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From: "Fernando Q. Gouvea" <fqgouvea@colby.edu> Subject: Re: (whorl) OBW: a minor mystery Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 09:07:54 **** On Sun, 23 Jul 2000 22:59:24 -0400, William Ansley <wansley@warwick.net> said: WA> Now all the units of measure used by Horn are based on the lengths of WA> parts of the body. A 'finger' is probably the width of a finger, WA> between 0.5 (1.27 cm) and 1 inch (2.54 cm). A cubit is the length from WA> the elbow to the tip of the longest outstretched fingertip (18 WA> inches). A traditional hand is the width of the palm of the hand (4 WA> inches). But perhaps Wolfe is thinking of the distance from the tip of WA> the thumb to the tip of the pinkie when the fingers are spread as far WA> as possible. This is traditionally known as a "span" and is WA> traditionally 9 inches (22.86 cm). Or perhaps Wolfe version of 'hand' WA> is measured from the base of the hand the the tip of the middle finger WA> (which might well come to between 7 and 8 inches). I had been assuming that a "hand" was what you call a "span", sort of unconsciously, I guess because the common measure in Brazil (called "um palmo") assumes the outstretched hand. The measurements do seem to make more sense if we take a hand to mean the outstretched hand, though the other option, from the heel of the hand to the tip of the fingers, would also seem to give reasonable values. WA> Another thing we need to know before we can reach any definite WA> conclusions is whether the units of measure Horn is using are standard WA> (like current English units such as the foot) or not. In the latter WA> case, each person would use his or her own foot to measure out a WA> length, to continue with the same example. I think we can be pretty certain that they are not standard, at least as used in everyday talk. Standardization would imply measuring devices, which I don't think we've seen at all. So we should take all these measurements as approximate. Fernando -- Fernando Q. Gouvea Department of Mathematics Editor, FOCUS and MAA Online Colby College http://www.maa.org Waterville, ME 04901 fqgouvea@colby.edu http://www.colby.edu/math ========================================================== Nihilism should commence with oneself. *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/ *To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com *If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com