File talk:English Length Units Graph.svg
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Finger -> inch arrow reversal
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All arrows point from the smaller unit to the bigger unit, except for the arrow from inch to finger. To be consistent, this arrow should be reversed, with the label reading 8/7. 193.121.55.175 13:14, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
Youtube mentions
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For what it's worth, a YouTuber threw some shade at this graph here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJymKowx8cY
Obviously lots of YT videos are totally ignorable, but I think he does raise some decent points - why the heck is a Roman mile on this chart? Same with some of the ultra-obscure units like Gunter's Chain. This might be okay as "non-metric units of measurement used somewhere at some time" but it's not really a description of a single English system. SnowFire (talk) 08:13, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
- With my original creator hat on, I never claimed that this graph showed any specific variant of English measurement systems. Its main purpose is to show the genesis of relationships with seemingly random numbers. I know it’s been used frequently to ridicule English units as a whole and that’s okay because as a “system” it would be ridiculous indeed. — Christoph Päper 13:46, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
- Well, it's entitled "English Length Units", so is there any evidence that the more obscure units were actually part of the English system at some point? I mean, units from en:Chinese units of measurement aren't included, so some of these seem questionable includes for similar reasons - en:Ramsden surveying instruments seems to indicate Ramsden's chain was explicitly not blessed by the government, for example. To be clear, I don't think it's a huge problem if they're included anyway, I just think that the chart should maybe be retitled & recaptioned - "Non-metric units of Western Europe" or the like. SnowFire (talk) 00:03, 3 December 2021 (UTC)
- There is no English system of length units and there never was. There just is a hodgepodge of length units (or measures) with (mostly) integer, but random conversion factors between them. Some of them have always been or have recently been restricted to specific applications. This chart collects just that and I think it is appropriately named, e.g. it doesn't cover ancient Anglo-Saxon relationships that fell out of use before English itself came to be. In particular, these units are not "Western European", because although similar and related units had been in use in continental Europe the overall set differed a lot and the relationships between them did, too. — Christoph Päper 12:41, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- Well, it's entitled "English Length Units", so is there any evidence that the more obscure units were actually part of the English system at some point? I mean, units from en:Chinese units of measurement aren't included, so some of these seem questionable includes for similar reasons - en:Ramsden surveying instruments seems to indicate Ramsden's chain was explicitly not blessed by the government, for example. To be clear, I don't think it's a huge problem if they're included anyway, I just think that the chart should maybe be retitled & recaptioned - "Non-metric units of Western Europe" or the like. SnowFire (talk) 00:03, 3 December 2021 (UTC)
