[good stuff snipped]
I make the analogy
>that you wouldn't use a yardstick to figure out something's weight.
the hard weigh -
1) Bore a hole in the middle of the yardstick--at the
foot-and-a-half-mark. Then run a piece of twine through the hole. Get two
baskets and a pile of rocks. Hang the baskets loosely on the yardstick
and adjust them along its length until the yardstick balances. Now put the
object you want to weigh in one basket and the rocks in the other. Add or
remove rocks until the yardstick balances again. There: you have the
weight of the object in rock-units.
the easy weigh -
2) Take the yardstick and the object you want to weigh to the butcher's.
Say to the butcher, "I have here a very nice yardstick. I will give you
this yardstick if you will weigh this object on your scale." (adapted from
one of William E. Coles' texts.
morgan
M C Morgan,
Ass't Prof English
Director of Writing Resource Center
Bemidji State University
Bemidji MN 56601
218.755.2814
mcmorg@vax1.bemidji.msus.edu
http://cal.bemidji.msus.edu/English/Morgan/Morgan.html