Reborn in America, I am a legendary short seller on Wall Street.

Chapter 24 Conversion Table

When Larry came out of the shopping street, he was carrying a gift for Tom—a serving of eggnog and an oat pudding.

This cost Larry 75 cents in total.

After thinking for a moment, Larry strolled over to the Cherry Valley Pharmacy, intending to buy himself and Tom a bottle of Coke.

Larry didn't actually feel like he owed Tom anything, or that he had to buy him this or that. Larry discovered that what he really enjoyed was the feeling of spending money, especially the feeling of suddenly realizing after a long period of spending that he hadn't actually spent much money in his pocket.

Larry thought to himself, "This isn't me pursuing luxury and pleasure, violating the traditional customs of the New England Puritans."

Rather, it's about cultivating the ability to manage money.

Mr. Porter once said that my most important task now is to save or spend half of my profits in dollars.

Larry had prepared an excuse for himself and pushed open the door of the Cherry Valley Pharmacy.

Next to the counter, an elderly man with a very handsome beard was swirling ice cubes and Coca-Cola in a glass, sitting in a seat with his eyes closed, resting.

This is the manager of the Brattel bookstore next door.

Larry approached, smiling and saying softly, "It's a pleasure to meet you here, Mr. Manager."

The old shopkeeper suddenly opened his eyes and saw that the big boy in front of him was the one who liked economics books, so he smiled.

"Kid, would you like to come here for a Coca-Cola? Oh, I'm so glad we share a common interest."

Larry nodded, glancing at the ice cubes in the old manager's glass. "Sir, it's so cold. Are you still adding ice to your Coke?"

The old shopkeeper nodded slowly, picked up his cup, took a sip, and sighed.
"Ice can give Coca-Cola a unique flavor, even when it's already cold. But if you're in a warm house, snuggled up to the fireplace, enjoying the rare warmth of winter, and then have an ice-cold Coke, the feeling is intense, but the pleasure keeps building."

Larry thought of how, in his past life, people in Northeast China ate popsicles in the sweltering heat of heated rooms in winter, and how they would turn the air conditioning up to full blast and sleep under thick quilts in the hottest summer. He nodded in agreement with the old shopkeeper's theory of "repeated enhancement of pleasure".

At this moment, the pharmacist had already filled a large bottle of Coke that Larry needed into a large glass jar, sealed it with a cork, and handed it to him.

"Sir, that's 15 cents in total. If you return the bottle, your 5-cent deposit will be refunded."

Larry placed the 15-cent coin on the table and casually picked up his large Coke bottle.

At this moment, the old shop manager also finished his cola in one gulp, stood up, straightened his clothes, and prepared to return to the bookstore next door.

Larry suddenly had an idea and turned to the old shopkeeper, asking, "Sir, does the bookstore have any books about the conversion between metric and imperial units? My father is planning to buy some land, but I'm curious about how much such land would be converted to in metric units?"

Recently, the issue of weights and measures has become a very important problem for Larry.

Larry's father wanted to buy land, but Larry himself had no concept of an acre; Larry's father was obsessed with the land in Holliston, which could produce 120 bushels of barley per acre, but Larry was completely baffled and had no idea how many pounds a bushel of barley actually weighed.

Also, the pistol Mr. K sold him was 10.35 mm caliber, but at that time, pistols in the United States were measured in inches. For example, Colt pistols preferred to use .0.38 inch caliber.

Larry felt very uncomfortable with the confusion surrounding the system of weights and measures. Since he had run into the old shopkeeper today, he thought he might as well ask him for advice.

The old shopkeeper stroked his beard, once again surprised by the blond boy's question. He smiled and said, "Alright, kid. Come with me to the bookstore, and I'll give you a conversion chart."

Larry followed the old manager back to Bratt's Bookstore. Instead of returning to the counter, the old manager began searching through the first row of bookshelves.

A short while later, he found a small booklet and a sheet of A8 cardboard with conversion formulas for imperial and metric units. "Here, kid, take this. This is the conversion table you wanted. Heh, I'm really curious what you need this for? Will it help you make money?"

Larry smiled and took the conversion table and booklet the old shopkeeper had found. Instead of answering his question directly, he asked, "How much?"

"25 cents. This kind of tool and information belongs to the professional field. It won't be very expensive."

Larry handed the 25-cent coin to the old shopkeeper and then buried his head in his books.

The conversion table is concise and accurate, recording the conversion formulas for the metric system, which is gradually being adopted in European countries, and the imperial system used in the United States.

One acre is approximately 0.405 hectares, which is 4046.86 square meters.

Larry was unsure how land was converted during the Qing Dynasty in China, but after the Republic of China was established, China's traditional system of measurement was linked to the metric system, with one hectare equal to 15 mu. Therefore, it can be calculated that one acre of land was approximately 6 mu.

The bushel is a very strange unit. Larry discovered that it is actually a unit of both volume and weight.

Furthermore, the weight per bushel is different for corn, wheat, and barley.

According to the general practice in the East Coast states of the United States, one bushel of corn weighs approximately 56 pounds (25.4 kilograms), and one bushel of wheat weighs approximately 60 pounds (27.2 kilograms).

One bushel of barley weighs approximately 48 pounds (21.8 kilograms).

There's also the caliber of firearms; in the United States, the unit for firearm caliber is the inch.

So a .22 caliber is 0.22 inches, which is 5.56 millimeters in metric units;

A .30 caliber is 0.3 inches, which is equivalent to 7.62 millimeters.

However, the .0.38 caliber in firearms is actually 0.357 inches, which is a little over 9 millimeters.
A .50 inch is roughly equivalent to a 12.7 mm caliber.

After Larry looked at the conversion table and mentally converted the units of measurement that Chinese people were accustomed to in his previous life, he suddenly felt dizzy.

For the first time, Larry felt the same sense of what he had known in his previous life as "Shit Mountain Code" from the imperial system of weights and measures.

But Larry insisted on mentally converting all the units, otherwise he felt he had no sense of the imperial numbers.

Fortunately, Larry is very quick-witted and has an excellent memory. He memorized most of the complex formulas in no time.

After looking at the conversion table, Larry flipped through the booklet again.

The booklet was written by an American organization that aims to promote the international metric system. Its main purpose was to explain the origin of the metric system and how the imperial system is unreasonable, and to call on the US Congress to approve the subsequent full adoption of the international metric system by the United States.

However, this wasn't the kind of knowledge Larry was in a hurry to acquire, so he casually flipped through a few pages, then tucked the booklet and conversion table under his arm, raised his hat, and bid farewell to the old shopkeeper.

Back at Paine Weber Securities, Larry gave Tom the gift and took a cup, and the two shared a Coca-Cola.

Tom took a sip of his cola, a smile spreading across his face. He lifted the glass to examine the tiny bubbles rising within.
After a while, Tom said, "Hey Larry, this thing is awesome. Do you have stock in this manufacturer? I'd like to buy some and save it."

Larry scoffed. "No, right now Wall Street is trading stocks in manufacturing, railroads, and resource-based factories. It might take them a long time to realize that beverage companies also have investment value."

(End of this chapter)