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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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there are other standards--

liquid volume, half gil (1 oz), gil(2 oz), half cup (4 oz), cup (8 oz), pint (16 oz), quart (32 oz), gallon (196 oz), (i don't know any higher properly)

half gil and gil are most commonly (in US bars) called shots, and double shots-- how about the rest of the world?

and dry volume--quarts, pecks and bussels,(which i don't know at all)

and cement,(portland type) is sold by the barrel,(the most common size bag of portland cement is 90 lbs, (1/4 barrel)(US)--in a past life, i did way more masonary work then most women) i don't know if this is an extention of the peck/ bussel dry volume (and if it just turns out that 1/4 of barrel of portland type cement weighs 90 lbs or so.


Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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From the letters page in last week's issue of "The Economist":

Can you please define some of your quantitative terms? How big is a “raft” (“Gerhard Schröder's last chance”, February 8th) and how many of them are there in a “swathe” (“Give a dog a bad name”, February 22nd)? How many “tads” (“A last, last chance”, March 8th) make a “slew” (“A (going) private matter”, March 22nd)?

And from Quinion (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/startrek.htm):

A major difference at this prototype stage is that the fictional device is hand-held, whilst the real one takes up a space “the size of a kitchen table” according to reports (it seems that “kitchen table” has now become a standard unit of measurement).


Bingley


Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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And in America, a football field is a standard unit of measurement.


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Pooh-Bah
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So is a block.


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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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RE: in America, a football field is a standard unit of measurement

and so is a bread box-- but i don't know how common they are anymore!


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Carpal Tunnel
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Re: How big is a “raft”... and how many of them are there in a “swathe”?

I don't know how many raft's are in a swathe, but a swathe is the width of the sickle or sythe that cuts it! (or about 24 to 36 inches (more than .5 meters, less than 1 m.))


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