Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by shawnz on Monday September 05, 2022 @11:20AM
(#32725290)
I guess they are referring to how inches for example are commonly subdivided into halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, etc.
Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by thechao on Monday September 05, 2022 @10:19AM
(#32724591)
Lengths aren't as important to farmers as volumes — those are base-2. Remember: 1790, not 1990.
Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by achenet on Monday September 05, 2022 @10:39AM
(#32724813)
a quart is a quarter of a gallon, an oz is a 32nd of a quart... eh I guess that makes sense.
Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by gs17 on Monday September 05, 2022 @03:54PM
(#32728635)
Sadly, teaspoons to tablespoons has a jump of 3x, but other than that it's mostly binary with a few skips (e.g. there's not a real half gallon unit AFAIK, it's just "a half gallon", same for 2 fl oz). For some reason a barrel is 31.5 gallons instead of 32, with a hogshead being twice that at 63, but those are pretty rarely used.
For example, how is "12 inches to a foot, 3 foot to a yard, and 1760 yards to a mile" base 2?
My understanding, before reading your post was that US customary was basically adapted from imperial which was in turn just an adaptation of folk measurements - a foot was about the length of a foot, etc.