The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153404   Message #3592720
Posted By: JohnInKansas
16-Jan-14 - 01:43 PM
Thread Name: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
YOU go back to calculating furlongs per fortnight!

At the lab where I worked while in college torques were frequently quoted (informally, of course) in units of "flea-fart angstroms." Extended debate eventually standardized the flea-fart angstom as approximately .001 dyne-cm, with the agreement that one must use a carefully calibrated standard flea to be more accurate than that. We agreed we were unlikely to find a flea that would "stay calibrated" due to the presence of too many shaggy-haired professors and grubby lab assistants likely to feed them erratically.

John