The metric system of measurements

[TW]

Before the metric system all countries in Europe had their own units. Often the units were different in different part of the country as well. This was not only about details but even about the number of inches to a foot.
If we for a while try to imagine the same chaos within the united states of America  ;D:
(irony warning)
Each state having defined it's own lenght and weight and volume and all other units, except California and Nevada where each county has it's own measurements, and except northern Michigan which used Minnesota units. New England states has three feet to a yard while the rest have two feet, except Oregon which has no yard at all. Oklahoma and Texas and New mexico have 11 inches to a foot and Connecticut has 10. All others have 12 inches to a foot.
2 and15/16 Florida gallon would be one Georgia gallon. The weight of one Illinois pound varies depending on the material that is weighted. Every now and then some of the standards are changed so Montana inch before 1927 is not the same as montana inch 1927-98 and not the same as montana inch 1998 and onwards. And so on  ;D.(end of irony warning)

There was this kind of chaos in Europe once. The imperial measurements are in fact only one of several houndred measurement standards, all used at the same time in Europe. A good excample was that they sawed pine boards to size in Norwegian inches, and then the boards schrunk to size in Swedish inches, but they were under dimension in English inches and could not be exported to England.
This chaos continued until they dug up the metric system from the archives in France. There was no national loss of pride in using this system so one by one countries took it into use. In Finland the use of metric is stated in law from year 1898. Still a few old people sometimes use inches and feet (Swedish feet of cause). Many people use the old units only for some standard sizes, mostly lenght of nails and dimensions of sawn timber. Most use only metric. This is more than a century after metric was stated in law. We can conclude that it took a century to convert the Finnish people to metric but it solved a lot of problems.

Now I think some of you understand why I am a fan of the metric system. Metric is not perfect but it is good enough to do the job. And one metre is the same lenght everywhere!

[TexasTimbers]

Well that's fine for you fellas but they will get my inch and gallon when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of them. ;D

[Dave Shepard]

Ihave heard that France had over 1300 different measurements at one time, and this was the reason the developed the metric system. I am glad it is based on ten! I believe it was developed in the late 1700's. I like the metric system. ;D


Dave

[Tom]

Everybody in the USA understands what a foot is because our measurements are designated by The Dept. of Weights and Measures.  Since I don't do off-shore manufacturing, I don't see a need to change the way I think.  My mind's eye pictures the measurements with which I was trained.  Who's out of step? :D

[thurlow]

try to imagine the same chaos within the united states of America ;D:

TW............you're probably not aware of the way we measure land in the different states, but you know what?  We like it just fine.  ;D

[Sprucegum]

Canada decided to go metric about 30 years ago , I think it was supposed to make us more like the rest of the world and less like the USA. Trouble is 90% of our business is with the USA so most of us have to use both measurement systems - depending on where the product is going.

I like both systems but NOT both at once  >:( 
Thanks to our bilingual/french laws/rules everyone/everybody is in the habit of saying/talking everything twice/two times anyway

[estiers]

(Swedish feet of cause).

Is that anything like Swedish Fish??  (YUM!)

[Tom]

 :P   Where is Gefilte?   :-\ :D

[TexasTimbers]

Thanks to our bilingual/french laws/rules everyone/everybody is in the habit of saying/talking everything twice/two times anyway

:D That is funny/comical. :D

[Paul_H]

When I was in elementary school we learned Imperial measurements and because that was that was my introduction to weights and measures,it is still how I see the world today(as Tom mentioned)
If I hear "200 metres" I roughly convert and think to myself "a little over  200 yards, or 600 feet"
I got caught fighting in school and got the yardstick across my butt as punishment.I'm thankfull it wasn't a metre stick on account of the extra 4" of swing a metre has over a yard.

And the fight wasn't my fault,Mickey started it. smiley_argue01

[scgargoyle]

I had to chime in on this one. The USA is one of the last countries in the world that is not metric, so I think we are 'out of step'. Once you learn it, metric is much easier (at least for a machinist). Many products you use are metric anyway, but have been converted for your convenience. What annoys me is when they mix stuff. I recently bought and assembled a very nice Ridgid tablesaw, and the fastenings have SAE threads, but metric heads! What's worse, the 1/4-20 screws had 10mm heads, but the nuts were the standard 7/16"- two measurement systems on one fastener! Many (35) years ago, I had a business building wooden rowboats. At the time, the gummint declared that the US would be fully metric in 10 years. So I bought a meter stick and a metric tape measure, and designed and built all my boats in metric. Those crusty old New Englanders thought I was some kind of 'commie' when I recited the dimensions of the boats in meters. I actually had to convert the dimensions to keep peace. I think we should get over ourselves and adopt the metric system, like the rest of the world.

