Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4 gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today
I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4
gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


This seems a large discrepancy even for a container not selling product
by volume. Which gallon (USA or Imperial) does the container use? How
did you do the sums to work out your figure?

David

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

Repeating Decimal wrote:
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4 gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


That's about right. A gallon pot normally holds about 3/4 gallon. Don't
try to make sense of it.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"We recognize, however dimly, that greater efficiency, ease, and
security may come at a substantial price in freedom, that law and order
can be a doublethink version of oppression, that individual liberties
surrendered for whatever good reason are freedom lost."
Walter Cronkite, in the preface to the 1984 edition of 1984

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

in article , David Hare-Scott
at wrote on 6/26/03 4:37 PM:


"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today
I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4
gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


This seems a large discrepancy even for a container not selling product
by volume. Which gallon (USA or Imperial) does the container use? How
did you do the sums to work out your figure?

David


I used the US gallon which is the smallest on my calculator. I US gallon is
231 cubic inches.

The formula I derived, although it should be available in reference books,
is:

V = (pi/3)*H*(R^2 +R*r+r^2).

H is the height of the conical frustum representing the shape of the
container. R and r are the upper and lower radii. H= 12 inches. R and r are
each *half* of the diameters 9.75 and 8.5 inches respectively. Out comes
3.4Gal.

Bill

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
in article , David
Hare-Scott
at wrote on 6/26/03 4:37 PM:


"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me.
Today
I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4
gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


This seems a large discrepancy even for a container not selling
product
by volume. Which gallon (USA or Imperial) does the container use?
How
did you do the sums to work out your figure?

David


I used the US gallon which is the smallest on my calculator. I US
gallon is
231 cubic inches.

The formula I derived, although it should be available in reference
books,
is:

V = (pi/3)*H*(R^2 +R*r+r^2).

H is the height of the conical frustum representing the shape of the
container. R and r are the upper and lower radii. H= 12 inches. R and
r are
each *half* of the diameters 9.75 and 8.5 inches respectively. Out
comes
3.4Gal.

Bill


Bill

Your sums are right giving 785 cu in and it seems (not being a native
user of US gallons) there are in fact 231 cubic inches per US (liquid)
gallon. So it looks like these pots are a very nominal 5 gallons.
Since you are buying a plant not an amount of soil I don't suppose it
matters much. I wouldn't want to buy soil, compost, etc from somebody
who used those volume measures though :-)


David

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4 gallons


They also make 3 1/2 gal containers. They must have been mislabeled! Go back
and complain! Don't let them get away with 1 1/2 gallons of your space! After
all, isn't your space personal? If someone tried to take advantage of my
personal space I'd give them what fur!

Jack

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

Repeating Decimal wrote:

in article , David Hare-Scott
at wrote on 6/26/03 4:37 PM:


"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today
I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4
gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


This seems a large discrepancy even for a container not selling product
by volume. Which gallon (USA or Imperial) does the container use? How
did you do the sums to work out your figure?

David


I used the US gallon which is the smallest on my calculator. I US gallon is
231 cubic inches.

The formula I derived, although it should be available in reference books,
is:

V = (pi/3)*H*(R^2 +R*r+r^2).

H is the height of the conical frustum representing the shape of the
container. R and r are the upper and lower radii. H= 12 inches. R and r are
each *half* of the diameters 9.75 and 8.5 inches respectively. Out comes
3.4Gal.

Your formula's correct. I imagine it is mostly blatant marketing
lies...much like the fact that monitors would measure 15" but only be
13.5" while a 19" TV is always 19".

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:01:35 -0400, DigitalVinyl wrote:

Repeating Decimal wrote:

in article , David
Hare-Scott at wrote on 6/26/03 4:37 PM:


"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today
I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4
gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


This seems a large discrepancy even for a container not selling product
by volume. Which gallon (USA or Imperial) does the container use? How
did you do the sums to work out your figure?

David


I used the US gallon which is the smallest on my calculator. I US gallon
is 231 cubic inches.

The formula I derived, although it should be available in reference
books, is:

V = (pi/3)*H*(R^2 +R*r+r^2).

H is the height of the conical frustum representing the shape of the
container. R and r are the upper and lower radii. H= 12 inches. R and r
are each *half* of the diameters 9.75 and 8.5 inches respectively. Out
comes 3.4Gal.

