Bill, well a pitch is where cricket (no Jan E and Pete C, not Plymouth Cricket)
matches are played, and a cricket pitch is 22 yards long. Same length as a
chain,
which is surprising as the timing chain on my Alpine looks nowhere near that
long.
10 chains to a furlong (I know it's hard to believe the imperial system used 10
of
anything to make up something else), 8 furlongs to a statute mile (one of two
miles
used, the other being the nautical mile) and 12 furlongs to a league.
All of which goes to show that the Imperial system was actually devised by
sadistic
schoolmasters to torture small children with problems like "If a man had enough
apples to reach from one end of a cricket pitch to another, and the apples had
an
average circumference of 3 nails, and were priced 3 shillings, sixpence and 3
farthings a dozen, how much would all the apples cost (including VAT) (allowing
for
the curvature of the earth)"
Cheers and a Firkin of brown bubbly to all
Vic
Bill Mounce wrote:
> Vic, can you now fill us in on pitches, chains, furlongs and leagues? God, I
> miss the Imperial system! Bill in plain old Pennsylvania.
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