On 4/08/06 7:02 AM, "m. f. moon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I see we are still using the old divide by 12 BS. I really love that high > precision of one meter divided by 3. > > m moon Dear Marion, An acquaintance of mine (in the USA) made this calculation on his view of building work a few years ago. He had worked in a variety of construction trades for 20 years and his father had been a building contractor for 60 years. 'Sometime ago when I was considering costs in the construction industry I came up with the following very rough estimate. 'If one considers only¹ the time workers spend with calculations on the site, this is what we can demonstrate. 'It's reasonable to assume that, on average, if one worker makes, say, 10 calculations per hour of work (I'd say he does much more than this, but, just for the sake of being conservative) he would save at least 5 seconds per operation, for a savings of 1 minute (rounding it up a little) per hour of work. 'A construction worker is paid at $20 or so an hour (maybe even more!). So, this represents a savings of 33 cents per worker per hour. If the building of a house involves some, say, 8 workers full time (7.5 h/day) for about say 2 months (22 day/mo). That would be a savings of: '0.33 x 8 x 7.5 x 2 x 22 =~ 870 dollars 'Now, if a contractor builds, say, 3 houses a month, there would be a savings of: '870 x 3 x 12 = 30 000 dollars a year 'Now imagine the entire construction industry! 'And I'm not including in the above analysis the significant amount of wastage that would be saved by calculation mistakes and other "intangibles". Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305, Belmont, 3216 Geelong, Australia Phone 61 3 5241 2008 Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe at http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter Pat is also recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. He is also editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' section of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. See: http://www.metricationmatters.com
