Metric Tablespoons to Imperial Fluid Ounces (tbsp to fl oz (UK))

1 metric tablespoon equals 0.5279261959 imperial fluid ounces (rounded).

1 metric tablespoon = 0.5279261959 imperial fluid ounces

How to convert metric tablespoons to imperial fluid ounces

To convert metric tablespoons to imperial fluid ounces, multiply the number of metric tablespoons by 0.5279261959. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply imperial fluid ounces by 1.894204167 (rounded).

imperial fluid ounces = metric tablespoons × 0.5279261959

Example: 10 metric tablespoons = 5.279261959 imperial fluid ounces.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Metric Tablespoon (tbsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 15 mL, used in most countries.

Fifteen milliliters is the working size of the tablespoon in most of the world, and it is a rounded figure. Older customary values were about 14.8 mL for the US and about 14.2 mL for the UK, and modern UK and US measuring spoons are both treated as 15 mL in most contexts. The tablespoon itself dates to the early 1700s, when it first appeared in place settings for soup.

The 15 mL spoon is a staple in recipes everywhere. Three metric teaspoons make a tablespoon, and 16 and two thirds make a 250 mL metric cup. Australia is the notable exception, using a 20 milliliter tablespoon and counting four teaspoons to it, so a recipe from one country can taste off in another. Check which spoon a cook has in mind: scoops of oil, honey or baking powder amount to a third more in Australia.

1 metric tablespoon = 0.015 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tablespoon; Wikipedia: Metric cup

Imperial Fluid Ounce (fl oz (UK))

Imperial (British)Current unit

Exactly 28.4130625 mL. About 4% smaller than the US fluid ounce.

Imperial fluid ounce comes from the 1824 reform that defined the British gallon as the volume of ten pounds of water. Because a gallon was set at 160 fluid ounces, an ounce of water weighs about one ounce of mass, around 28.35 grams. That neat link between volume and weight was the point of the imperial scheme, and it explains why people long thought of fluid ounces and weight ounces as nearly the same.

Today an imperial fluid ounce is exactly 28.4130625 milliliters, one twentieth of an imperial pint. That is about 4 percent smaller than the US fluid ounce at 29.57 mL, so a US recipe using fluid ounces does not map one-for-one onto a British one. UK trade rules restricted its use in 1995, and it lives on mostly on older labels, in bars and in recipes. Twenty of them fill an imperial pint, which makes the pint the easiest way to picture one.

1 imperial fluid ounce = 0.0284130625 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Fluid ounce; UK Weights and Measures Act 1985, Schedule 1

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