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International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

npl.co.uk

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Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#211

Post by BigChiefSmokem »

beloch wrote: post #206
Waterluvian wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's fair to rib my American friends with the fact that Imperial is implemented using metric?

I like to commend my American friends for their undying loyalty to the memory of the Empire. U.S. customary units are derived from units that helped the British conquer the world, but even the British themselves have shamelessly abandoned them for the units of a filthy, monarch-less republic. It's good to see that Americans still subconsciously yearn for the firm ruling hand of their rightful Queen. Note: Americans h…

Our King wears no clothes. We desperately could use a Queen and some manners right about now.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#212

Post by combatentropy »

beloch wrote: post #206
Waterluvian wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's fair to rib my American friends with the fact that Imperial is implemented using metric?

I like to commend my American friends for their undying loyalty to the memory of the Empire. U.S. customary units are derived from units that helped the British conquer the world, but even the British themselves have shamelessly abandoned them for the units of a filthy, monarch-less republic. It's good to see that Americans still subconsciously yearn for the firm ruling hand of their rightful Queen. Note: Americans h…

It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

"He won't move an inch," or "He won't move a centimeter."

"She won't quit until she's six feet under," or "She won't quit until she's two meters under."

"I'll go the whole nine yards," or "I'll go the whole nine meters."

"You can see for miles and miles," or "You can see for kilometers and kilometers."

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#213

Post by dcuthbertson »

beloch wrote: post #206
Waterluvian wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's fair to rib my American friends with the fact that Imperial is implemented using metric?

I like to commend my American friends for their undying loyalty to the memory of the Empire. U.S. customary units are derived from units that helped the British conquer the world, but even the British themselves have shamelessly abandoned them for the units of a filthy, monarch-less republic. It's good to see that Americans still subconsciously yearn for the firm ruling hand of their rightful Queen. Note: Americans h…

That's some well metered ribbing. No worries. We can take it.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#214

Post by smolsky »

combatentropy wrote: post #212
beloch wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to commend my American friends for their undying loyalty to the memory of the Empire. U.S. customary units are derived from units that helped the British conquer the world, but even the British themselves have shamelessly abandoned them for the units of a filthy, monarch-less republic. It's good to see that Americans still subconsciously yearn for the firm ruling hand of their rightful Queen. Note: Americans h…

It just doesn't have the same ring to it. "He won't move an inch," or "He won't move a centimeter." "She won't quit until she's six feet under," or "She won't quit until she's two meters under." "I'll go the whole nine yards," or "I'll go the whole nine meters." "You can see for miles and miles," or "You can see for kilometers and kilometers."

Yes, that's true. Another argument my American coworker had put forth: "American rock-n-roll needed Imperial units... or the lyrics would not work".

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#215

Post by j1vms »

3pt14159 wrote: post #12

This is probably the dumbest thing I'll type on HN. In university I just gave up trying to understand why we even needed the Avogadro constant / mole as a fundamental constant. It still confuses me. Why have a difference between molar mass and mass? Why couldn't it just be "1" and everything else change around it?

> why we even needed the Avogadro constant / mole as a fundamental constant(...?)

It serves as a link between human-scale and atomic-scale observations, classically needed for chemistry performed on Earth by humans. This link must exist, as others mentioned, for stoichiometric calculations (e.g. air/gas mixture in a internal combustion engine). For much of modern scientific history, it was deemed useful to scale into an easily eye-visible human scale (the gram). [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant#General_role...

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#216

Post by DZittersteyn »

otikik wrote: post #205
ballenf wrote: post #35

Has a "metric" version of time ever been proposed? Seems odd to me that we're "ok" with divisions of 12 for time but not length. I guess for science seconds are basically the only measure of time that usually matters?

If we invent a system without timezones or daylight savings time I will adopt it in a heartbeat. I don't even care if it's not 10-based.

just set the timezone of your devices to UTC, and you're done! Actually getting other people to schedule meetings with you in UTC is going to be a bit trickier though.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#217

Post by cyxxon »

combatentropy wrote: post #212
beloch wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to commend my American friends for their undying loyalty to the memory of the Empire. U.S. customary units are derived from units that helped the British conquer the world, but even the British themselves have shamelessly abandoned them for the units of a filthy, monarch-less republic. It's good to see that Americans still subconsciously yearn for the firm ruling hand of their rightful Queen. Note: Americans h…

It just doesn't have the same ring to it. "He won't move an inch," or "He won't move a centimeter." "She won't quit until she's six feet under," or "She won't quit until she's two meters under." "I'll go the whole nine yards," or "I'll go the whole nine meters." "You can see for miles and miles," or "You can see for kilometers and kilometers."

In case you are not joking... in metric countries we still say the same sentences you say, with miles and inches. That doesn't mean we use the olde units to actually measure something...

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#218

Post by SiempreViernes »

oasisbob wrote: post #204
kps wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 and 60 are superior highly composite numbers¹ — as is 360, the number of degrees in a circle and the number of days in a year (with a little engineering work TBD). Speaking of circles, SI hasn't fixed Hz vs rad, have they? ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_highly_composite_numb...

> Speaking of circles, SI hasn't fixed Hz vs rad, have they? I don't think so. Anyone who hasn't heard of the Hz/radian issue should see the "Hz" definition in the units definition file shipped along with Frink - if you like finding interesting rants in unexpected places, it's delightful: https://futureboy.us/frinkdata/units.txt

Appropriately, it now contains several outdated rants, showing vast impact these redefinition have: we'll all get an update to units.txt soon!

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#219

Post by rconti »

beloch wrote: post #206
Waterluvian wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's fair to rib my American friends with the fact that Imperial is implemented using metric?

I like to commend my American friends for their undying loyalty to the memory of the Empire. U.S. customary units are derived from units that helped the British conquer the world, but even the British themselves have shamelessly abandoned them for the units of a filthy, monarch-less republic. It's good to see that Americans still subconsciously yearn for the firm ruling hand of their rightful Queen. Note: Americans h…

*British themselves have shamelessly abandoned most of them, most of the time, when convenient

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#220

Post by ben509 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #192
kibwen wrote: post #188

See, the US wasn't being stubborn in not adopting metric, it was just waiting patiently for it to progress from beta to 1.0. :) (Fun fact: all the US customary units have been officially defined in terms of their metric counterparts since 1893: https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pml/wmd/m... )

So it's fair to rib my American friends with the fact that Imperial is implemented using metric?

Nope, because we don't use the Imperial system, though. We use American Standard Units. They happen to be just like the Imperial units, except they have more freedom.
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