Re: Map Sizes

At 10:08 AM 10/10/97 +0200, you wrote:
>On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Gravity is falling in a good way today wrote:
Status: RO

>
>> Sadly, that sums it up pretty much. Was just talking with a friend of
>> mine earlier today who wants to get a rope for climbing. She knows
feet
>> well enough, but she keeps finding rope measured in meters, and it
totally
>> bamboozled if she should get a 50m or 60m rope.
>
>Frankly, I don't see the problem here.
>
>1 meter = 1 yard for most practical purposes.
SNIP
>Other simple approximations:
>
>2 pounds = 1 kilogram
>2 miles = 3 kilometers
>4 inches = 10 centimeters
>2 pints = 1 liter
>

>maxxon@swob.dna.fi (Mikko Kurki-Suonio)  

Other UK greybeards may remember some of the irritating little rhymes
they
used in an attempt to install metric units into our little pointy heads,
eg
"A metre measures 3 foot 3; it's longer than a yard, you see!" or
"Two and a quarter pounds of jam, weigh about a kilogram!" or "A litre
of
water's a pint and three quarters!"

All of the above enunciated in a tiresome and patronising voice as if to
a
slow-witted 2-year old.

Rob Paul