In Fritz Lang's film Metropolis, the clocks are all decimal. 60 for the number of seconds in an minute, and the number of minutes in an hour, is nice for the same reason as the dozen - it has lots of divisors. I think it was first used by the Babylonians.
In Fritz Lang's film Metropolis, the clocks are all decimal. 60 for the number of seconds in an minute, and the number of minutes in an hour, is nice for the same reason as the dozen - it has lots of divisors. I think it was first used by the Babylonians.
A cool factoid. Placeholder arithmetic was invented by the Babylonians who nearly invented zero as well. Instead of zero they used a placeholder symbol which was not a number. Turning it into a number was left to the Indians.
So they sell eggs by 10 in a box or 6 in a box in Scandinavia. That means you can buy a dozen if that is what you require. Which has a cheaper unit price 6 or 10? It might be a contradicition to the adage that things are cheaper by the dozen.
I always thought the dozen was preferred because in offered more fractional choices.
The forcing one to buy a certain quantify reminds of the fact that in the USA, unprepared hot dogs are generally sold in packages of 8 while the hot dog buns are sold in package of 6 or 12. This creates may a conflicted shopper on the 4th of July.
And for another commercial exploit of hot dog mathematics, I remember a guy that opened a hot dog stand next to the main municipal bus stop in downtown Eugene, Oregon. He offered one hot dog cooked and ready to eat for $1 and three hot dogs for $2. If you and a friend decide to order two hot dogs and you each only wanted one apiece, you got a third and were told by the proprietor that it was his problem as he only sold one or three.
It worked for him as the discussion this eccentric behavior made everyone aware of his hot dog stand through the power of word of mouth advertising.
I hear about that kind of thing and always wonder. Another example is a store that is only open 1 day a month or something like that. It features high margin items with their branding and evidently people pay a lot more for that brand because it shows they worked to get the gift.
I have never seen a 10pack of eggs here in Norway.
We do have 6, 12 and 18 packs, though.
(I go for the 18packs as they're the most economic. Luckily, eggs are stored in refrigerated areas in our stores so they keep fresh for a month after the 'use before' date)
(I go for the 18packs as they're the most economic. Luckily, eggs are stored in refrigerated areas in our stores so they keep fresh for a month after the 'use before' date)
They (Norwegian eggs) actually keep fresh for much longer than that, because unlike most European countries the Norwegian eggs aren't salmonella-infected and are safe to eat "runny" for a very long time (they didn't use to have that 'use before' date at all, but EU forced the practice on Norwegian egg producers). I do keep them in the fridge though. Anyway I've never seen an egg go bad, however long it's been in the fridge (unless the shell was broken). And nearly twenty years ago a (young) colleague stored 24 eggs (you could by them packed as 24 back then) for nearly a year in the basement at work, which was kept at nearly room temperature. His cunning plan was for the eggs to go rotten and to be used as projectiles against the "socialists" during the 1. May (labour day) demonstrations (he had some "issues" back then..). Unfortunately for him (or maybe luckily..), the eggs were still good after nearly a year in the basement so 1. May came and passed and the young colleague got older and moderated his attitudes and the eggs were silently removed.
Another odd factoid. The Imperial system wasn't standardized which lead to multiple values for the same unit (both in the US and the UK). The US and the UK had separate standardization efforts in the 1800's, in 1893 the US essentially gave up and defined all its Imperial units in terms of SI units (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order). So when you use the Imperial system in the US you are actually using the Metric system with an archaic collection of units layered on top of it.
However, just like the British discovered their official references for yard was fluctuating by a measurable amount. So is the official kilogram:
Comments
Base 60 is even older than that http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
A cool factoid. Placeholder arithmetic was invented by the Babylonians who nearly invented zero as well. Instead of zero they used a placeholder symbol which was not a number. Turning it into a number was left to the Indians.
I always thought the dozen was preferred because in offered more fractional choices.
The forcing one to buy a certain quantify reminds of the fact that in the USA, unprepared hot dogs are generally sold in packages of 8 while the hot dog buns are sold in package of 6 or 12. This creates may a conflicted shopper on the 4th of July.
And for another commercial exploit of hot dog mathematics, I remember a guy that opened a hot dog stand next to the main municipal bus stop in downtown Eugene, Oregon. He offered one hot dog cooked and ready to eat for $1 and three hot dogs for $2. If you and a friend decide to order two hot dogs and you each only wanted one apiece, you got a third and were told by the proprietor that it was his problem as he only sold one or three.
It worked for him as the discussion this eccentric behavior made everyone aware of his hot dog stand through the power of word of mouth advertising.
We do have 6, 12 and 18 packs, though.
(I go for the 18packs as they're the most economic. Luckily, eggs are stored in refrigerated areas in our stores so they keep fresh for a month after the 'use before' date)
-Tor
Living in France I have always used metric and it is hard to think in inches.
Often have to muliply by 2.54 to get CM, but i know how to do that
Clearly the main problem is hardware .
In europa you only find nuts , bolts ... in metric system and if i need to replace one I never find it in France.
Also I have to put aside some US made frames and build my own !
Jean Paul
However, just like the British discovered their official references for yard was fluctuating by a measurable amount. So is the official kilogram:
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/mar/08-kilogram-isnt-what-it-used-to-be-its-lighter#.ULzAhIPAdOI