cubic gallons

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 24, 2005, at 12:21 PM, Larry Horn wrote:

> At 5:40 PM -0500 9/23/05, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>>
>> ... Here's some actual knowledge.  "Cubic gallons" is ignorance on
>> the part
>> of the user.  "Cubic" is used when describing volume to modify a
>> linear
>> measure -- cubic meters, cubic yards, cubic inches, etc.  "Gallon"
>> is a
>> measure of volume already, so adding "cubic" to it only confuses the
>> matter.
>>
> It wouldn't be the only one.  Googling "cubic gallons" turns up 501
> hits, but "square acres" yields 30,300.  The vacuous measure is here
> to stay.

as i pointed out some time ago in this thread, "square acre" is not a
pleonasm; it refers to something that is both an acre (in area) and a
square (in shape) -- an acre that's square.  now, "cubic gallon" is
much more problematic...

arnold