Laptop recomendations

Thompson Freeman tfreeman at intel.digichem.net
Thu Mar 15 21:55:36 UTC 2007


On 03/15/2007 03:58:14 PM, Mark Fraser wrote:
> In article <45F99417.30301 at gmail.com>,
>    Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > >
> > > All American measurements are of these unusual division. The inch
> > > itself is 1/12 foot, which is 1/5280 of a mile. Maybe not
> arbitrary,
> > > but not very intuitive.
> 
> That would be the American units that were originally called Imperial
> units? I do know some American units are different to those in the UK
> such
> as the Gallon.
> > Not to defend the US units, but hasn't the meter been redefined at
> least
> > 3 times?  Which of the choices was a unit that relates to something
> > intuitive to a human?
> 
> BTW it's Metre.

Opinion here. The various variations of the English units (Imperial,  
American, foot-pound-second, what have you) are the result of historic  
time depositing layers of arbitrary, if usefully sized, units with  
various periods of correction and whatnot. At one point the inch was  
something like 3 barley grains laid end to end. I'm guessing that got  
adjusted somehow with the foot at some point when it became important  
enough.

Historically I understand that there have been dozens of various  
quarts, pints, and gallons; each different, which could vary over the  
space of 50 to 100 miles (admittedly a reasonable distance in Europe at  
one time, not so much now). Lets not get into measurements like tons  
weight and tons displacement, my head hurts enough long before then.




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