Andrea Leistra wrote:
>
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2001, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>
> > >Um, first of all, it would be given as 8 feet 1 inch tall, and that's
> > >TALL. (Pretty darn tall!) That's significantly over 2 meters tall. My
> > >father-in-law, who's a pretty tall guy, isn't even 2 meters. (He's 6 feet
> > >4 inches, IIRC -- after 6 feet, I just register people as "really tall",
> > >and he's "really tall". My husband is *almost* 6 feet tall, so that's
> > >why my "really tall" cutoff begins close to there....)
>
> > I used the conversion factors 1 inch = 2 cm (measured from my
> > computer screen, who is nominally 14 inches and measures 28 cm)
> > and 1 foot = 14 inches (taken from Heinlein's _The Moon is a Harsh
> > Mistress_). Am I right?
>
> No.
>
> And frankly, that's sheer laziness to get that sort of thing wrong.
> Without turning around or using the Web, I have three places that I
> could find conversion factors like that if I didn't know them (my
> calculator, Mathematica, and "units" on the computer). (1 foot = 12
> inches. 1 inch = 2.54 cm; IIRC this is how the inch is *defined*
> nowadays). There are, of course, a near-infinite number of places on
> the web to find the same information. It's excusable that you don't
> know these; it's harder to understand your not looking them up, but
> just guessing and trying to use them.
>
I'm almost positive he was joking. At least I nearly split a gut laughing
when I read his post. I still laugh every time I picture Alberto carefully
measuring his computer screen (tongue out the side of his mouth, one eye
squinted shut, deep in concentration) with a meter stick or whatever the hell
metric people use. Then, in a grand, epiphinomic moment, he exclaims "Aha!! 2
centimeters per inch" not realizing that for some bizarre reason, CRT tubes
are measured corner to corner.
8^)
Doug
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Even under the most optimistic scenario of recoverable oil from the refuge,
it could add only an insignificant 0.4
percent to world oil reserves."
from "Oil in the Arctic Refuge?" http://www.alaskawild.org/
