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How many of us learned in grade school the phrase: “A pint is a pound the world around.”
This, unfortunately, is simply not true.
Note that a pint is 16 ounces of volume, while a pound is 16 ounces of weight.
If you’re measuring water the number of ounces in volume is similar to the number of ounces in weight. This may be where the phrase comes from. But it isn’t true for most other substances. Ex. a pint of gold would not be one pound.
In beekeeping a pint of honey is not a pound. Depending on the density (thickness) of the honey, a pint (volume) of honey actually will weigh approximately 22oz. (One pound, 6 ounces).
Exactly why is this important? Because, at least here in the US honey is typically sold by weight rather than volume. So, if you purchase a pint jar filled with honey it will say 1lb.6oz. If you purchase a 1 pound jar the jar will read 16 ounces but by volume you will be purchasing approximately 12 ounces.
Beekeeping365 
Nice. Good explanation of volume vs weight and the fact that honey (which is 80% sugar) is heavier than water. The expression “a pint is a pound” does come from the weight of 16 fluid ounces of water, as you note. Similarly, the metric system links one litre of water (volume) to exactly one kilogram of water (weight).
The part of the “a pint is a pound the world around” which is no longer true is that almost every country in the world uses the metric system. For 90% of the world’s population, the expression is totally meaningless. They’ve never used pints or pounds. (I’m guessing that the ditty goes back to the days when the British had colonies the world around.)
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Thank you for your comment Ron. And thanks for the world perspective too. The inspiration for this post came from ongoing confusion, year to year, on this issue as relates to honey packaging and feeding. Recently my heart broke when a lady brought her honey entry to the state fair in the wrong jar. I suspect the “a pint is a pound” played a part in her mistake. Thanks again.
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A British pint is also 20% bigger than an American pint. It seems that pounds are the same.
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Thanks. I didn’t know that.
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Luckily my English recipe books list fluid ounces not pints! There are 20 in an English pint and I found out today that even the fluid ounces aren’t quite the same size. I’m going to use that excuse when my cakes fail!
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Oh no! 🙂
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