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Post by kronks on Jul 16, 2017 18:58:23 GMT -5
I hesitate to offer an answer to this old riddle, but the obvious answer is, “because it is an acre.” Hi Menantol, Why hesitate, If you are correct that is what matters, I'm not an ogre.!!! I did think it was the mathematical amount, but I couldn't remember what it was. Sometimes my memory works, sometimes it doesn't. Thanks for giving the answer.!!! I was not sure of the maths either, but I knew ache came in somewhere and it didn't take too long for the penny to drop!
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Jul 16, 2017 19:03:55 GMT -5
Post by kronks on Jul 16, 2017 19:03:55 GMT -5
Yes that is correct, but not so obvious to the children of today who only know the metric system of measurement as oppose to the far superiour (imo) imperial system. The imperial system is much more "human" albeit the maths is a lot harder! I never learned the metric system and have no urge to do so at this stage of life Metric is easier for maths but it is not very useful in the real world. For example we and all relate to a yard or a foot, but 304.8 mm for a foot, well it is just not help full in visualizing or estimating. Or say 12 stone is 76.2 kilo, not very helpful really.
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Jul 16, 2017 20:24:37 GMT -5
Post by men an tol on Jul 16, 2017 20:24:37 GMT -5
I hesitate to offer an answer to this old riddle, but the obvious answer is, “because it is an acre.” Hi Menantol, Why hesitate, If you are correct that is what matters, I'm not an ogre.!!! I did think it was the mathematical amount, but I couldn't remember what it was. Sometimes my memory works, sometimes it doesn't. Thanks for giving the answer.!!! Scottish Lassie my hesitation had nothing to do with any member here, but rather with the fact that these old riddles were sort of teaching tools for youth. To make such conversions has little use for all today (maybe mostly converting temperatures), but are specialty used for specific fields. For those interested one such site is: www.convert-me.com/en/ Another type of site is: www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/measures.htm And yet another: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre There are many others. As an Example: Although such conversion has less use today, in the early years of computers we had to use multiple different numbering sets depending on the computer being used and the computer language used. Today we are all familiar with decimal (base ten) numbering system, but many had to also use a binary (base 2) system,, and there was a hexadecimal system (base 16) and an Octal (base 8) system, and others. The point is, while such was necessary in those years and some of us had to know multiples and work back and forth, no one outside of such work knew or cared about it. So too with conversions today, as most have no real value.
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Post by fretslider on Jul 17, 2017 6:47:32 GMT -5
I never learned the metric system and have no urge to do so at this stage of life Metric is easier for maths but it is not very useful in the real world. For example we and all relate to a yard or a foot, but 304.8 mm for a foot, well it is just not help full in visualizing or estimating. Or say 12 stone is 76.2 kilo, not very helpful really. Not forgetting chains, furlongs etc A yard is very close to a metre, so instead of saying a hundred yards you could say... a hundred metres. Metric is easier for maths but it is not very useful in the real world.Science and engineering were in the real world last time I checked.
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Jul 18, 2017 9:20:59 GMT -5
Dex likes this
Post by kronks on Jul 18, 2017 9:20:59 GMT -5
Metric is easier for maths but it is not very useful in the real world. For example we and all relate to a yard or a foot, but 304.8 mm for a foot, well it is just not help full in visualizing or estimating. Or say 12 stone is 76.2 kilo, not very helpful really. Not forgetting chains, furlongs etc A yard is very close to a metre, so instead of saying a hundred yards you could say... a hundred metres. Metric is easier for maths but it is not very useful in the real world.Science and engineering were in the real world last time I checked. Scientist an engineers are a small minority. All the imperial measurements developed because they were convenient in the real world. For example we all know there are 5 toes in a foot. An acre was the area of land an oxen could plough in a day. There are some rally interesting origins, some of which I have never seen before So all useful from the real world. Now we have a rather useless class room world which children do mindless and useless calculations. Of course all the other measurement tend to come from the human body, hand foot yard inch so all very easy to estimate. Even with the metric system you tend to have to convert to imperial to a have an idea. I mean a yard is basically one pace, how very convenient. The are generally easy for dividing ie divisible , by 2, 3, 4 and 5 used for time, 60 minutes in an hour. Real world v classroom world. We don't live in the class room. .
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Post by men an tol on Jul 18, 2017 11:51:36 GMT -5
The dark ages are often misconstrued to be a somewhat backward time of little learning and no advancement, however the opposite was true and no place was this more evident than in the rural and village communities.
