In my youth, the lyrics of a popular song, claimed:  “…  I love you, a bushel and a peck…,” by Frank Loesser (1910—1969).  Curiously, just how much love is that?  

To find out, I reverted to the Standard Weights and Measures Table, which disclosed the following tidbits of knowledge.  While I thought a “peck” was a brief kiss on the cheek, it turns out that a real peck is one-fourth of a bushel.  Accordingly, the speaker professes to love his or her squeeze, exactly five pecks.  To measure that volume, we must determine the extent of a bushel, which equals: 

— 35.239072 liters, or 

— 9.30917797334 gallons, or 

— 1.24445608 cubic feet.  

To those numbers, of course, we must add another peck (1/4 bushel) to achieve the final numbers:

— 44.04884 liters, or 

— 11.63647246675 gallons, or 

— 1.55701 cubic feet.        

I suppose when measuring love, one should do so in exacting terms.  But before concluding how much love relates to 11.63647246675 gallons, we must first differentiate between three different volume measurements: US dry gallons, US wet gallons and Imperial gallons, all of which differ.  But then, whatever the actual number of gallons, your love could turn out to be just water over the dam.  Liters and cubic feet do not fare any better.  

To make things simpler, we may consider skipping volume all together, and simply adjust to weight.  Obviously, a ton of love (2,000 pounds) would carry a lot more weight — a metric ton, a little more (2,200 pounds).  If that is too much weight, however, we could reduce the amount to a “slug” — about 31.944 pounds (14.57 kg).   Somehow, relating love measurement  with a slug may not get you where you would like to go. 

If you wish to brighten your love pledge in the largest term available, you could float:  I love you a “Chandrasekhar Limit (CSL)” — 1.4 times the mass of the sun.  No doubt, you would have to explain or define a CSL to shed some light on the topic, or perhaps throw some cool water on your expression.    

Perhaps using some vague reference, like:  “I love you a bunch!”  Now that sounds good even though it leaves the recipient in a cloud of wonderment.  Importantly, never answer the question:  “A bunch of what?”  Some measurements need to stay within one’s own imagination.