Re: [NTLK] [OT] Exact Measurement of Newton 2000 Screen

From: Doug Denby <ddenby_at_rogers.com>
Date: Thu May 01 2008 - 11:16:19 EDT

Distance between end of thumb and first knuckle = 1 inch. A rough
approximation but appropriate when you don't have a ruler.
Twelve of those is generally the length of a normally proportioned
male person.
Four those is generally the width of a hand and useful for measuring
the height of a horse.
Compare to the cubit of biblical ark fame.

A yard is the length of a single pace. The pace of most people is
equal to the length of three of their feet. i.e. one foot distance is
left between the toe of one foot and the hell of the other when
intently walking. Coincidently this is the distance for normally
proportioned males from the tip of their fingers to the nose when arms
are outstretched. Standardized to King Henry I's (1068-1135) personal
measurements. This comes in useful when measuring the length of a rope
or cloth or such materials. (3 feet to a yard)

Two of them make up a fathom -- the length of the rope between two
outstretched arms when pulling a weighted rope up from the bottom of
the sea -- a useful water depth measure. (6 feet to a fathom).

The acre is the only unit of area in common use, other than the square-
foot, and the square mile. The rood is an area of 1 furlong by 1 rod,
or 1210 sq. yds. An acre is four roods. An acre is traditionally
thought of as the area that could be ploughed by a team of oxen in a
morning without tiring them. A rod comes out to 5 and a half yards. It
is also called a pole, perch or lugg.

A chain is made up of 100 links and is standardly used to measure the
width of roads and areas of fields, etc. It equals 66 feet or 22
yards. 10 chains makes a furlong; 12 furlongs makes a league. A league
is 3 miles. Of course, the length of a league has changed over time.
It used to be longer.

A fathom is a word that comes from the Old English fæthm, meaning
"outstretched arms", because a fathom is the distance between a man's
outstretched fingertips. This is a generic unit that has been used in
many cultures since ancient times. Other versions include the Spanish
braza, the French brasse and toise, the German klafter, the Danish
favn (6.18 feet or 1.88 meters), the Swedish famn (5.84 feet or 1.78
meters) and the Japanese ken. In England, the fathom was a common unit
during Saxon times, and it continued to be used for many purposes
through the medieval era. In fact, the length of the foot may have
been defined, early in the twelfth century, specifically to assure
that 1 foot = exactly 1/6 fathom. Today the fathom is used almost
exclusively at sea, measuring water depth, the length of ships'
cables, etc.

Confused yet?

Doug

On May 1, 2008, at 8:58 AM, matthiasm wrote:

>
> On 01.05.2008, at 14:20, Lord Groundhog wrote:
>> As it happens I prefer the metric system for most things but feel
>> comfortable with both, apart from the British thing of weighing
>> people in
>> "stones" -- I mean, come on! Stones? You want to talk about a lack
>> of
>> precision, weighing in stones and pounds tends to be minus ounces:
>> useless!
>
>
> 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 ;-)
>
> In metric, everything is divided by the number of finger I have
> (unless I am a carpenter with a table saw...).
>
> Matthias
>
> ----
> http://robowerk.com/
>
>
>
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>
>

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Received on Thu May 1 11:23:41 2008

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