While the measurements remained the same, what was accomplished this period of the Dark Ages same improvements in most elements of life. In large part, this was due to the use of the horse, improvement in the harnessing of the horse, the growing common use of iron, and a warming of the weather cycle.
The horse collar and harnessing replaced the use of the horse pulling from the neck which increased the life of the horse and made the horse more valuable. Because they are built differently the developing harnessing of the horse could not be used with oxen which pulled through the use of the yoke. The new horse harnessing made it easier for the horse to pull greater loads, move faster and live longer, which increased the acreage under plow. At the same time iron replaced the wooden plow share and iron horse shoes protected the hoofs of the horse. The natural result was an increase in food production.
With the increase in food production, greater amounts became available for market (usually fairs) and the horse could move greater amounts of food to market and do so faster at greater distances. From this came the need to have better roads. This all brought about more frequent contact between villages and the expansion of specialty guilds. This was all occurring during a climate period when the weather warmed and things became better for the production of grain farming. All of this contributed to a growing population that could be fed with the growing food production. The dark ages were anything but dark and the historic methods of measurement became more important as diverse peoples came increasingly into contact. These so called dark ages were about the period of 450 BCE to about 1000 BCE. This places this more or less in the period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
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Jul 19, 2017 6:13:54 GMT -5
Post by fretslider on Jul 19, 2017 6:13:54 GMT -5
Not forgetting chains, furlongs etc A yard is very close to a metre, so instead of saying a hundred yards you could say... a hundred metres. Metric is easier for maths but it is not very useful in the real world.Science and engineering were in the real world last time I checked. Scientist an engineers are a small minority. All the imperial measurements developed because they were convenient in the real world. For example we all know there are 5 toes in a foot. An acre was the area of land an oxen could plough in a day. There are some rally interesting origins, some of which I have never seen before So all useful from the real world. Now we have a rather useless class room world which children do mindless and useless calculations. Of course all the other measurement tend to come from the human body, hand foot yard inch so all very easy to estimate. Even with the metric system you tend to have to convert to imperial to a have an idea. I mean a yard is basically one pace, how very convenient. The are generally easy for dividing ie divisible , by 2, 3, 4 and 5 used for time, 60 minutes in an hour. Real world v classroom world. We don't live in the class room. . The whole of Europe, Australia, Japan etc use metric that's quite a few hundred million people. You are arguing from a very narrow viewpoint, base 10 will always be far easier than base 12. Fact. I remember well calculating how Johnny had five apples he bought for 7/6, gave three away how much were the two remaining apples worth? £sd was no fun. Decimalisation made sense. The days of the mediaeval surf ended long ago, civilisation has moved on. It doesn't require great genius - if you insist on using imperial - to convert mm, cm to inches. 1 inch is ~2.5cm or 250mm, right? Similarly 1 pint is 568 ml 1lb is ~ 500g 20C is 68F etc How many ft in a mile? 5,280 How many feet in 6 3/ 4 miles? Much easier to say 1000m in a Km - the clue is in the name.
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Jul 20, 2017 5:32:06 GMT -5
Post by kronks on Jul 20, 2017 5:32:06 GMT -5
Scientist an engineers are a small minority. All the imperial measurements developed because they were convenient in the real world. For example we all know there are 5 toes in a foot. An acre was the area of land an oxen could plough in a day. There are some rally interesting origins, some of which I have never seen before So all useful from the real world. Now we have a rather useless class room world which children do mindless and useless calculations. Of course all the other measurement tend to come from the human body, hand foot yard inch so all very easy to estimate. Even with the metric system you tend to have to convert to imperial to a have an idea. I mean a yard is basically one pace, how very convenient. The are generally easy for dividing ie divisible , by 2, 3, 4 and 5 used for time, 60 minutes in an hour. Real world v classroom world. We don't live in the class room. . The whole of Europe, Australia, Japan etc use metric that's quite a few hundred million people. You are arguing from a very narrow viewpoint, base 10 will always be far easier than base 12. Fact. I remember well calculating how Johnny had five apples he bought for 7/6, gave three away how much were the two remaining apples worth? £sd was no fun. Decimalisation made sense. The days of the mediaeval surf ended long ago, civilisation has moved on. It doesn't require great genius - if you insist on using imperial - to convert mm, cm to inches. 1 inch is ~2.5cm or 250mm, right? Similarly 1 pint is 568 ml 1lb is ~ 500g 20C is 68F etc How many ft in a mile? 5,280 How many feet in 6 3/ 4 miles? Much easier to say 1000m in a Km - the clue is in the name. How many feet in 63/4 miles? Nobody would want to know that!!! It is an academic question. What is a fever in centigrade? Imperial measurement are based on real world usage. How do you estimate a meter? Not easy, a yard is easy.
