Uncover About The Size Of It Authored By Warwick Cairns Available In Physical Edition

a child of thes in Australia, I was ostensibly raised on the Metric system, But the Imperial system was not quite gone during that time, so I actually learnt bits of both systems, This means being able to think in terms of driving in kilometres, but people's height must be in feetandinches to make sense, This was compounded by the refusal of the USA to switch to metric, And the USA is where a lot of computer tech originated,

I was long an advocate of "metric everything" and had wished on and off through the years that the imperial units would just "go away".
Well, they just won't. A foot is an incredibly useful unit of measure, much more so than a metre is, And so is an inch, Ditto for pound, quart, acre and pretty much all of the nonmetric units of measurement that are still hanging on, And as a reader of fantasy writing, I've also observed how trying to use metric units in fantasy writing marrs the suspension of disbelief,

This book, written by an expert in the history of measurement, explains not only why and how all those funny nonmetric units came about, but why they are often better for our little human ways than the metric units.

Genuinely interesting gives one some useful/interesting teaching ideas, This was a really entertaining read about the way we measure things, Very short and to the point but packed full of interesting facts and amusing sidelines, I bought the book despite being a quite convinced metricist because I knew the author when we were kids and was intrigued at what sort of mileage could be squeezed out of imperial and other strange units.
It turned out to be a fascinating read, I had thought units were completely arbitrary so why not settle

on a basesystem for convenience, Actually there are striking similarities between unit systems developed independently at different times and places, Why Because they are based on human anatomy, convenience and practicality, The author points out how the eyebrain can divide into halves and thirds easily but not fifths, Thus the subdivisions of feet into inches etc, And those stranges,s etc are actually binary, Combine this with the genius of the basenumber system and you have the rich diversity of traditional unit systems,
Personally I find it hard to move away from metres and centimetres as I have used them for so long but for home projects thanks to Warwick I am really enjoying the speed and ease of combining metric with hands and thumb widths etc.
I enjoyed reading this book on maths, Interesting in parts. An enjoyable little read but either the book could have been one third of the size or more complete by discussing other forms of measurement, anything from chains and rods to temperature and fir, horse power, newtons etc.
At least I now know how long a league is, or isn't, This great little book reads like a transcript of an interesting lecture by an enthusiastic teacher on the origins of measurements, I have a new appreciation for measurements, how they came to be, and why there seems to be so many confusing and conflicting sizes out there.
Keele contemporary from thes this book about the humanity of many weights and measures is informative, passionate and will make you laugh out loud.
A serious, but seriously funny, book about measuring things that tells us how our weights and measures came about and how they were formed by the one guiding principle of measurement no one ever mentions.
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