[sharp edge]

I,m all for the metrics more standardizing the better. Tired of taking .03937x mm. Glad the calculator was invented.   By the way should we change the side of the road we drive on or should they? 8) 8)
SE

[TexasTimbers]

Don't move my cheese please. Metric may make more sense but it has never won a world war whereas inches and gallons have won both World Wars. ;D

[thurlow]

 Est-ce que c'était une claque aux gens qui ont en même temps eu plus de 1300 unités de mesure ? ;D L'ok, ne m'indiquent pas ; si l'initialisation s'adapte, portez-la.

[TexasTimbers]

That's easy for you to say! Should I be offended ???

[thurlow]

Ain't got a clue...........the only French I know is, " Petit garçon, avez-vous une soeur" ?

on-line mechanical translation

[thecfarm]

When I was in fifth grade we was reguired to take a metric class in school.This would of been around 1973.The USA was going metric.As you can tell it never happened.Don't know if that is good or bad.Haven't heard anything about changing for many years now.

[Dave Shepard]

Well, we're half-baked metric. Worked on a newer vehicle lately? My Kubota tractor was made in Japan, it's metric. The loader and backhoe were made in the USA, they are SAE. :

Do we need to get into rods, chains etc.? I like how the old measurements played into todays measurements. Why is a mile 5280 feet? Well it's divisible by the yard, 1760 of them, and chains, 80 per mile, and rods 480, or 6 per chain. But wait, there's more! Do you know why roads are the width they are? And why are fence rails 11 feet....it goes on and on. We could even get into drams and piffles. Ok, I made the last one up, but I bet you didn't know til I told ya. ;D

Dave

[jon12345]

I know what a piffle is, the metric system is one  :P

[limbrat]

The standard may not have changed but about 15yrs ago (5yrs. before i got out) all federal and state road construction projects converted to metric.
I like it alot better and dont see a good reason to stay mired.

[pigman]

I wish the U S would go metric. Using two measurment systems is too confussing for this old man.


Bob

[WDH]

TW.  That was a very informative post.  I think you made your point nicely.  If there wasn't an ocean between us and most other countries, we would be on the metric system too.

[Dan_Shade]

i'd like to get all the metric folks in the US to a convention, then I could arrange a movement to build a fence to keep them to themselves.

there aren't many things on earth that I hate as much as metric.  and not knowing fractions just tells me you're too stupid to do the math.

I'm with Kevjay, we won the wars, but lost the units?  what gives.

[Don P]

I worked in one cabinet shop where we had machinery from flat belted drive to a state of the art european molder. Converting back and forth between machines and cabinet styles (traditional and the "new" to us at the time 32 mm) could be hair pulling. I liked it once we got into straight metric, its a better system. I can teach an adult metric alot faster than fractions, and its suprising how many adults can't read a tape, or do decimal conversions.  But that's another rant  :.

I remember Bill Cosby's skit. God has handed down the measurements for the ark, Noah asks "what's a cubit"  :D. I finally got to see a cubit stick a few years ago, it was from Tut's tomb. You could still see the divisions pretty clearly. Not bad for no mylar coating.

[DanG]

The metric system is coming to the USA, like it or not.  They're just waiting for us old codgers to die off.  Metric really makes a lot more sense than our old system, anyway.  Everything else is counted with the decimal system, and that's all metric is.  Besides, it is based on the size of the Earth, instead of some forgotten King's clodhoppers.  It is 10,000 kilometers from the Poles to the Equator.  I really don't see what the big deal is. ??? :

[Don_Papenburg]

Back in the last century congress debated going metric but as usual they did not get their act together .  This was a time when most equipment  came with the tools to fix it .  Before most people had lots of tools  . Back in 1927-28.  this would have been the time to convert , Not now that I have over $30,000 worth of SAE tools .