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Jul 20, 2017 8:19:21 GMT -5
Post by fretslider on Jul 20, 2017 8:19:21 GMT -5
The whole of Europe, Australia, Japan etc use metric that's quite a few hundred million people. You are arguing from a very narrow viewpoint, base 10 will always be far easier than base 12. Fact. I remember well calculating how Johnny had five apples he bought for 7/6, gave three away how much were the two remaining apples worth? £sd was no fun. Decimalisation made sense. The days of the mediaeval surf ended long ago, civilisation has moved on. It doesn't require great genius - if you insist on using imperial - to convert mm, cm to inches. 1 inch is ~2.5cm or 250mm, right? Similarly 1 pint is 568 ml 1lb is ~ 500g 20C is 68F etc How many ft in a mile? 5,280 How many feet in 6 3/ 4 miles? Much easier to say 1000m in a Km - the clue is in the name. How many feet in 63/4 miles? Nobody would want to know that!!! It is an academic question. What is a fever in centigrade? Imperial measurement are based on real world usage. How do you estimate a meter? Not easy, a yard is easy. Do you use roads or rail?, howabout a telephone? They are more than academic. A fever is a temperature of 38 oC or greater Of course 100.4 oF, in dimension kronks is much easier to use than 38 oC, but I disagree with that notion entirely. How do you estimate a meter? Not easy, a yard is easy.How do you estimate any measure? From knowledge and experience. 1 yard 36" 1 metre 39" 3" A huge difference, big enough to cause a kronks meltdown it seems
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Jul 20, 2017 17:41:30 GMT -5
Post by kronks on Jul 20, 2017 17:41:30 GMT -5
How many feet in 63/4 miles? Nobody would want to know that!!! It is an academic question. What is a fever in centigrade? Imperial measurement are based on real world usage. How do you estimate a meter? Not easy, a yard is easy. Do you use roads or rail?, howabout a telephone? They are more than academic. A fever is a temperature of 38 oC or greater Of course 100.4 oF, in dimension kronks is much easier to use than 38 oC, but I disagree with that notion entirely. How do you estimate a meter? Not easy, a yard is easy.How do you estimate any measure? From knowledge and experience. 1 yard 36" 1 metre 39" 3" A huge difference, big enough to cause a kronks meltdown it seems How many cm in a foot? Nobody knows!! How tall is 1.70 metres? Nobody knows!! How heavy is 100kg? Nobody knows!! The only way you can get an idea if to convert to imperial because metric does not relate well to things in the real world.
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Jul 21, 2017 5:53:03 GMT -5
Post by fretslider on Jul 21, 2017 5:53:03 GMT -5
Do you use roads or rail?, howabout a telephone? They are more than academic. A fever is a temperature of 38 oC or greater Of course 100.4 oF, in dimension kronks is much easier to use than 38 oC, but I disagree with that notion entirely. How do you estimate a meter? Not easy, a yard is easy.How do you estimate any measure? From knowledge and experience. 1 yard 36" 1 metre 39" 3" A huge difference, big enough to cause a kronks meltdown it seems How many cm in a foot? Nobody knows!! How tall is 1.70 metres? Nobody knows!! How heavy is 100kg? Nobody knows!! The only way you can get an idea if to convert to imperial because metric does not relate well to things in the real world. It doesn't require great genius - if you insist on using imperial - to convert mm, cm to inches.
1 inch is ~2.5cm or 250mm, right?
Similarly 1 pint is 568 ml
1lb is ~ 500g
20C is 68F
etcNow had you bothered to take that in you would know that (12*2.5) = 30cm Similarly ((170cm/2.5)/12) = 5' 7" Boringly, (100kg*2.24) = 224lbs This is primary school stuff, kronks.
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Jul 21, 2017 18:21:53 GMT -5
Post by kronks on Jul 21, 2017 18:21:53 GMT -5
How many cm in a foot? Nobody knows!! How tall is 1.70 metres? Nobody knows!! How heavy is 100kg? Nobody knows!! The only way you can get an idea if to convert to imperial because metric does not relate well to things in the real world. It doesn't require great genius - if you insist on using imperial - to convert mm, cm to inches.
1 inch is ~2.5cm or 250mm, right?
