2002-12-15 The reason most imperial units don't use unit to next unit conversion factors greater than 20 is that most illiterate people in the olden days could not count past 20. People had to count using their fingers and toes. Some old habits are hard to get rid of!
John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brij Bhushan Vij" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2002-12-15 19:03 Subject: [USMA:24014] Re: Measure of all things > Reid, sir: > Whatever may be the origin to use 20,16 or 12 by British, histrigraphy of > India reveal these numbers in ancient Weights & Measures to count as > Kauri(20), Gaz(yard) of 16 Girah (and Rupee of 16 Annas) and count in Dozen > (12) is still popular in villages. > Invention of ZERO given by India has added this dimension to count large > and/or astronomical numbers. It is natural if Metric Reform made use of this > unique property of Ten(10). > Regards, > Brij B. Vij<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >From: "Joseph B. Reid" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: [USMA:23997] Re: Measure of all things > >Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 07:55:30 -0500 > > > >Ma Be wrote in USMA 23993: > >> > >> This is not about 'magic' existing in our current base 10 system we all > >>use, but that our brains have been proven to be "made to use base 10"!!! > >>That's the essence of the research I was talking about. > > > > > > > >How is it that the Brits for many centuries had 20 shillings in a pound and > >12 pence in a shilling? The French before The Revolution also had 20 sous > >in a livre and 12 deniers in a sou. The Americans still have 12 inches in > >a foot and 16 ounces in a pound. > > > >-- > >Joseph B. Reid > >17 Glebe Road West > >Toronto M5P 1C8 Telephone 416-486-6071 > > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus >
