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The Bellinghman
 
The Bellinghman
Date: 2007-02-16 14:03
Subject: Inappropriate use of conversion
Security: Public
From this article
The departure terminal was evacuated and a 656ft (200m) cordon put in place as a precautionary measure.
Err, did the police really measure the distance out to the nearest foot? I think not.

Better in such a case to list it as 200 yards (200m).

EDIT: oldbloke suggests "about a furlong", which has the double advantages of implying less actual accuracy, and of being little more than 0.5% different from the metric distance.
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oldbloke
User: oldbloke
Date: 2007-02-16 14:10 (UTC)
Subject: (no subject)
"About a furlong"
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The Bellinghman
User: bellinghman
Date: 2007-02-16 14:23 (UTC)
Subject: (no subject)
You know, that's just so right! Anyone who has no idea how far a metre is will either know how far a furlong is, or will have no hope anyway.
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Plastic Bertrand Russell
User: burkesworks
Date: 2007-02-16 23:17 (UTC)
Subject: (no subject)
Bang on. I'm still lost with most metric measurements, but I know all about furlongs, and chains, acres, pecks, bushels, firkins, and the ever-popular rods, poles or perches for that matter. We must have been amongst the last to have been taught in Imperial.

Regarding furlongs, oldbloke will doubtless tell you it's because I have watched too much HORSE racing in my time.
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kendall
User: fubar
Date: 2007-02-16 16:17 (UTC)
Subject: (no subject)
There was a discussion on the local motorbike list that devolved into weird measurements. The one that caught my eye was the comment about a persons car getting X furlongs to the hogshead.
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The Bellinghman
User: bellinghman
Date: 2007-02-16 16:26 (UTC)
Subject: (no subject)
the speed of light may be expressed as being roughly 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight
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