I really shouldn't have slept through my chem class in high school

I feel like a huge dummy today. I was drinking a teensy glass of milk and my mom asked why I was drinking such a small amount. I told her I measured it its a cup. But the thing is, I used a measuring cup meant for solid things, not liquids. She handed me her pyrex measuring cup for volumes...and guess what? I could have been drinking a hell of a lot more! This explains why I've been so damn hungry all the time!

So yeah, if you didn't know this already because you slept through chem like me, now you know. Treat yourself to a REAL glass of milk, lol.

lol you could've learned that from home ec too hahahaa that's where I learned mine in middle school~~

Although my dry measuring cup is sorta weird and equals to around 240 ml for 1 cup (my friends came out to 260 or something o_O). and 240 ml actually equals 8 fl oz which is like 1 liquid measuring cup. So I use my dry measuring cup for my liquid measures as well, I dunno I'm too lazy to pick a liquid measuring cup up because I'm going to move soon.

Although I did experiment with my friend's liquid measuring cup and yes, dry measuring cup does not equal one cup of liquid measuring cup. You'll get alot more with liquid measuring cup.

Either I am a little confused or you may be. 

There is absolutely a difference between dry ounces and fluid ounces (dry ounces is a weight measurement while fluid ounces is a volume measurement).  However, I am relatively certain that the measuring term "cup" is a volumetric measurement whether for liquids or solids.  The only difference between dry measuring cups and wet is that the dry cups are exact so that you can level the sugar or flour or whatever with the back of a knife and have an exact volume of 1 cup (or whatever size it happens to be).  Liquid measuring cups, on the other hand, are usually graduated so that you can pour the liquid in and stop pouring when the level of the liquid is at the measurement you want.  Also, because it is for liquid, there is extra head space so that you don't spill.  What this means is that if you filled a 1 cup liquid measure cup all the way to the brim it would certainly be more than 1 cup.  So if the amount of milk really matter to you, I would be careful using your liquid measuring cups.

EDIT: Found this definition on the online Encyclopedia Britannica:

CUP: unit of volume in the British Imperial and United States Customary systems of measurement. The U.S. liquid cup is equal to 14 7/16 cubic inches, or 236.59 cubic cm; the more rarely used U.S. dry cup is equal to 1.164 liquid cups. In Great Britain a single cup is used for both types of measurement, equal to 1.201 U.S. liquid cups (284.14 cubic cm). In either system a cup contains two gills, and two cups are contained in a pint.

So it turns out that if you really did have measuring cups with the different US measures for wet and dry, the dry would actually be more, not less.

Yeah I felt a little "out of the loop" while I read that one too.

I use my Pyrex Measuring cup to measure out a cup of water and a cup of rice.

Isn't a cup a cup?

They better be the same! I've been using my pyrex liquid measuring cup to measure my dry rice for years now.

Basically they're the same: http://www.kitchensavvy.com/journal/2007/02/d iffernece_betw.html

Original Post by igloogal:

Yeah I felt a little "out of the loop" while I read that one too.

I use my Pyrex Measuring cup to measure out a cup of water and a cup of rice.

Isn't a cup a cup?

 I think the problem is that my measuring cups are innacurate. I have like two sets of those plastic ones, and a pyrex one, and they all equal totally different things....ugh!

Also I should stop believing everything my mom tells me...but thanks for helping clear this up for me guys!

i use a food scale for everything. just find out on CC how much a cup of milk weighs and then place that much on the scale. Works for everything.

I should have read the thread through.  I didnt even get past the intial post before I was up in my kitchen with the both version measuring cups LOL. 

You would not have learnt that in chemistry any way.  Perhaps physics, definitely home ec, but not Chemistry.