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(26,273 posts)Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)yonder
(9,631 posts)For the garage. Mrs. yonder might have something to say about the living room.
mitch96
(13,821 posts)1.105 inches = 28mm... Yes I worked on British cars when I was a kid.
Another weird one used as a joke was "Furlongs per Fortnite" always cracked me up...
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krispos42
(49,445 posts)I work in quality control so I think I'll post this someplace for shits and giggles.
The imperial system is displaying a lot of history in that chart, but then again it's always been based on what's available to measure with and what you're trying to measure.
The furlong, for example, was the distance a team of oxen could pull a plow before needing a break. Useful, but hardly scientific. So they surveyed farmland by furlongs. It was better to have a field 1 furlong deep (or wide, I guess) than some round number of a base unit simply because it looked better.
All the stuff we measure in QC is either in decimal inches to up to 4 places (with the occasional loose-tolerance fraction) or millimeters up to 3 places.
Hmmmm... a "twip" is 1 inched divided by 12, divided by 6, divided by 20, so .00069". Or as we'd say, "seven tenths" (seven, one-ten-thousandths of an inch, or 7/10,000" ). We can measure down to about a third of a twip.
Dammit, now I'm going to print this out and write down what everything it in inches or feet!
Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)So now everything in increments of 3 become leagues. Dont think ATC would appreciate the reference, tho.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)rurallib
(62,346 posts)KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)Thanks for the cool chart. I worked in precision measurement throughout my career and love the historical study of measurements and standards.
Example, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit):
Stand at the door of a church on a Sunday and bid 16 men to stop, tall ones and small ones, as they happen to pass out when the service is finished; then make them put their left feet one behind the other, and the length thus obtained shall be a right and lawful rood to measure and survey the land with, and the 16th part of it shall be the right and lawful foot.
That's my little pinch, smidgen and a dab's worth......... .............