Monday, March 20, 2006
Online Conversion - Convert just about anything to anything else
If you are struggling with the conversions, give this site a look. Check out the fun conversions. It's comforting to know that I'd weigh under 30 kilos on Mars.
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If you are struggling with the conversions, give this site a look. Check out the fun conversions. It's comforting to know that I'd weigh under 30 kilos on Mars.
All credit to those of you willing to have a go at last week's maths problem. Some plausible answers but I'm going to go with my father-in-law on this one. His answer below.
Total weight of coal 7 x 56 lb = 392 lbs
No of cwt 392 divided by 112 = 3.5 cwt
Cost of coal 13/10 1/2 x 3.5 = £2.08s 06 3/4d (pounds shillings and
pence)
Balance of money £5.00 - £2.08.6 3/4d = £2.11.05 1/4d
Cost of shoes (guinea) = £1.01.00d
Pocket money (half crown) = 2s.06p (shillings and pence)
How much did she have left? = £1.07.11 1/4d ("one pound seven shillings and elevenpence farthing")
(£2.11.05 1/4d - £1.01.00d - 0.02.06d (all pounds shillings and pence)
Current weight 77.4 kg
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Total weight of coal 7 x 56 lb = 392 lbs
No of cwt 392 divided by 112 = 3.5 cwt
Cost of coal 13/10 1/2 x 3.5 = £2.08s 06 3/4d (pounds shillings and
pence)
Balance of money £5.00 - £2.08.6 3/4d = £2.11.05 1/4d
Cost of shoes (guinea) = £1.01.00d
Pocket money (half crown) = 2s.06p (shillings and pence)
How much did she have left? = £1.07.11 1/4d ("one pound seven shillings and elevenpence farthing")
(£2.11.05 1/4d - £1.01.00d - 0.02.06d (all pounds shillings and pence)
Current weight 77.4 kg
With all this talk of the 'good old days' perhaps it's appropriate to mention a maths problem discussed in a newsletter I received recently. You probably need to be over 40 and educated in UK or its former colonies in order to even understand the question but do have a go. I'm sure I could have solved this without difficulty at the age of eight as my maths books were full of similar problems.
Typical problem:
"The coalman delivered seven sacks of coal at thirteen shillings and tenpence ha'penny a hundredweight. Your Mum gave him a five-pound note, then bought a pair of shoes for one guinea and gave you half a crown pocket money with the change. How much did she have left?"
Hint: coal sacks weighed 56 lbs (Avoirdupois--another non-decimal system)
Send me your answers and I'll post them next week.
Current weight:12 stone 2lb (Blimey, that's a worry. Last time I weighed myself in stones and pounds I was 8 stone 9 lb!)
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Typical problem:
"The coalman delivered seven sacks of coal at thirteen shillings and tenpence ha'penny a hundredweight. Your Mum gave him a five-pound note, then bought a pair of shoes for one guinea and gave you half a crown pocket money with the change. How much did she have left?"
Hint: coal sacks weighed 56 lbs (Avoirdupois--another non-decimal system)
Send me your answers and I'll post them next week.
Current weight:12 stone 2lb (Blimey, that's a worry. Last time I weighed myself in stones and pounds I was 8 stone 9 lb!)
Friday, March 17, 2006
Another hot day but I was unable to idle away my time at the air conditioned cinema due to a dental appointment. Needle, drill and a huge bill. Not my first choice for an afternoon's entertainment. Worse still my dentist is a country music fan and has the most atrocious songs playing to drown out the screams.
We talked tech whilst waiting for my jaw to go numb. It transpires that he was living in Silicone Valley in 1978 and due to developing a correspondence with a guy in Switzerland, ended up as a beta tester in the first days of the world wide web. It took five hours to send an email in those days, he told me. Ah yes, I replied, the first computer I ever saw had no disk drive and you loaded programs via an audio cassette. By the time we had got round to reminiscing about DOS the young assistant's eyes had glazed over harder than the amalgam.
I asked my class of 20 year old Japanese and Koreans recently if they remembered life before email. None of them did. 'But my mother told me about it.' one of them volunteered. Feeling old yet?
Current weight: 77 kg
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We talked tech whilst waiting for my jaw to go numb. It transpires that he was living in Silicone Valley in 1978 and due to developing a correspondence with a guy in Switzerland, ended up as a beta tester in the first days of the world wide web. It took five hours to send an email in those days, he told me. Ah yes, I replied, the first computer I ever saw had no disk drive and you loaded programs via an audio cassette. By the time we had got round to reminiscing about DOS the young assistant's eyes had glazed over harder than the amalgam.
I asked my class of 20 year old Japanese and Koreans recently if they remembered life before email. None of them did. 'But my mother told me about it.' one of them volunteered. Feeling old yet?
Current weight: 77 kg
Sunday, March 05, 2006
The continued heat has driven me back to the cinema. This time to see "Walk the Line" Not an obvious choice for someone who has no interest in Johnny Cash and detests country music but an enjoyable (and ultra cool) experience just the same.
We all know that chocolate contains a large number of psychotropic chemicals which start making you feel good as soon as the choc melts in your mouth but I only found out the other day about the b-endorphin (a natural opiate) your brain produces in anticipation of events you believe will be pleasurable. This means that just thinking about eating chocolate should have many of the same benefits as actually consuming it. It's a small jump from there to what I've said all along: I only have to consider eating a Mars bar to gain weight.
Current weight: 77 kg
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We all know that chocolate contains a large number of psychotropic chemicals which start making you feel good as soon as the choc melts in your mouth but I only found out the other day about the b-endorphin (a natural opiate) your brain produces in anticipation of events you believe will be pleasurable. This means that just thinking about eating chocolate should have many of the same benefits as actually consuming it. It's a small jump from there to what I've said all along: I only have to consider eating a Mars bar to gain weight.
Current weight: 77 kg
