Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The Imperial System

Whilst watching the film Seabiscuit the other day, I realised that I had absolutely no idea what a furlong is. I know it's a unit of measurement of length, but its exact length escaped me. In my search for the truth is dicovered that a furlong is 660 feet, or 7920 inches, or 220 yards, or 1,000 links, or 40 poles, or 10 chains. See?

I have also discovered a number of other units of measurement that have become lost in time.

I think we should resurrect:
Chains
Poles
Links
Leagues
Roods
Pecks
Kennings
Buckets
Strikes
Pails
Chaldrons
Lasts
Firkins
Kilderkins
Hogsheads
Gills
Minims
Scruples
Grains
and Drachms (my favourites - they are 1/16th of an ounce ;-) )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_unit

Is it any wonder we had to give the empire their flags back?

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