Yes it's another poll

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1531007]

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

I know OF them all because I am old, but I have only ever used two of them in anger. I am aware which are area, length, volume, weight etc., but NO CLUE what they mean, for example in terms of how far I would have to walk.

[baby-werewolf.livejournal.com]

Same, except I'm not old (and I do have a rough idea how much a couple of them are).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

No, you are one of the disconcertingly young people on my FList!

[baby-werewolf.livejournal.com]

I apologize for being disconcerting and young :p I suppose I'll grow out of it?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Very probably (unless you're one of the lost boys, that is ;-) )

[baby-werewolf.livejournal.com]

Too many X chromosomes for that, I think...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I shall no doubt think of a suitably witty reply ... probably in about six weeks ...

[johannes-d.livejournal.com]

It's easy an acre is a furlong long and a chain wide

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Why are you doing polls and not getting ready to go out?

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

Of course, being a smartarse who wrote half of a book on measurement helps my familiarity with those and many that are more obscure. I also know how much a talent of gold (or other metal) weighs, and tend to laugh uproariously when someone asserts that it was a coin, which a surprising number of people do.

[garamondbophin.livejournal.com]

I'll see your talent and raise you a shekel! I also know two versions of the cubit...

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

Last I looked, the Shekel seemed to be a matter of some considerable dispute (a factor of two or so, though some sources said that both ends had been right at different times, which seems entirely plausible). At least it is an actual coin, though :)

And I'm afraid I can give you at least three definite cubits and a couple more we don't have (and there may never have been) precise standards for. (How wide is Pharoah's palm, and can we measure it without being executed? ;-)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I know their approximate size in terms of each other (and other Imperial measurements) and in most cases know about how big/long/heavy I would expect them to be, without exactitude.

However, I prefer, despite my decrepitude, to use metric measurements (and even SI ones sometimes), except for furlongs, which are indispensable for horseracing purposes.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And chains are indispensable in cricket :-)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Now there's a thought! *Mental picture of Freddie chained to the stumps*



(I know what you are talking about - I just have that sort of mind.)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Down girl! ;-)

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't live in a sensible country any more, but my brain still thinks it does for most things other than road distances.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I don't know any of them because my brain doesn't do measurements.

I have got mm, cm and m ok. Also liquids 1 cl up to a litre.

Weights between 1 and 25 stones or 1 gram to 5 kilo.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

If you can do weights down to 1 gram, can you also do weights smaller than 1 stone?

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I can do 1 oz butter, and 4oz flour. But those are volumetric measurements, not weight.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The pedant in me begs to differ

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

You are right, they are weights... But I know them as volumes (I can show you a block of polystrene the same size as 1oz butter, but I cannot show you 1 oz flour.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

As you say.

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

I only know a few, but not because my country's metric (or, alas, because I'm young). Just ignorant, I guess. :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Some of them may be peculiarly English.