Dear All,
I have rewritten a story I gathered from this list within the last few
weeks.
A few months ago, a friend of mine in the USA went to buy some vinyl floor
covering. He was shown some imported material that was about 6 ft 6 3/4 in
wide (My friend reckoned that they were actually 2 metres wide, but the shop
person didn't know that).
As my friend needed a little under 2.5 metres he asked for 8 ft 2 1/2 in.
When he asked the price, he found that the assistant had to work it out to
figure a price in square yards. Now let's see: 8' 2 1/2" x 6' 6 3/4" ÷ 9 = ?
My friend says the assistant was there, battling with his calculator, for a
long time!
In the meantime my friend multiplied 2 x 2.5 to get 5 square metres (m2).
And to while away the time he converted 5 m2 to 6 sq. yds. using the
10111213 rule.
For those who don't know it, the 10111213 reads like this:
10 m = 11 yds. (approx.)
10 m2 = 12 squ. yds. (approx.)
10 m3 = 13 cub.yds. (approx.)
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin CAMS
Geelong, Australia
