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To: bezelbub

I’m sure that you know that your “question” was stupid and argumentative. Yes it was intended to be humor, moron.


169 posted on 04/23/2008 4:08:47 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary is not a winning strategy.)
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To: editor-surveyor; Nathan Zachary
I’m sure that you know that your “question” was stupid and argumentative. Yes it was intended to be humor, moron.

Humor, eh? Who would have known...
As for being argumentative: this is an internet forum, live with it...

But adding a few facts:

You wrote here: In 1959 a new unit was created, called the "international foot." That foot was the only one that uses an inch that is defined relative to the meter. The real foot, which is called the "U.S. Survey Foot" is still defined based on a physical standard unit that is stored at the NIST. That unit cannot be changed for serious legal reasons, and it is the only "foot" that can legally used for measurement. (Nobody really knows what the "international foot" is good for)

(Highlighting mine). Seems that the National Geodetic Survey doesn't care for your "serious legal reasons", as you'll find here:

Any date expressed in feet drived from and published as a result of geodetic surveys within the United States will continue to bear the following relationship as defined in 1893:
1 foot = 1200/3937 meter
The foot unit defined by this equation shall be referred as the U-S. Survey Foot and it shall continue to be used, for the purpose given herein, until such a time as it becomes desirable and expedient to readjust the basic geodetic survey networks in the United States, after which the ratio of a yard equal to 0.0944 meter, shall apply.
So, no, the U.S. Survey foot isn't "defined based on a physical standard unit that is stored at the NIST". It's defined by the SI meter. The difference: It's given as a rational fraction of the meter, the old-fashioned way, not as a decimal fraction...

By the way, the quoted directive is dating from 1959, too.

171 posted on 04/23/2008 9:06:05 PM PDT by bezelbub
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