Your formula's correct. I imagine it is mostly blatant marketing
lies...much like the fact that monitors would measure 15" but only be
13.5" while a 19" TV is always 19".

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

A 19" TV has the same viewing area as a 19" monitor, the convention of
defining a CRT based on the maximum diameter of the tube itself rather
than the actual size of the picture arose with TVs. Once something becomes
an industry standard you can't change it even if it's widely regarded as
wrong. Assuming that the OP is correct and that a 5 gallon pot is really
3.4 gallons then there is probably some rational explanation for this
buried deep in the mists of time. If a pot were cylindrical rather than
conical then maybe a pot with the same diameter as the mouth of the
conical pot would hold 5 rather than 3.4 gallons (I haven't done the
calculation but it feels right). As another poster pointed out, plants are
sold in pots not dirt so their is no fraud involved. Dirt is sold in cubic
feet or yards not in gallons.

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

in article , David Hare-Scott
at wrote on 6/27/03 1:35 AM:

Your sums are right giving 785 cu in and it seems (not being a native
user of US gallons) there are in fact 231 cubic inches per US (liquid)
gallon. So it looks like these pots are a very nominal 5 gallons.
Since you are buying a plant not an amount of soil I don't suppose it
matters much. I wouldn't want to buy soil, compost, etc from somebody
who used those volume measures though :-)

It does matter! Bigger pots, supposedly have larger plants than smaller
ones. This is especially true for fruit trees where the plants can be very
expensive. On canned soup supplier was once nailed for filling its bowl with
marbles in order to make you think you were getting more than you were.

Bill

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

in article , David Hare-Scott
at wrote on 6/27/03 1:35 AM:

Your sums are right giving 785 cu in and it seems (not being a native
user of US gallons) there are in fact 231 cubic inches per US (liquid)
gallon. So it looks like these pots are a very nominal 5 gallons.
Since you are buying a plant not an amount of soil I don't suppose it
matters much. I wouldn't want to buy soil, compost, etc from somebody
who used those volume measures though :-)

It does matter! Bigger pots, supposedly have larger plants than smaller
ones. This is especially true for fruit trees where the plants can be very
expensive. On canned soup supplier was once nailed for filling its bowl with
marbles in order to make you think you were getting more than you were.

Bill

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

in article , B. Joshua Rosen at
wrote on 6/27/03 9:13 AM:

A 19" TV has the same viewing area as a 19" monitor, the convention of
defining a CRT based on the maximum diameter of the tube itself rather
than the actual size of the picture arose with TVs. Once something becomes
an industry standard you can't change it even if it's widely regarded as
wrong. Assuming that the OP is correct and that a 5 gallon pot is really
3.4 gallons then there is probably some rational explanation for this
buried deep in the mists of time. If a pot were cylindrical rather than
conical then maybe a pot with the same diameter as the mouth of the
conical pot would hold 5 rather than 3.4 gallons (I haven't done the
calculation but it feels right). As another poster pointed out, plants are
sold in pots not dirt so their is no fraud involved. Dirt is sold in cubic
feet or yards not in gallons.

Would you buy a four inch tall tree in a 5 gallon pot for the same price as
you would a 5 foot tall tree? Even if your got a full size tree in a small
pot, it would be much more likely to be root bound, and require immediate
repotting.

Bill

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

in article , B. Joshua Rosen at
wrote on 6/27/03 9:13 AM:

A 19" TV has the same viewing area as a 19" monitor, the convention of
defining a CRT based on the maximum diameter of the tube itself rather
than the actual size of the picture arose with TVs. Once something becomes
an industry standard you can't change it even if it's widely regarded as
wrong. Assuming that the OP is correct and that a 5 gallon pot is really
3.4 gallons then there is probably some rational explanation for this
buried deep in the mists of time. If a pot were cylindrical rather than
conical then maybe a pot with the same diameter as the mouth of the
conical pot would hold 5 rather than 3.4 gallons (I haven't done the
calculation but it feels right). As another poster pointed out, plants are
sold in pots not dirt so their is no fraud involved. Dirt is sold in cubic
feet or yards not in gallons.

Would you buy a four inch tall tree in a 5 gallon pot for the same price as
you would a 5 foot tall tree? Even if your got a full size tree in a small
pot, it would be much more likely to be root bound, and require immediate
repotting.

