Talk:Barleycorn (unit)

United Kingdom and Great Britain

I believe this article needs clarification in regards to it's use of the sovereign state of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The article implies that Barleycorns are the current measurement for shoe size in GB and Ireland, while later stating that the UK differs from the US and Canada. While geographically it is correct, politically, since the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK, it implies that Ireland uses a different system. To avoid confusion I would suggest a re-write along the lines of "This archaic measure is the basis for modern day shoe sizes in The United Kingdom and & The Republic of Ireland, with each (whole-numbered) shoe size differing from the next by the length of one barleycorn. This is unlike the United States & Canada who use inches for shoe size measurement."

Dwatts grant (talk) 03:30, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

Conversions

¿See Template talk:Convert#shoe size. Peter Horn User talk 21:23, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

Edit to the Chart

Excellent chart, however I believe that the relationship between FINGER and INCH should be 8/7 (rather than 7/8 as shown). 90.255.119.29 (talk) 15:58, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

Well within the range of measurement uncertainty, as with all these anthropometric units it depends on whose finger. But see Noah Webster citation at Finger (unit): "nearly an inch". --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 16:46, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

No I think you have misunderstood my point; it is the mathematics within the chart which I am querying.

A "finger" is a recognised unit, as is a "hand" and a "foot". A finger is a set unit which is defined as seven-eights of an inch.

On the chart to which I was referring, the relationships are shown as the multiple of the smaller units which make up the larger unit (for example, 12 inches make up a foot). On this basis, the number of fingers making up an inch should be 8/7. 90.255.119.29 (talk) 11:25, 17 February 2023 (UTC)