Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by mcv on Monday September 05, 2022 @07:31AM
(#32723154)
And then there's the mile. Originally comes from the Latin for a thousand (mille) paces, and one pace being 5 foot, so a mile used to be 5000 feet. But now it's a beautifully round 5280 feet. How come?
Well, in the middle ages, the furlong was important, because it was the standard size for farmers' fields (based on how long a furrow an ox could plow without resting). But 8 furlongs didn't fit neatly into a mile, so to make things easier for everybody, the mile got expanded to a nice round 5280 feet, or exactly 8 furlongs.
Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by hnaccount_rng on Monday September 05, 2022 @09:20AM
(#32723977)
I always wondered how they got their oxes to need resting at exactly the same number of feet ;)
The whole thing is absolutely mad and most efforts to standardise the systems historically lead to the adoption of the SI unit system for "important" things, as well as a few good intentioned bits of legislation, like the International Yard and Pound agreement [1] which standardised those measures between the US and other former imperial users. Don't get me started on the survey foot, or the hell that arose when the units of classical mechanics, electromagnetism or similar scientific systems had to meet imperial or US customary units...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_yard_and_pound