rdearman wrote:I never suggested counting words. I simply pointed out the actual word count of real books, in order to illustrate the fact that what the SC definition of a book doesn't match the standard size of mass market paperback books.
I'm a bit confused why this is an issue (not directed to you, rdearman), just genuinely confused.
I go through life converting (automatically, in my head) from miles to kilometres (distances, speedo in mph but driving in/talking to people from a kph country), feet to metres, litres to pints and gallons, Gb to Kb, book pages to words (1000 words to 4 pages in a novel, different for bibles and children's storybooks).
It only has to be approximate. Pages just seems so random, a kids book (for 5 year olds in English schools) has 10-50 pages with one to 10 sentences per page depending on levels. Some kids will be on earlier levels (Red/Yellow), others on Orange even sitting at the same school table.
I can see that with some languages - pages make the most sense (long/variable word lengths), but even that must fall down with chinese (a huge number of words on a page)? Therefore there is a practical and cultural usage that is preferred for a language or within a culture/country, quite rightly.
I don't mean to annoy - I'm just a little surprised. I just think that for a particular language, you establish a unit and just convert as you need to. Surely it just takes seconds even with a calculator, spreadsheet or google
http://bfy.tw/HkQk (intention is to amuse, not annoy! Safe for work.)
I don't know what a hundredweight is though, despite my Dad's efforts at telling me, I had to google it - 8 Stones - 14 pounds to the stone of course.
As for half-crowns, tanner etc... I'm too young, but my parents generation used these post decimalisation. My Dad would convert gallons to pounds (for different liquids) and probably other units that have fallen out of use (bushel, pecks).
On a language front, I wonder how measurement systems influence language and culture. The UK uses both metric and imperial, varying by age, job etc and interchangeably - a piece of 2 inch by 2 inch wood would be requested by "two be [by] two, 2.4 metres long". France (I have been told) uses livre (pound) for half a kilo. I think that these will disappear in most cultures soon, which will be less confusing but some richness will disappear and older books will need a weights and measures key.
Edit: typo / wood size clarity