Why is alcohol measured in percentages?
Why is alcohol measured in percentages?
I feel like it would be useful to know exactly how much alcohol is in a can or a bottle. Also why is alcohol the only thing measured in percentages and not sugar or caffeine or medicine?
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There are special rules for labelling for alcohol given the obvious risks of consuming more than you realised.
Here alcohol must show the percentage alcohol content, but alcohol designed to be consumed as-is (without mixing) also states the number of standard drinks.
The number of standard drinks is the same as the "amount of alcohol" you mentioned.
Other ingredients like sugar aren't shown as a percentage because manufacturers don't want to show it, and it's not required by law because although there are risks of excess consumption, they're not "immediate risk to life" type risks.
Yeah, NZ & Aus both have a 'standard drinks' system.
My guess is that larger quantities of alcohol (particularly bottles of spirits but also wine) simply aren't intended to be drunk by one person in one sitting. Total volume of alcohol isn't that useful; it's more useful to be able to work out how much is in one shot or one glass.
This is especially important when you look at the same product being sold by the shot/bottle/cask/barrel, or being able to buy a gallon of it in your own container historically.
Yep, in the UK we have both abv and units of alcohol on most drinks. So you can go by whichever makes most sense for you.