Not content with basing the whole system on the size of arbitrary body parts such as thumbs, hands and feet, or on how much land your ox could plough in a day, instead of, say, a universal counting system (Mathematics), today I learned this about standard Imperial measurements for wood (lumber):
Standard lumber sizes such as a “two-by-four” are not actually two inches by four inches at all! A “two-by-four” measures one and a half inches by three and a half inches, a “one-by-four” measures three-quarters of an inch by three and a half inches, whilst “five-quarter” boards actually measure four-quarters of an inch, (or 1 for those of us who don’t shun mathematics).
Like I say, who needs logic when we’ve got the Imperial measurement system?
I’m off to measure my thumb again… boom boom.
