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  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by homey View Post
    14 lbs to a Stone,
    and 8 stones to the hundred weight (cwt) and 20 hundred weights to the ton.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

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  3. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by pippin88 View Post
    Imperial is not truely a base 12 system.

    It just happens that there are 12 inches in a foot.
    it's more than happen chance.
    as above (post #20) 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6

    10 is only divisible by 2 and 5.


    It's not really any better to have a round number than a decimal. Eg cutting something accurately to 400.0000mm long is no easier than 333.3333mm long. In either case, it's not possible in wood / most materials to achieve that precision.

    So 12/3 is no better than 10/3.
    there you are speaking like a late 20th century person.
    in the "olden days" no cabinet maker cut stuff to an accuracy of 400 mm, let alone to 4 decimal places.
    In them "far off days" cabinet makers worked with rods -- the required dimension was marked on the rod and transferred to the work piece with a square and knife (or sometimes a pencil).

    up until relatively recently, even working copies of the standard metric bar were made this way -- with marks transferred from the original
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  4. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by homey View Post
    What were 16 pounds? 14lbs to a Stone, 16 ounces to a pound (lb).

    Hi,
    My bad, I meant ounces to the pound.
    The stone is a good one it contradicts what I was saying.
    Regards
    Hugh

    Enough is enough, more than enough is too much.

  5. #34
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    You had me at 'Stupid Imperial Measure.'

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
    My YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/2_KPRN6I9SE

  6. #35
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    I always liked this

    Stupid Imperial Measure Question-730e6dce-fff6-4518-a671-5dd1367373a2-png
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by thumbsucker View Post
    I always liked this

    Stupid Imperial Measure Question-730e6dce-fff6-4518-a671-5dd1367373a2-png
    all that chart is missing is
    22 yards to a chain
    10 chains to a furlong
    8 furlongs to a mile
    (or if you're a pedant 80 chains to a mile.)
    which would return the distance measurements to all fitting on one chart.




    for the non-surveyors, when I studied engineering we used a metric band or "chain" that was 100 m long.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  8. #37
    rrich Guest

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    I've been out of touch for a few days.
    WOW!

    Let me toss in a few things here. A board foot never contains a thickness than 4/4, rough. Don't ask me why, it just is.

    I went to a lumber yard and ordered some California Red Wood. I specifically ordered 4/4 and nothing longer than 10 feet. What I got was finished 5/8 and 16 feet. When I complained, I was ordered to 'Move your pick up truck I got other customers to load.'

    As for the metric system in the US; I realized that I was a much better woodworker than a cook.

  9. #38
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    The important thing to remember is a cricket pitch is 22 yards or one chain long, but a ten pin bowling lane is 66 feet.
    Which one is longer?

    Doesn't really matter. Australia sucks at cricket at the moment, and you want more than three strikes in a game of ten pin.


  10. #39
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    Today it is 12 inches, the length of the average man's foot. Yard: A yard was originally the length of a man's belt or girdle, as it was called. In the 12th century, King Henry I of England fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to the thumb of his out-stretched arm. Today it is 36 inches.

    Inch, unit of British Imperial and United States Customary measure equal to 1/36 of a yard. The unit derives from the Old English ince, or ynce, which in turn came from the Latin unit uncia, which was “one-twelfth” of a Roman foot, or pes. ... Since 1959 the inch has been defined officially as 2.54 cm

    The length of a foot, the width of a finger, and the distance of a step were all accepted measurements. Inch: At first an inch was the width of a man's thumb. In the 14th century, King Edward II of England ruled that 1 inch equal 3 grains of barley placed end to end lengthwise

    The Romans used a unit of distance called the mille passum, which literally translated into "a thousand paces." ... In 1592, Parliament set about determining the length of the mile and decided that each one should be made up of eight furlongs. Since a furlong was 660 feet, we ended up with a 5,280-foot mile.

    Lets not also forget the equestrian measurement 1 hand = 4", a horse is measured at the shoulder

    As for me and the majority of the human race, we are blessed with a total of 10 fingers and 10 toes, that makes it metric for me
    The person who never made a mistake never made anything

    Cheers
    Ray

  11. #40
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    My Grandfather used to work 2 x 8 Pole allotments��
    Mark
    What you say & what people hear are not always the same thing.
    http://www.remark.me.uk/

  12. #41
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    Thought that the OP's question re 8 a quarter, etc, meant 8.25.

  13. #42
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    Really good thread - just read it.

    Speaking of counting on fingers, the Roman general that I the name of the decimal system came from was probably counting with his fingers when he killed soldiers. It maybe just a story but apparently he killed ten soldiers for each one that disobeyed. from memory. Decimated them.

    The scale of things measured makes a difference too. Regardless of the convenience, logic or how universally a system is used, as Ian mentioned with the board foot, it helps if it can be envisioned. I grew up with metric but I think of a person's height in feet and inches. I can imagine how tall some one is if told they are five ten but 174cm? Not the same.

    The actual motivation I had to reply was that the idea of cutting something to 33.3333 seemed impossible because I took it as being recurring. You tend to see multiple 3's these days when it Is a recurring decimal.

  14. #43
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    So if I a board is 12” x 12” x 4” is that like super super super super foot?

  15. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by thumbsucker View Post
    So if I a board is 12” x 12” x 4” is that like super super super super foot?
    no it's a small block
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  16. #45
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    Well, I have only just seen this after four days. It is no wonder that the world cannot agree when you see the amount of diversity in the way every day goods are measured. I expect many of you old farts (just remember I am am entrenched in denial here and don't include myself in such a group) will remember the exercise books with all the imperial measurements on the back cover. Avoirdupois, all those quaint and thoroughly antiquated linear measures involving poles (not from a European country) and chains (before they became bedroom furniture), the volume measurements that seemed to revolve around ale (hogsheads) and other miscellaneous dimensions are both wondrous and bizarre.

    Just reverting to the OP and quarters, I was completely unfamiliar with that being somebody who always has had difficulty getting his head around board feet. It does seem to me that much is dictated by local conditions. While you may well get a board a foot wide in Oregon (ahem, I mean Douglas Fir) it is more difficult to find something that wide in an Australian hardwood for example and if you did, by the time it had shrunk down from it's nominal width of 1" it would have severely cupped too.

    A lot is to do with terminology, and I concede, what we are use to. In the UK there was a common term for timber, PAR (planned all round), while here in Oz it is DAR (dressed all round) so to some extent it is horses for courses. The final irony for me is that I still cannot get out of the habit of asking for 3m of 4 x 2 or should that be 3m of 2 x 4?

    Is there a system of measurement for the common person and another for the technically minded? We are all familiar with degs C or degs F: My favoutite piece of trivia is that at -40degs you don't have to bother asking which scale is being used. However, my memory is that for some calculations we have to use the Kelvin scale where absolute zero instead of being -273 degs C is now zero!



    C'est la vie.

    Regards
    Paul
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

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