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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT
fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity
pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on
the Harvard Bridge (between Boston & Cambridge, Mass) so that his
fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the
bridge.

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

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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

On 19/03/2019 19:17, Tim Streater wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT
fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, who in
October 1958 lay down repeatedly on
the Harvard Bridge (between Boston & Cambridge, Mass) so that his
fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the
bridge.

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



What does:

"a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha"

mean? Is it even English?


https://www.google.com/search?q=frat...&oe=utf-8&aq=t
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"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
wrote:

The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT
fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, who in
October 1958 lay down repeatedly on
the Harvard Bridge (between Boston & Cambridge, Mass) so that his
fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the
bridge.

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



What does:

"a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha"

mean?


https://people.howstuffworks.com/fraternity2.htm

Is it even English?


Yank, actually.

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On Tue, 19 Mar 2019 14:08:19 -0400, davidp wrote:

The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT
fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity pledge
to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the
Harvard Bridge (between Boston & Cambridge, Mass) so that his fraternity
brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.

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


Nice that Smoot went on to head ANSI, and then ISO.



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Default More Heavy Trolling by Senile Nym-Shifting Rot Speed!

On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 08:45:05 +1100, Jac Brown, better known as cantankerous
trolling senile geezer Rot Speed, wrote:



https://people.howstuffworks.com/fraternity2.htm

Is it even English?


Yank, actually.


Are you in Streater's killfile, "Jac Brown", you senile Ozzie troll? LOL

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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

Oh that is clever, almost English in its humour.
I remember once when I was young we had a cat who seemed to always lay down
the same way, I measured it and suggested we used it as a unit of measure,
called the pussy, so the garden was 135 pussys long etc.
Brian

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"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
wrote:

The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT
fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, who in
October 1958 lay down repeatedly on
the Harvard Bridge (between Boston & Cambridge, Mass) so that his
fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the
bridge.

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


What does:

"a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha"

mean? Is it even English?

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attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston
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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 08:05:40 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:

I remember once when I was young we had a cat who seemed to always lay down
the same way, I measured it and suggested we used it as a unit of measure,
called the pussy, so the garden was 135 pussys long etc.


I'm sure I read once of a retired patent specialist who registered a whole
system of measurement based on the "Ginger" which was his cat's name - a
Ginger in length was the length of the cat from nose to tail tip, in weight
was the weight of the cat at a specific time on a specific day etc...

I'm frustrated now that I can't find it on a search engine.
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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

On 20/03/2019 09:04, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 01:21:19 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 08:05:40 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:

I remember once when I was young we had a cat who seemed to always lay down
the same way, I measured it and suggested we used it as a unit of measure,
called the pussy, so the garden was 135 pussys long etc.


I'm sure I read once of a retired patent specialist who registered a whole
system of measurement based on the "Ginger" which was his cat's name - a
Ginger in length was the length of the cat from nose to tail tip, in weight
was the weight of the cat at a specific time on a specific day etc...

I'm frustrated now that I can't find it on a search engine.



There's a whole world of unofficial units.
http://wiki.c2.com/?WhimsicalUnitsOfMeasurement No ginger pussies,
although the RCH is there under unit of distance, which must be
related (the smallest measurement known to man. The width of one "red
c*nt hair"), and the Smoot is there. A friend at uni used to talk of
walking speed as picoparsecs per hour (although actual walking speeds
are about 0.2pps/h, or 4mph)


where I trust "h" is a sidereal hour

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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:04:13 +0000, Chris Hogg wrote:

A friend at uni used to talk of walking speed as
picoparsecs per hour (although actual walking speeds are about 0.2pps/h,
or 4mph)


The one I know is that one inch per second is one attoparsec per
microfortnight (near enough).

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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 01:21:19 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:


On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 08:05:40 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:

I remember once when I was young we had a cat who seemed to always lay down
the same way, I measured it and suggested we used it as a unit of measure,
called the pussy, so the garden was 135 pussys long etc.


I'm sure I read once of a retired patent specialist who registered a whole
system of measurement based on the "Ginger" which was his cat's name - a
Ginger in length was the length of the cat from nose to tail tip, in weight
was the weight of the cat at a specific time on a specific day etc...

I'm frustrated now that I can't find it on a search engine.



There's a whole world of unofficial units.
http://wiki.c2.com/?WhimsicalUnitsOfMeasurement No ginger pussies,
although the RCH is there under unit of distance, which must be
related (the smallest measurement known to man. The width of one "red
c*nt hair"), and the Smoot is there. A friend at uni used to talk of
walking speed as picoparsecs per hour (although actual walking speeds
are about 0.2pps/h, or 4mph)


you'vew forgotten the small measurement "a gnat's whisker"

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On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 09:41:24 UTC, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:04:13 +0000, Chris Hogg wrote:

A friend at uni used to talk of walking speed as
picoparsecs per hour (although actual walking speeds are about 0.2pps/h,
or 4mph)


The one I know is that one inch per second is one attoparsec per
microfortnight (near enough).