Similarly 1 pint is 568 ml
1lb is ~ 500g
20C is 68F
etcNow had you bothered to take that in you would know that (12*2.5) = 30cm Similarly ((170cm/2.5)/12) = 5' 7" Boringly, (100kg*2.24) = 224lbs This is primary school stuff, kronks. There is no need for the conversion if you stick with imperial in the first place. Pounds are not a suitable measurement of heavy weights, stones are appropriate, it keeps the numbers small. Imperial measurements are related to their real world application which is why they work so well. Feet, yards, furlongs. miles, all convenient units. Furlongs for horse racing, the final furlong is better than the final 201 metres!! They don't work well in poetry either.
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Jul 22, 2017 5:24:58 GMT -5
Post by fretslider on Jul 22, 2017 5:24:58 GMT -5
It doesn't require great genius - if you insist on using imperial - to convert mm, cm to inches.
1 inch is ~2.5cm or 250mm, right?
Similarly 1 pint is 568 ml
1lb is ~ 500g
20C is 68F
etcNow had you bothered to take that in you would know that (12*2.5) = 30cm Similarly ((170cm/2.5)/12) = 5' 7" Boringly, (100kg*2.24) = 224lbs This is primary school stuff, kronks. There is no need for the conversion if you stick with imperial in the first place. Pounds are not a suitable measurement of heavy weights, stones are appropriate, it keeps the numbers small. Imperial measurements are related to their real world application which is why they work so well. Feet, yards, furlongs. miles, all convenient units. Furlongs for horse racing, the final furlong is better than the final 201 metres!! They don't work well in poetry either. There is no need for conversion if you stick with the world outside your window. Horse racing is pretty much a heritage industry these days, Parliament still has its black rod. When did you last hear the final furlong uttered outside a racecourse? The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is run over a distance of 2,400 metres. Far more people will understand 2.4km I'll leave you to work out what that is in furlongs By the way Half a league = (1,760 * 1.5) = 2,640 yds or ((2,640/39.37) * 36) = 2,414 m But then the poem doesn't go 2,640 yds, 2,640 yds, 2,640 yds onward... either, does it.
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Jul 22, 2017 19:43:01 GMT -5
Post by kronks on Jul 22, 2017 19:43:01 GMT -5
There is no need for the conversion if you stick with imperial in the first place. Pounds are not a suitable measurement of heavy weights, stones are appropriate, it keeps the numbers small. Imperial measurements are related to their real world application which is why they work so well. Feet, yards, furlongs. miles, all convenient units. Furlongs for horse racing, the final furlong is better than the final 201 metres!! They don't work well in poetry either. There is no need for conversion if you stick with the world outside your window. Horse racing is pretty much a heritage industry these days, Parliament still has its black rod. When did you last hear the final furlong uttered outside a racecourse? The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is run over a distance of 2,400 metres. Far more people will understand 2.4km I'll leave you to work out what that is in furlongs By the way Half a league = (1,760 * 1.5) = 2,640 yds or ((2,640/39.37) * 36) = 2,414 m But then the poem doesn't go 2,640 yds, 2,640 yds, 2,640 yds onward... either, does it. No it didn't but then yards is not an appropriate imperial measurement for such a large distance. Furlong is a very useful measurement in horse racing, it works really well, that is the beauty of the imperial system. "and they're in the final furlong......." it tells you all you need to know.
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Jul 23, 2017 14:28:48 GMT -5
Post by fretslider on Jul 23, 2017 14:28:48 GMT -5
There is no need for conversion if you stick with the world outside your window. Horse racing is pretty much a heritage industry these days, Parliament still has its black rod. When did you last hear the final furlong uttered outside a racecourse? The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is run over a distance of 2,400 metres. Far more people will understand 2.4km I'll leave you to work out what that is in furlongs By the way Half a league = (1,760 * 1.5) = 2,640 yds or ((2,640/39.37) * 36) = 2,414 m But then the poem doesn't go 2,640 yds, 2,640 yds, 2,640 yds onward... either, does it. No it didn't but then yards is not an appropriate imperial measurement for such a large distance. Furlong is a very useful measurement in horse racing, it works really well, that is the beauty of the imperial system. "and they're in the final furlong......." it tells you all you need to know. Ask someone who isn't British how many yards or feet are in a furlong. They won't have a clue. But they will know parts of SI Système international d'unités is the modern form of the metric system, and is the most widely used system of measurement. Unlike imperial, it comprises a coherent system of units of measurement built on seven base units. The system also establishes a set of twenty prefixes to the unit names and unit symbols that may be used when specifying multiples and fractions of the units. Give my regards to Jack in the Green.
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