On 17/02/2008, Peter Frederick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Except the US pint is 16 oz instead of 20 oz, probably so that tavern > owners made more money selling "pints" back in the 1700s. > > Even the metric system isn't quite rational, being based on the > distance between Paris and the North Pole. > > Peter > > Where did you get that info on the metre and the North Pole? It was originally derived from the properties of natural objects, namely the circumference of the Earth and water. It was decided to measure the meridian from Barcelona to Dunkirk which was the longest segment almost fully over land within French territory.
A prototype metre was then developed and used until the 60's when it was changed to a certain number of wavelengths of a particular frequency of light emitted by a certain element. Since 1983 the metre has been defined as the distance light travels in a given fraction of a second in a vacuum. It's much better than that gibberish of a system they tried to teach us in school. I never could grasp the Imperial system as it was too nonsensical to me, much like old British coinage! Still can't quite grasp that old money! What a silly system. Remember as well that the US was the first country to use a rationalised, decimal based currency system.......how ironic that they're one of only three holdouts against the metric system..the other two being Liberia and Myanmar. (Burma) Zedic _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