I like the speed of light as measured to be *about* 1 foot per nanosecond .

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On 20/03/2019 09:55, charles wrote:
In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 01:21:19 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:


On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 08:05:40 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:

I remember once when I was young we had a cat who seemed to always lay down
the same way, I measured it and suggested we used it as a unit of measure,
called the pussy, so the garden was 135 pussys long etc.

I'm sure I read once of a retired patent specialist who registered a whole
system of measurement based on the "Ginger" which was his cat's name - a
Ginger in length was the length of the cat from nose to tail tip, in weight
was the weight of the cat at a specific time on a specific day etc...

I'm frustrated now that I can't find it on a search engine.



There's a whole world of unofficial units.
http://wiki.c2.com/?WhimsicalUnitsOfMeasurement No ginger pussies,
although the RCH is there under unit of distance, which must be
related (the smallest measurement known to man. The width of one "red
c*nt hair"), and the Smoot is there. A friend at uni used to talk of
walking speed as picoparsecs per hour (although actual walking speeds
are about 0.2pps/h, or 4mph)


you'vew forgotten the small measurement "a gnat's whisker"

Gnat's cock.

Gnat's dont have whiskers


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On 20/03/2019 13:32, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 20/03/2019 09:55, charles wrote:


you'vew forgotten the small measurement "a gnat's whisker"

Gnat's cock.

Gnat's dont have whiskers


if you look very, very closely:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnat#/...Hooke-gnat.jpg

[from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, 1665]

https://goo.gl/images/21VtfM

[from scanning electron microscope]


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On 20/03/2019 14:16, Robin wrote:
On 20/03/2019 13:32, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 20/03/2019 09:55, charles wrote:


you'vew forgotten the small measurement "a gnat's whisker"

Gnat's cock.

Gnat's dont have whiskers


if you look very, very closely:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnat#/...Hooke-gnat.jpg

[from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, 1665]

https://goo.gl/images/21VtfM

[from scanning electron microscope]


hairs are not whiskers.


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"charles" wrote in message
...
you've forgotten the small measurement "a gnat's whisker"


And the "smidgen", with its sub-multiple, the "nano-smidgen".

I remember I was working in a chemistry lab in my year off before university
in the early 80s. My lab supervisor was tweaking the proportions of a
catalyst to find the amount that made a significant difference to a reaction
rate, and he said "It just takes a smidgen" and then went on "To poison a
pigeon". I must have looked mystified by this because he went on to explain
the satirical songs of Tom Lehrer, whose music I came across the following
year when one of my friends lent me his TL tape.


Then of course there's the alliterative furlong per fortnight, which is 1/8
mile in 14*24 hours, so 1 f/f is 37 * 10^-6 mph or 23 inches/hour or 16 *
10^-6 m/s. A garden snail travels at about 13 * 10^-6 m/s so roughly 1 f/f
;-)



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On 20/03/2019 14:51, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Robin
wrote:

On 20/03/2019 13:32, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 20/03/2019 09:55, charles wrote:


you'vew forgotten the small measurement "a gnat's whisker"

Gnat's cock.

Gnat's dont have whiskers

if you look very, very closely:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnat#/...Hooke-gnat.jpg

[from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, 1665]

https://goo.gl/images/21VtfM

[from scanning electron microscope]


SWMBO says that, because I have whiskers, I must be a gnat.

better ask why she keeps shaving the whiskers off her fanny then


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fill the world with fools.

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Default The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length...

On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 11:43:48 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:

I like the speed of light as measured to be *about* 1 foot per nanosecond
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On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 17:18:23 UTC, wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 11:43:48 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:

I like the speed of light as measured to be *about* 1 foot per nanosecond .

- in fact, it is 0.9835710564304 ft/ns.


Yeah like I said .


It has not been possible to measure the speed of light since 1986 or earlier;


yes it has , it;s been in physics books long before then.

by/in 1986 it was defined in SI as 299 792 458 m/s precisely. The experiment can still be done, but, given that the second is well-defined and accurately-disseminated, the result is a calibration of whatever length standard was used in the work.


Yes so, but for most it was accurate enough even in the 18th century.



Be warned that from May 20th 2019, the definition of the kilogram will no longer be that it is the mass of a Pt-Ir cylinder cherished in Outer Paris. See in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram !


