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Weights and Measures
ARMY ARITHMETIC IS BASED ON A
DUODECIMAL SYSTEM,
I.E., BASE 12.
ALL ARMY WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
ARE BASE 12.
CONVENTIONAL UNITS ARE IN BASE 10.
TIME
- ARMY UNITS
- CONVENTIONAL UNITS
- Day
- Day
- Hour
- 120 minutes
- Dozminute
- 10 minutes
- Minute
- 50 seconds
- Twelminute
- 4.167 seconds
- Dozsecond
- 0.347 seconds
- Second
- 0.0289 seconds
- Twelsecond
- 2.41 milliseconds
- Notes
- Local time starts at day break, zero being when the sun is a half circle on the horizon.
Navigation time is set with the third hour Minute 50 seconds happening at high noon at Three Walls.
If the clock below were set to navigational time, the time would be 6:23:33 a.m.
Army Clock
THE TIME IS: 0248
* * *
Weights and Measures
DISTANCE
- ARMY UNIT
- ENGLISH EQUIV METRIC EQUIV.
- Mile
- Mile 1.61 kilometers
- Twelmile
- 440 ft. 134.0 meters
- Dozyard
- 36.7 ft. 11.2 meters
- Yard
- 36.7 in. 931 meter
- Twelyard
- 3.06 in. 7.76 cm.
- Dozmil
- 0.255 in. 6.47 mm.
- Mil
- 0.0212 in. .539 mm.
- Notes
- Purely by accident, 1728 army yards is almost exactly equal to the English (or ancient Roman) mile.
When larger or meters smaller units than those listed were required, a series of prefixes was used identical to those of the metric system, except that kilo- meant 1728 rather than 1000, etc.
Weights and Measures
AREA
- ARMY UNIT
- ENGLISH EQUIV METRIC EQUIV.
- Sq. Mile
- Sq. mile 2.59 sq. km.
- Sq. Twelmile
- 4.44 acres 1.80 hectares
- Sq. Dozyard
- 1344 sq. ft. 124.9 sq. meters
- Sq. Yard
- 9.34 sq. ft. .867 sq. meters
- Sq. Twelyard
- 9.34 sq. in. 60.2 sq. cm.
- Sq. Dozmil
- .065 sq. in. .418 sq. cm.
- Sq. Mil
- .0005 sq. in. .290 sq.mm.
- Notes
- Rarely used.
Weights and Measures
WEIGHTS
- ARMY UNIT
- ENGLISH EQUIV METRIC EQUIV.
- Ton
- 1780.9 pounds 807.8 kilograms
- Twelton
- 148.4 pounds 67.3 kilograms
- Dozpound
- 12.37 pounds 5.61 kilograms
- Pound
- 1.031 pounds 0.467 kilograms
- Twelpound
- 1.37 ounces 38.96 grams
- Dozcarat
- 0.115 ounces 3.25 grams
- Carat
- 0.0095 ounces 0.2705 grams
- Notes
- The "ton" is a cubic yard of cold (4°C.) water. It should be noted that these "weights" are units of mass (as in the metric system) and not units of force (as in the English system). It should also be noted that everyone except scientists and engineers uses units of force and mass interchangeably, and that even the above two groups confuse them more often than not.
Weights and Measures
VOLUMES
- ARMY UNIT
- ENGLISH EQUIV METRIC EQUIV.
- Volton
- 1.057 cu. yd. .808 cu. meters
- Twelvolton
- 17.78 gallons 67.32 liters
- Dozpint
- 1.48 gallons 5.61 liters
- Pint
- 0.988 pint .467 liters
- Twelpint
- 1.317 fl. Oz. 38.96 cu. cm.
- Dozdram
- 0.1098 fl. oz. 3.25 cu. cm.
- Dram
- 0.0091 fl. oz. .271 cu. cm.
Weights and Measures
ANGULAR MEASUREMENT
- ARMY UNIT
- CONVENTIONAL UNIT
- Angday
- 360°
- Anghour
- 30°
- Angdozmin
- 2.5°
- Angmin
- 12.5 min.
- Angtwelmin
- 1.04 min.
- Notes
- Angular measurements are based on the army-clock shown on the "time" chart. Angles are read clockwise from the horizontal as opposed to the conventional counterclockwise. In practice, the names of angular units are rarely used. An army engineer would read an angle of 45 degrees as "ang one six oh oh."
NAVIGATION
Army navigators state their longitude in accordance with the time of day (Three Walls time) that the sun is at high noon. The longitude of Three Walls is therefore 3000.
Latitude is also based on the army clock. The latitude of the equator is 6000. The south pole is at 3000; the north pole at 9000. The left side of the clock is not used.
South, of course, is at the top of an army map.
Weights and Measures
TEMPERATURE
The army thermometer was an absolute scale, like the modern kelvin and rankine scales. Zero was at absolute zero, 459.67 degrees below zero fahrenheit. The melting point of water was set at 1000 (base 12, or 1728 base 10). Thus, the degree used was about a quarter of the size of the fahrenheit degree and a sixth that of the celsius degree. In practice, though, most people ignored the thousand numbers it took to get to the freezing point of water and would call a pleasant room temperature "eleventy one degrees."
Listed below are some commonly encountered temperatures for comparison.
- ARMY
- FAHRENHEIT CELSIUS NOTES
- 6753°
- 2795° 1535° Melting point of iron
- 196ذ
- 425° 218° Baking point of pizza
- 1449°
- 212° 100° Boiling point of water
- 10Ø1°
- 70° 21° Pleasant room temperature
- 1000°
- 32° 0° Freezing point of water
- 24Δ°
- -361° -218° Boiling point of oxygen
- 0°
- -459.67° -273.15° Absolute zero
N.B. In the duodecimal numbers listed, Δ is used for ten and Ø is used for eleven.
Weights and Measures
ELECTRICAL UNITS
- ARMY UNIT
- CONVENTIONAL UNIT
- Woman- power
- 147.9 watts or .198 hp
Defined as that power required to raise one pound one yard in one second, all in army units, of course. Used in rating motors, etc.
- Watt
- 0.0856 watts
That power required to raise one carat one yard in one second. Used in electrical work.
- Coulomb
- 0.0854 coulomb
Defined as twelve to the fifteenth power electrons. Also as that amount of electricity required to plate out .000353 carats of silver. This unit is almost never used except to define other units.
- Ampere
- 0.08541 amps
Defined as an electrical flow of one coulomb for one second.
- Volt
- 1.0022 volts
That electrical pressure required to push one ampere through one ohm, generating one watt of power.
- Ohm
- 11.734 ohms
See above.
- Farad
- 0.002463 farads
That capacitance that will hold one coulomb at one volt.
Much of Conrad's training and experience had been in electronics, and like many electronics engineers, he felt that while the units he used produced a rational system, the values had been determined by committee long before anyone had any practical experience with electronics. The farad, a unit of capacitance, for example, was absurdly large. Commercial capacitors of a hundredth of that value were rarely made. The ohm was entirely too small and the watt too large.
Of course, had his experience been in power generation or electrochemical works, his opinions would have been different. And, as luck would have it, these were the technologies he had to develop first. It was precisely where he knew the most that he failed the worst.
THE END