agricultural commodities. Potatoes, for example, were traditionally sold in stone and half-stone (14-pound and 7-pound) quantities. The potato is a Starchy Tuberous crop Vegetable from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae Historically the number of pounds in a stone varied by commodity, and was not the same in all times and places even for one commodity. The OED contains examples[1] including:
| Commodity | Number of Pounds |
|---|---|
| Wool | 14, 15, 24 |
| Wax | 12 |
| Sugar and spice | 8 |
| Beef and Mutton | 8 |
Current use
Although no longer an official unit of measure, the stone remains widely used within the British Isles as a means of expressing human body weight. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Wool is the fiber derived from the specialized skin cells called follicles of animals in the Caprinae family principally sheep, but the hair of certain species Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by Bees ( Beeswax) and used by them in constructing their Sugar is a class of edible Crystalline substances mainly Sucrose, Lactose, and Fructose. A spice is a dried Seed, Fruit, Root, Bark or vegetative substance used in Nutritionally insignificant quantities as a Food additive Beef is the Culinary name for Meat from Bovines especially domestic Cattle (cows Lamb, hogget, and mutton are the meat of Domestic sheep. The meat of an animal in its first year is lamb; that of an older sheep is hogget The British Isles (Irish variously Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha, Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa, Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór; Ellanyn Goaldagh Eileanan Although many people prefer the less-ambiguous term body mass, the term body weight is overwhelmingly used in daily English speech and in biological and medical science contexts People in these countries normally describe themselves as weighing, for example, "11 stone 4" (11 stone and 4 pounds), rather than "72 kilograms" in most other countries, or "158 pounds" (the conventional way of expressing the same weight in the United States). The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Its widespread colloquial use may be compared to the persistence in the British Isles of other Imperial units like the foot, the inch, and the mile, despite these having been supplanted entirely or partly by metric units in official use and other contexts. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. A mile is a unit of Length, usually used to measure Distance, in a number of different systems including Imperial units United States Road distances and speed enforcement area are still expressed officially in yards, miles and miles-per-hour in the United Kingdom. A similar usage persists in Canada, but the Republic of Ireland now uses the metric system. In official use, provision is usually made for the public to express body weight in either stone or kilograms (similar allowance is made for measuring height in feet and inches). For example, on a National Health Service website both metric and Imperial units are used [2]. The National Health Service is the name commonly used to refer to the four Publicly-funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom collectively or individually (although
Outside the British Isles, stone may also be used to express body weight in casual contexts in other Commonwealth countries, particularly Australia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.
See also
References
External links
Although many people prefer the less-ambiguous term body mass, the term body weight is overwhelmingly used in daily English speech and in biological and medical science contexts Conversion of units refers to conversion factors between different Units of measurement for the same Quantity. English unit is the American name for a unit in one of a number of systems of Units of measurement, some obsolete and some still in use in present-day USA, the Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humansDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic