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View Poll Results: What does the term dozen indicate?
It is a unit of quantity that contains 12 items 27 90.00%
It is number 12 3 10.00%
Voters: 30. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-10-2015, 13:16   #16
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by leftbrainstuff View Post

A little mental gymnastics is involved in using the imperial system.
This is the off-topic forum, right; so I can take advantage of this to tell one of my favourite stories about measurement units? What do you mean, not everyone has stories about measurement units? Bloody engineers!

A couple of lifetimes ago I was developing software for a pipeline control system. We knew the length of the pipeline in miles, its diameter in feet ... and then had to calculate its volume in barrels.


Long live the metric system.
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Old 11-10-2015, 13:20   #17
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

Oh, and in answer to the OPs question, I think it's both.

Unlike a certain coin we have which in my country is commonly called "ten cents" but in another large country just south of us is know as "one dime".
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Old 11-10-2015, 15:09   #18
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by sailorchic34 View Post
From Wikipedia:

A dozen (commonly abbreviated doz or dz) is a grouping of twelve. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon or months in a cycle of the sun or year.
...
Yet another long quote from the internet which is apparently intended to demonstrate erudition but which doesn't actaully answer the question asked. What was the point you were trying to make in regards to Wottie's question with this copy/paste.
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Old 11-10-2015, 15:28   #19
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

You guys left off 0C hexidecimal, 014 Octal, and 00001100 in binary. All of which are 12. A dozen...

When I first got into computers, I read all the available books on 8080 assembler language and derailed my train of thought when I got to all the various representations, octal, binary, hex, etc.

For some reason, I thought it was like a different language, rather than simply a representation for the same thing. Once I understood that part, I was off like a rocket.
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Old 11-10-2015, 16:49   #20
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by sailorchic34 View Post
Unless your a egg farmer, who sells 50,000 cartons of eggs a day (in the USA). Or a tailor who needs a dozen yards of material.

Strange that textiles, at least in the us is still sold in yards, Not feet or meters.
Like Factor said. "...in the civilised world..."
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Old 12-10-2015, 01:55   #21
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull View Post
Oh, and in answer to the OPs question, I think it's both.

Unlike a certain coin we have which in my country is commonly called "ten cents" but in another large country just south of us is know as "one dime".
which actually comes from Dutch who "coined" (ugh! what a bad pun) the term and it was extensively used back when New York was known as New Amsterdam. The verbage stuck and was adopted by the english speaking settlers.
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Old 12-10-2015, 02:37   #22
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by Hudson Force View Post
If not for the dozen how would you derive the gross?
Gross is not derived, it is a unit of quantity in its own right. It has the numeric valve as 12 dozen (but not dozen dozen ) and 144.

What is true about dozen is equally true about gross!
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Old 12-10-2015, 02:45   #23
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Wotname - actually if you are out picking apples, you'd not pick apples by the dozen but rather by the bushel (unit of measure) or if your orchard is not producing, perhaps you'd pick a peck (half a bushel)......:
Perhaps up over but not down under!

I have a variety of clients, the big boys buy by the kg (hundreds of kg), the local retailers by the carton, the roadside stall by the bag and the local street market by the dozen.

I pay the pickers by the sack.

Not a bushel or peck among any of them



EDIT: I don't have an orchard
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Old 12-10-2015, 02:58   #24
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by jongleur View Post
Conversely one can say a "dozen dozens," yet
one would never say a "pound pounds."
Well no, one can't say dozen dozens for the very same reason as one would never say pound pound or mile mile etc.

If one does actually say dozen dozens, then one is demonstating a complete lack of understanding of the meaning and use of dozen
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Old 12-10-2015, 03:05   #25
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by Wotname View Post
I pay the pickers by the sack.

Not a bushel or peck among any of them
Is that the "3 bushel" sack or the archaic "26 stone" sack?

Or a 28 stone wool sack or an 8 stone coal sack
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Old 12-10-2015, 03:10   #26
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by Wotname View Post
Well no, one can't say dozen dozens for the very same reason as one would never say pound pound or mile mile etc.

If one does actually say dozen dozens, then one is demonstating a complete lack of understanding of the meaning and use of dozen
Not according to good ol' Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_%28unit%29
"...A gross refers to a group of 144 items (a dozen dozen or a square dozen...)"

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Old 12-10-2015, 03:18   #27
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by StuM View Post
Oh, and one other thought. No storeman worth his salt would put dozen into the "units" quantity of an inventory system. You need to be able to multiply quantity by units to determine stock on hand. I write a lot of software for a living including inventory systems and I ensure that the "units" quantity doesn't accept text, only numbers for exactly this reason.
You sir are part of the problem


Seriously though, this might highlight part of the demise of using dozen purely as a singular quantity. The prevalence of computers using numbers as the only way to see the world.

We will have to disagree on what constitutes a saltly storeman. In my universe, a good storeman is working with packets, bags, buckets, pails, reels, drums, pounds, feet, yards, dozens. He / she will be stocking small nails by the pound, medium size nails by packet or box, big nails by the dozen and humongous nails each.

I understand that your storeman will just use the numbers in the software but IMO, such a storeman is fundamentally less interesting or useful to society than my storeman.

YMMV...
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Old 12-10-2015, 03:22   #28
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by StuM View Post
Not according to good ol' Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_%28unit%29
"...A gross refers to a group of 144 items (a dozen dozen or a square dozen...)"

Then wiki is demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the meaning and use of dozen.

Not the first or only website to do so I suggest.
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Old 12-10-2015, 03:24   #29
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

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Originally Posted by StuM View Post
Is that the "3 bushel" sack or the archaic "26 stone" sack?

Or a 28 stone wool sack or an 8 stone coal sack
Apple sack as provided to the picker by the orchardist, they have a nice little over the shoulder strap although some use it off the shoulder
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Old 12-10-2015, 03:30   #30
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Re: Can You Fathom the Dozen?

Learned the hard hard way by a friend : NEVER argue with a bartender when he tells you, you have had "enough". The number, quantity, volume, measurement, are all unimportant when backed up by a fist.
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