Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the Decimal, decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in French Revolution, France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the d ...

is official but it uses a mixture of U.S., metric and

Spanish customary units There are a number of Spanish units of measurement of length or area that are virtually obsolete due to metrication. They include the vara, the cordel, the league and the labor. The units of area used to express the area of land are still encounte ...

History

In May 1910 most of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

adopted a common system of measurements.Ministerio de Economía de Guatemala
Sistema Internacional de Unidades
In May 1921 Guatemala became officially metric.

Non metric units used today

Among the Guatemalan units of measurement some are based on old Spanish units; they include the ''vara'' and ''cuadra'' linear measurements; the ''vara cuadrada'', the ''manzana'' and the ''cuerda'' units of area; and the ''libra'', ''arroba'', ''quintal'' and ''garrafón'' units of weight and volume. The ''vara cuadrada'' or square vara is commonly used in land transactions in Guatemala and 10,000 square varas equal one ''manzana''. One square vara equals , while one ''manzana'' equals . The term cuerda can refer to areas of different sizes. Cuerdas can refer to areas that are 50 x 50, 40 x 40, 30 x 30, 25 x 25 or 20 x 20 varas (i.e. 2500, 1600, 900, 625, or 400 square varas). In addition, some sources describe a cuerda as 32 x 32 varas. In Guatemala, the linear vara is 0.8421 meters. (The length of vara varies slightly among different Latin American countries.) *One cuerda of 50 x 50 varas = *One cuerda of 40 x 40 varas = *One cuerda of 30 x 30 varas = *One cuerda of 25 x 25 varas = *One cuerda of 20 x 20 varas = A Spanish pound ''(libra)'' is 460 grams.

US Customary Units Used in Guatemala Today

Some United States customary units are also used in Guatemala. These include gallons inches, feet, miles, pounds (note the Spanish pound is also used) and ounces. * Gasoline and diesel fuel are sold by the

US gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...

. * Some food items such as meat, sugar and coffee sold by the pound. *

Display size On 2D displays, such as computer monitors and TVs, the display size (or viewable image size or VIS) is the physical size of the area where pictures and videos are displayed. The size of a screen is usually described by the length of its diago ...

s for screens on

television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

s and computer monitors have their

diagonal In geometry, a diagonal is a line segment joining two vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, when those vertices are not on the same edge. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word ''diagonal'' derives from the ancient Greek δ� ...

measured in inches. *

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

sells its ''

Quarter Pounder The Quarter Pounder is a hamburger sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, so named for containing a patty with a precooked weight of 4 oz, a quarter of a pound (113.4 g). It was first introduced in 1971. In 2013, the Qua ...

with cheese'' as "Cuarto de Libra con Queso", which translates from Spanish as "Quarter Pound with Cheese". * Like in most countries, aviation (altitude and

flight level In aviation and aviation meteorology, a flight level (FL) is an aircraft's altitude at standard air pressure, expressed in hundreds of feet. The air pressure is computed assuming an International Standard Atmosphere pressure of 1013.25 hPa ...

) is measured in feet.

Notes

References

* {{Metrication Economy of Guatemala