Useless Measurements & Trivia
Coming someday: calendars & time (big category when you look into it)
Follow this link for a complete list of
wars and conflicts affecting the United States and American Colonies.
Here's a neat place to get population density by zip code
by Bridger Systems of Bozeman MT.
See also James S. Huggins'
Refrigerator Door: Prefixes page for more trivia on powers of ten and two.
But here's what I do have so far:
- 1 inch = 3 barley corns
- 1 foot = 12 inches or 1 foot (obviously)
- 1 yard = distance from King's nose to fingertip (I think this was a specific French king) = 3 feet = 36 inches
- 1 vara = 33 1/3 inches (official measurement of land in Texas)
- 1 fathom = 6 feet (typically used to measure depth of water)
- 1 rod = 1 perch = 1 pole = 5 1/2 yards = 16.5 feet (also the distance between fenceposts in good soil)
- 1 link = 7.92 inches, 8 links = 1 pace (approx. 5 1/3 feet, or 2 steps)
- 1 chain = 100 links = 66 feet = 4 rods (that's the surveyor's chain, the newer engineer's chain is 100 feet, and feet are divided into tenths, not inches)
- 1 furlong = 660 feet = 10 chains (the word furlong comes from "furrow length")
- 1 mile = 8 furlongs = 1000 paces = 5280 feet
- 1 cable = 100 fathoms = 600 feet (standard, U.S. Navy uses 120 fathoms, British 608 feet)
- 1 nautical mile = 1/60 of one degree of the Earth at the equator = 6076.1 feet (roughly 10 cables)
- 1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour = 1.1508 mph
- 1 league = 3 nautical miles
- 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups (liquid measure)
- 1 bushel = 4 pecks = 8 gallons = 32 quarts (dry measure)
- 1 barrel = just about anything depending on who's talking, but about 30-35 gallons
- 1 hogshead = 2 barrels, or 63 gallons (consistantly?)
- 1 cord (firewood) = 4 feet x 4 feet x 8 feet (for accurate measurement, firewood should be stacked loose enough that a squirrel can run thru the woodpile, but the cat chasing it cannot)
- 1 arpent (French measure) = 100 square rods = 4066 sq. yards = .84 acres
- 1 rood = 40 square rods = 1/4 acre
- 1 acre = 1 furlong x 1 chain = 660 ft x 66 ft = 160 square rods = 43560 sq. ft = +/- 208.7 ft squared (this was considered the amount of garden/personal crop space necessary for a peasant to live off of, after they worked on their landowner's land of course)
- 40 acres = 1/4 mile x 1/4 mile
- 1 labor = 1000 varas square = 172.136 acres
- 1 league? = 5000 varas sqaure = 4,428.4 acres
- 1 section = 1 mile x 1 mile = 640 acres
- 1 township = 6 miles x 6 miles (standard size for states admitted to the U.S. after President Jefferson put some order to things (starting with Ohio), but may vary depending on natural borders, larger political borders, and adjustments for narrowing of longitudinal lines as you go north) *
* Counties and states have no standard definition, but size generally has a diminished inverse relationship to population density (a big county has fewer people than a small county).
Louisiana uses parishes instead of counties, in New England and New York, a "town" includes the rural land around the town center, something like a township in other parts of the U.S.
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- 1 cm = width of fingernail of index finger (I assume this was an approximation and never a 'real' definition)
- 1 meter = 100 cm = 1/10,000,000 of a meridian quadrant of Earth (meridian quadrant is the distance from the equator to a pole. This was approximated by a survey across France.) (now a meter is set as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of orange-red Krypton 86)
- 1 kilometer = 1000 meters (a kilometer is what the military calls a "click")
- 1 hectare = 100 meters squared = 10,000 square meters = 100 ares
- 1 decare = 10 m x 100 m = 10 ares
- 1 stere = 1 cubic meter (firewood?)
