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

From: Abraham Limpo Martínez <abraham_at_familialimpo.net>
Date: Thu May 01 2008 - 12:24:17 EDT

As for the choice of 12 instead of 10, is easy: 12 is easily divisible
by 4, 3 and 2. 10 can only be divided by 5 and 2. Most old european
measures (before the introduction of decimal system) are powers of 12
instead of 10, mainly because most old european measures (and, by
extension, american measures) derive from the roman pound, which was
divided by 12 ounces; the only exception, of course is the pound
avoirdupois (the common pound), which is divisible by 16.

(As for the pound in currency, is a direct successor of the Roman "As
Libral". Charlemagne adopted the pound for his empire. The equivalence
was 1 pound = 2 Mark = 20 "Sueldos" = 240 "Dineros" - Sorry I didn't
find the correct name in english for all the names)

For example, in spain, the "gruesa" is the equivalent to twelve docens.
It is still used in tailoring to count buttons or threads, and in
counting large numbers of eggs.

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Received on Thu May 1 12:45:38 2008

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