Re: CHAT: measures (was: browsers)

Tristan scripsit:

> (I also just want to make sure: a bushels still used?
Well, you can buy apples by the bushel still, typically in a woven
basket called a "bushel basket", or smaller quantities by the peck (=
1/4 bushel).  If you buy at a farmer's market, that is (or directly
from a farmer).  However, it's more normal to buy them by the pound.
A bushel is pretty big: ~ 35 liters.

> And things like horsepower?
The "size" (actually power) of internal combustion engines.  1 hp = ~
747 watts.  But light bulb power is measured in watts.  Air-conditioners,
OTOH, are measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units), a measure of cooling
ability.  1 BTU = 1055 watt-seconds, and typical room air conditioners
are rated at 8000-12000 BTUs.

> Links, rods and chains?
Surveyors may use them for backward compatibility, but their native
language has been the metric system for a long time.  (Indeed, when
the inch was changed to 2.54 cm exactly in both the U.S. and the U.K in
1961, the U.S. Survey kept the old U.S. definition of 1/39.37 m so that
they wouldn't have to change every map.  The difference is only 2 parts
per million.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_