[JimBuis]

I use both systems everyday. Not a problem. The problem comes in when I have students who do not understand EITHER system, don't know how to use a ruler, etc., etc.

If we are changing to metric, and we certainly are, that is fine.  However, doing it to be like the rest of the world is one of the stupidest reasons I have ever heard.

Let's change to the metric system because it is more efficient, because we can produce better products, because it is intelligent and logical. I pray that the U.S. never decides to do anything simply because the rest of the world is doing it.

IMHO,
Jim

[Dan_Shade]

my real problem with metric is that the meter is an absurdly stupid unit of measure.  you break it down into 100ths because the decimal system is so easy, or into thousandths.  you end up with millimeters and centimeters. 

how many centimeters tall are you?  see?  it's assinine.  if you need decimals, inches break down into decimals just as easily as a meter does.  if i'm working on standard stuff, i can go get the wrench, if it's metric, I grab a handful.

[Dave Shepard]

I really think that this has more to do with people not willing to change, than either method being stupid. If you want stupid, start looking at the soda and juice bottles. They are usually either an even 16 ounces, or perhaps 1 liter. But sometimes, they are not even in either! What gives with that? One advantage of the metric system is you can just move the decimal point to convert from one level to the next. When I work with a friend that does architectural stone work, everything is in metric, it is very easy to work with. Besides, the end product is actually in feet anyway. "Go find me a 30x60x15 quoin", hmm, that's 12x24x6 inches. It's really not that bad.


Dave

[Tom]

You're probaby right Dave. I'll go with both hands full of drapes and my feet on either side of the door jam and screaming at the top of my lungs.  :D

I think my problem isn't the the math, it's the mental image.  I can image a mile.  I can't image a kilometer. I can image 100 yards because it's a football field.  I just grew up with my mind knowing the sizes of lbs and ounces and how big a quart is.  65 years of that is hard to retrain.

I believe that, even if I trained myself to picture a kilometer, I would picture a mile first and compare it.

[TW]

Besides, it is based on the size of the Earth, instead of some forgotten King's clodhoppers.  It is 10,000 kilometers from the Poles to the Equator.

I red a little about that this winter:
The intention was as you say, but the variations in the field of gravity caused a error. Further they measured along the longitude through France ans Spain and extrapolated with the assumption that the earth is regular in shape. Unfortunately the earth is far from regular.
Still it is much better than the shoe size of some forgotten king.

It is possible to find inch treads in Finnish made machinery until the 1960-ies (60 or 70 years after metic was introduced) so this is not a question of having to replace all tools at once. Still old machinery will need repairs so I suppose we will need inch treads for 200 more years or so, until all old machinery is worn out. In fact here in Finland tread tools for UNC and UNF and whitworth are much more expensive than metric because they are rare and needed for doing repairs on old machinery.

[mike_van]

I'm with Tom - Too stubborn to want to change - 3 different shops full of SAE tools, one cheap little set of metric sockets I had to buy out of necessity.   >:(   Next thing, they'll want to throw away the dollar and give us Euro's too...............

[Norm]

Ah yes I remember 8th grade being told that we were going to have to learn the metric system, just a matter of time before we would convert over. Well here I am 37 years later still happily using our standard. I don't buy the arguement that metric is better and am guessing I'll still be happily using it when they measure me for the hole to be planted in.

As for the euros I'm guessing they have fraction envy. ;D

[Patty]

Yea, my 5th grade teacher stood up in front of the class and droned on & on about how we would all be thinking in metric instead of standard measurements. I never did like that old windbag..  :D  I guess they will have to wait for alot of us old farts to die ......

[sawguy21]

We have been o-fish-u-all-y metric for thirty years. I had trouble imagining a kilometre or a kilogram but gradually got used to it. When I go south of the 49th, I find myself converting miles to klicks even though the speedometre, there is that metric again, ;)  in the truck shows both. I am forgetting the old system except when I ship goods south.
The imperial system is dying because the kids are not learning it. A friend mentioned miles in a conversation and his then 17 year old asked "Dad, what's a mile?" :D
I like Sprucegums post, that is funny but very true here.