- 1 liter = 1.000027 cubic decimeter = .001 cubic meters (for distilled water)
- 1 cc = 1 milliliter = 1 cubic centimeter = .000001 cubic meters
- 0 degrees Celsius = freezing point of distilled water, 100 degrees Celius = boiling point of distilled water, at sea level (I have no idea how the Fahrenheit scale was developed, but one source says each degree Fahrenheit is the smallest unit of temperature change that a person can reliably detect, another tried to relate the 180' between freezing and boiling to the 180' opposites in a circle)
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- 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters, 1 cm = .3937 inches
- 1 Foot = .3048 meters
- 1 yard = .914 meters, 1 meter = 39.37 inches = a touch more than 3 feet, 3 1/3 inches
- 36 varas = 100 feet, 1900.8 varas = 1 mile
- 1 mile = 1.61 kilometers, 1 kilometer = .62 miles
- 1 hectare = 2.47 acres, 1 acre =.405 hectare = 4 decares+/-
- 1 decare = 1 rood or 1/4 acre, approximately
- 1 cord of wood = 3.625 steres (cubic meters), 2 cords wood = 1 ton coal for heating purposes
- 1 bushel = 35.3 liters
- 1 gram = .0022046 pound
- 1 kilogram = 2.205 pounds, 1 pound = .454 kg
- 1 British stone = 14 pounds
- 1 British pint = 1.25 American pints = 20 fluid ounces
- 1 gallon = 3.7853 liters = 128 fluid ounces = 8 fluid pounds ("fluid" apparently means that if the equivalent volume was water instead of milk or motor oil or whatever, this is what it would weigh, I think)*
- 1 Cubic foot = 1728 cubic inches = 7.48 gallons US
- 1 Cubic foot/minute = 7.482 gallons/minute
- 1 Cubic foot water = 62.4 lbs @ 60 deg. F
- 1 Foot of water = .4335 lbs/sq. inch, 1 Inch of water = .03613 lbs./sq. inch
- 1 fluid ounce = 1.805 cubic inches = .02957 liters
- 1 liter = 1.057 quarts
- 1 liter = 61 cubic inches, 100 cubic inches = 1638 cc's
- 1 (short) ton = 2000 pounds = 907.2 kg = .9072 metric tons (a long ton is 2240 pounds)
- 0 degrees Celsius (centigrade) = 273.15 degrees Kelvin = 32 degrees Fahrenheit, C=5/9(F-32), F=9/5*C + 32, C=K-273.15
Measuring standards:
- Fuel usage: U.S. uses miles per gallon (mpg), whereas much of the rest of the world
measures in liters per 100 kilometers. Notice the relationship is inversed, so a better (larger)
mpg is a smaller l/100km. liters/100km = 0.0235/mpg. (23.5 mpg = 10 liters/100km). We won't
even go into gas/petrol, parrafin/kerosene,etc.
- U.S. rainfall is measured in inches of depth over a given point, and at least in Bulgaria
it's measured in liters per square meter (25.4 liters/sq. meter = 1" rain).
*As the saying goes, "a pint is a pound the world around" - assuming you're using American pints, not British and the pints contain distilled water, but Webster's dictionary says "the U.S. standard gallon contains 231 cubic inches and holds a little over 8 1/3 pounds".
Every other source says a gallon is 8 pounds exactly (still 231 cubic inches). Given that a gallon
is 3.7853 liters and 1 liter of water weighs 1 kg, or 2.205 pounds, then a gallon is about 8.3466
pounds. This would imply that either a pint is not exactly a pound or fluid ounces cannot be replaced by regular ounces.
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- 1 Btu = 252 calories = .293 watt
- 1 Therm = 100,000 btu
- 1 ton of refrigeration = 12,000 btu/hr
- 1 lb coal = 13,000 btu
- 1 lb wood = 3,500 btu
- 1 lb residential garbage = 2,500 btu
- 1 gal propane= 92,000 btu
- 1 gal fuel oil= 138,000 btu
- 1 gal gasoline = 125,070 btu
- 1 cu. ft. nat. gas = 1,000 btu
- 1 hp (horsepower) = 746 watts (per hr)
- 1 hp = 33,000 foot-lbs./min (the effort required to lift 33,000 pounds one foot per minute)*
- 1 hp = 42.44 btu/min.
- 1 watt = 3.412 btu = 1 ampere of current at 1 volt (watts = amps x volts)
- 1 kilowatt (hours) = 1,000 watts (hours) = 1.341 horsepower
- 1 Foot-pound = .001286 btu
- 1 joule = 1 watt-second = .73732 foot-pounds = 10,000,000 ergs
- 1 btu = 252 calories (the heat required to raise temperature of 1 pound of water from 62 degrees to 63 degrees Fahrenheit)
* Difference between a British Horsepower (bhp) and the American version is where it is measured - this relates to cars, and one is measured on the crankshaft coming out of the engine (with no alternators, pumps, etc. connected), and the other is measured on the tires, but I forget which is which.
- Pi = 3.14159265358979323846... (pi is the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter)
- speed of light (c in the formula E=mc2) = 186,000 mps = 300,000 km/sec
- speed of sound = 1089 feet/sec = 740 mph = 332 m/s = 1200 km/hr (at sea-level at 32 degrees F)
- 1 atmosphere = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch) = 29.92 inches of mercury;
every 32 feet of seawater adds 1 atmosphere of pressure (if I remember my scuba lessons correctly,
this needs to be verified), and freshwater is something like 34 feet for 1 atmosphere, at sea level.
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10100 = googol
1036 = undecillion
1024 = yotta (Y)
1021 = zetta (Z)
1018 = exa (E)
1015 = peta (P) (quadrillion in American, thousand billion? in British English)
1012 = terra (T) (trillion in American, billion? in British English)
109 = giga (G) (billion in American, thousand million in British English)
106 = mega (M) (million)
104 = myria
103 = kilo (k,K) (thousand)
102 = hecto (h)
101 = deca (D)
100 = 1
10-1 = deci (d)
10-2 = centi (c)
10-3 = milli (m)
10-6 = micro (micron) (abbreviated by Greek letter mu)
10-9 = nano (n)
10-10 = Angstrom (A with a dot over it)
10-12 = pico (p), also fermi?
