Metric and how not to use it.

kzt wrote:The preferred velocity measure is furlongs per fortnight.

phillies wrote:I don't see any basis for this claim. A kilometer is a type of distance, and it is similar within a factor of two to a mile. I believe someone carefully set up software that would let the illustrious writer get all his numbers right on missile firings.

Bill Woods wrote:

Relax wrote:PS> Land navigation should be same as nautical..... Knots.

PPS. Darned Babylonians... we still use base 60. Why 360 degrees.....

2π radians == 360 degrees is okay; you want a circle nicely divisible by 3 and 4. And by coincidence the year is about 360 days. But using 60 for the subdivisions of the degree ... no! Scrap the minutes and seconds, and use tenths, hundredths, etc. of degrees.

And the meter should have originally been defined as 1/9M of the distance from pole to equator, not 1/10M. Then a degree of latitude would be 100 km, and the knot would be 1 km/hr, usable on land and sea.

Relax wrote:Uh, before that, you have to get rid of seconds, minutes, hours and redefine into 10 hours/day, either 10 minutes or 100 minutes/hour, and either 10s or 100 seconds/minute.

Relax wrote: NO, circles do not need to be divisible by 3. 4 only. For quadrants. 100 degrees works just fine in that case. 25 degrees/quadrant and 100minutes/degree and 100seconds/minute.

I believe the French tried it in the 18th century but too many things changed and it turned into mass confusion.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:The United States made the mistake of allowing the National Teachers Association write the curriculum to teach the metric system. Since the goal was to teach metric in elementary school, they appointed a committee of Elementary School teachers to develop the curriculum who had zero knowledge or experience to enlighten them. They didn't understand that while the English system gradually evolved in a primitive era and was painfully adapted to accommodate science and technology, the metric system was designed to enable scientific and technical calculations.

As a result, rather than focus on converting centimeters to millimeters or meters of kilometers, they focused on conversions to inches, feet and miles. I actually got sent to the principal s office for pointing out the absurdity.

American s would embrace metric if they were taught how to use metric in isolation rather than in context of the English system.

stewart wrote:Depends on the context for me --
In a scientific application ex chemistry -- metric only --> calculations are much easier
in Engineering, depends on the end customer needs / preferences -- conversion factors introduce errors that must be corrected for parts to match/be consistent
Daily life -- Baseball is in Feet / Inches; water bottles in 500/750ml; Iced Tea in 32 oz ; Gasoline in gal.

PLEASE do not change gas to liters -- the Calif legislature would LOVE to suck more tax dollars at the pump.

-- Stewart

ldwechsler wrote:That last explains it best. Conversions that are really used often have practical reasons behind it. And some changes are really difficult to make. Changing acres, for example, to meters, etc., would lead to great confusion about property lines.

tlb wrote:A 500ml bottle of water is about a pint.

Hans wrote:Hello,

tlb wrote:A 500ml bottle of water is about a pint.

And as an European you can't drink even a pint of American beer.
You will always prefer 1/2 litre (500ml) of German or Czech beer.
When i worked in the USA, as a mechanic setting up and fixing grinders, i got used to your imperial system.
And i have to tell you, i'm happy to be back in metric country.
Baseball is something nobody here cares about.
11m (penalty) at a football match (i don't use your name soccer) thats just 11 big steps. 1/1000mm is easier to handle than 1/12000 of a inch.
Why should use inches and it's fractions when i can use mm and commas..
1m is 1000mm is 100cm.
1 Kilogramm is 1000 Gramm
I would recommend - stay with your old fashioned imperial system, the rest of the world knows better.
Meter, Litres, Kilogramm, Bar are the units to use.

Somebody wrote that because kicking a foot up the xyzs ..... they never lost a war.
Corea and Vietnam?

tlb wrote:A 500ml bottle of water is about a pint.

Hans wrote:Hello, And as an European you can't drink even a pint of American beer.
You will always prefer 1/2 litre (500ml) of German or Czech beer.
When i worked in the USA, as a mechanic setting up and fixing grinders, i got used to your imperial system.
And i have to tell you, i'm happy to be back in metric country.
Baseball is something nobody here cares about.
11m (penalty) at a football match (i don't use your name soccer) thats just 11 big steps. 1/1000mm is easier to handle than 1/12000 of a inch.
Why should use inches and it's fractions when i can use mm and commas..
1m is 1000mm is 100cm.
1 Kilogramm is 1000 Gramm
I would recommend - stay with your old fashioned imperial system, the rest of the world knows better.
Meter, Litres, Kilogramm, Bar are the units to use.

Somebody wrote that because kicking a foot up the xyzs ..... they never lost a war.
Corea and Vietnam?

cthia wrote:

Hans wrote:Hello,

[quote="tlb"]A 500ml bottle of water is about a pint.

And as an European you can't drink even a pint of American beer.
You will always prefer 1/2 litre (500ml) of German or Czech beer.
When i worked in the USA, as a mechanic setting up and fixing grinders, i got used to your imperial system.
And i have to tell you, i'm happy to be back in metric country.
Baseball is something nobody here cares about.
11m (penalty) at a football match (i don't use your name soccer) thats just 11 big steps. 1/1000mm is easier to handle than 1/12000 of a inch.
Why should use inches and it's fractions when i can use mm and commas..
1m is 1000mm is 100cm.
1 Kilogramm is 1000 Gramm
I would recommend - stay with your old fashioned imperial system, the rest of the world knows better.
Meter, Litres, Kilogramm, Bar are the units to use.

Somebody wrote that because kicking a foot up the xyzs ..... they never lost a war.
Corea and Vietnam?