[stonebroke]

what I don't like about metrics is the threads on bolts, You can have the same number of threads on different diameter bolts and also have three different numbers  of threads on the same dia. bolt so you never know what nut to bring. Very confusing. I would not mind if there were only one thread per dia. and different for every bolt dia.

Stonebroke

[Dave Shepard]

You're probaby right Dave. I'll go with both hands full of drapes and my feet on either side of the door jam and screaming at the top of my lungs. :D

You always paint a hilarious mental picture Tom. ;D


Dave

[ksu_chainsaw]

In the military, we use both metric and U.S. measurements.  The maps are all in metric, but on most military vehicles, you can't read the metric scale.  And, when you get into working on a humvee, there are both standard and metric bolts holding it together.  for example: the starter is usually metric, but when some overzealous mechanic strips out a bolt, it is always a standard bolt put back in, so you have to haul both sets of wrenches under the truck to work on it. >:(

[DanG]

Ya know, something just occurred to me.  Could it be that the rest of the world does not buy our products because we are NOT metric?  I can imagine it would be hard to find SAE tools in a  good portion of the world.  Maybe we oughta think of that when we gripe about the trade deficit. :

[Cedarman]

Back in the late 70's when I was teaching math they had the kids convertin from english to metric and metric to english.  The numbers were outlandish and everyone hated it.  Me included.  Instead, I did my best to get the kids to think in metric.  For example, estimate how many centimeters wide your text book is.  Then measure.  Do that with all sorts of things.  How many meters long is the room?  Guess, then measure.

When using foreign words, the meaning of the word must come to mind, not the english translation in english words.

Kids that run track get a good feel for 100, 200,400,800,1600,3200 meters.
Discus, shot put, high jump, pole vault are in feet and inches.  Go figure.

Forget about converting from one to another.  It is mind number.  Simply think in english or think in metric.  If I can do it anyone can.

[mike_van]

Patty, I think I had that teacher for 4 th grade -  :D :D

[scgargoyle]

what I don't like about metrics is the threads on bolts, You can have the same number of threads on different diameter bolts and also have three different numbers  of threads on the same dia. bolt so you never know what nut to bring. Very confusing. I would not mind if there were only one thread per dia. and different for every bolt dia.

Stonebroke

Actually, metric fasteners tend to only use one thread pitch for a given diameter, as opposed to SAE, which come in fine and coarse thread. There are two different pitches for each metric size, but only one is used routinely. One problem I have seen is there seems to be a 'European' metric, and an 'Asian' metric, so leftover bolts from your VW probably won't fit your Toyota. Another interesting footnote: Although most of the world is metric, metric gaging equipment for the machine trades is far more expensive than SAE, even though most of the equipment is made in countries that are fully metric!

[Dave Shepard]

And just when you think you've got it all figured out, you have to work on something with British nuts and bolts. :


Dave

[Tom]

My 1959 BSA was Whitworth.  I had never heard of it until then.

[JimBuis]

what I don't like about metrics is the threads on bolts, You can have the same number of threads on different diameter bolts and also have three different numbers  of threads on the same dia. bolt so you never know what nut to bring. Very confusing. I would not mind if there were only one thread per dia. and different for every bolt dia.

Stonebroke

Actually, metric fasteners tend to only use one thread pitch for a given diameter, as opposed to SAE, which come in fine and coarse thread. There are two different pitches for each metric size, but only one is used routinely. One problem I have seen is there seems to be a 'European' metric, and an 'Asian' metric, so leftover bolts from your VW probably won't fit your Toyota. Another interesting footnote: Although most of the world is metric, metric gaging equipment for the machine trades is far more expensive than SAE, even though most of the equipment is made in countries that are fully metric!

scgargoyle,

Your hypothesis that there are only two different pitches for each metric size may be true in your experience, but as your experience broadens you will find out that is not the case.  Here in Tokyo I have dealt with at least three pitches in some diameters. In fact, in our shop I have taps labelled by the manufacturer that show at least three different pitches in the same diameter. Now they are certainly not very common and they may not be exported very often, but they do exist.

I would liken this to SAE sizes to 32nds or 64ths of an inch. Have they ever been made? Yes.  Are they very common? No.

Jim

[maple flats]

I think it is time we went metric because of the simplictiy of it but those of us who buy and or use things til they can no longer be repaired or recycled won't live long enough to see a complete transition, WE will always have both SAE and metric to putz back and forth with.