Yes I know I heard all about it.
But it's not going to make much differnce to the majority of us is it.
I also know the freezing point of water isn't 0C it's 0.01C IIRC.

But you can have stationary/ none moving water that is -4C

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On Thursday, 21 March 2019 12:36:15 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 17:18:23 UTC, wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 11:43:48 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:



It has not been possible to measure the speed of light since 1986 or earlier;


yes it has , it;s been in physics books long before then.


I think that you did not pay enough attention to my "since" above.



Be warned that from May 20th 2019, the definition of the kilogram will no longer be that it is the mass of a Pt-Ir cylinder cherished in Outer Paris. See in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram !


Yes I know I heard all about it.


A Usenet response is commonly not aimed solely at the author of the preceding article.


But it's not going to make much differnce to the majority of us is it.


Much effort, and time, has been put into achieving that, and having new standards which are independent of any artifacts.

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On Thursday, 21 March 2019 22:39:22 UTC, wrote:
On Thursday, 21 March 2019 12:36:15 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 17:18:23 UTC, wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 11:43:48 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:



It has not been possible to measure the speed of light since 1986 or earlier;


yes it has , it;s been in physics books long before then.


I think that you did not pay enough attention to my "since" above.


It made little sense. are you saying the egyptians knew the speed of light,
I've seen a ytube vid that claims they did.
What's 1986 got to do with it, or are yuo saying the speed of light changed in 1986 ?



Be warned that from May 20th 2019, the definition of the kilogram will no longer be that it is the mass of a Pt-Ir cylinder cherished in Outer Paris. See in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram !


Yes I know I heard all about it.


A Usenet response is commonly not aimed solely at the author of the preceding article.


well I hpe that most realised that it's not going to change their life much.
But a few (mostly women) might use it as evidence as to why the scales are wrong, again ;-)



But it's not going to make much differnce to the majority of us is it.


Much effort, and time, has been put into achieving that, and having new standards which are independent of any artifacts.


Yeah time and money which for some might be better spent on other things.


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On Friday, 22 March 2019 11:11:33 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 21 March 2019 22:39:22 UTC, wrote:
On Thursday, 21 March 2019 12:36:15 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 17:18:23 UTC, wrote:
On Wednesday, 20 March 2019 11:43:48 UTC, whisky-dave wrote:



It has not been possible to measure the speed of light since 1986 or earlier;

yes it has , it;s been in physics books long before then.


I think that you did not pay enough attention to my "since" above.


It made little sense. are you saying the egyptians knew the speed of light,


No, I'm not saying that. But the Egyptians have always been on the fringe of Western scientific culture, so they would have known the speed of light soon after we did.


What's 1986 got to do with it, or are yuo saying the speed of light changed in 1986 ?


Which part of that do you want to be answered? s/or/and.

(1) Not a lot; I should have written "1983". The Web page "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre" contains : "21 October 1983 The 17th CGPM defines the metre as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second." I don't know offhand the date on which that took effect.

(( Before that change, "However, the International Prototype Metre remained the standard until 1960, when the eleventh CGPM defined the metre in the new International System of Units (SI) as equal to 1 650 763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of the krypton-86 atom in a vacuum." ))

(2) At each of those changes, the speed of light changed, because the definition of speed incorporated the definition of the metre, which changed by an unknown amount as near zero as could be managed on the available information. It is possible, in principle, to measure, with greater precision than available in 1983, the wavelength of that line in terms of the current metre and/or the frequency in terms of the current second, and that would yield the value of the change in the speed of light.

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Default Lonely Psychopathic Senile Ozzie Troll Alert! LOL

On Sun, 24 Mar 2019 03:52:36 +1100, cantankerous trolling senile geezer Rot
Speed blabbered, again:


Which 'Egyptians' are you talking about? The time of Tutankhamen? The
pyramid builders? Cleopatra and the Greeks? Nasser? The Muslim
Brotherhood?


His claim is true of all of those,


Are you sure, senile idiot? Senilely sure again? BG

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On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:31:16 +0000, Robin wrote:

On 20/03/2019 09:04, Chris Hogg wrote:


====snip====


There's a whole world of unofficial units.
http://wiki.c2.com/?WhimsicalUnitsOfMeasurement No ginger pussies,
although the RCH is there under unit of distance, which must be related
(the smallest measurement known to man. The width of one "red c*nt
hair"), and the Smoot is there. A friend at uni used to talk of walking
speed as picoparsecs per hour (although actual walking speeds are about
0.2pps/h, or 4mph)


where I trust "h" is a sidereal hour


Considering the distance unit used, it would have been foolish in the
extreme to have done otherwise. :-)

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