[Greenbuilding] metric system in building, was 'square head screws'

[Speireag Alden]

Sgrìobh Sacie Lambertson:

>Now thanks to Speireag I know what a fathom 'looks' like.

     Oh, dear.  I'm not sure my description was all that clear.  A 
fathom is six feet, and it comes from how sailors measure a line, 
passing it through your hands as far as you can stretch it between 
two hands, then dropping one hand and reaching across to draw the 
line through the other hand until you're at full extension again.

     I hope that's clearer...

     While we're on the topic, a cubit is the distance from fingertip 
to elbow, a handy length for a carpenter or stonemason.  An el is a 
bit shorter, even though it's also from fingertip to elbow.  But els 
are used to measure cloth, and so the standard distance derived from 
the length of women's forearms...

-Speireag.

-- 
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the 
injury that provokes it.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)