[Cedarman]

Tom, a while back we had a thread on Whitworth.  My Dominion moulder has those stupid bolts.  It drove me nuts until the forum straightened me out. 

[Patty]

Yea Mike,

Seems back then all the teachers were old gray haired ladies with attitude.  ;D   

Of course now that I am the old gray haired lady with attitude, the teachers somehow seem younger these days.. :D

[dundee]

Forget the nuts and bolts (metric and imperial), think about the difference of milling metric measurement as opposed to imperial, then look at the difference in the recovery of your log you are milling------just a thought

Richard

[Tom]

Why! Do you get less lumber with metric boards?

[JimBuis]

Okay, now that's it!!   If we mill lumber in metric sizes rather than Imperial, the kerf becomes smaller and the lumber is smoother requiring less planing leading to less waste. 8) 8)

Problem solved. ;)  Next subject. :P

Jim

[Tom]

But, my trees are in feet and inches.    :-\
Does the nursery sell mm and cm trees now? 

How many inches will a cm tree grow in a season? :P

[dundee]

Tom, as you know, metric is 25mm, imperial 1 inch, metric is smaller, lumber is sold as metric, not imperial---if the 25mm is dressed 4 sides (after KD) the finished width is 18.5mm,

Even length, say 8 feet is 2.4 metric, we do not market 8 feet

[thurlow]

How tall the standard ceiling height be if not 2.4 metric?  ;D

[dundee]

Thurlow, most houses here have a 2.4 stud, for what it is worth, we HAVE to mill for the USA market imperial,  :( I don't want to upset you guy's up there, but I reckon the USA wull change one day  ;D

(waiting for Tom's response)

[Tom]

Wait a minute, I mean... ?? what is a minute in metric?,  Uh..  I was trying to count up the mm's and ran out of fingers.  Y'all have to use a real big number and still have to use fractions.  I don't get it.  :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

I use both all the time. No big issue: 1 inch, 1 foot, 1 meter all different lengths anyway, what's one more to learn.  ;D

But what is neat, maybe not earth shattering, is the fact the 1 litre of water is 1 kg. But, 32 F = freezing point seems more arbitrary than 0 C = freezing point. 1 Imperial gallon is 10 lbs though.  ;) :D

Have fun. 

[thurlow]

I understand.............sorta..............the metric size wrenches, but....................my metric socket wrenches fit on a half-inch drive impact/pull bar/breaker bar/rachet.  No way the "metric countries" use a one-quarter/three-eights/one-half/three-quarter/one inch drive, so what are they.  :P

Is it good that I'm 5'10" (don't know how many km that is) and weigh 15 stone (or is that a whole 'nother system)?

[sawguy21]

Stone is an old English unit of measure but I have no idea what it is in pounds or kilograms. I think asy used the term in another thread so maybe she can enlighten us.
The Brits also measure truck capacity as 'cwt' or hundredweight. Never understood that one either.

[SwampDonkey]

taters are measured and priced in hundred weight to.  ;D

[Tom]

1 imperial gallon is 10 pounds though.

 Holy Cow!, Swampdonkey!

I did some research and some cypering and that's expensive.  That's 19.85 a gallon USD :P

What are you putting in that gallon that costs almost $20? ???

Thurlow, just how much does a stone of wood weigh?
If you find out how many km's you are, let me know.  I'm 5' 9 1/2" so we'll be close.

[sawguy21]

 :D :D :D :D Tom you are a hoot. I sincerely hope that gallon weighs ten pounds and doesn't cost that across the pond.

[Don P]

We hit a rock in the garden that's gotta outweigh me, so I'm a petite, less than one stone  ;D.

Where the fractions get me into trouble is in something like a stair or rafter cypher. Say I've got 108-5/16" rise and need to get 15 risers in that height.
Convert to 108.3125
divide by 15 = 7.2208"
Convert back to fractions= is about 7-7/32
That took several minutes and had several extra chances for error. Now when I lay out, if I just step off at 7-7/32's there will be a cumulative error of several thousandths per step that will all come to fruition at the top step.

With metric you aren't bouncing back and forth.

