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chrisweekly 3 hours ago [-]
Ken Follett (of "Pillars of the Earth" fame) wrote a terrific semi-historical* novel called "Circle of Days" that portrays a vivid picture of the people and circumstances that could've led to the creation of Stonehenge.
*"semi" qualifier bc there's so little known for sure -- but it's at least plausible, and his extensive research doesn't contradict things that can be verified.
I don't think that's relevant for Register units. Clearly there's a standard brontosaurus somewhere, for instance, otherwise how could we have the conversion table? However, sorry, I was wrong about the football pitch, at least as a unit of area, equal to 194.89nWa per the original article: https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2007/08/24/so-whats-the-...
tantalor 2 hours ago [-]
You're not wrong! Personally, I like to use penguin as a measure of height. Everybody knows how big a penguin is, right? It's pretty standard.
blater 6 hours ago [-]
to clarify for those of a nautical bent - that's about half a blue whale for about 4/5ths of a dozen nautical miles
robertlagrant 8 hours ago [-]
For anyone confused, British people would generally use tonnes (or tons, but maybe not know the difference exactly) and miles.
8 hours ago [-]
ChrisRR 8 hours ago [-]
Imperial is confusing at the best of times, but couldn't they have said 24.5 tons instead of 55,000 lbs?
> he long ton,[1] also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,[1][2] or British ton,[3] is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds
guenthert 8 hours ago [-]
They could have said 3300 stones stones ...
euroderf 7 hours ago [-]
That rocks.
8 hours ago [-]
masfuerte 8 hours ago [-]
That's the way they like it. American road signs have mad shit like "No trucks over 15,000 lbs".
hamdingers 4 hours ago [-]
This is an is-ought inference. Americans have not been given an option and use the units they're provided with, which is a frustrating mix of everything depending on context.
Nobody seems to like it this way.
walthamstow 7 hours ago [-]
Surely they don't actually like drill bits measured in fractions of an inch, do they?
edoceo 6 hours ago [-]
Yes, in USA the bits are in fractions and stuff you purchase will have instructions like, drill 3/8 hole for a wall anchor, or 2+1/4 hole for a door-bolt set.
dboreham 5 hours ago [-]
The American thousands of pounds thing is even more weird than that: I buy gravel from the gravel pit. They weigh my truck and dump trailer in lbs and then charge me per ton. Everyone talks about tons: e.g. I'd call a dump truck operator and ask him to deliver 18 tons of rock, not 36,000lbs. But the weighbridge and road signs and regulations about vehicle and axle weight are always in lbs. If you only read things and never talked to other people you'd never know tons existed.
cucumber3732842 4 hours ago [-]
A lot of the older "no vehicles over X" signage is denominated in tons.
thechao 7 hours ago [-]
That's because we measure weight in tonnage.
close04 7 hours ago [-]
In the EU and UK the weight of the vehicle is on the signs too [0], or the weight per axle [1].
*"semi" qualifier bc there's so little known for sure -- but it's at least plausible, and his extensive research doesn't contradict things that can be verified.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)
We have a dumb system here in New Zealand. Most people seem to know their height in feet/inches and weight in kilograms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ton
> he long ton,[1] also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,[1][2] or British ton,[3] is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds
Nobody seems to like it this way.
[0] https://hgvlgvtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/weig...
[1] https://freesvg.org/img/B13a.png
Without ever telling *how" they were moved of course, that would give out too much
https://youtu.be/YpNuh-J5IgE