Economy

Some time when I have nothing better to do I must see whether it will convert that to my favourite system of units: - firkins, fathoms and fortnights.

Or on the other hand, perhaps not.

Ron Robinson

I'm pretty sure it knows about furlongs and fortnights (also barns and yards), but I'll leave you to find out about the others.

Indeed.

Apparently my company diesel cage is doing 399,484.147 fathoms per firkin.

Well a furkins 2 pins or half a kilderkin and a fathom is 1/2560ths of a mile.

Richard Web pages:

How is a fathom 1/2560th of a mile? There are 1760 yards in a mile, and one yard is three feet. One fathom is six feet, therefore there will be half as many in a mile, therefore a fathom is 1/880th of a mile.

Mike.

Mike.

Well spotted. A fathom is 1/2640th of a league.

Richard Web pages:

ITYM 'about' ;-)

Dave

League = 3 miles, 1 fathom = 2 yds

(1760 * 3) / 2 = 2640

No about about it

Richard Web pages:

Plenty of doubt about it. It's an obsolete unit of distance of variable length, but *about* 3 miles.

Well I was working from Workshop Calculations, Tables and Formulae by F.J.Camm (6th Edition) which was published in 1941, so it's (a bit) older than I am.

Richard Web pages:

Ah - Mr Camm.;-)

The trouble is it's an old unit which fell out of use. That's why it was never properly defined.

Take care, young man. Remarks like that can lead to people thinking you are Very Old ;-)

Last used by Jules Verne?

Ron Robinson

I'll get my seven league boots out of the closet, go for a walk, and let you know.

Oh but I am, and always was. My older brother took The Eagle as part of his pocket money - I had Practical Wireless. Trouble was electronic components were very expensive then so I rarely got to make any of the projects. But could always dream...

Take care. Seven league boots can lead to severe groin strain what with having both feet 21 miles apart.

Richard Web pages:

I shall have to have a look for google's calculator sometime.

Meanwhile, from my own battery driven calculator, I appear to be doing about

Jim

Acres used to vary hugely in size depending where you are in the country, FWIW.

Ah, the Eagle. Used to feature a William Haig look-alike whizzing about on a mini flying saucer from what I remember of reading the issues my eldest son used to buy ;-)

And yes, electronics. After crystals and cat's whiskers there was something of a price explosion, but ISTR there was a street behind Leicester Square (Lisle St?) that was full of dealers in ex-services stuff - cathode ray tubes and heaven knows what. That might have been a bit before your time though...

Ron Robinson

Smiths? Never heard of them. ;-)