Definition of a buttload

[Eddietester1066]

Jake55778 asked this morning what a buttload was. Therefore, I present the following for your edification and entertainment: (Lifted from a mailing list I'm on)

> What is the conversion factor to calculate Metric Buttload from the
> Imperial Buttload quantity?

0.782

Where it gets tricky is that an Imperial Buttload is made up of 3 Shedloads (that's the polite term, you can probably guess the other), and each shedload is made up of 9 fairbits. Of course, the US and the UK differ in that the US fairbit consists of 16 quitealots, where the UK fairbit has 14 quitealots. So it can be extremely tricky to do a straight conversion from 3b 2s 3f 8q (that's three buttloads, two shedloads, 3 fairbits and 8 quitealots, of course) into metric without first knowing if we're talking UK or US imperial measurements.

Calculation of smaller quantities, where a mixture of 1/4, 1/8, 1/17,
1/38 and 1/58.9978 of a quitealot are involved, usually involves live animal sacrifice and/or 3 widdershins laps around a church to make the sum come out the same way twice.

Metric makes life easier in that its sub-units are decimals, such as:
one galoot workshop/shed = 1 metric butte-load one normal person's shed = 0.1 metric butte-load one galoot tool chest = 0.01 metric butte-load (also known as 1
centibutte-load)
...and so on, until we reach
one brass screw with chewed-up slot = 1 picobutte-load

I understand that the original brass screw used to calibrate the picobutte-load is stored in a glass cabinet in France.

I hope this helps to clear up some of the confusion.

[Jake55778]

I'm still confused. Is a buttload of diamond blocks expensive or not?

[Aenir_bEPU]

I had thought up something humorous when aro was asking for a buttload of diamond blocks, but this is priceless.