Iβm moving my posts from Reddit to Lemmy before delete them.
This post is from 2022-07-13.
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
815 points (97.5% liked)
Memes
45643 readers
1086 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah, imperial is... confusing... like you have inches, but then you don't get decainches, you get feet π. And then you don't have kiloinches, you have miles π€¦.
What drives me nuts is that everyone likes to pretend America came up with this shit. But it was Britain, they just decided to abandon it for a new standard and were were too busy building a damn country and hating Britain to just adopt a new measurement system.
they at least saw the dogshit and put then away
Ok, ok, you're right, I won't tease you guys any more about this π.
Itβs easy though. 1 mile is approximately 8,448 bananas long.
properly, a banana is a unit of energy rather than length
Thanks, might come in handy if I ever visit Madagascar π βΊοΈ.
millifurlongs per microfortnight
WTF, I though they were related in 10s, that's not even true π€¦.
EDIT: Shit, now I got it, they're related in 12s, like in dousens... why, WHY!
a better way to count
Just wait until you find out what system dozens comes from.
I really have no idea, but I am curious.
EDIT: Is it the clock? 12 hours?
From Wikipedia:
βA "dozen" is a unit of measurement. It means twelve (12) items of something. The term goes back to duodecim, which means 12 in Latin. Humans might have started to count on a base 12 because there are approximately 12 cycles of the moon in one cycle of the sun. In other words, a solar year has 12 months. The first to have used the unit were probably the Mesopotamians.
12 dozen (144 items) are a gross. 12 gross (1728 items) are called a great gross. A great hundred is 120 or ten dozen (a dozen for each finger on both hands).
The dozen is convenient because its multipliers and multiples are convenient: 12 = 3 Γ 2 Γ 2, and 360 = 30 Γ 12. The French word douzaine means "about twelve" and is part of a family of words with similar meanings, e.g. vingtaine β "about 20" centaine β "about 100" etc. A baker's dozen, also known as a long dozen, is thirteen.β
So, as you can see, the idea of a dozen seems to be deeply ingrained in our history and psychology to the point that we probably shouldnβt question it too much and leave bakers to ponder the mystery of 12=13.
Hm, interesting, good to know π.
Have to admit though, bakers are weird π.
Bakers dozens are more about legal protection than anything. An extra loaf of bread is a lot easier to give away, than taking a beating in medieval times for shorting someone.
So it turns out bakers were actually smart π... and they probably got to live longer too π.
In fact, Iβm baked right now.
Itβs not like base ten is some magic thing thatβs better in all aspects. Iβll admit that imperial is inconsistent sure, but a dozenal system makes sense when you need to divide things a lot. One foot being twelve inches means you can half, quarter, third, or sixth it without dealing with fractions
I have to agree though that this is true. Still, it makes it more difficult if you have to work with 10s, like take a 10th of the measurement.
Haha, if only.
Distance
-12 inches = 1 foot
-3 feet = 1 yard
-22 yards = 1 chain
-10 chains = 1 furlong
-8 furlongs = 1 mile
Weights
-16 drams = 1 oz
-16 oz = 1 pound
-14 pounds = 1 stone
-8 stone = 1 hundredweight = 112 lb
-20 hundredweight = 1 ton
Volume
-20 fluid oz = 1 pint
-8 pints = 1 gallon
What? They measure in chains and stones π€¨ π. I actually didn't know that π€£π€£π€£. Regarding oz, I thought it was a liquid (volume) measurement unit... cuz I've seen it on milk containers... oh well, guess I was wrong π.
EDIT: Oh wait, no, it's for both weight and volume π€£π€£π€£.
EDIT 2: Nope, there is a volume and a weight oz π€£, this thing just keeps getting better and better π€£.
See, we told you it was easy!
Then they also use 1000ths of an inch. Because fuck it, let's just throw in a single base 10 unit.
Biggest dislike is lb-mol and Rankine. Like, it you're gonna do science, use the metric system, Jesus. Ain't no one gonna take you seriously using your off-brand clown units.
Well, to be completely honest, you could say the same about miliseconds... I mean, they are the only ones that do base 10 regarding time measurement π.
π€£π€£π€£ gave me a good chuckle π€£π€£π€£