Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Let's stop counting centuries

dynomight.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

431–440 of 449 posts

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#431

Post by Tainnor »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #422
Tainnor wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you remember the decade of the Treaty of Westfalia? Because if you live in central Europe, that's at least as important as the American Revolution.

I slightly misspoke above. The important part in my opinion is the milestone of democracy. That it happened nearby wars is somewhat incidental and common. What I mostly remember about the HRE is that it wasn’t Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. :D. My first guess of mid 1600s is not too far off. (Westphalian sovereignty is interesting… reading about it now.) Those governments have been replaced multiple times over the c…

> Those governments have been replaced multiple times over the centuries however, so achievements at the time were not stable.

The Peace of Westfalia signalled the end of major religious strife within Christianity and laid the foundation for today's modern conception of a nation-state. In my opinion, this is at least as important as the American Revolution.

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#432

Post by Tainnor »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #417
Tainnor wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your problem is that, instead of encouraging people to learn, you're just dismissing people who don't know one very specific historical fact as "uneducated". People in Europe generally know that America is a democracy and many probably also know that it was the first modern one, but to an average European it doesn't matter that much that it happened in the 1770s as opposed to, say, the 1650s.

If you didn’t know it, why not learn it now? Here’s your opportunity, one of today’s 10k. Arguing you shouldn’t need to learn it isn’t impressive in any shape or form. It’s middle-brow level (non)curiosity, and less than welcome here.

Never said one shouldn't learn new things. Just that it's unreasonable to expect that "every educated person knows X" - because time is finite.

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#433

Post by Tainnor »

IshKebab wrote: post #429
mixmastamyk wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not entirely surprising your country would prefer to forget that war. Disappointing perhaps but not surprising. In my opinion, a battle is generally not important compared to a milestone of democracy. I learned about the Magna Carta in 1215 and saw a copy once and appreciate that knowledge. But sure, keep arguing for ignorance and dismissing education if you’d like—we’ll enjoy the show here in posterity.

> It’s not entirely surprising your country would prefer to forget that war. Disappointing perhaps but not surprising. Maybe not, but that's hardly the only thing from history that we didn't learn about. I think you're massively underestimating how much history there is . Most of the world has millennia of history. It's not like America where you can cover the entire history of the country. Also history is an optiona…

> Most of the world has millennia of history.

And I also feel that it's myopic to think that a historical event is less significant because it happened longer ago and its effects are more diluted. But there are plenty of turning points in history that explain why today's world looks the way it does, the American (or French) revolutions are but some of them.

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#434

Post by fennecbutt »

jonathan_landy wrote: post #317
swyx wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oooor we can slowly migrate towards sensibility as we did celsius and centimeters

Re temp, I’m glad we use F for daily life in the USA. The most common application I have for temp is to understand the weather and I like the 0-100 range for F as that’s the typical range for weather near me. For scientific work I obviously prefer kelvin. Celsius is nearly useless.

Perhaps it's just because you're not used to it. 17-18c is perfect, 25 is a mild summer day. 30-35 full swing summer and 40 and up is oh no global warming. 5-7 is chilly, 0 is cold, -single digit is damn it's a cold winter and -double digits is when tf did I move to Canada.

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#435

Post by bumbledraven »

bumbledraven wrote: post #186
kdmccormick wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? No. When you are 0, it is your first year. When you are 21, you have begun your 22nd year. In the US you are legal to drink in your 22nd year of life. You are correct that nobody says "22nd year" in this context, but nobody says "21st year" either. The former is awkward but the latter is just incorrect.

> nobody says "22nd year" in this context You sure? “He was born in the summer of his 22nd year…” https://genius.com/John-denver-rocky-mountain-high-lyrics

Oops, the lyrics actually say "27th year", not "22nd".

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#436

Post by rbits »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #319

Another example of confusing numeric systems emerges from 12-hour clocks. For many people, asking them to specify which one is 12AM and which one is 12PM is likely to cause confusion. This confusion is immediately cleared up if you just adopt a 24-hour clock. This is a hill I'm willing to die on.

