For swim meets only, a removable wall for turning/starting is inserted at
25 m in a 50 yard pool which was built in the 1960s. It's a real job but it
works for metric.
Kids ages 7-17 race.
Sorry I neglected to explain this in my previous email.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 4:06 AM
Subject: [USMA:45394] Isaac Newton – birth mass
On 2009/07/16, at 7:22 AM, Bill Potts wrote:
O.K., Stan, how do you put a 50 m insert in a 50 yard pool?
Reminds me of the old expression about putting a quart in a pint pot.
Bill
Dear Bill and Stan,
Your reference to the old – now out-dated – pints and quarts reminded me of a
reference to the birth of Isaac Newton. It is said that when he was born
prematurely he wasn’t expected to live because he was too small. The
expression at the time was that he would fit inside a quart pot. See:
http://space.about.com/cs/astronomyhistory/a/isaacnewtonbio.htm and
http://www.lycos.com/info/isaac-newton--woolsthorpe-manor.html for details of
Isaac Newton's early life.
As a quart was roughly the same size as a litre we can guess that his birth
mass must have been close to 1000 grams – or perhaps even less than this – to
fit into a litre container.
I suppose that you could compare Isaac Newton with the world record small
baby. At 260 grams, this baby would go close to fitting into a standard 250
millilitre kitchen cup. See
http://news.dcealumni.com/214/1002-worlds-smallest-baby-sent-home
By the way, my rule of thumb for babies is:
Normal baby 3500 grams
Small baby 2500 grams
Big baby 4500 grams
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide.
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides
services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for
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in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA,
NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See
http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat
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