This distance became a standard part of their measurements. Over time, by slurring the words, this "furrow-long" distance became "furlong," a unit that is now used almost exclusively in horse racing. The British eventually used the Roman mile as a model in their measurement system, but they didn't want to give up their furlong. The Roman mile was about seven-and-one-half furlongs, and when the British adopted it, they lengthened the Roman mile to eight furlongs, which equals 5, feet. Give Now ».
Noon Edition. Hi Peter I enjoyed reading this as you are one of the few who are even interested in this subject. Question for you: you write that there are 15 Saxon feet in a Saxon rod. Which would mean Saxon square feet in an acre not Hi Peter, When people talk of 20 natural feet I think they are refering to the old Welsh foot 9. For how it fits into the Saxon system see p. As you may have guessed I call this measure a Saxon measure but I believe it reaches right back.
I read the story and i liked it. It could happend in the way you discribe. Thank you. Greatings from Holland. Having moved from Sweden to the U. Especially so about metric units, that they do not have the foggiest about. An example of the total anarchy here is the introduction of some new, large, airplane. Airbus I think it was, on its first landing at LAX. The doozie on TV channel 7 said that it was as long as 15 city buses and as wide as a football field and the tail-fin stood 15 stories high.
The wingspan that equaled a football field, was it the with of the field? How much is a football field anyway? It is used all the time as a measure. Possibly m long, m wide and 45 m high. But that would have made too much sense.
He funded a company that still is a major player in mechanical measurements. I will remember they had the first digital caliper, around Somewhere in the latter half of he was making pieces for high precision measurement purposes. The kits came in wooden boxes and a certain dimension could be made by putting the right pieces together. Held between two straight pieces the dimension could be transferred for to check the length or diameter of something else. A shaft, a piston and so on.
An important thing as the industrialization was gaining ground. The pistons could all be manufactured of the same diameter! At the time there were many kinds of inches. Too bad that he did not make it Long after all the rest had gone metric.
This does not answer Peters original question, but at least it may open another window and confuse things further! By ajusting both measures just a little bit a measure based on and a measure based on 60 are compatible.
No more mistakes with spacecraft design but an easy and verstile measure that has the best of both systems. Thank you for such an in depth analysis. I randomly developed curiosity and also found the main answers seemed too simple and ineffective. Like you said, I too am astonished how common it is seen our ancestors were just stupid and we are the smartest generation. In many ways I find the opposite to be true. As a machinist my biggest frustration is in differences between English and Metric.
Then I expanded into woodworking and began working on a larger scale with different tolerances. The actual linear measure is irrelevant except in easily dividing feet by the most factors. Now I have shifted my frustration to stupid base The only reason twelve is an awkward number is trying to count it in base If we used base 12 we would have characters for ten and eleven, we would think in base twelve and all of our divisions would be immensely easier.
Clearly over history units and measures have grown and changed. Arbitrarily defined by whatever made the most sense at the time. Even some of the ancients had it figured out with base You had the same philosophical experience as I did, but in another area. There is much to be said for 12 as a base. That Swede again… If one resists base 10, going back some years or more? It includes base 12, so to speak, and we are already used to counting seconds and minutes time and angles both!
I had just learned to divide an English pub bill in three, without paper and pen, when they went decimal on me! A common can of soda. What is the weight or mass, rather of 9 oz volume of water? You get the idea? Did you know that the pound is a force? It is the force that accelerates the mass of one stone by one feet per second squared. Calculate how much power is needed for to heat up 10 l air per second by K!
Calculate that with Imperial units and you will go crazy! If one do not respect the units, and how they are supposed to be expressed in the SI system, it can be almost as messy as the Imperial system. I think just this is a major reason for confusion among Americans. Mega gravity? An unusual unit but one can never be sure about pharmacists! Kelvin IS temperature. Study the SI system and once you understand it, it makes all the sense in the world and it makes life a lot easier!
And the temperature they intend when mentioning Centigrade, is Celcius. The metric system makes it easier to do engineering and science calculations such as you mention — e.
Exactly how many times per day do ordinary people make such calculations? It threw out thousands of years of accumulated experience as to what units are practical for everyday life. And it did so without even understanding this wisdom. The real reason the metric system is so incompatible with the imperial system is political — the French in did not like the British.
Exactly how scientific is it to define the meter as one ten-millionth of the length of the meridian through Paris? Instead of simply using the yard 36 inches? Then we could update a gallon from cubic inches to Etc etc.
They based their new unit of measure as being equivalent to grains, an existing unit, and then divided each grain avoirdupois pound into 16 ounces. Early 18th-century steam engine entrepreneurs needed a way to express how powerful their machines were, and the industrious James Watt hit on a funny idea for comparing engines to horses.
Watt studied horses and found that the average harnessed equine worker could lift pounds at a clip of roughly one foot per second, which equated to 33, foot-pounds of work per minute. Not all scholars believe that Watt arrived at his measurement so scientifically, though. One common story claims that Watt actually did his early tests with ponies, not horses.
He found that ponies could do 22, foot-pounds of work per minute and figured that horses were half again stronger than ponies, so he got the ballpark figure of 33, foot-pounds of work per minute. BY Ethan Trex. The Mile The basic concept of the mile originated in Roman times. The Nautical Mile So if the statute mile is the result of Roman influences and plowing oxen, where did the nautical mile get its start? The Acre Like the mile, the acre owes its existence to the concept of the furlong.
The Foot As the name implies, scholars think that the foot was actually based on the length of the human foot. The Gallon The gallon we use for our liquids comes from the Roman word galeta , which meant "a pailful. The Pound Like several other units, the pound has Roman roots. Horsepower Early 18th-century steam engine entrepreneurs needed a way to express how powerful their machines were, and the industrious James Watt hit on a funny idea for comparing engines to horses.
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