In article ,
"John Gilmer" wrote:
[ And managed to lose previous attributions... Tsk, tsk. ;-)

There is NOTHING magin about the metric system except for the fact that
units differ by powers of TEN.

Apart from the minor fact that almost everyone (19 out of 20 people
on this planet) uses it, you mean?

Gosh!

Well, sport, 49 out of 50 people (on this planet) don't qualify for Mensa.

****! I'm one in fifty! (My opinion of course. :-)
[...]
Not to forget convenient approximations such as

- length of an adult's step (~1 m)

Well, a mile is 1,000 paces of your standard Roman Legionair type!

Frankly, I suspect you're both wanking here. I know there are some
macho types who *assume* their pace is one metre, but most barely make
it to one yard -- and as for those Romans with a pace of over 5 feet,
well they were either bloody big *******s, or they were running.
[The standard army pace in Oz is 30 inches, the rate is 120 paces per
minute, which gives you a marching speed of 100 yards/minute or about
3.4 mph. But then (50 years ago anyway) the routine was to march 50
minutes and rest for 10, so distance covered was a bit over 2.8
miles/hour.


Cheers, Phred.

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