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Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

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Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#191

Post by ghusbands »

vandahm wrote: post #159
jholman wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what? You're saying that Americans preferentially use base-2 fractions (nearly) everywhere except on computers; on computers you preferentially use base-10, even though said computers are going to store the values as base-2? That's the funniest thing I've heard all week.

> "on computers you preferentially use base-10, even though said computers are going to store the values as base-2?" I don't understand this comment at all. Most people are not computer programmers and therefore have no insight into how computers represent numbers. They just populate text fields in Excel, or whatever, with numbers. It's easier to use decimal points to do that than fractions. When I'm not using comput…

I believe they're saying it's ironic that, despite the base-2 values being ideal for binary computers, users are having to use base-10 to enter them into the computer and hence getting none of the possible advantage. I don't believe they're making a value judgement.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#192

Post by masklinn »

irrational wrote: post #77
petepete wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the whole point of cups was that the actual quantity didn't matter, so long as your ratios were consistent.

Measuring by volume was from a time period before we had reliable digital scales. These days all baking measuring should be done by weight since it is far more accurate. I won’t even consider a recipe that goes by volume. Fortunately those are all written by amateurs.

> These days all baking measuring should be done by weight since it is far more accurate.

It also has no "tamping" problem e.g. volumetric measurement of flour can differ in the amount of actual flour by a factor of 2+ if the floor is tamped versus aerated. Volumetric measurements are supposed to use aerated aka first make flour fly everywhere then try to coerce it into your cup.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#193

Post by knolax »

jacquesm wrote: post #115
mhh__ wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Système international ? We already use french units

No, 'international' does not mean 'French'. Yes, the French came up with it but since it now has international adoption it is the international standard with the United States as one of the last hold-outs. That's what you get when you have a country run by lawyers with very limited input from science.

The metric system is decidedly biased in favor of languages that use 10^3 prefixes as opposed to 10^4 prefixes or 10^5 prefixes.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#194

Post by swebs »

Carpetsmoker wrote: post #182
kube-system wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s Independence Day in the US. Patriotism is the theme of the day. This is just a humorous holiday-themed style sheet with a readme to match. It is not a serious style sheet that the author expects anyone to use.

Perhaps this is a cultural difference, but the entire thing just seems strange from my own (European) perspective. Only in the US do people seem to take pride in their measurement system as some sort of patriotic symbol, which is why I originally thought it was a parody shrug I'm not even going to get started with all the problems I see with "God bless America", which would be long, tedious, probably inflammatory, an…

You're reading way too into this. Someone just decided to have some fun and share it with HN. It isn't really serious, but parody isn't the right description. People aren't taking pride in the measurement system, that's somewhat of a joke. "God bless America" is a common cheer taken from a popular song. The UK has something similar with "God save the queen".

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#195

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

amyjess wrote: post #140
chrismorgan wrote: post #98

Feels strange to have single decimal places in your inch figures. I’d have expected something like eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds of inches, even though the decimal representation of them is unwieldy (1⁄32″ becomes 0.03125in). That also helps you avoid fractional pixels, which is worth doing if convenient: 1⁄32″ is 3px, because 1in is defined as 96px. (As an Australian, the main place I’ve ever seen fractions…

All small measurements in the US are done in power-of-two fractions of an inch. In fact, much of the initial opposition to the metric system here was led by the construction industry, who has found from experience that 1/2" 1/4" 1/8" 1/16" etc. measurements are too convenient to ever give up.

Not exactly. Things are done in decimal fractions until you get down to around 1/64", but any farther and they're done in thou (1/1000" aka mils) or tenths (1/10000"). There's overlap, machinists will use thou up to and sometimes beyond a full inch.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#196

Post by blackhope »

chiph wrote: post #163
blackhope wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you're just changing the subject. We weren't talking about ending monarchical rule. The topic was how our still deeply racist country is built upon slavery and similar horrifying abuses against people, right from the very start.

You're the one who brought up Independence Day. And again, your knowledge of history is shallow. I am able to remember when the schools became integrated [0]. I also know why the bathrooms at the rest stops in the South have two entrances ("separate but equal"). And I had a teacher who as a young girl was chased by the Klan. What we have now is so much improved over what it was like just 40 or 50 years ago that anyon…

> And again, your knowledge of history is shallow.

> I advise you to turn off your internet for a few days, go drink a beer & chat with your neighbors and maybe shoot some fireworks off. The internet amplifies biases - don't let it.

You may disagree with me, but there's really no need to be patronizing about it. I will conduct my private life as I see fit, thank you.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#197

Post by arp242 »

swebs wrote: post #194
Carpetsmoker wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps this is a cultural difference, but the entire thing just seems strange from my own (European) perspective. Only in the US do people seem to take pride in their measurement system as some sort of patriotic symbol, which is why I originally thought it was a parody shrug I'm not even going to get started with all the problems I see with "God bless America", which would be long, tedious, probably inflammatory, an…

You're reading way too into this. Someone just decided to have some fun and share it with HN. It isn't really serious, but parody isn't the right description. People aren't taking pride in the measurement system, that's somewhat of a joke. "God bless America" is a common cheer taken from a popular song. The UK has something similar with "God save the queen".

Yeah, maybe. Probably. I'm just not a fan of this kind of stuff shrug.

I also don't like "God save the Queen" by the way, or "God be with us" (short for "If God is with us, who shall be against us?" from Romans) we have on the Dutch Euro coins :-)

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#198

Post by nautilus12 »

lucidlogic wrote: post #62
Minor49er wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's something techie on America's birthday

You know there's a bunch of other countries other right? This shouldn't be number 1 on hn.

So? Was it those other countries birthdays

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#199

Post by iainmerrick »

Symbiote wrote: post #185
iainmerrick wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A set of measuring cups and a digital kitchen scale probably cost about the same. Just checked this with a quick search on Amazon -- most results are in the $15-20 range, with some available for $10 or less. (I dare say there are probably very cheap measuring cups available, and for a scale you’ll have to fork out occasionally for batteries, if you want to split hairs.)

Mechanical scales were normal in the UK for most of the 20th century. Everyone I knew had one in the 1990s, from around 2000 people started buying digital scales, and I took my mum's mechanical scale when I left for university. Measuring ingredients by weight has a long history on Britain. The old, Victorian cookbooks use weights. https://archive.org/details/b20392758/page/698/mode/2up

I’m generally a fan of simple mechanical devices over electronics, but I think digital scales are a good example where electronics really do makes things simpler; and as it’s a commodity (like calculators and digital watches) the electronic version is amazingly cheap too.

The ability to zero the count as you add each ingredient to a single bowl is very useful.

Re: Show HN: USA.css – units set in inches, 1776 bytes

#200

Post by mikecoles »

skrause wrote: post #175
amyjess wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All small measurements in the US are done in power-of-two fractions of an inch. In fact, much of the initial opposition to the metric system here was led by the construction industry, who has found from experience that 1/2" 1/4" 1/8" 1/16" etc. measurements are too convenient to ever give up.

How this that convenient when you then have to use something like 13/16? Just look at the standard wrench sizes ( https://www.cnm.edu/programs-of-study/programs-a-z/automotiv... ): * Standard Combination Wrenches: 1/4, 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1. * Metric Combination Wrenches: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Measured in millimeters.

Perfectly convenient.

The standard system excels when doing actual work. If you have a rod with 1" diameter and you need to take it down to 13/16", you can use a lathe to make 3/32" cut. Or if you need to divide up 13/16 into 4 parts, for example, 13/64.

The metric system's strength is teaching in elementary schools where skills with fractions are not as strong.

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