Hi Laura,
Here are some places to start, taken from my web site. Just to confuse things, the common English system uses two different ounces, one for weight and one for liquid. They are close enough that the difference doesn't matter for cooking. Just for the record, one fluid ounce weight 29.625 grams, while an avoirdupois ounce weighs 28.375 grams.
For my own use in baking bread, I use 8 ounces of weight for a cup of water, even though it should be 8.34 ounces.
Weights
- 1000 grams is a kilogram
- 1 kilogram is 2.2 avoirdupois pounds
- 1 avoirdupois pound is 454 grams
- 1 avoirdupois ounce is 28.375 grams
- 1 pound is 16 avoirdupois ounces
- 1 fluid ounce of water is 29.625 grams
Liquid measurements and conversions
- 1 liter of water is 1000 milliliters and weighs 1000 grams.
- 1 fluid ounce water weighs 29.625 grams.
- 1 gram of water is one milliliter.
- 1 fluid ounce of water weighs 1.043 avoirdupois ounces.
- 1 cup of water is 8 fluid ounces and weighs 8.34 avoirdupois ounces or 237 grams.
- 1 tablespoon is 15 milliliters.
- 2 tablespoons are 1 fluid ounce of water.
Length
- 1 inch is 2.54 centimeters is 25.4 millimeters.
- 10 centimeters is almost 4 inches.
- 1 meter is 39.37 inches.
Some Useful Miscellaneous Measures
- A cup of flour is 4.5 avoirdupois ounces is 128 grams (This isn't very accurate, but it's a good place to start)
- A packet of yeast is 2 1/4 teaspoons is 7 grams
- A tablespoon of salt is about 3/4 ounce
- The British formerly use a separate system named the Imperial Measurement System. They now use the metric system.
I hope this helps you.
Barry Harmon