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Grex > Agora47 > #173: Why can't America do the "10" commandments? (not what you think) | |
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gull
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response 50 of 93:
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Nov 17 19:38 UTC 2003 |
Re #47: Could be. But there isn't a single inch-based fastener on my VW.
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janc
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response 51 of 93:
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Nov 17 23:21 UTC 2003 |
The fact that body temperature is exactly 37C instead of 98.6F would be
more compelling if I thought it actually was a fact. I bet some
European measured a bunch of people, then rounded the average off to the
nearest degree Celsius, and that became the accepted value of body
temperature. There is no such thing as an "exact value of body
temperature", unless you want to decide which part of the body of which
person doing which activity you are talking about.
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bhoward
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response 52 of 93:
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Nov 18 00:18 UTC 2003 |
Though most things are metric here in Japan, it is still quite common
to use traditional measures in certain domains. The real estate world
still use jo and tsubo to measure area, architecture and other traditional
crafts commonly use the kanejaku system for measuring length.
Somehow, folks muddle through it all without stressing too much :-)
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rcurl
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response 53 of 93:
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Nov 18 00:26 UTC 2003 |
Re #51: that's what I implied in #43 ("...that the "standard" body
temperature has been set at 37 C, a nice round figure..."). Of course body
temperature is no exact value. The point, though, is that we use the
metric standard but translate it to Fahrenheit, which is rather stupid.
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bru
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response 54 of 93:
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Nov 18 04:15 UTC 2003 |
98.6 is as much an average as is 37celsius. My mothers normal temp was 96
degrees, if she hit 98, she had a fever.
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tsty
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response 55 of 93:
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Nov 18 05:43 UTC 2003 |
re #17 ... therefore, amke english teh official american language?????
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gelinas
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response 56 of 93:
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Nov 18 06:16 UTC 2003 |
(I'd thought those measurements were made in Farenheit, the Celsius scale not
yet having been invented.)
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rcurl
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response 57 of 93:
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Nov 18 07:12 UTC 2003 |
The normal body temperature value of 37 C was an *average* rounded to the
nearest degree, reported in a German study, since those making the
measurements knew that there is a range of normal temperatures. it is only
meant to be within two significant digits Celsius, not the three
Fahrenheit implied by writing 98.6. Doing the latter is an error in
implying the precision of the value.
(There is some historical confusion about all this:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/LenaWong.shtml)
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gull
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response 58 of 93:
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Nov 18 14:31 UTC 2003 |
Do surveyors still measure in rods and chains?
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micklpkl
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response 59 of 93:
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Nov 18 18:15 UTC 2003 |
resp:58 - There might be a few holdouts, somewhere, but most modern
surveying uses either decimal feet, or meters. Of course, all surveyors
are still familiar with the old units in order to retrace old surveys.
a "chain" is also known as Gunter's chain and is equal to 66 feet.
(this gives a nice round figure for a mile = 80 chains)
* there are 4 rods/poles/perches in a chain (16.5 feet)
* there are 100 links in a chain (7.92 inches)
Just to make it more confusing, most original surveys in the Southwest
are measured in varas, which is the Spanish equivalent of a yard and
has been legally determined (in Texas) to be 33 1/3 inches.
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gull
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response 60 of 93:
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Nov 18 18:44 UTC 2003 |
Just curious. I know that a fair number of archaic measurements are
still in use. I still routinely hear English people give weights in stone.
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micklpkl
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response 61 of 93:
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Nov 18 18:56 UTC 2003 |
If you're even more curious, you might like to check out this new book.
_Measuring America_, by Andro Linklater
http://www.measuringamerica.com/book.php
<snip>
How we ultimately gained the American Customary System the last
traditional system in the world and how Gunter s chain indelibly
imprinted its dimensions on the land, on cities, and on our culture
from coast to coast is both an exciting human and intellectual drama
and one of the great untold stories in American history. At a time when
the metric system may finally be unstoppable, Andro Linklater has
captured the essential nature of measurement just as the Founding
Fathers understood it.
