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However, those Brigg Blog followers who were taught geography at Brigg Grammar School by the very long-serving 'Shoddy' Jarvis will regard the autumnal equinox (around Sept 22) as the starting point for autumn. Just as the winter and summer solstaces in December and June, and the March equinox (March 21/22) marked the beginning of winter, summer and spring respectively.
We've looked it up and the autumnal equinox for 2016 will be on September 22 at 14:21 GMT.
Equal measures of day and night. That's when autumn will start... in this tiny corner of the internet, anyway!
There's a lot to be said for tradition. So would the Met Office please consider sticking to the old yardstick of solstices and equinoxes.
Read what summer 2016 was like statisfically - courtesy of the Met Office....
Post Brexit vote, there's already growing support for a campaign to ditch metric weights and measures and let retailers use just pounds and ounces again, if they prefer imperial measures not to be found on the continent of Europe.
Now to decimalisation, which came our way in the early 1970s.
The consumer today would certainly benefit from having 240 pennies to the pound, with farthings and halfpennies.
Today the smallest rise the coinage allows of 1p equates to 2.4 old pence.
In the old days you'd have had nearly 5 halfpennies and almost 10 farthings to use for small increases.
Only petrol stations in the current era make an effort with prices like 104.1p.
Elsewhere it's a fully penny rise - at the very least!
We still think of temperatures in F rather than C but can manage to convert the latter to the former without too much difficulty.
However, we've never got to grips with hectares instead of acres and we still think of distances in miles.
PICTURED: An October picture we took some years ago to shown autumn in Brigg.
Yep...but remember we are talking about GMT...22nd Sept remains in BST , so it will occur at 15:21 BST in the UK.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the actual time in other countries will be affected by the +-GMT time.
The actual day/time varies as the Earth spins/rotates/it's day = 23hrs, 56mins, 4secs...on average..on average as the Moon variably affects the Earth's rotational speed...
No Nige...we certainly don't want to return to imperial measure...the whole system does not make any sense.
ReplyDeleteMetrication is based upon the simple base of 10. Dead simps.
However, we do have and use imperial in some instances...ie road speed is shown in mph.
In geometry, we still use 360' in a circle....by default a number that is divisible by many other numbers.
The French at one time experimented using 400' in their army artillery..but got very confused!
When decimalisation was first introduced in the 1970's, I went to buy some 4"x2" timber.
'Sorry mate, it now comes in metric widths...you can have 50mm x 100mm, which is similar."
'Ok...3 lengths, please."
'8 or 10 feet lengths?'
(at the time, only width and depths were legally changed...lengths remained imperial.)
Nige....Acre is based upon a historical calculation of how much an average horse could plough an average field (clay/sandy) in a days work.
ReplyDeleteie, a horse could be expected to plough 8 furlongs of 220yards...after each furlong, the horse would need a rest.
The distance across 8 furlongs = 1 chain = 22 yards (the distance between cricket wickets).
So 66 yards x 220 yards = 1 acre...therefore, it the field was, for example, 2.75 acres, the farmer could expect the field to be ploughed by one average horse on average ground in 2.75 days to complete.
Now measure your back garden and tell me what percentage acreage it is.
Hectare = 100 metres x 100 metres = 10000 square metres.
Now if you garden is 25m x 12m = 300 square metres....therefore, 300/10000 = 3/100...or 0.03 hectares...really dead simps....all base 10 and nowt to do with ploughing horses.
Have a PINT on me, Nige!
ReplyDeleteERROR...
ReplyDelete22 yards (not 66) x 220 yards = 1 acre..
....and wot about your size 9 clod-hoppers, Nige?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between sizes 9 and 10?
The answer is 3 x barleycorns.
The British shoe size system is based upon a 12 inch shoe -Size 12..(the datum)...and other sizes are related to plus or minus barleycorns...
Cast your mind back a decade, or so, Ol' Nige.
ReplyDeleteThe Council installed a public footpath finger post near the Oil Mill Bridge.
It gave the distance in km's, but someone made a major cafuffle 'cos such distances had to be given in miles..
Something slightly different..experienced hill walkers often have established a mental calculation of how many paces over different terrain equals 1km...a lot easier than working out and remembering how many steps equalled 1760 yards (mile).
Very useful when the visibility was poor...and in combination with map and compass bearing made position much more accurate....
Much easier to use Kilograms, grams, Kilometres, metres, centimetres, Litres etc.
ReplyDeleteI went to school in the 50's and 60's and thought the old system was embarrassingly stupid even then.
We are still in Europe and always will be. It's a continent, not a Union.