>From what I understand -

 

Ton = 2240 lb

Hundredweight = 112 lb (why not 100 I have no idea)

Quarter = 28 lb

Stone = 14 lb

Pound = well, 1 lb

 

Outside the UK, as far as I know, the three in the middle are completely
unknown.  I wonder what the history was behind all this.

 

USA:  ton = 2000 lb

The Rest of the World:  tonne = 1000 kg

 

I've mentioned it before but my guess is that all these different names for
one thing (mass) was done in order to keep any one number from getting too
large; 400 years ago large numbers were difficult to comprehend for most
people.

 

Carleton

 

  _____  

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Stephen Humphreys
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 04:40
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:40429] RE: UK government cracking down on "stoned" patients

 

CWT is also used in car parks and common parlance.
 
I've never used or heard "quarters" though (apart from quarters meaning qtr
pound)

> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [USMA:40425] RE: UK government cracking down on "stoned" patients
> Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:03:46 -0500
> 
> >From the first link:
> 
> But our hapless stone faces other handicaps:
> 
> . Its larger relatives, the quarter and the hundredweight, have already
> fallen into disuse;
> 
> -- Except, unfortunately, in change bell ringing. Weighing bells in
> cwt/qr/lb is "tradition" and no one even sees anything funny about it.
> 
> Carleton
> Ringer at the Washington National Cathedral
> Weight of tenor bell: 1630 kg
> Shown on the bronze plaque as 3588 lb
> And in all the literature as 32-0-4
> 
> (come to think of it, a reasonably close approximation of the mass of any
> tower bell is: take the cwt figure, divide it by 2, multiply by 100, and
> that's around the mass in kg - in our example, 32/2 = 16 x 100 = 1600 kg)
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
> Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 18:39
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:40424] UK government cracking down on "stoned" patients
> 
> http://www.metricviews.org.uk/2008/02/13/scales-error-risk/
> 
>
http://www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?N=0&Ne=0+2000+3000+4
> 000+5000+6000+7000+8000+9000+10000+11000&id=18737
> 
> Ezra
> 



  _____  

Sounds like? How many syllables? Guess and win prizes with
<http://www.searchcharades.com>  Search Charades!

Reply via email to