Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America • Hacker News Board

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#21

Post by Schweigi » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:34 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #12

Sharlin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to a non-American like myself the Fahrenheit scale feels weird and arbitrary (and yes, I understand the "human scale" argument, just don't buy it") while the Celsius scale makes sense.

Or is it just more familiar? We all like what we're accustomed to. Is there some reason Celsius 'makes sense'? Why does it make sense that 22 is comfortable but 40 is miserably hot? It doesn't make any more sense than 72 and 100.

Well its rather easy to make your own thermometer using the Celsius scale. Put quicksilver in a small glass tube and put it outside. When water starts to freeze mark the current position with 0. Drop it in boiling water and mark it with 100. Evenly distribute now 98 markings between the two existing ones and voila you have just made your own thermometer :)

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#22

Post by kps » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:37 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #6

I wish the article had touched on temperature systems; I feel like Celsius is metric at its weakest. Farenheit has beautiful bands: 0's: So cold you have trouble doing anything and just want to warm up immediately 10's: Wear a ski jacket with hat and scarf and gloves 20's: Wear a ski jacket and hat 30's: Wear a ski jacket but leave it open 40's: Wear a wool overcoat 50's: Wear a heavy jacket 60's: Wear a light jacket…

Fahrenheit has a couple nice properties. One is that he picked two conveniently available reference points — melting ice and body temperature — and put them 2⁶ degrees apart, which made it practical to label thermometers by bisection.

The other is that (after a very slight adjustment) freezing and boiling water are 180° apart, which is a highly composite number.

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#23

Post by BruceIV » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:37 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #13

Sharlin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to a non-American like myself the Fahrenheit scale feels weird and arbitrary (and yes, I understand the "human scale" argument, just don't buy it") while the Celsius scale makes sense.

Could you say a bit more about why you feel it makes sense, perhaps with a chart like the one I wrote up?

I'll bite (and I grew up in one of the colder parts of Canada, so I'd call 0F a cold but not unreasonable winter day).

-30: Avoid going outside, if you do don't leave any exposed skin

-20: A cold winter day: toque, scarf, mittens, winter coat and boots are must have

-10: An average winter day: same load-out as above, but you'll be more comfortable

0: A mild winter day: snow possible, you may leave your winter jacket open, or skip the scarf

10: Early spring or late fall: you might be able to get away with a light jacket, but I'd leave that until 15

15: Long pants and light jacket

20: Leave the jacket home, maybe wear shorts or a t-shirt

25: Comfortable summer weather: shorts and t-shirt

30: Annoyingly hot summer weather, good for swimming

35 or higher: hole up somewhere with AC

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#24

Post by ZeroGravitas » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:38 PM UTC

geuis wrote: post #10

This whole article just feels like fluff. The very first "fact" about the origins of the qwerty keyboard are completely wrong. The Wikipedia page doesn't have a single mention of telegraph and has a complete history of its development. A history can be found in this 1996 article among others http://reason.com/archives/1996/06/01/typing-errors/ .

Are the people who link to this libertarian propaganda every time qwerty or Dvorak gets mentioned underhanded libertarians hoping to spread their brand of economic religion or people who have been utterly taken in by the former to the point that they think this is an unbiased debunking?

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#25

Post by hrbrtglm » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:41 PM UTC

I love the metric system for no better reasons that it's the one I always used as a french, it just seems as natural for me as my ten fingers, I never really thought about it. Yet, I can understand why some would not change their “English customary measures”, they must feel it the same way, thinking it's as natural as their feet. For instance, our screens size (TV, computer, phones) are expressed in inches for whatever good reasons ... I don't have a clue at all about the size it represents, I just know 13 is smaller than 15, 11 is too small for me for a computer screen, and that 42 is a pretty good decent size for a TV. My surfboard is a 6.2, and for all I know, it's taller than me ...

If I were told, we were going to change our measure system, I would be kind of scared, could it be better or worse ! After all, the hardest part is not the real use but the idea of the switch.

Now, if you could just use the international ISO 216 paper size, I wouldn't have to mess with my PDF export settings and just push some A4.

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#26

Post by raldi » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

Schweigi wrote: post #21

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or is it just more familiar? We all like what we're accustomed to. Is there some reason Celsius 'makes sense'? Why does it make sense that 22 is comfortable but 40 is miserably hot? It doesn't make any more sense than 72 and 100.

Well its rather easy to make your own thermometer using the Celsius scale. Put quicksilver in a small glass tube and put it outside. When water starts to freeze mark the current position with 0. Drop it in boiling water and mark it with 100. Evenly distribute now 98 markings between the two existing ones and voila you have just made your own thermometer :)

Evenly distributing 98 markings is hard. Evenly distributing 64 is easy -- just halve the range six times. That's why the distance from freezing water to body temperature is 64 Fahrenheit degrees.

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#27

Post by vborovikov » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #12

Sharlin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to a non-American like myself the Fahrenheit scale feels weird and arbitrary (and yes, I understand the "human scale" argument, just don't buy it") while the Celsius scale makes sense.

Or is it just more familiar? We all like what we're accustomed to. Is there some reason Celsius 'makes sense'? Why does it make sense that 22 is comfortable but 40 is miserably hot? It doesn't make any more sense than 72 and 100.

0°C - water turns into ice 100°C - water boils and turns into steam

-30°C and below - very cold weather +30°C and above - very hot weather

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#28

Post by raldi » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:43 PM UTC

BruceIV wrote: post #23

raldi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you say a bit more about why you feel it makes sense, perhaps with a chart like the one I wrote up?

I'll bite (and I grew up in one of the colder parts of Canada, so I'd call 0F a cold but not unreasonable winter day). -30: Avoid going outside, if you do don't leave any exposed skin -20: A cold winter day: toque, scarf, mittens, winter coat and boots are must have -10: An average winter day: same load-out as above, but you'll be more comfortable 0: A mild winter day: snow possible, you may leave your winter jacket…

Not bad.

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#29

Post by micro-ram » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:47 PM UTC

chiph wrote: post #7

If we went metric on the interstates, exit 880 on Interstate 10 in Texas (at the Louisiana state line) would retain it's status as the highest numbered exit in North America. Only it'd be exit 1408. (exits are generally numbered by their mile (err, kilometer..) marker in the US, not consecutively)

880 looks like a trap to keep you in Texas :)

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.1199335,-93.7106707,1513m/da...

Re: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

#30

Post by keithpeter » Sat, Aug 09, 2014, 2:48 PM UTC

dalke wrote: post #3

I have some difficulties with the issues described in the piece. "A yard is the distance from your sternum to the tip of your outstretched hand." According to folk belief, it's the distance from the tip of Henry I's nose to the end of his thumb. According to an early definition, "It is ordained that 3 grains of barley dry and round do make an inch, 12 inches make 1 foot, 3 feet make 1 yard." Who here has an idea of t…

UK: we work in Imperial but things are officially priced in metric, except for beer. Petrol is in pence/litre. So you get price per lb and per kg. Lengths are in millimetres on builders plans (to avoid mistakes with decimal points) but road signs are in miles. Makes teaching basic maths to adults a bit more fun...

http://sohcahtoa.org.uk/pages/maths_market-metric-proportion...

You would be surprised how many people have issues with decimal place notation still. The low denominator fractions make a lot of sense for a lot of people. French speaking African students of mine will naturally price food in half and quarter kilos.