When the American Revolutionaries threw off the hated yoke of English oppression, they kept British units of measurement. ** Those units were based on such things as the distance from the end of King Henry IV's nose to the end of his extended arm and fingers, the length of a certain number of grains of corn (WHEAT!!!!!) lined up end to end, and other scientific distances. I can't remember where the "stone" weight came from, but it's 14 pounds. The English Pound (money) was once a pound (livre, hence the stylized "L") of silver . . . . ohmigawd . . . . and then decimal currency always came to grief over farthings (1/4 penny).Mahima wrote:My reasoning for American usage of units...
its a large country, which is why a mile is longer than a km - it sounds like you have to cover less distance, feels better. And a pound is less than a kg, hence easier to lose.
The American dollar (from taler, a Dutch word) of 100 cents (not pennies, although people say penny sometimes) is the same as 8 bits, a Spanish real could be cut into 8 pieces (pieces of and now my head is going wuggawugga and I think I'll go and have a nice cuppa tea.
**To the extent that: when you Americans go to a liquor store and buy a fifth of Jack Daniels? You are buying a fifth of the English gallon, which is 5/4 of an American gallon. The American gallon is nearly 4 litres (3.785 L or something), but is, in fact, only 4/5 of an English gallon.
Now, how kewl is that? A post with a footnote.