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Old 16th Jul 2021, 16:00
  #27 (permalink)  
FlightlessParrot
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Auckland, NZ
Age: 79
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Let me see if I can remember the Imperial weights:
16 ounces = 1 pound (abbrev. 'lb', for Latin 'libra')
14 pounds = 1 stone (and I never knew why it was called that, thanks Asturias)
2 stone = 1 quarter
4 quarters = 1 hundredweight (which is, of course, 112 lb (pounds) but in early counting 'hundred' doesn't necessarily mean 10 x 10)
20 hundredweight = 1 tonne (2240 lb)

These all, of course, the avoirdupois system: as I never dealt with lumps of gold, I didn't learn the troy weights.

The hundredweight was the measure by which coal was sold retail, and I still remember the coalmen delivering it in hundredweight sacks over their shoulders. The US does not use Imperial measures, has (I think) no unit between the pound and the ton, and uses a smaller ton.

When I was a mixed infant, and then a primary boy, I did mental arithmetic in this stuff, as also in pounds, shillings, pence and farthings for currency.

I still find it not quite intuitive to think in terms of weight in kilos (far too many), personal height in metres, or fuel consumption in litres per 100 kilometres, but I have no regrets in the slightest about the adoption of the metric system in the various realms of Elizabeth R. Thanks to the early training in mental arithmetic in bizarre units, I can also calculate change in a way that baffles the young, though that too is a wasting skill. After we came out of our first lock-down, I went into a shop and decided to use a bundle of coins I'd accumulated. I put them on the counter and looked at them, and thought 'How does this work? Is that medium sized one worth 10 or 20?'
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