29 Jun
2007
29 Jun
'07
1:25 p.m.
On 27/06/07, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 26 Jun 2007 at 22:55, Liam Proven wrote:
:?)
What I never understood is why the USA didn't
use the larger units
rather than dealing in hundreds and thousands of pounds. I don't think
of myself as being 225lb, I'm 16 and a quarter stone. (And badly need
to lose some of it; I'm 6'2" but I'm happier and healthier around 15st
or lighter.) For larger objects, hundredweight [oh gods, I've just
realised I weigh 2cwt! 8?( ] or tons. 112lb = 1cwt. 20cwt = 1 ton
(=2240lb).
I'm certain that body weight would be quoted in ounces if that would
sell more diet books. The problem with stone is that the least
significant digit increments only one for every 14 lbs.
Well, that's a problem with all Imperial units; they increment modulo
some random number. I'm just glad they're all integers. I don't see
why it makes stones any less use?
You
certainly don't measure your height in hands (just horses, right?).
I don't measure horses at all, myself. I stroke their nose, give 'em a
handful of something to eat and then go and find something more
interesting to do. :?)
But yes, AFAIK, hands are only used in horse measurement. Stones are
almost only used for people, and then, it's usually just stone except
for dieters and medical types. "14 and a half" or "8 and a quarter";
people don't generally specify stones and then pounds.
Hundredweight exists for the shipping business. We
have two tons--
one that's 2000 pounds, and the "long" ton, which is 2240 pounds and
used for coal and marine displacement.
OIC. TFTI!
I don't know if NASA still uses slugs to measure
mass, but it
certainly did as late as the 1990s.
WTF is a slug in this context?
Then there's the confusion between troy and
avoirdupois.
"Three grains of barley, dry and round..."
Oh no. That sort of thing makes me appreciate metric so very much more.
Apart from nationalism and inertia, I don't understand why anyone
prefers Imperial, myself. I only use it for a few things out of habit;
I'm perfect comfortable thinking of myself as 1m88 and 103.5kg, but
when someone says they're 1m56 tall, I have to convert to work out
what that means. :?) It's most annoying.
--
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