octave Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago 15 minutes ago, old man emu said: I'm all for the reintroduction of the cubit. I think we should definitely adopt the "smoot" unit of measurement. Smoot (unit of measurement) Origin: The unit was created in October 1958 by Oliver R. Smoot and his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers at MIT. Method: They measured the length of the Harvard Bridge by having Oliver Smoot lie down repeatedly, using his height as a human measuring stick. The bridge was measured to be 364.4 smoots, plus or minus an ear. Legacy: The markings are still repainted annually and are even recognized by local authorities. The term was added to the American Heritage Dictionary in 2011, and Oliver R. Smoot went on to have a distinguished career in standards and measurement.
nomadpete Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago (edited) 1 hour ago, old man emu said: I'm all for the reintroduction of the cubit. Oh. I thought the cubit was replaced by the ferkin (2 ferkins = one kilderkin)...... No, no no, wait. The common cubit is divided into 6 palms × 4 fingers = 24 digits. That's exactly 1 ft 5+1⁄2 in to 1 ft 8+13⁄16 inches. As you'd expect the Macedonian cubit was a bit short, being part of the EU. Their cubit is 14 inches. I'm so glad we changed to standardised miles, yards, roods, feet, inches and fractions. Edited 2 hours ago by nomadpete
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