10-15 = femto (f)
10-18 = atto (a)
10-18 = zepto (z)
10-24 = yocto (y)
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Powers of Two are used primarily in computer memory sizes:
210 = K, Kilo = 1024 or kilobinary (proposed IEC prefix of kibi & Ki)
220 = M, Mega = 1024 * 1024 = 1048576 (proposed prefix of mebi & Mi)
230 = G, Giga = (1024)3 (proposed prefix of gibi & Gi)
240 = T, Tera = (1024)4 (proposed prefix of tebi & Ti)
250 = P, Peta = (1024)5 (proposed prefix of pebi & Pi)
260 = E, Exa = (1024)6 (proposed prefix of exbi & Ei)
This leads to some confusion, particularly if somebody expects KB, for Kilobytes, to be
exactly 1000 bytes instead of the true value of 1024 bytes. This is why file sizes look slightly
smaller when abbreviated in KB or MB instead of total bytes. Also, usually a lower case b
means bits instead of bytes, eg. 8 mb = 8 megabits = 1 MB = 1 megabyte (8 bits to a byte).
The consensus is that powers of ten are used except when counting bytes. Bits are shown in
powers of two when counting static memory, powers of ten for data speeds (modem speeds, picture
transfer speeds, etc.). Other values that can be used in electronics among other places,
such as MHz (for megahertz) are represented in powers of ten.
- bits (b) = short for binary digits, each bit has a value of 0 or 1
- nibble = 4 bits, giving rise to hexadecimal (base 16) counting scheme, as 24=16,
represented by numbers 0-9 and letters A-F (archaic alternate spelling is nybble, as sometimes seen in the early 80's)
- byte (B) = 8 bits = two nibbles, 28 = 256
- word = groups of bytes, sometimes 2 bytes, 4 bytes or other even multiple
- modem = short for modulator/demodulator (converts binary data to/from an analog transmission signal)
- pixel = short for picture element, represents a dot on the screen, printer, camera CCD, etc.
The more bits that are used to represent each pixel gives more color information, but takes
more memory.
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I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1000
- Zip codes increase generally from E to W, and N to S. Alaska has the highest zip code presumably because it's the state farthest west (and north and east - don't believe me? Look at a globe!)
- Interstate highway numbers increase west to east, and south to north. Even numbers go west/east and odd numbers go north/south. Thus I-94 runs thru WI, MN, ND and into MT, and I-95 goes from Miami to Bangor, Maine.
- Mile markers work the same way - they increase from west to east, and south to north, but start anew at each state boundary, except in Kentucky where they start over in each county, near as I could tell.
- Interstate connectors and spurs use 3 numbers, and start with an odd number if they connect to an interstate on only one end, and an even number if they connect with an interstate on both ends (or loop entirely around to the beginning point, like the D.C. Beltway).
- Federal highways (often called state highways in each state, but they keep the same number as they cross from one state to another) are numbered opposite of Interstates - that is, Highway 1 (actually Route 1, as it's in the east) runs along the Atlantic seaboard, Highway 71 goes past my old house on its way from International Falls, MN to near Baton Rouge, LA, and Highway 101 is the famed highway along the California coast.
- Radio stations starting with a call letter of 'W' are east of the Mississippi River, and those starting with a call letter of 'K' are west of the Mississippi River (actually I think it's on the left side and right side as you go downstream, as I grew up part of the .03% of the U.S. population not living E. or W. of the Mississippi, but north of it - it makes the shape of a giant question mark in the north half of Minnesota as it flows north for a short while and then loops back to go south, and we were above the loop).
(First two are courtesy of my cousin Dan, and Robert Anderson gives me the definition for jiffy and shakes of a lamb's tail, neither of which not surprisingly I haven't been able to verify, despite growing up on a sheep farm)
- 0.0648 gram of sodium chloride is equal to the proverbial grain of salt.
- MilliHelen = the precise amount of beauty required to launch a single ship.
- Peter tells me that 1lb residential garbage = 2,500 btu
- skosh = 4 smidgeons, smidgeon = couple tads, 1 tad = just a mite.
- quite a little bit = 100 skosh, bookoodles = 1000 quite a little bits
- jiffy = 3.3357x10-11 seconds. So named for the length of time it takes light to
travel a cm in a vacuum. Also the length of time it takes for a child to drop a peanut butter sandwhich on the floor upside down (when made with Jif).
- shake of a lamb's tail = 1x10-8 seconds. During the Manhattan Project in the
early '40s, the time it took for the imploding shell of plutonium to reach the center of the
sphere was measured in "shakes of a lamb's tail". It took about three shakes of a lambs tail
to get the uranium to a critical mass and initiate spontaneous fission.
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