131–138 of 138 posts
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Yes, even the SI base units. Shhh! Don't let them know that SI's base ten counting isn't some kind of scientific absolute and is just as arbitrary as inches and feet, and if humans had 11 fingers, SI would be different.
> if humans had 11 fingers Sometimes, they do.
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> RLY? Hello from the UK! I did say almost everyone . The UK is unusual in still retaining significantly more pre-metric units than the average country does, although still much less than the US. Road distances in miles and speed limits in miles per hour being the most obvious one. Almost everywhere on earth, other than the US and UK (and maybe a tiny handful more, such as Burma/Myanmar, Liberia, Antigua), road dista…
I studied Civ Eng at uni (poly. really) and engineering in the UK uses SI units exclusively except when we don't! Miles and mph and pints are largely the main leftovers. A yard is nearly a metre so that survives too and is conveniently made up of three feet and they are around 30cm, which is a short ruler. An inch is 2 1/2 cm and is roughly the size of your thumb to the first joint. The pound is a small half kilo. Sp…
I think a lot of people who have attachment to non-metric units, their attachment is more to the names (and in some cases the interrelationships) rather than the precise values. I wonder why more consideration wasn't given to metrication by redefinition:
1 metric inch = 25.0 mm exactly (0.4 mm shorter than the old inch)
1 metric foot = 30 cm exactly (4.8 mm shorter than the old foot)
1 metric yard = either 90 cm exactly (1.44 cm shorter than old yard) or 1 metre exactly (8.56 cm longer)
1 metric mile = either 1.5 km exactly (609 m shorter than the old mile) or 1.6 km exactly (9 m shorter than the old mile) (either way, with 1 metre = 1 metric yard, 1 mile would be either 1500 or 1600 yards, which is easier to remember than 1760)
1 metric pound = 500 grams (46.41 g heavier than the old pound)
1 metric ounce = either 30 grams (so a metric pound is actually 16⅔ metric ounces–1.65 grams heavier than the old ounce) or 31.25 grams (so a metric pound is exactly 16 metric ounces–2.95 grams heavier) or 25 grams (20 metric ounces to a metric pound, 3.35 grams lighter than the old metric pound)
I know some people would get confused by old versus metric, but people already have to deal with some of that already (e.g. troy ounces vs avoirdupois ounces, short vs long ton, UK vs US gallon, statute miles vs nautical miles, etc). Actually some European countries did pursue this approach seriously – both France and Germany redefined the "pound" as 500g in the 19th century, and in both countries it still sees some use in informal contexts. But in the English speaking world, it was considered, but for whatever reason never seriously pursued.
> I'd love to see you pour a pint to five decimal places!
I wonder why the UK doesn't follow (most of) Australia's example and redefine the pint (for the purposes of draught beer only) as 570 mL?
> I note you mention schooners and the like in AUS (and why on earth do you have a different pint size - it doesn't really matter) and that basically proves my point about routine odd units still in use, everywhere.
People don't really think of standardised beer glass sizes as units of measure. Nobody would try to measure anything (except the quantity of beer they've drunk) in schooners, unless they were indulging in a colourful metaphor. Traditionally Australia has this complicated system of 6-7 different beer glass sizes, which is somewhat different in each state – originally they were all defined in terms imperial fluid ounces, and then with metrication they were rounded off to the nearest 5mL – but in practice most places only have two of them on offer, occasionally a third. So a "pint" in Australia is really no more a unit of measure than a "schooner" or "middy" or "pot" is. A few places (generally German/Austrian themed bars/restaurants) also sell draught beer by the stein (1 litre) or half-stein (500 mL). Unlike the UK, in Australia you can legally sell draught beer in whatever sized glass you wish, so long as it isn't likely to deceive customers.
Yet another battle won in the 0 indexing vs. 1 indexing war
It just shows you how reality-denying the 1 indexers can be, going as far as calling a newborn 1 even though (if normal term) it was conceived roughly 0.75 years ago.
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I'm willing to adopt the metric system, but I want to use alternative base-units to screw with people. By which I mean, something like using rods, but with SI-prefixes.
Why rods? Use one of the Natural unit systems, for example, how about one of the systems where c = 1 which makes matter/energy conversions much easier, as now Einstein's equation simplifies to E=m justifying insistence on the same units for measuring how much electricity you used last month and your target "weight" at a doctor's appointment :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units
Because mega-rod and giga-rod sound hilarious to me.
Also those units end up with a lot of pretty alien things as their bases, 10e-35 meters isn't super useful for human things. Whereas a rod maps pretty well to "down the hallway a bit", and a half a rod works pretty well for "the other side of the room". meter and foot work well for this as well, but they don't sound nearly as cool, though I would be willing to measure distances in "kilo-feet" just to screw with people. Alternatively a system of esoteric units starting with the meter would also work for what I'm thinking about (say, 12 meters to the dimber, with 60 dimbers to a schlimmel).
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> What's a more convenient scale for human living conditions? 0–100 °F or -20–40 °C? I am aware people live in even colder and hotter environments, but the majority of people in the world don't need to worry about values outside of this range. I also think "0 is very cold" and "100 is very hot" just makes more sense than "-20 is very cold" and "40 is very hot". The idea that 0-100F is somehow the range of “human livi…
> but I can see why someone from a place like the American Midwest might think this is true. Ironic since I don't live in the midwest. I've visited there during summer once. :) > The difference between -1C and 1C is something you can literally see around you. The difference between -1F and 1F is not. Anything “below zero” is literally frozen and completely inhospitable to normal human life! I dunno, down to 20°F/-7°C…
I believe you when you say you feel that way at those temperatures, but I personally wouldn’t wear just a t-shirt when at any temperature under 10C/50F.
So Fahrenheit matches the subjective temperature range where you might feel comfortable, but not me. And so you can’t make a general statement that it matches “human living conditions” when others think that Celsius better matches their comfortable range.
The day you turn 30 you begin your 31st year of life.
Yet another battle won in the 0 indexing vs. 1 indexing war
It just shows you how reality-denying the 1 indexers can be, going as far as calling a newborn 1 even though (if normal term) it was conceived roughly 0.75 years ago.
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People say the US, Liberia, and Myanmar are the only countries to reject metric. If this wasn't bullshit, then people would be able to spontaneously state the criterion that produced this specific list. I mean, the criterion exists , and therefore the list is technically correct, but nobody researches it before repeating the meme, and it's not at all obvious without research. If the reasoning doesn't come to you natu…
> If this wasn't bullshit, then people would be able to spontaneously state the criterion that produced this specific list. Let's forget about Liberia and Myanmar and just focus on major economies. People can argue about the definition of "major", but for the purposes of this discussion, let's define it as G20 members. In how many G20 members does the average person make significant , regular use of non-metric measur…
This is an interesting question. The amount of usage would need to be quantified. The definition of "average person" would need to be explicit. You have data?
Whatever the data might show, I am confident it won't show a stark division between the US, Liberia, Myanmar, and every other country. But if I'm wrong, that would be interesting.
>Here, non-metric measurements are not part of the government-mandated curriculum
That's exactly what I mean about a hyper-technical argument.
Does the US have a government-mandated curriculum; is it an apples to apples comparison; does its treatment of metric measurements translate to actual classrooms, &c, &c, &c...
>how much time do schools in France or Germany or Japan spend on teaching how many ounces in a pound or how many yards in a mile
That might be interesting to compare with the US. If you have such a statistical analysis, would you share it?