On Mon, 3 Apr 2017 15:42:12 -0400, rickman  declaimed the
following:


>That must be why we divide cups 8 ways and gallons 128 ways... oh, wait!
>  They are only divisible by powers of 2.  Heck, bakers are very
>generous giving 13 items when only 12 are required.  But try dividing 13
>between any group that's not 1 or 13.

 The Baker's Dozen came about as a safety measure. Royalty ruled that a
dozen loaves of bread must weigh some number of pounds (1 lb per loaf, as I
recall). To avoid getting hanged for short-changing the weight, bakers
would throw in an extra loaf.
--
 Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
    wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05