</snip>
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rcurl
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response 62 of 93:
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Nov 18 19:59 UTC 2003 |
It is well put that the "chain" has "indelibly imprinted its dimensions on
the land". The mile is 80 chains, so the subdivisions of the land into
sections and halves and quarters are simple subdivisions of 80. That makes
an acre ten "square chains" - aha, a decimal value! I've had to deal with
these units in land deals.
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polygon
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response 63 of 93:
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Nov 18 20:37 UTC 2003 |
In old subdivisions, lot widths are commonly either 66 or 33 feet wide:
a chain or half a chain (or, if you prefer, 4 or 2 rods).
Rural roads in Michigan have rights-of-way 66 feet wide.
In doing the history of a house in Lansing, I found the oldest records
gave measurements in chains and links; later records gave the same
distances in rods; still later in feet and fractions of feet; and the
newest ones in feet with the fractions changed to decimal.
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gull
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response 64 of 93:
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Nov 18 21:32 UTC 2003 |
Most rural roads in Michigan also follow section lines. In fact, many of
them have jogs or S-curves where the section lines are offset to compensate
for the Earth's curvature.
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rcurl
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response 65 of 93:
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Nov 19 00:46 UTC 2003 |
Those section lines aren't offset "to compensate for the earth's curvature",
at least not intentionally. They are offset because the surveys approached
common points from different starting points, and also had little problems
like trees, bogs, lakes, mountains (well, in the UP), etc.
I dealt with one parcel that is 2.5 acres. That is a 25 square chains.
However a rood is 40 square poles or 2.5 square chains, so 2.5 acres is 10
roods. I've since been calling it a "decarood", and letting people figure
it out.
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micklpkl
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response 66 of 93:
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Nov 19 15:03 UTC 2003 |
Actually, there are two types of correction built into the Public Lands
Survey System --- accumulated error and allowance for convergence is
placed in the North and West portions of a township.
Due to convergence, township lines are adjusted --- every 24 miles from
the base line, a standard parallel or correction line is used to
correct for longitudinal convergence. The same was performed every 24
miles from the principal meridian, a guide meridian would be surveyed.
So, this means that in Michigan, where the baseline forms the boundary
between Oakland and Wayne counties, one would expect to find
corrections 24 miles North and South of that line. The Michigan
Meridian is East of Lansing, and forms the boundary between Clinton and
Shiawassee counties.
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rcurl
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response 67 of 93:
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Nov 19 16:55 UTC 2003 |
Without looking it up again myself - I believe you are quite right, and I
was being somewaht offhand in #65. My comment arose, however, with earlier
experience with the topographic maps of the mountain west, where many
sections look more like trapezoids, due to the surveyors being limited
in where they could stand.
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md
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response 68 of 93:
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Nov 19 20:41 UTC 2003 |
How many pounds are there in a stone?
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micklpkl
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response 69 of 93:
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Nov 19 20:48 UTC 2003 |
20?
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keesan
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response 70 of 93:
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Nov 19 20:51 UTC 2003 |
I thought it was 14 pounds in a stone.
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micklpkl
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response 71 of 93:
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Nov 19 21:01 UTC 2003 |
You're probably right. I've never really known, despite having several
British penpals always using that unit. A quick google search seems to
verify keesan's answer.
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mcnally
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response 72 of 93:
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Nov 19 22:00 UTC 2003 |
As does "Ask Jeeves"..
http://web.ask.com/web?q=how+many+pounds+in+a+stone
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twenex
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response 73 of 93:
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Nov 19 22:24 UTC 2003 |
yep, fourteen.
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polygon
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response 74 of 93:
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Nov 20 05:39 UTC 2003 |
I remember a British fellow mentioning that he had been really sick and
lost a stone. He meant that he had been too ill to eat, and lost a lot of
weight (probably he rounded it up to 14 pounds). An American he was
talking with misunderstood him to mean that he had passed a kidney stone.
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