That said, my brain divides things in fractions. Halves, quarters, eighths, those are natural to me, but I grew up thinking that way  ???.

[Don_Papenburg]

SD , If a litre of water is also a Kg of water why bother with litres? Is Kg an abreviation for Keg?

[Dave Shepard]

A hundred weight isn't always a hundred pounds though. Ask a blacksmith why 1+2+3=171 pounds.


Dave

[Tom]

Yeah, I know.  Those potatoes are heavy.  I've tried to pick some of them up before. They must weigh at least a hundred pounds.  ;D  They need to keep those potatoes in 50 lb sacks. 


......... I didn't mean that.  King Edward said Sacks are 364 lbs.  There's no way I could manage that many potatoes. :D

How much does a hundred pounds of iron really weigh? :P :-\

You'd think that Kg could stand for Keg but my research says that a Keg is a Hectoliter.  *hectolitre if you're from somewhere else than the USA.  I didn't know that costa Rica was going to enter into this discussion.  I wonder if our friend Hector had something to do with the capacity of a keg  Hectoliter might just be a Tico bucket of some sort or another. It might have something to do with possession too, as in, "That's Hector's Liter". :-\

[TexasTimbers]

I could be wrong, but I think a knot is a knot in any hemisphere. If so, we have found some common ground. Also Wombats are fairly reliable in their nature. They move and grow and live in a very predictable way. We could measure everything in Wombat Knot Units of Measure (WOKUMs).

How much milk ya got in that jug Billy Bob?

About 21.7 Wombat Knot Units worth.

How do ya figger?

Well, there is exactly enough milk in here to give a standard sized Wombat enough energy to walk 50 miles at and average speed of 21.7 knots.

Oh. What is an average size Wombat as used in the universal measuring system now?

An average sized Wombat = 39 Wombat Knot Units.

How old is that Wombat?

7920 Wombat Knot Years.

How do you figger?

The average Wombat lives on average a length of time to have consumed enough energy to have maintained an average speed over a 50 mile distance of 7920 Knots when condensed in Wombat Relative Time Units (WORTUs).

How much does that battleship your son is assigned to, weigh, Fred?


It's about 1.687 WOKUMs.

How do ya figger that?

It displaces the same as 1,687,272.73  fully grown submerged Wombats.

See everything would be much simpler if it were related in WOmbat Knot Units of Measure (WOKUMs). Armadillos would be too confusing and would not have the same ring to it.

Just take a look at the awesome power of the USS Wombat! 8)


It's true. I let my prescription lapse again. ;;)

[dundee]

Kev, Please take your pills mate  ;D

[Dave Shepard]

Crikey!



Dave

[Don P]

Speaking of sneezing, is a kiloton metric or english?

[WDH]

Its atomic.

[SwampDonkey]

How many lbs in a tonne?  ;D

[Don P]

I dunno, but that sure looks like a long way to spell ton  ;D

[Tom]

I don't know about a tonne because we don't have any here.   A ton is 2000 pounds.  Maybe somebody is trying to invent something new.

[TexasTimbers]

And a ship ton is about a 1/10th more even than a standard ton. It's 2240 pounds also known as a long ton. Unless of course you are dealing with the Chinese, because they are going to short you on your long tons and you'll be out of some tonnage.

A long ton is also equivalent to roughly 777.77 WOKUMs, except in the Horse Lattitudes. Then it's measured in HOKUMs.

[Dave Shepard]

Is a tonne a metric ton? If so, it is 2204.46 pounds, or 1,000kilos.
I've been dreaming in long hundredwieghts lately, is that bad?


Dave

[Tom]

Holy Smokes!  They not only make the numbers bigger, they add letters to the words. :-\     :D

[TexasTimbers]

I just looked up "ton" in wikipedia and there was a gross ton which I always thought was 13.88888 (2000 divided by 144). Learned something new.
Learned something else too. I saw where asy wanted to get all fancy on us and add letters to her tons to cause I saw a definition for and "assay ton".
Asy you need to stick to your little three letter ton or else we'll think you are trying to be a show off. Those 5 letter "tonne" things don't make no sense over here.
Don't tell me you are from somewhere where they use a 5 letter ton or else why would you call yourself little old 3-letter "asy" to begin with!

