$ 3 billion gold bullion - photo

[schuylergrace]

There's a car mechanic/rocket jockey/big twit who could put 50 of those piles in his basement if he wanted to. Oh, lordy! Just send me home with one brick; I don't need to build a whole house out of 'em!

[IntheGroove]

A little depleted uranium does make a good round...

[Toolmaker51]

We're going back in time, following Marv making rounds of different institutions as they're conceiving all the systems of measurement. Epic, the today Marv vs the historic organizations.
There are many potential outcomes. Two most likely;
a) Everything winds up base 10.......
b) All as we see now, and they have his middle finger right next to Galileo's......
Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets.

[mklotz]

We're going back in time, following Marv making rounds of different institutions as they're conceiving all the systems of measurement. Epic, the today Marv vs the historic organizations.
There are many potential outcomes. Two most likely;
a) Everything winds up base 10.......
b) All as we see now, and they have his middle finger right next to Galileo's......
Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets.

And the idiocy marches on...

Shotgun gauges...

The logical measure is diameter (ball OD or barrel ID) and the means to measure such certainly existed if shotguns were being manufactured but no, let's calibrate the gun according to some obscure tradesman's (the lead caster) measure of convenience. If I developed a new type of super drill and decided to label them with a number that represented how many of them it took to make a pound of weight, wouldn't you think me nuts?

Then there's barrels...

There are seven different barrel sizes used in the USA, with the size being dependent on the contents. Their names and metric equivalents are as follows: US cranberry (95.5 liters), US dry (115.628 liters), US liquid (119.24 liters), US federal (117.348 liters), US federal proof spirits (151.416 liters), US drum (208.4 liters), US petroleum (135 kg.), US petroleum statistical (158.99 liters).

And all those quaint, folksy names that conceal what is being measured...

In the inferial system, which of the following are names of legitimate units?
grad, sack, minim, pinch, mil, turn, oscar, point, jeroboam

grad, pinch, turn, and oscar are not inferial units, AFAIK. However, as the idiocy escalates, this may change in the future. The oscar would be an ideal unit for measuring the weight of small statuettes :-)

[Toolmaker51]

OK, I'll schedule stops at Beretta, Holland & Holland, Rigby too.
BTW, Beretta at 496 years old, highly likely that gauge hoo-haw started that era.

re pinch; anyone here with a grandmother. used that cooking and baking every day.

found a terrific quote.
America is a young country, and American gun owners and manufacturers always keep an eye on the future. However, we can learn some important lessons from the longevity of Old World gun companies. What’s Beretta’s secret?

“Beretta has been continuously reinventing itself for nearly 500 years,” Francesco Valente, General Manager and COO of Beretta USA, said. “We think in terms of decades, not quarters – that is why we can invest so much in research and development and invest in environmental conservation to preserve the future of our planet."

[mklotz]

OK, I'll schedule stops at Beretta, Holland & Holland, Rigby too.
BTW, Beretta at 496 years old, highly likely that gauge hoo-haw started that era.

re pinch; anyone here with a grandmother. used that cooking and baking every day.

found a terrific quote.
America is a young country, and American gun owners and manufacturers always keep an eye on the future. However, we can learn some important lessons from the longevity of Old World gun companies. What’s Beretta’s secret?

“Beretta has been continuously reinventing itself for nearly 500 years,” Francesco Valente, General Manager and COO of Beretta USA, said. “We think in terms of decades, not quarters – that is why we can invest so much in research and development and invest in environmental conservation to preserve the future of our planet."

The shotgun gauge thing may hark back to the days of muzzle loading cannons which were referred to by the weight of their shot rather than the diameter of the bore.

Your former employer, the USN, is not innocent of measurement confusion. They list the Iowa's main guns as 16 inch, 50 caliber. What genius decided to measure the length of the barrel in multiples of the bore? And then use the same term that has an entirely different meaning in the small arms arena.

BTW, I most definitely do not argue to ensure everything "winds up base 10". Reread my white paper here...

A glimmer of hope

and you'll understand why powers of ten simplify, but are not the real substance of a rational measurement system.

[Toolmaker51]

I hope, truly, to not have incensed Mr. Klotz.
Visualizing a modern expert presenting solid arguments contrary to those establishing a system, plain irresistible.
The selection of "base 10" was a simplification. It would improve plenty in a general sense, but certainly not all.

Galileo's finger, coupled with mid 80's recant of his excommunication, is a long time favorite; as if a trophy.

[mklotz]

I hope, truly, to not have incensed Mr. Klotz.
Visualizing a modern expert presenting solid arguments contrary to those establishing a system, plain irresistible.
The selection of "base 10" was a simplification. It would improve plenty in a general sense, but certainly not all.

Galileo's finger, coupled with mid 80's recant of his excommunication, is a long time favorite; as if a trophy.

No worries, no incense here.

The church has finally admitted that 'it does move'*, only a few centuries too late. Perhaps it was for the best. It's hopefully made them sensitive to the fact that religion has no business dispensing scientific "truth".

Despite their failure at astronomy, the church has harbored some accomplished scientists...

Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

Georges Lemaître, physicist, responsible for the concept of the expanding universe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre


--
As Galileo was being taken away to house arrest by the inquisition, it's rumored he muttered, "And yet, it moves" referring to his assurance that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa as the church ordained.

[Frank S]

No worries, no incense here.

The church has finally admitted that 'it does move'*, only a few centuries too late. Perhaps it was for the best. It's hopefully made them sensitive to the fact that religion has no business dispensing scientific "truth".

Despite their failure at astronomy, the church has harbored some accomplished scientists...

Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

Georges Lemaître, physicist, responsible for the concept of the expanding universe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre


--
As Galileo was being taken away to house arrest by the inquisition, it's rumored he muttered, "And yet, it moves" referring to his assurance that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa as the church ordained.

My grandmother said that all churches and all religions were a bunch of heathens except for the one she went to, and she had her doubts about our Chicken eating preacher at times, however that didn't stop her from serving fried chicken every sunday knowing he would be joining for dinner