Were our grandparents extra clever to work in imperial measures?

keni asked:

I mean, 16 ounces in a lb, 14 lbs in a stone etc. How many farthings in ten shillings? “If a pound of potatoes cost twopence ha’penny, what weight of potatoes would you get for three guineas?” omg, and what was the sense in LSD being pounds shillings and pence? Perhaps their lives were not complicated enough and they needed a challenge. It makes Sudoku seem easy-peasy.

Comments (2) Posted in Other - Education

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2 Responses to 'Were our grandparents extra clever to work in imperial measures?'

Crabboy4 - August 24th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Computers use hexadecimal, which is similar to the base 16 money and measures. So maybe our grandparents were extra clever.
Gungnir - August 25th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Yes, people wee better at calculating by heart than we are now, that is for sure, but the old system is really difficult for scientists. Even in the US, the only country still hooked on the antiquated systems (besides money), scientists do their calculations in metrics, and only translate the results in the old style for the general public.