[Amps] Burning question of the day- how long is it?

Ian White G/GM3SEK gm3sek at ifwtech.co.uk
Thu Aug 4 17:27:08 EDT 2005


w5grg wrote:
>Well-lots of good comments, but I stopped with the beer long ago, so I
>don't know what size it comes in, but it has been a handy saying for me
>since a pint of water (fresh at some temp -forgot how many degrees maybe
>72 F) is equal to 1 lbs, so both the liquid and weight have a common unit.

 From a joint US-British household:

The density of water is about 8.3 pounds per US liquid gallon (or about 
8-11/32, if you must) so it doesn't really come close "a pint is a 
pound". On the other hand, a pound really is "a pound, the world 
around".

The original British gallon of water was defined to weigh exactly 10 
pounds at room temperature, and a pint was 1-1/4 pounds. The real puzzle 
is why the US emigrants kept the pound but "devalued" the gallon and the 
pint?


>  I was kidding about the antenna,but since the metric system is not in
>common use in most homes in the US and I imagine most hams buying the
>handbook live in the USA, I am not sure why the ARRL uses the metric
>system, seems more like an affectation rather than to make things clear.

On the contrary, it was a very deliberate decision by K1FO, who did the 
original design work for those 144, 220 and 432MHz yagis. The nearest 
whole millimetre is just about the right precision to aim for on those 
bands, so fractions are totally eliminated. All you need to know is how 
to count.


>I don't think that anyone commented on the most remarkable fact that the
>English system (which I think comes down from the measurement of the
>human forearm  or "cubit" - not sure of that) is both Base 2 and Base 3
>, that is divisible both even and odd.

You soon got rid of that handy feature in your money, though  :-)



-- 
73 from Ian G/GM3SEK


More information about the Amps mailing list