Metric essay

[Greg Hermann]

>> >
>> Surprised nobody's mentioned STONE yet...a very handy unit of measurement.
>>  If only i can remember how many pounds there are in a stone...or is it
>> farthings?
>14 lbs to the stone.

Yep-- and one of my favorite units, the Horsepower, is equal to 72,000
stone - furlongs per fortnight (in base ten). If you convert this to a base
twelve number, the HP is equal to 35,800 stone-furlongs per fortnight--the
numbers were kind to me on this one, didn't have to devise new symbols for
"10" or "11" in the base twelve system!

And while we are being obtuse let's not forget about the differences in
counting across various ponds:

Americans think of a million as 10 to the 6th power, a billion as 10 to the
9th power, and a trillion as 10 to the 12th power.

Many others around the world think of a million as 10 to the 6th power, a
billion as 10 to the 12th power, and a trillion as 10 to the 24th power.

No wonder so many "Joe six-pack" type Europeans (or are they "Colin
three-packs" over there on account of the stronger beer??) think of us in
the US as being insanely wealthy after reading about the size of our
federal budget!

Regards, Greg