How pirates stole the metric system from America - photos

[Philip Davies]

Marv, do you have an accessible reference to the “problems the ancient Egyptians had building the pyramids, with their competing cubits”? (I already have information about their several cubits, I mean about the problems.)

[mklotz]

Marv, do you have an accessible reference to the “problems the ancient Egyptians had building the pyramids, with their competing cubits”? (I already have information about their several cubits, I mean about the problems.)

No direct reference. I'm inferring the problems since there is a temple on Elephant Island in the Nile with an inscription showing the various non-Egyptian cubits familiar to foreign workers and their relation to the Egyptian normal and royal cubit used in construction. If they found it necessary to produce such references in stone, there must have been a problem with competing units. The Egyptians were notorious for not documenting practical information in stone, only religious and propaganda, so such a measurement standard comparison must have been very significant.

[Philip Davies]

This is a photo, reproduced in John Neal’s book “All done with mirrors” of an artefact in the Asmolean Museum, Oxford, on a Roman foot, measuring 0.96548 feet, from a Greek monument. It is known as “The Foot of Hercules”, which would make Hercules just over 6’ 9”

[Crusty]

He was a tall fella for sure.

He signed with the Spurs but then got busted for kitten juggling before his first game and they yanked his contract.

[high-side]

Freedom Units

[nhengineer]

He was a tall fella for sure.

He signed with the Spurs but then got busted for kitten juggling before his first game and they yanked his contract.

[nhengineer]

The same country that crashed a probe because they used their measurement system and not metric.

I remain amazed how some folks have taken the metric system of measurements as their GOD, believing it is the only true measure standard. The fact is, it is just another arbitrary way of measuring stuff not much unlike cubits - only newer.

[DIYSwede]

Thank you, nhengineer for sharing that.
Just my 2/3 thruppence worth, being an "early adopter" of the metric system, I scrutinize my own beliefs in this respect:

1) Measurement systems and/ or their units aren't TRUE in any ontological, cosmological, theological or absolute sense, merely arbitrarily chosen systems of units.
2) Some measurement systems are more logical: consistent, complete and coherent than others.
3) Some measurement systems are more pragmatic than others, i.e. has allowance for development, simplifications and revisions as needed.
4) Some measurement systems are more self-explanatory and simple to use than others.

So, perhaps being a heretic metric user I don't give a hoot about the age of the system itself,
neither do I get any problems if the system adopts a new definition of any base unit within,
nor if it infers yet another prefix, unit or anything else as long as it keeps up the system's own consistency.

Personally, I can share a profound moment in my youth, when I got hit by the insight of the SI systems "interconnectedness" between several of the
mechanical, kinematic, electromagnetic, thermodynamic, photometric derived units (I wasn't much into chemistry then).

On a daily, rational and pragmatic level, I just dig the SI system because:
-When I know THAT any derived unit could be put up as a base unit equation, then I also know HOW to use them and check for my mistakes.
Prefixes are also a pretty simple way of displaying ratios in my part of the world.

That's just good enuff for me, I don't need any sacred, eternal, "natural" or "true" units - but then call me "relativist, revisionist or any other -ist" if you need.
Also, pardon my eventual abuse of your English, as it's not my native language.


Following pic shows some Imperial units and their different (7/8, 1 (sic!), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 20, 25, 50, 63, 96, 100, 120, 1760 & 6080) factors:

[Philip Davies]

Interesting you should refer to”2/3 thruppence”! Few people had difficulty using pounds, shillings and pence before decimalisation. Easier to divide a given measure into thirds!
May I compliment you on your English? Only a very careful reading reveals a couple of clues that it is not your first language, and most internet posts by native speakers contain errors. I do not exclude myself, and I am a teacher of English. You are a convert, not a “convertite” - have you disabled your auto-correct? And you can’t write “eventual abuse”.
Thanks especially for the diagram. I’ve seen this before, but can’t remember where. Does it include “nail” as a unit? Ah, yes it does!

[DIYSwede]

Thank you, Philip for your kind reply.
When still "young and promising" I was educated in HM English, but have thru bad company picked up American English since 1978.

Pic is from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units"
"2/3 Thruppence" is just another bad pun of mine, as "2 cents" might trigger a few readers of this particular tread.

Thanks for corrections, also - I don't use auto-correct anywhere, so every fault is purely mine.
"Convertite" is also an intentionally bad pun - using the archaic/ obsolete term with its dual meaning of both a "convert" and a [DOCTORED].

"Abuse" has to be intentional - cannot thus be "eventual", is that it?

Cheers
Johan