Kandinskyesque
Friend of Leo's
pronounced Bawherr.
NON-STANDARD MEASUREMENT UNITS
- Thread starter Kandinskyesque
- Start date
ficelles
Tele-Holic
I'm now wondering what the correct plural of "Wales" is... Waleses? Walesens?
I measure my eBay GAS activities in extravagances. Only one extravagance today (so far).
ce24
Poster Extraordinaire
Whani.= Here. Yani = there. Whaniwha= way over there in Yupik Eskimo.
jedediahd
TDPRI Member
So, as a surveyor, we have all kinds of units of measure:
-Chains with 100 links per chain. 1 Chain= 66 feet.
-US Survey Feet where there are 12 inches per foot and 39.37 inches per meter.
-International Feet (SI Foot) where there are .3048 meters per Foot.
-Miles where 1 Mile is 5280 Feet.
-Meters (SI).
-Varas where 1 Vara is 33 1/3 inches (in Texas anyway).
-Acres where 1 Acre is 43,560 square feet (10 square Chains).
-Section where 1 Section is (nominally) 1 square Mile, 80 square Chains, 640 Acres.
-Township where 1 Township is (nominally) 6 square miles.
-Azimuth where there are 360 Degrees in a circle with 60 Minutes per Degree and 60 Seconds per Minute (DMS).
-Bearings where the circle has 4 Quadrants of 90 Degrees. NE, SE, SW and NW.
Anyway, there's more, but I digress because these are all Standard units that we use and the OP wanted non-standard units. We use the "frog's" hair and other hair technique some or just "touch it left/right/away," and the ever important: "can't see it from my house."
The one unit we don't use is inches. Per my first boss: "We don't use inches. Those are used by carpenters and hookers. We use decimal feet around here."
-Chains with 100 links per chain. 1 Chain= 66 feet.
-US Survey Feet where there are 12 inches per foot and 39.37 inches per meter.
-International Feet (SI Foot) where there are .3048 meters per Foot.
-Miles where 1 Mile is 5280 Feet.
-Meters (SI).
-Varas where 1 Vara is 33 1/3 inches (in Texas anyway).
-Acres where 1 Acre is 43,560 square feet (10 square Chains).
-Section where 1 Section is (nominally) 1 square Mile, 80 square Chains, 640 Acres.
-Township where 1 Township is (nominally) 6 square miles.
-Azimuth where there are 360 Degrees in a circle with 60 Minutes per Degree and 60 Seconds per Minute (DMS).
-Bearings where the circle has 4 Quadrants of 90 Degrees. NE, SE, SW and NW.
Anyway, there's more, but I digress because these are all Standard units that we use and the OP wanted non-standard units. We use the "frog's" hair and other hair technique some or just "touch it left/right/away," and the ever important: "can't see it from my house."
The one unit we don't use is inches. Per my first boss: "We don't use inches. Those are used by carpenters and hookers. We use decimal feet around here."
notmyusualuserid
Poster Extraordinaire
Not to be confused with bawheid
the country mile...
Kandinskyesque
Friend of Leo's
I'm sure the coach for my school team thought that was my name.Not to be confused with bawheid
One particular game I tried an overhead kick, only to hear from the touchline "Heid the baw, Bawheid!"
ClashCityTele
Friend of Leo's
Around here we have:
Big
Geet Big
Geet Big Huge &
F.....' Massive.
Big
Geet Big
Geet Big Huge &
F.....' Massive.
ClashCityTele
Friend of Leo's
I never understand fathoms, knots, cables & nautical miles.
Must be confusing when an aircraft (using miles, miles per hour & miles per gallon) is landing on an aircraft carrier that is so many nautical miles away doing so many knots per whatnot.
Must be confusing when an aircraft (using miles, miles per hour & miles per gallon) is landing on an aircraft carrier that is so many nautical miles away doing so many knots per whatnot.
Rusty Spanner
Tele-Meister
New York 'blocks' would appear to have no relation to geography.
'Down a coupla blocks' could be a few yards or half a mile and no relation to what's actually on the ground.
Mind you, Ireland's worse.
'Just down the road' could mean anything.
'Down a coupla blocks' could be a few yards or half a mile and no relation to what's actually on the ground.
Mind you, Ireland's worse.
'Just down the road' could mean anything.
notmyusualuserid
Poster Extraordinaire
Aircraft speed is in knots. The ground speed is mph. Both ships and aircraft measure fuel consumption in range per tonne, and distance in nautical miles.
aging_rocker
Poster Extraordinaire
Yeah, that whole nautical measurement system is whacky. 'fæthm' was an old English word which meant 'outstretched arms', i.e. the distance between the outstretched fingertips. Whose fingertips though?
BFcaster
Tele-Holic
Yeah using an American football field as a unit of measure is pretty common.
One thing no one else has mentioned in terms of liquid-
Olympic-sized swimming pools.
One thing no one else has mentioned in terms of liquid-
Olympic-sized swimming pools.
BFcaster
Tele-Holic
And to our UK-bretheren, what the heck is a stone?
And I can't fathom a fathom, but I can understand knots. Still trying to work out nautical miles...similar to "as the crow flies"???
And I can't fathom a fathom, but I can understand knots. Still trying to work out nautical miles...similar to "as the crow flies"???
ClashCityTele
Friend of Leo's
BFcaster
Tele-Holic
lol, this one just came to me-
Back in college, where the intellect flourishes, we'd be at a bar and refer to a woman's beauty as 'beers'. Pretty ones were beers for courage to talk to her, ugly ones were beers to actually take her home. You get the picture.
Back in college, where the intellect flourishes, we'd be at a bar and refer to a woman's beauty as 'beers'. Pretty ones were beers for courage to talk to her, ugly ones were beers to actually take her home. You get the picture.
notmyusualuserid
Poster Extraordinaire
14 Imperial pounds, although it wasn't standardized until the 19th century.
ClashCityTele
Friend of Leo's
A stone is 14lbs.
As in 'this Les Paul weighs a stone'.
aging_rocker
Poster Extraordinaire
A lot of the 'olde' English measurements came about because of trying to combine Roman units with the next lot of invaders (Saxon) units, all over the top of the original pre-Roman units.
Then the Victorians decided to attempt to 'standardise' it all as the Imperial System...and then we went Metric.
I'm still confused.
Then the Victorians decided to attempt to 'standardise' it all as the Imperial System...and then we went Metric.
I'm still confused.
BFcaster
Tele-Holic
I actually prefer metric for small things, like string height/action and even distance in some cases. What confuses me, as a long-time BBC America viewer (Clarkson's Top Gear), and Escape to the Country as well, is that sometimes you Brits use both. Do other common-wealth countries use both? Australia, New Zealand, Canada, territories in the Caribbean??
