-----Original Message----- From: danb_83 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, 2000-10-13 06:45 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: to y'all [Yahoo! Clubs: Metric America] Jake seems to think that FFU's have the advantage in terms of divisibility. However, this only applies to a few special situations. In many cases fractions of FFU's are very unfriendly values. 1/3 km = 333.333 m 1/3 mile = 2 furlongs 6 chains 2 rods 3 yards 2 ft 1/3 liter = 333 mL 1/3 gallon = 1 quart 10 fl.oz 5 fl.drams 20 minims 1/3 kg = 333 g 1/3 pound = 5 oz 2 drams 36 grains Notice how, even though 3 is not a divisor of 10, the metric units are much easier to remember than their FFU equivalent. And it is quite common for calculations to not work out evenly in either system. For example, suppose that you had a sheet of letter-size paper and want to make a calendar out of it. Each column would need to be one-seventh of 11 inches, or 1 4/7 wide. But 4/7 isn't marked on the ruler, so you'd have to do a little bit of calculation to determine that it's between 1 9/16 and 1 5/8 inches. On the other hand, you could think of the paper as 279 mm, and six simple calculator keystrokes (or even mental math) would tell you that the columns should be 40 mm wide. btw, I deliberately made a mistake on one of the WOMBAT calculations. Can you find it? --------------------------------------------- DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE BY EMAIL! --------------------------------------------- You have chosen to receive messages from "Metric America" by email. Reply to this message: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/metricamerica/bbsfrp?action=r&tid=metricamerica &sid=12177109&mid=810 Unsubscribe from the Club mailing list: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/metricamerica/config/change_mb_list Return to "Metric America": http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/metricamerica ---------------------------------------------- Not a member? Remove yourself from this list: http://edit.clubs.yahoo.com/config/unsubscribe_mb_list?.userID=millitesla&.g roupID=metricamerica&.groupType=&.code=kqkKEmys7C
