On 1-May-08, at 6:58 AM, matthiasm wrote:
>
>
> To me it is not so much the fractions, but the - to me - entirely
> random choice of how much of one thing is another thing. Like 12
> inches to the foot? Who came up with that? Why twelve? And three feet
> to the yard? But how many yards to the mile? Few people even know.
> When I made my california Drivers License, I did not know what a yard
> was, so I went to the lady who was watching over us: How many yards
> from a crossing...? was the question. Knowing miles and feet, I asked
> her to explain a yard to me. She shrugged and her answer was: "Check
> b) and you're fine." .
>
> Perfect answer to me in that situation ;-)
>
I have to agree that Imperial measurements do not make sense, evan to
a canuk :-)
2x4 is as far as I am aware the rough dimensions of lumber, I have
actually seen some of these in
houses that date back to the early 1900's and barns and such.
If I recall right the Imperial measurements come from Egypt and some
emperor decided the middle
finger bone of the first finger was an inch. Back then everything was
based on average human
dimensions for bones. That said it would be hard to get anything
consistent as people do vary :-)
> In metric, everything is divided by the number of finger I have
> (unless I am a carpenter with a table saw...).
>
> Matthias
>
yes but remember that you also have toes to count with :-)
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Received on Thu May 1 11:41:32 2008
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