Re: [boost] Units: brief review

From: me22 (me22.ca_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-03-26 18:33:07

On 3/26/07, Phil Endecott <spam_from_boost_dev_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> - Please don't call the units used in the U.S. "English" units.  Here
> in England, we use the S.I. system for everything except pints of beer
> and miles on roadsigns.  The units that we did use here until about 50
> years ago were not the same as the ones that the Americans use.
>
On that note, I have an (old) pocket handbook that says the following:
    The _British Unit of Length_ is the Imperial Standard Yard = the
length of a bronze bar, preserved in the Parliament building in London
at 62 degrees F.  In 1935 1 in. was determined as equaling 25.399956mm
and 1 yard as 0.914398416 m.
    The _North American Yard_, by the Mendenhall decree in 1893 was
determined as equaling (3600/3937) m = 0.9144018 m; 1 American in. =
25.400051 mm.

Wikipedia suggests that there's also an _International Yard_ = 0.9144
m; making 1 International inch = 25.4 mm.

Glad to be using the metric system,
~ Scott McMurray