Must be Australian! As in what other country could be bothered answering the question: "Do the bubbles in a glass of Guinness go up or down?". Answer http://www.cances.atp.com.au/PROGRAMS/IRLP/GuinessBubbles.htm :-) Baron -----Original Message----- From: Bill Potts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, 06 September, 2001 18:21 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:15129] RE: From the middle of the ear - full and round Well, Pat, nobody can say you're not thorough. <g> Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 16:11 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:15128] From the middle of the ear - full and round Dear Jim and All, My desk is a mess - my back yard looks like a construction site - and it's all your fault! Some time ago you mentioned that you didn't know the length of a barley grain as mentioned around the time of the Magna Carta as part of an early definition of an inch. The English King John (1167-1216) was forced, by his Barons, to sign a document called the Magna Carta in 1215. Among other things the Magna Carta had a clause that provided for uniform weights and measures. In part the Magna Carta read: 'There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, and one measure of ale and one measure of corn � namely, the London quart; � and one width of dyed and resset and hauberk cloths � namely, two ells below the selvage. And with weights, moreover, it shall be as with measures.' At about this time, the OEIron Yard of our Lord the King� was prescribed, subdivided into 3 feet, each 12 inches long, and three barleycorns, from the middle of the ear - full and round, made one inch. Which brings us back to the state of my desk and the back yard. Yesterday, I went for a walk on Bell's Beach, a local surf beach, and I was driving back to Geelong when I saw a farm produce store. Remembering your interest in barley corn - and your musing on their modern lengths - I entered the store and requested, 'Could I have twenty or thirty grains of barley, please?' The assistant replied 'Would you like whole grain or rolled?' and then placed a handful into a plastic bag and refused any offer of money for such a small amount (they usually sell it by the tonne! Feeling positive about the store, I browsed for a while before buying three hens (known locally as chooks); hence the construction of the new chook-house in the back yard. I have now had a chance to measure some of the grains - hence the state of my desk - there are barley grains all over it. Since the barley grains were not on an ear I could not choose the criteria 'from the middle of the ear' and when I examined the seeds carefully with a view to selecting only those that were 'full and round' this proved to be too difficult given the markedly different appearance between the grains and the lack of obvious characteristics that I could use to sort them. In the end I simply selected thirty barley grains at random and measured them with a vernier gauge. My vernier will read to 0.02 mm but I considered that I could not measure barley grains more reliably than 0.1 mm. The results, in millimetres, were as follows: 8.6, 8.4, 8.2, 8.6, 7.9, 9.0, 8.7, 7.9, 8.1, 7.9, 8.4, 8.7, 8.3, 7.5, 8.3, 9.6, 8.1, 7.9, 7.9, 9.7, 8.7, 7.5, 8.3, 8.3, 7.4, 8.6, 8.6, 8.4, 8.2, 7.2, The mean (8.3 mm) would imply an inch of 24.9 mm, which is not too far away from the 25.4 used since 1959. However the range (7.2 mm to 9.6 mm) and the standard deviation (0.5 mm) would not give me much confidence of being able to pick any three barley grains at random from a sack of barley and calling them an inch. Cheers, Pat Naughtin CAMS - Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist - United States Metric Association ASM - Accredited Speaking Member - National Speakers Association of Australia Member, International Federation for Professional Speakers --
