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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