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Grex > Agora47 > #173: Why can't America do the "10" commandments? (not what you think) | |
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| 25 new of 93 responses total. |
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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twenex
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response 75 of 93:
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Nov 20 06:02 UTC 2003 |
oof.
Another good one is "Blow me!", which means "I'm so surprised you could blow
me down!", not the other thing.
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rcurl
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response 76 of 93:
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Nov 20 06:26 UTC 2003 |
The classic British expression "I'll knock you up tomorrow." is also often
misunderstood by Americans.
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twenex
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response 77 of 93:
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Nov 20 06:54 UTC 2003 |
It's also a double entendre over here. These days, if someone said that to
me, I'd assume it to mean I was in for a shagging tomorrow.
Another favourite is "Thankyou for having me", which can mean "thankyou to
inviting me to your house/party, etc., or "thanks for the sex".
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rcurl
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response 78 of 93:
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Nov 20 07:09 UTC 2003 |
I recall hearing the first in ordinary speech in England when I lived
there, but that was in the 60's. Americanization has probably invaded
ever more deeply.
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mynxcat
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response 79 of 93:
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Nov 20 17:12 UTC 2003 |
And something that a lot of Indians needed to stop saying in America
(and I hear the English say the same) - "I'm going out for a fag". The
fag here is a cigarette
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fitz
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response 80 of 93:
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Nov 21 12:37 UTC 2003 |
"Throw another faggot on the fire." [Hedley LaMarr (Harvey Korman) in Blazing
Saddles, stunning his cowboy henchmen.]
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twenex
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response 81 of 93:
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Nov 21 17:04 UTC 2003 |
A fag is a cigarette. A faggot is a piece of brain used as
food.
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willcome
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response 82 of 93:
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Nov 21 19:38 UTC 2003 |
fag.
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aruba
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response 83 of 93:
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Nov 21 20:03 UTC 2003 |
Re #81: Ew.
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