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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

#231

Post by daveFNbuck »

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…

Your friends don't like it when you invent reasons to antagonize them? How odd!

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#232

Post by blhack »

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... )

I'm one of the weird people that actually really likes imperial units. For instance:

1 foot -- base 12. This is a superior base to 10. It can be easily divided into 4ths, 3rd, and 2nds. Base 10 can only easily be divided into 2nds.

1 inch -- an easily identifiable unit of measure for smallish things. About the width of my thumb. A pretty good unit.

For low precision, inches become 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/6, 1/64, etc. Each one is half the size of the previous one. I actually like this one a lot. An eight being half of a quarter is a really easy way to work with things when you're building stuff. Think about drilling a bolt hole in the center of a piece (half the width), or drilling two bolt holes with something in the center (divide those halves in half again) etc. Fractional is really good for building stuff.

For precision: thousands of an inch. Harder to visualize, but precise (has the same problems as mm imho). Millionths of an inch when you get into serious metrology.

Okay temperature: In imperial units:

0 = REALLY cold. 100 = REALLY hot. 50 = somewhere in the middle. Put on a sweater, but not dangerous.

100 = about the temperature of a human body.

Water boils at 212F and freezes at 32F. There are 180 degrees (degrees!) between freezing and boiling. 180 is, again, base 12. It's the 15th order of 12.

I actually love imperial units. I greatly prefer them to metric (even though I do use metric very frequently, and can see the appeal). I think I just actually prefer base 12 to base 10.

I also think that F is seriously superior to C.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#233

Post by Zarel »

garmaine wrote: post #176
Zarel wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a fundamental constant. > the Avogadro number was initially defined by Jean Baptiste Perrin as the number of atoms in one gram-molecule of atomic hydrogen, meaning one gram of hydrogen. (from Wikipedia) (It's since been refined to be 12 grams of carbon-12.) So a mole is defined to be approximately one gram worth of protons and neutrons. We use it because grams are a significantly easier unit of mass for huma…

Read the OP. It is now a fundamental constant. (But you’re right if you’re referring to the status quo before).

No, it's not. Avogadro's number is a constant, but it's not fundamental - the only difference is that it's defined in terms of fundamental constants (namely, the Planck constant) now. It's still an arbitrary number defined in terms of the mass of a gram.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#237

Post by gorn »

Recently I have been thinking about if any of our units makes sense in cosmic perspective. Let's take speed of light for example. It's approximately 300000 km/s. But then what is a second? It's 1/60 of a minute which is 1/60 of an hour which is 1/24 of a day(and so it goes) and all those numbers are arbitrary. A day doesn't make any sense outside our planet anyway, I doubt that there is another celestial body in the universe that takes the same time to complete a rotation. Period of some natural phenomena (like atomic electron transition) sounds better as a unit but it's a really tiny period of time so we have to scale it to make it practical for us. We will use decimal numeral system to do that, another arbitrary choice. What if we had 12 fingers or 8? This can be extended to all kinds of measurements so I wonder if any of this would make sense to another civilization. What would a cosmic system of units would like? Any reading about this would be greatly appreciated.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#238

Post by naikrovek »

blhack wrote: post #232
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... )

I'm one of the weird people that actually really likes imperial units. For instance: 1 foot -- base 12. This is a superior base to 10. It can be easily divided into 4ths, 3rd, and 2nds. Base 10 can only easily be divided into 2nds. 1 inch -- an easily identifiable unit of measure for smallish things. About the width of my thumb. A pretty good unit. For low precision, inches become 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/6, 1/64, etc. Each…

You are definitely (and thankfully) not the norm. Imperial units are awful. They're more ... human, maybe, in that a foot is about one human foot long, and that an inch is about one human thumb width, and how 0F feels "pretty cold" and 100F feels "pretty hot", and to me the charm of imperial units begins and ends right there.

Those are literally the only redeemable qualities about imperial units, and they have nothing at all to do with their utility as a tool for measurement.

I am glad that you like them. Use them all you like. I won't.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#239

Post by UnFleshedOne »

khawkins wrote: post #103
redial wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard anyone claim that as the reason for its superiority. Metric is superior because it makes sense as a system .

1/2 m = 50.00 cm, 1/2 ft = 6 in 1/3 m = 33.33 cm, 1/3 ft = 4 in 1/4 m = 25.00 cm, 1/4 ft = 3 in 1/6 m = 16.67 cm, 1/6 ft = 2 in This is why imperial makes more sense to me than metric. If we had a base-12 number system, metric would be perfect, but base-10 is terrible under division. For practical divisors like these, imperial shines. If you're doing science, metric makes more sense because units work out. But most a…

Here is a video about why imperial system is convenient for everyday practical usage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#240

Post by anamexis »

blhack wrote: post #232
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... )

I'm one of the weird people that actually really likes imperial units. For instance: 1 foot -- base 12. This is a superior base to 10. It can be easily divided into 4ths, 3rd, and 2nds. Base 10 can only easily be divided into 2nds. 1 inch -- an easily identifiable unit of measure for smallish things. About the width of my thumb. A pretty good unit. For low precision, inches become 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/6, 1/64, etc. Each…

For most things, I think metric makes more sense, but I fully agree about temperatures. Fahrenheit is a superior scale for humans.
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