35 points | by bookofjoe 3 days ago ago
26 comments
Also, Stonehenge was built (partially) from parts of other stone circles, from as far away as Wales: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56029203
and at least one stone came from Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207lqdn755o
25-tonne stones for 18km in case you wondered
Or 3928 stone stones
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)
Stones are the Fahrenheit of weight. Useful for the human body but fuck all else.
For anyone confused, British people would generally use tonnes (or tons, but maybe not know the difference exactly) and miles.
Or about 3 double-decker buses for the length of 171 footy pitches.
That's not dimensionally correct! Double-decker bus is a unit of length, and footy pitch is too prosaic to be an approved unit: https://www.theregister.com/bootnotes/2026/05/31/the-reg-onl...
It's not too prosaic, it's just too imprecise. There is no standard size, and some regulations even allow a range of sizes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch
It's a shame it's not about area then at least we could agree on Wales as a unit.
to clarify for those of a nautical bent - that's about half a blue whale for about 4/5ths of a dozen nautical miles
Strange they don't mention how many stones. Image shows two. There are three today and four, maybe five, originally.
Imperial is confusing at the best of times, but couldn't they have said 24.5 tons instead of 55,000 lbs?
Sir ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ton
> he long ton,[1] also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,[1][2] or British ton,[3] is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds
They could have said 3300 stones stones ...
That rocks.
That's the way they like it. American road signs have mad shit like "No trucks over 15,000 lbs".
Surely they don't actually like drill bits measured in fractions of an inch, do they?
Yes, in USA the bits are in fractions and stuff you purchase will have instructions like, drill 3/8 hole for a wall anchor, or 2+1/4 hole for a door-bolt set.
That's because we measure weight in tonnage.
In the EU and UK the weight of the vehicle is on the signs too [0], or the weight per axle [1].
[0] https://hgvlgvtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/weig...
[1] https://freesvg.org/img/B13a.png
The word for this structure is apparently a menhir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir. The article calls it the tallest in the UK but its Wikipedia page calls it the second-tallest. This is the actual tallest, interestingly also in Yorkshire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudston_Monolith.
This must be the origin of the saying, “People who start stone rows shouldn’t build glass houses”.
Lovely.
Must have been a contractor. The permies would wait for the procurement process to pick someone to move those stones for them. /s
Need 7 more paragraphes telling us that the stones, weren't in fact, chosen from the nearest location, but were chosen from a distant location.
Without ever telling *how" they were moved of course, that would give out too much
Also, Stonehenge was built (partially) from parts of other stone circles, from as far away as Wales: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56029203
and at least one stone came from Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207lqdn755o
25-tonne stones for 18km in case you wondered
Or 3928 stone stones
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)
Stones are the Fahrenheit of weight. Useful for the human body but fuck all else.
For anyone confused, British people would generally use tonnes (or tons, but maybe not know the difference exactly) and miles.
Or about 3 double-decker buses for the length of 171 footy pitches.
That's not dimensionally correct! Double-decker bus is a unit of length, and footy pitch is too prosaic to be an approved unit: https://www.theregister.com/bootnotes/2026/05/31/the-reg-onl...
It's not too prosaic, it's just too imprecise. There is no standard size, and some regulations even allow a range of sizes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch
It's a shame it's not about area then at least we could agree on Wales as a unit.
to clarify for those of a nautical bent - that's about half a blue whale for about 4/5ths of a dozen nautical miles
Strange they don't mention how many stones. Image shows two. There are three today and four, maybe five, originally.
Imperial is confusing at the best of times, but couldn't they have said 24.5 tons instead of 55,000 lbs?
Sir ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ton
> he long ton,[1] also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,[1][2] or British ton,[3] is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds
They could have said 3300 stones stones ...
That rocks.
That's the way they like it. American road signs have mad shit like "No trucks over 15,000 lbs".
Surely they don't actually like drill bits measured in fractions of an inch, do they?
Yes, in USA the bits are in fractions and stuff you purchase will have instructions like, drill 3/8 hole for a wall anchor, or 2+1/4 hole for a door-bolt set.
That's because we measure weight in tonnage.
In the EU and UK the weight of the vehicle is on the signs too [0], or the weight per axle [1].
[0] https://hgvlgvtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/weig...
[1] https://freesvg.org/img/B13a.png
The word for this structure is apparently a menhir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir. The article calls it the tallest in the UK but its Wikipedia page calls it the second-tallest. This is the actual tallest, interestingly also in Yorkshire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudston_Monolith.
This must be the origin of the saying, “People who start stone rows shouldn’t build glass houses”.
Lovely.
Must have been a contractor. The permies would wait for the procurement process to pick someone to move those stones for them. /s
Need 7 more paragraphes telling us that the stones, weren't in fact, chosen from the nearest location, but were chosen from a distant location.
Without ever telling *how" they were moved of course, that would give out too much