That's not inherent to AM/PM, it's cause for some reason the AM/PM switches on the boundary of 11 to 12, not 12 to 1. To fix this while still having AM work with 24hr time, it should be 0 instead of 12

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#437

Post by nephanth »

creeble wrote: post #360
jonathan_landy wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re temp, I’m glad we use F for daily life in the USA. The most common application I have for temp is to understand the weather and I like the 0-100 range for F as that’s the typical range for weather near me. For scientific work I obviously prefer kelvin. Celsius is nearly useless.

I agree. For ambient temp, F is twice as accurate in the same number of digits. It also reflects human experience better; 100F is damn hot, and 0F is damn cold. Celsius is for chemists.

> Celsius is for chemists

Or cooks. Or anyone who cooks, which is most people

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#438

Post by nephanth »

jonathan_landy wrote: post #317
swyx wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oooor we can slowly migrate towards sensibility as we did celsius and centimeters

Re temp, I’m glad we use F for daily life in the USA. The most common application I have for temp is to understand the weather and I like the 0-100 range for F as that’s the typical range for weather near me. For scientific work I obviously prefer kelvin. Celsius is nearly useless.

I find it quite strange that Fahrenheit stuck in the USA with its wide range of climates of all places.

I mean, that "0F to 100F is weather temperature range" completely falls apart unless you live in a very cold climate.

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#439

Post by wasteduniverse »

flakes wrote: post #365
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #319

Another example of confusing numeric systems emerges from 12-hour clocks. For many people, asking them to specify which one is 12AM and which one is 12PM is likely to cause confusion. This confusion is immediately cleared up if you just adopt a 24-hour clock. This is a hill I'm willing to die on.

A few months ago, my girlfriend and I missed a comedy show because we showed up on the wrong day. The ticket said Saturday 12:15am, which apparently meant Sunday 12:15am, as part of the Saturday lineup. Still feel stupid about that one.

That sounds like their error. If the ticket said Saturday 2am, you wouldn't show up at Sunday 2am, right?

Re: Let's stop counting centuries

#440

Post by ryukoposting »

runarberg wrote: post #407
ryukoposting wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see enough love for feet and inches. A foot can be divided cleanly into 2, 3, 4, and 6. Ten is a really sucky number to base your lengths on. It only divides nicely into 2 and 5.

People normally just use the subunit which doesn’t divide. E.g. height is usually referred to in cm. If accuracy is important they use millimeters. Roadsigns for cars use km but downtown wayfinding signs for pedastrians use meters. I agree it is really nice to use base-12 until it brakes, but it brakes much worse then metric. If you have to divide into 32nds everything about feet and inches is much worse (in metrics…

Stepping down to the next unit doesn't necessarily make anything tidier. If I need to cut a 3.5-foot piece of wood into thirds, then I cut it into 14-inch pieces. If I need to cut a 1-meter piece of wood into thirds, I cut it into 33.3-centimeter pieces.

Or, perhaps I want to hang two photos on a wall, spacing them evenly - the math from the example above applies again.

Regarding your example of dividing 12 into 32 parts - I think that's another good example of the elegance of imperial units. Dividing a foot into 32 parts is 3/8 of an inch! A nice, tidy unit that you'll find on any ruler or measuring tape.

>In inches if your 13/16th inch wrench is too big, do you grab the 5/8th? or three-quarters next?

Neither - I'd grab the 25/32" wrench ;) You make a good point.

I will say that fractional units become more and more intuitive as you use them more often. In a pinch you can just multiply both parts of the fraction by two.

Here's the thing: with wrenches in fractional units, you can do a binary search. Let's say you start with the 1/2 inch wrench. Too small? grab the 3/4. Too big? Try the 1/4. Work your way down.

...or, just remember that a huge share of bolts you'll come by are 7/16" and just start there.

Post reply on HN