Dear All,
I am quoting from a web page defined as a 'rant'. It says in part:
An example from land measurement shows how akward the imperial
measurements can be.
What is an acre? At one time it was defined as the amount of land one
man and a team of oxen could plow in one day. The acre was later
standardized to 660 feet by 66 feet or 43,560 square feet. There are
640 acres in a square mile. A square mile is 5,280 feet by 5,280 feet
or 27,878,400 square feet.
Contrast the above with the metric hectare. A hectare is 100 meters by
100 meters or 10,000 square meters. There are 100 hectares in a square
kilometer. A square kilometer is 1,000 meters by 1,000 meters or
1,000,000 square meters.
Now which looks simpler? Which would be easier to recall or teach?
You can see this in context at
http://mramath.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/a-rant-on-imperial-v-metric-measurements
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
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