in message <
[email protected]>, Jon Senior
<jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOT_co_DOT_uk> ('') wrote:
> Why? (Do you find it shocking, I appreciate why it's 14!) I've never
> really had cause to learn it (And every time I do, I promptly forget
> because I never use it). I understand kg. I have a feeling for kg. I
> have no concept of stone except with regard to human weight.
>
> In fact... why is it 14?
Because.
That is the nature of traditional, organic measuring system. Nobody ever
sat down and said, OK, how can we rationalise this for easy
calculation[1]. You just have to remember:
16 ounces to the pound
14 pounds to the stone
8 stone to the hundredweight
20 hundredweight to the ton.
But be very very careful, because if you are an apothecary or a
goldsmith there are only twelve ounces to the pound. No, I'm serious.
Note also that while a ton is 20 hundredweights (weight) it's also 32
bushels (volume), so you can be reasonably sure that a ton of
polystyrene won't weigh a ton.
And once you are relaxed about that the idea that there are 16.5 feet to
the pole and 40 poles to the furlong won't worry you at all.
Oh, and remember that a mile is 8 furlongs. Unless you're in Ireland,
where it isn't, at all, at all. Or at sea, where it's a bit over ten
cables (but you'll be pleased to know that one cable is 100 fathoms).
Or...
--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke)
http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
Windows 95:
You, you, you! You make a grown man cry...
M. Jagger/K. Richards
