An awfully
effective, real-world-based system of
weights and measures still used in some countries such as the
US and partly in the
UK - despite the almost dictatorial pronuniciamentoes of the EU
'Yurp'} that everything must be measured in some -
mis-measured - micro-fraction of the
Earth's semi-demi-
circumference.
Revolves around measuring
weight,
length,
distance and
energy etc. in units that actually do make sense -
inch - called 'un pouce' in
French is the length of the first
digit of your
thumb;
span is the span of a man's
hand fingers outstretched; a foot - 'un pied' in French - is - well . . . - the length of a foot; a
yard is a pace or step;
acre is the area a horse will plough in a
day 220yards by 22 yards; a chain - 22 yards - is the length of a
cricket pitch. And so on.
Unlike the metric system which may have been taken on board by most countries and is used in - almost - all science - the brightness of
nebulae is - please note - measured in
crabs and
millicrabs; but you knew that.
Seriously, metric works for scienfitc calculations. But - when did
you last have to work out the weight of an inch of rain falling on an acre (versus a centimetre of rain on a
hectare!).
Goliath was six
cubits and a span; those
Imperial units equate - in other Imperial units - to
an improbabble nine foot eight tall.
Now, the
metric equivalent is 2,95m (equally improbable, but not blindingly obvious to a lay man).
"The Imperial system relates to human beings, and the things they are familiar with," said Nichola to her pal
Nic; "It can be used for recondite scientific calculations, but metric may well be better for those."
