Re: OT: Units (was Re: Numbers in Qthen|gai (and in Tyl Sjok) [long])

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 12:39:55 +1100, Tristan McLeay
<conlang@...> wrote:
> On 13 Jan 2005, at 2.44 am, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > It's the one of the commonest length units here - probably more common
> > than the
> > metre itself. We use decimetres too, but not quite as frequently.
> > Decilitres and
> > centilitres are of course quite common.
Not in Germany :) I also noticed from a few recipes I had seen that
Swedes appeared to be fond of their decilitres, but in Germany,
centilitres are used for glasses of spirits and that's about it; other
volumes are in mL or L. (For example, a "standard" soft drink can
would be 330 mL, not 33 dL.)

> Before computers, I would've said mega- and giga- were used exclusively
> with litres, and then almost only when talking about reservoirs.
I've heard of GeV (giga-electron volts), used in particle physics.

> I doubt most people here would know what a
> hectolitre was if it jumped up and bit 'em.
It seems to be a common measurement for wine over here, for some reason.



On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 12:18:04 +0100, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
> Quoting Tristan Mc Leay <conlang@...>:
>
> > Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > >Here the tablespoon is 15ml, the teaspoon 5ml, while the cup to my knowledge
> > >isn't used. The units are almost exclusively used in recipes.
> > >
> > Yeah, ditto (I'll be careful not to use a swedish recipe book without
> > adaption, though :). Do you measure litres of flour, or do you just do
> > it by weight?
>
> Typically decilitres in recipes, I guess.
And typically grammes here.

A typical recipe might call for 500g of flour, and this is exploited
by people who make baking powder: IIRC, one little packet of baking
powder is used for 500g of flour. Hence, recipes call for x number of
packets of baking powder rather than, say, ml or teaspoons or mg.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
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