[DanG]

Well, this was a good, informative thread, in its early stages, but since it has gone all to heck anyway, I'll ask about something that I've wondered about for a long time.  Who came up with "lb" as an abbreviation for "pound", anyway?

[Don_Papenburg]

I did , because I don't know how to spell pound ;D

[Tom]

It was my fault :-[

The Latin word libra means "scales, balances".  That's where Lb came from .

There was also an Ancient Roman measurement of mass called a Libra

Another measure of Mass, in England, called the Libra mercatoria, or merchants pound, went out of use in the 1400's.

I guess Lb has been associated with measurement of mass for a long time .  (Wikipedia)

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

I think that long ton is what you'd want to buy if you were trying to make sure you bought enough potatoes to feed everybody at the annual family reunion...

[TexasTimbers]

Sorry DanG. I don't know when to quit sometimes. 

[DanG]

You gonna get that prescription filled today, Kev? : :D :D :D

[TexasTimbers]

If I can remember where I put my refill order.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Y'all ain't lived, until you have to convert to Pulgadas and Varas (Va Dahs).

  Then, ya get into Meters and m3, all in the same whack of lumber.  : :

  Makes a fella want to drink.
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  Anybody got a Pina Fresco ???   8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[TW]

In media there have emerged some new units ::

-Elephantweight. Every time when the jornalists try to explain a big weight they convert it to number of adult elephants. I guess this is something this happened since they outsurced the journalist education to the lowest bidder....in Mombasa, Kenya. There are no elephants in this country! We have never seen any elephants here since the mammoths died out.  And those journalists claim to know what is happening right now on the other side of the planet, while they have not noticed the end of the ice age at home. And, a mammoth was bigger than an elephand so they shoud at least supply a converion chart to mammothweight.

-Footballfieldarea:
How on earth does the journalist think that everybody knows the size of the footballfield in his home village exactly today. Normally goals are moved closer or further from each other depending on the actual size of the teams ans the height of the grass.

Even kilowombatweights and wombatfeedarea (area needed to grow fodder for a wombat) would be better....

Seriously:
Do they really think we are too stupid to understand metric ton or hectar? We ware actually(or should be) thinking human beings.

[WDH]

Foresters always refer to forestry things in units of area, like MBF/acre, or Cords/acre, or Basal Area/acre.  I was in Sweden a couple of years ago (TW, wish I could have visited Finland, too), and a Swedish forester told me that the difference between Sweden and the US was that in Sweden, there were fewer crazy people per hectare ;D.  After reading about wombatfeedarea units, I am inclined to agree .  This statement is not aimed at any one particular person in Texas (it is aimed at all persons in Texas _grin).  Just kidding.............There are several nice people in Texas .  The food ain't bad, either .  I guess Texas Wombatfeedarea units might work after all ;D.

[thurlow]

I ain't got nuthin against Texas or Texicans, neither, except....................between us, my wife and I been driving about 98 years; both were on the road at 13 or 14.  Only ever got one traffic ticket between us.  In 1990, we took an extensive vacation.........Texas, NM, C0, WY, SD, UT, etc, plus the states 'twixt here and there.  We had been to Fort Davis and were headed towards El Paso on a 2-lane blacktop.  Wife was driving and following a tractor-trailer for about 10 miles.  He was making about 45 mph and she finally found a place to pass.  This was just out of Van Horn; state highway traffic enforcement officer (would be Highway Patrol in TN, don't remember what he was) immediately pulled her over.  Reminded me very much of Barney Fife, except he didn't have Barney's upper body muscular development  :D.  He was purty!  Gave her a ticket for 38 bucks;  she was so upset that she refused to drive; I had to get behind the wheel.  Ever since we'd gotten into Texas from Arkansas, we'd seen signs saying, "Don't Mess With Texas".  Didn't know what they meant, but we figured it out just South of Van Horn.  ;D

[WDH]

Better that it was not 38 Euros .

[TexasTimbers]

I ain't got nuthin against Texas or Texicans, neither, except....................

That's what everyone says right before they slam us, or asscoiate us with some negative experience that happened to them in our state. The cop was almost certainly born and reared in Lauderdale County, Tennessee. :D ;D

[thurlow]

 

[WDH]

You guys better take it easy, or you will get the Texas Ranger on your case .