|
2001-05-28
You can't send it from the site directly as the
USMA list server does not recognise the site as a valid list
member.
Interesting article, but I think the work is an
exercise in futility. Before the metric system was invented in the 1790's
there were over 5000 variations on the foot alone. Just think how many
variations existed in the Bronze age. I'm sure it will not only be
impossible to know, but also impossible to sort out.
I would highly doubt that the ancients did much
converting back and forth. When you brought goods for sale to a trader, he
weighed them on his scale, or determined the weight by whatever means was
available then. He didn't care what the value of the shekel was in some
distant town. All he cared about was what it your goods weighed on his
scale. Once he determined the weight of the goods, he offered you a
price. If you didn't like it, you haggled, and if you could not agree on a
price, you went to someone else to sell your goods.
This is the way it was in Europe before metric came
into being. Nobody cared what your goods weight in someone else's pounds;
they offered you a price based on their pounds. There was a trade
advantage to having various sizes of measurements all called by the same
name. It was meant to introduce confusion in order for the trade to be in
the traders favour.
If metric had never been invented, we'd probably
still be trading this way.
John
Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt�mlich glaubt
frei zu sein.
There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
are free!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
|
- [USMA:13160] Re: One talent equals 31.6 kg ... kilopascal
- [USMA:13160] Re: One talent equals 31.6 kg ... Gene Mechtly