Bill

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

"B. Joshua Rosen" wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:01:35 -0400, DigitalVinyl wrote:

Repeating Decimal wrote:

in article , David
Hare-Scott at wrote on 6/26/03 4:37 PM:


"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
The five gallon containers for plants always seemed small to me. Today
I got
to measure one of them. When I calculated the volume, it was 3.4
gallons not
five. Am I missing something? Is there a arcane standard for this?

Bill


This seems a large discrepancy even for a container not selling product
by volume. Which gallon (USA or Imperial) does the container use? How
did you do the sums to work out your figure?

David


I used the US gallon which is the smallest on my calculator. I US gallon
is 231 cubic inches.

The formula I derived, although it should be available in reference
books, is:

V = (pi/3)*H*(R^2 +R*r+r^2).

H is the height of the conical frustum representing the shape of the
container. R and r are the upper and lower radii. H= 12 inches. R and r
are each *half* of the diameters 9.75 and 8.5 inches respectively. Out
comes 3.4Gal.

Your formula's correct. I imagine it is mostly blatant marketing
lies...much like the fact that monitors would measure 15" but only be
13.5" while a 19" TV is always 19".

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

A 19" TV has the same viewing area as a 19" monitor,
No, this hasn't been true- a class action lawsuit was filed and won
against computer monitor manufacturers due to this.

new SONY 36" HDTV = 36" viewable
15yr old 19" TV = 19" viewable
25yr old 19" TV = 19" viewable
5yr old 21" no-name = 20" viewable
7yr old 17" Nokia = 15.7" viewable
12yr old 16" Nanao = 14.5" viewable

TVs are always accurate take a tape measure into a electronics store.
Monitors used to be sold as 13,14,15,17,19,21 inches. Now you will
see 15.9",18.1",20.1" these are formerly 17", 19", 21" monitors. They
now show overly accurate sizes because for years they out and out
lied. Viewable areas were as much as 2 inches smaller than stated. I
got a check for a couple of bucks from the class action lawsuit
regarding this. woo-hoo!

the convention of
defining a CRT based on the maximum diameter of the tube itself rather
than the actual size of the picture arose with TVs.
In my short lifetime Tvs have been accurate. CRTs were the only ones
with discrepancies. In the last 15 years that I've bought TVs they
have always been
Once something becomes
an industry standard you can't change it even if it's widely regarded as
wrong. Assuming that the OP is correct and that a 5 gallon pot is really
3.4 gallons then there is probably some rational explanation for this
buried deep in the mists of time. If a pot were cylindrical rather than
conical then maybe a pot with the same diameter as the mouth of the
conical pot would hold 5 rather than 3.4 gallons (I haven't done the
calculation but it feels right). As another poster pointed out, plants are
sold in pots not dirt so their is no fraud involved. Dirt is sold in cubic
feet or yards not in gallons.
Eliminating the slope from the pot will increase its volume only to
3.89 gallons. To get this 12" high pot to hold 5 Gallons you would
have to increase its height to 18" tall. More than a slight change. I
actually found "five gallon" pots on the net that were even smaller
than this... they only hold 2.21 gallons.

I bought planters online and when they said they were 22qt..they were
22 qt... 8 gallons was 8 gallons...But then they don't sell 5 gallon
pots. They sell a 11" pot that holds 2 gallons.

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

In our last fun filled episode, Fri, 27 Jun 2003 17:58:50 GMT,
Repeating Decimal proclaimed:

It does matter! Bigger pots, supposedly have larger plants than smaller
ones. This is especially true for fruit trees where the plants can be very
expensive. On canned soup supplier was once nailed for filling its bowl with
marbles in order to make you think you were getting more than you were.

Wow, the manufacturer went to all the trouble and expense of
driving to my house and putting marbles in my bowl? I'm certainly
impressed by their industriousness.


Pam, but I'm gonna have to have a talk with the Puppies O'
Thunder about letting strange soup manufacturers in the house
when I'm not home.
the house.




---
"Oh no, not again."
- A bowl of petunias on its way to certain death

Does five gallon container contain five gallons?
 

"Lorenzo L. Love" writes:

That's about right. A gallon pot normally holds about 3/4
gallon. Don't try to make sense of it.

It's probably a full gallon if you heap it up.


--
Aaron