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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

#581

Post by hrasyid »

happymellon wrote: post #435
hrasyid wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand some of what you say, but the point of standard unit is not so that people can choose which unit they like. It's to make sure everyone uses the same ones. If all but a few countries used imperial as their standard measure then I'd go for it. But right now it's the odd one out. Itu mostly survived only thanks to being associated with an economic superpower, so international companies can't afford to ignor…

Hate to break it to you, but international companies do ignore it unless they need to print something out for an American to read.

Yes, but I suspect they bother to print anything at all is because the US is a big market. Unfortunately, this helps perpetuate those legacy units.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#582

Post by autokad »

Moru wrote: post #547
autokad wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

go to google and type "about definition"

You can't both say that meter isn't exact enough when meassuring 1/3 and also say that 25 mm wrong on a food is ok...

I didnt say exact, just not easily done aka intuitive. a concept probably lost on you ages ago

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#584

Post by Oletros »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #575
MzxgckZtNqX5i wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you be sure that "all of your regular coffee cups are exactly 250ml"? And what about teaspoon? And everything else? Everyone here is obviously biased toward his/her own measurement system based on our experience, but the fact that "3 cups and a half of milk" is more precise than "875mL of milk" is clearly false.

I didn't say anything about Imperial being more precise. I'm saying it's often more useful. 1 cup mix, 1 cup milk + 1 egg. 1 pint of beer. 1 teaspoon of sugar. These are things everyone can understand. You can put the ml on the side of the label. "That guy is 6 feet tall, about 180 lbs." Is better than metric for most people. "I'll have a glass of wine" instead of "I'll have 240 ml of wine" Any one of you who orders…

> These are things everyone can understand

Eh, no, here in my country nobody uses that units, all the recipes and in the stores, the units are ml, kg, etc

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#585

Post by TomMarius »

School-Cotton wrote: post #558
TomMarius wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suspect that only a minority of people in metric-using countries -- those with basic chemistry knowledge fresh in their mind -- know that "one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade". They taught us that in 4th grade in cooking classes. Then they made us remember that in physics and chemistry classes 2 years later.

There are plenty of things that everyone learns in 4th grade that not everyone remembers.

The point is that this particular concept of metric units is taught really well (repeatedly on many practical examples and then evwn theoretical ones) and so virtually everyone knows and uses it. It's deeply ingrained in cooking books, recipes, etc.

Of course I don't remember a lot of things from the 4th grade. This one stands out.

Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#588

Post by vickihectora »

gcthomas wrote: post #564
tempodox wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, 1 pound should equal 0.5 kg.

It does in France already and has done for years, so when you ask for a pound of cheese you get 500g. Simples.

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Re: International System of Units overhauled in historic vote

#589

Post by unepipe »

gnud wrote: post #478
unepipe wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a project where I need 3 wooden blocks, each perfect squares, to fit width wise in a 10” wide gap. I don’t want any space between these blocks sides of the gap they fit in. It’s an important project to me and I’m willing to pay a substantial sum of money. But from what I am reading it sounds like you’re not able to do the job, the blocks need to be 3 1/3” wide each. It’s a no-go if I see someone try to cut the…

I bet you that if I cut the blocks to 84.7 mm they would do just fine. If they don't, you take a file to one of them. And you have to do it like this with wood, anyway - because of imprecise saws, and moisture changes.

Yeah my point was every measurement system has some value you can’t easily divide into thirds. How you measure depends on your tolerances. I have no qualms using either system, but metric is a much better system in my opinion.
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