rob@sri-unix (05/18/82)
There are various units of weight and measure. The two (2) most common in the United States are the U. S. Customary System (fundamental units are *yards* and [avoirdupois] pounds) and the International Metric System (fundamental units are meters, kilograms, and seconds, i.e. MKS). The third most popular system is the British Imperial System not really used too much in the US. In answer to the TRIVIA question of "what is an ounce?" the following facts were found in "The American Heritage DICTIONARY Of The English Language, New College Editon", 1978, under "measurement". WEIGHT US CUSTOMARY METRIC APOTHECARY (Avoirdupois) (Troy) 1-grain 64.79891-milligrams 1-grain 1-dram = 27.344-gr 1.772-grams * * 3.888-grams 1-dram = 60-gr 1-ounce = 437.5-gr 28.350-grams * 1.097-ounces 31.103-grams 1-ounce = 480-gr 1-pound = 16-ounces 453.59237-grams * = 7000-grains 0.823-pounds 373.242-grams 1-pound = 12-ounces = 5760-grains Enjoy, Rob Cardoza at SYTEK <ucbvax!menlo70!sytek!rob> (408) 734-9000
thomas (05/19/82)
Just this morning read in Scientific American (Science and the Citizen) that the meter is in danger of being redefined as a derived unit. They (always the ominous they) want to redefine the meter as a specific fraction of the distance light travels in a second, reducing the number of fundamental units by one. (And, incidently, exactly defining the speed of light - any further refinements would change the unit of length, not the speed of light). =Spencer (harpo!utah-cs!thomas) (Remember, you heard it first on USENET!)