Wheat vs. Water

An explanation of the Avoirdupois and International Metric weight systems.

‘Honest scales and balances belong to the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making.’ Proverbs 16:11

Historically, goods were measured by the weight of one ‘grain’ of wheat. In 1795, the French introduced a system based on the weight of one drop of water, a ‘gram.’

My wife is my sounding board. She holds a doctorate from Vanderbilt and serves as a hospital executive for the only Level 3 trauma hospital in northwestern Oklahoma.

Rachelle keeps me humble.

‘Wade, nobody wants to understand how things are measured.’

I laughed. Of course, she’s right. But…

There’s a difference between what you want to understand and what you need to understand.

Modern Americans fall far short in their education.

Aspirin and Ammo: Avoirdupois Rules

Ever notice how aspirin bottles in the U.S. list doses in grains? A standard aspirin might be 5 grains. Ammo, too, loves the avoirdupois system —bullet weights are often given in grains (e.g., a 124-grain 9mm round).

Other products are weighted using the avoirdupois system (16 ounces to a pound) while the troy system (12 ounces to a pound) is reserved for precious metals.

Though I’m not a financial advisor like Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, shame, I help people see the value of precious metals.

If you hold an ounce of silver in your hand, it weighs 10% more than an ounce of meat.

However, if you hold a troy pound of silver in your hand, it weighs over 20% less than a standard avoidupois pound of meat.

Confused? You should be. How things are weighed isn’t as simple as you think.

Bottom line, if you hold precious metals, you need to know how things are weighed.

The History of How Things Were Weighed

Picture this: An English-speaking farmer walks through his field of wheat, picking off one small grain at a time, as he attempts to figure out how much his entire harvest weighs (see video below).

Meanwhile, a French scientist places a tiny cube of water on scales and confidently declares that a drop of water, not a grain of wheat, should be the unit of weight for the measurement of all goods.