h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My fault really. I was only looking at the UK table, not the general & international use one.

Ok. What's next? Should I recommend it on the Peer Review page?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

do you mind if I point out spelling mistakes (although the eds will get them anyway) - horse not hourse, teaspoon not teespoon.

The plural of formula is formulae, tichy is spelt without a second t.

Stones are only used for weight of people. Hands are a measure of a horses's height - a very common unit (I am not being ironic, you'd be surprised how often it crops up - and I'm not even a horsey person)

And do the Americans really use BTU??

It is sad to think all the brainpower we spent at school learning about ponds, rods, perches, bushels and gills, only to read that they are now obsolete.

and I miss the lovely word avoirdupois which was always in tables of measurements as far as I can remember.

I hate to only have nits to pick as this is such a fantastic piece of work - and well done Cefpret - whatever your name means.

Thanks for your corrections.

Is one hand four inches?

Well, I ask this because sometimes the USA differs from UK, and in my printed sources it is a US-only unit.

I'm pretty sure it's four inches. As Trillian's Child says, it crops up fairly often over here. One idiosycracy of it is that the "height" of a horse is measured to it's shoulder (above top of front leg) not it's head, probably because it's well nigh impossible to get a horse to hold it's head still.

As a doctor, I can emphatically state that grains are *still* used in medicine for prescribing some (but not very many) medications, and Enz. Units are used for amounts of many prescribed enzymes or complex drugs - examples include Insulin and Heparin. This is because in these cases, the drug is prescribed by effect it has not its quantity, as there are many differing preparations and types.

In addition to Carats for precious metals, don't forget there is Karats for gems.

- Adam

Well, well. I really ought to re-organise the tables. The carat for gems is mentioned among "Science/International Use". (But there is also a note in the paragraph for precious metals.) The Enz. Unit had already been included, too. But I didn't know the exact purpose -- thanks for that.

As far as the grain is concerned: I have to draw a line. Every unit is used somewhere. I can hardly appraise the importance of grains. If _you_ say it is a current unit I'll put it in the other table. But take into consideration that it's in the article anyway.

Thank you!

I thought you were going to explain to me what avoirdupois means. (I know it translates as to have weight, but that doesn't mean much in this context)

You said you miss the lovely word, and I included it!

Well, you already translated it by yourself (I hope you pronounce it equally properly). It simply means that French used to be the world language and that it was the origin of these systems. (The troy system came from a French town called Troyes.) The avoirdupois system is British standard since 1863 and the troy system since 1824. Their roots are much older of course.

Sorry, didn't think of looking at the entry again. Will do so. I hadn't realised that Troy was named after Troyes. I lived in Troyes for a few months. Unfortunately, since then, many of the mediaval churches suffered from a big fire - was on the international news. Teh town had 13 churches, all steeped in history.