If you happen to travel by car in the UK or the US, then a surprise is waiting for you at any gas station. The price will seem higher than usual. It may be so but also gasoline in these countries is not measured in liters. They utilize gallons, and this unit has its own meaning. Let’s discover how to transform gallons to liters and not get confused.
What do we need to know to transform gallon to liter
The history of this word’s origin has been lost through centuries of its utilization. There is an analog in the old French language that sounds like jalon. However, most likely the word has a Latin origin and comes from gallons, which means a measure of liquid. In addition, another ancient word galla means vessel and can be also related to this term. This unit was widespread in the UK and then spread to all other colonies, including the US.
Initially, it was not designed for liquids. British peasants utilized it for measuring wheat. Actually, they weighed grains in pounds that were common as grams now. Then, someone deiced to name the weight of eight pounds with the term gallon.
There is no explanation why such a thing happened. Perhaps there were some vessels or boxes with this volume and that was just convenient to count like that. Anyway, the term appeared but became quite versatile.
The value was used for both solids and liquids but with different meanings. Moreover, even liquids like water and wine differ in the resulting value. In addition, there were common traditions depending on the country and region. Thus, liquids were measured as follows:
- An American gallon was considered 3.78 liters;
- A British one was equal to 4.55 liters.
Almost one liter of difference meant a lot. However, only at the beginning of the 19th century, it was decided to unify this controversial option.
A special conference was held in the UK that established a gallon as equal to 10 pounds of distilled water at the temperature of 62 Fahrenheit degrees. It was the same as claiming 1 gallon as 4.55 liters for any substance.
However, in the United States, they never came to a single standard. There are still different gallons for liquid and bulk materials, namely:
- 1 gallon of liquid is equal to 3.8 liters;
- 1 gallon of bulk products corresponds to 4.4 liters.
How to convert gallons to liters
If you need to transform gallons to liters,you have to decide in what system you will do this. Thus, the answer to the question of how many gallons in a liter differs according to the country. In the US, 1 gallon to liter gives approximately 3.8, and in Great Britain, it is taken as 4.55.
Based on these numbers, any conversions and calculations can be made. It is easy to remember the 1:4 ratio for liters and gallons. However, if more precise calculations are required, it is worth referring to special tables or performing the conversion using a modern online calculator.
