Ergs

I studied languages, and my "you must do one science O-Level" was biology. I remember only one physics lesson, when we had to know what we weighed, be timed running up three flights of steps, then calculate how many ergs we had expended. 

So this morning, after saying "I may not do many steps today but I'll use a hell of a lot of ergs", I went to remind myself what an erg actually is. Wouldn't you know it? They stopped using ergs in 1978 in favour of joules. There's a lot about how ergs are calculated, but best of all is, it's also the energy expended by a house fly doing one push up.

Anyway, what with digging out very stony soil to plant three trees, heaving large lumps of sandstone around to make path edges, riddling stones out of a soil heap, reviving  lost cooperage skills fixing some half-barrels, and barrowing another tonne of granite chippings over several hours, I burned a damn sight more calories than 30 minutes of aerobics.

OK, promise, no more sign blips for a bit.