The acre-foot is a unit of volume in the US customary unit system with the symbol ac⋅ft.
It represents the volume contained in a box measuring 660 feet long, 66 feet wide and 1 foot deep. This can be thought of a box the size of an acre but 1 foot deep.
It is approximately the same volume as an 8 lane swimming pool; 25 metres in length, 3 metres deep and 16 metres wide (assuming lanes are 2 metres wide).
It is still used in the US despite its links to the much-outdated imperial system of units. For example a "rule of thumb" is that an average suburban family's annual water usage should be around 1 acre-foot. This is equal to just under 3.4 m³ daily.
The cup is a unit of volume in the US customary unit system with the symbol cup.
It is equal to 1/2 US customary pint, 1/4 US customary quart and 1/16 US customary gallon. it is also equal to 236.5882365 millilitres.
Used primarily for cooking - the cup was adopted and established as a recognised unit of measure as it could be used by almost anyone in any kitchen. Due to the slight variants in design and size, it is rarely used as an accurate measure for important or critical materials, however it does represent a specific amount and can be used across many recipes to indicate what is needed.