>
> "Marcel Kuijper" <zoepetier_nothing_here@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:yqaga3pax4vo$.4o2xctzyq4zg$.dlg@40tude.net...
>>
>> /BEGIN RANT/
>>
>> Can people please stop using the Imperial System??
>>
>> I was reading an article of the Airliners.net forum on another near miss
>> mid-air collision during a perpendicular take-off at JFK.
>>
>> One guy said :"They spoke of 500 feet seperation."
>>
>> Another guy replied :"I heard it was more like half a mile."
>>
>> Now here, with the metric system, when someone says "half a kilometer",
>> everyone else knows it's 500 meters, because 1 kilometer is 1000 meters.
>> It's a nice round number.
>>
>> Metric System
>> ----------------------
>> 10 millimeters = 1 centimeter
>> 100 centimeters = 1 meter
>> 1000 meters = 1 kilometer
>>
>>
>> Imperial System
>> ------------------------
>> 100 inches = 8.33 feet
>> 1000 inches = 27 yards
>> 1 mile = 5.280 feet
>> 1 mile = 1.760 yards
>>
>> Half a mile = 880 yards or 2.640 feet.
>>
>> I'm sorry, but this system just makes no sense.
>> Where's the logic?
>>
>> Or is my vision towards the Imperial System just slightly skewed?
>> Cos it's giving me a headache everytime.
>>
>> I'm just glad Google provides a simple way to convert one to the other.
>>
>> /END RANT/
>>
>> --
>>
>> Marcel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (HC153VE)
>>
>> "Some wars last for decades. Others last for three periods."
>
> I seem to recall most Imperial length measures were defined by the length
> of
> body parts in the dim and distant past.
>
> 1 inch equated to the width of a thumb.
> 1 foot probably equated to the length of a foot and dates from around or
> before 2575BC.
> 1 yard was supposedly invented by Henry I as being the distance between
> the
> tip of his nose and the end of his thumb.
> 1 Hand (measure for the height of a horse) was the width of a hand.
>
> I just don't understand how we come to have 437 ½ (437.499) grains in an
> ounce.
> Where on earth did that come from?
> Which type of grain is it based on?
> Thankfully I have never ever seen grains used in connection with anything.
combinations.
