How to get the metric system reinvented

chrisd wrote:

Keith_w wrote:I would very much like to know exactly how Imperial measure is related to the human body! I have neither 12 fingers nor 12 toes for counting on. Nor are fluid and solid ounces the same measure, and for that matter the United States doesn't even use imperial measure - a gallon in the US is only 5/6 of a gallon in the UK, and let us not speak of pecks, bushels or stones!

The Inch = the length of the thumb to the first joint
The Hand = The width of the palm
The Foot = Self explanatory
The Yard = from the extended finger tips to the nose

Add the Cubit = From the finger tips to the elbow
The Fathom = from the extended finger tips to the opposite finger tips.

Not very precise but they refer to YOU

As for the replacement of £-s-d. in the UK by decimal Currency, this was a con-trick and a contributory factor in the hyper inflation that we suffered at the time.

("Prices will not increase" - my 3d. bus fare went up overnight to 5p. (x4))

Ask any European what happened when the €uro was foisted on them by the Franco-German Mafia

Well - since all the pre euro currencies were already metric that last is totally irrelevant to the topic in hand.

As is the rant on decimalisation causing price rises

Indeed I might say with equal value/accuracy that one centimeter is the width of a thumb, and a meter is the distance from extended finger tip to nose. People have different length arms!!!

isaac_newton wrote:

chrisd wrote:

The Inch = the length of the thumb to the first joint
The Hand = The width of the palm
The Foot = Self explanatory
The Yard = from the extended finger tips to the nose

Add the Cubit = From the finger tips to the elbow
The Fathom = from the extended finger tips to the opposite finger tips.

Not very precise but they refer to YOU

As for the replacement of £-s-d. in the UK by decimal Currency, this was a con-trick and a contributory factor in the hyper inflation that we suffered at the time.

("Prices will not increase" - my 3d. bus fare went up overnight to 5p. (x4))

Ask any European what happened when the €uro was foisted on them by the Franco-German Mafia

Well - since all the pre euro currencies were already metric that last is totally irrelevant to the topic in hand.

As is the rant on decimalisation causing price rises

Indeed I might say with equal value/accuracy that one centimeter is the width of a thumb, and a meter is the distance from extended finger tip to nose. People have different length arms!!!

The major problem with pre-metrication units is every city on the planet had its own - with a variation of over 10%. (The 303 Lee Enfield rifle is a 0.303 bore because the Enfield Arsenal used an inch that was 1% larger than the inch used in London - it was specified as a 0.3" bore).

jgnfld wrote:..snip..
All automobiles including all fasteners on them are now metric. The list goes on.

And Russian made integrated circuits uses mm as spacing... Imagine my WTF when I couldn't fit the IC in the holes on the PCB until I discovered that the IC I was trying to use was Russian made. Normally the pin spacing should be 1/10" (2.54mm), Russians use 2.5mm..

And the other WTF moment I had was that I had Russian IC's in my parts bin...

chrisd wrote:..snip..
The Inch = the length of the thumb to the first joint
The Hand = The width of the palm
The Foot = Self explanatory
The Yard = from the extended finger tips to the nose

Add the Cubit = From the finger tips to the elbow
The Fathom = from the extended finger tips to the opposite finger tips.

Not very precise but they refer to YOU

If I remember correctly, didn't the units change depending who was King at the moment or is that just a myth?

chrisd wrote:As for the replacement of £-s-d. in the UK by decimal Currency, this was a con-trick and a contributory factor in the hyper inflation that we suffered at the time.

("Prices will not increase" - my 3d. bus fare went up overnight to 5p. (x4))

Ask any European what happened when the €uro was foisted on them by the Franco-German Mafia

Actually, most of the countries that switched to Euro did so willingly; especially since a lot of businesses lobbied hard for it to happen. All those conversions from their old currency to the Euro could be rounded up which was not an insignificant extra income in the short term.

Attributing the switch to Euro to what you call the Franco-German Mafia is just disingenuous since it couldn't have happened without a broad political support within the EU (although how that support was garnered can be discussed).

Highjohn wrote:looksbeforeheleaps , I think your numbers may be wrong.

361 km^2 * 10,000 m^2/km^2 * .01 m * 1,000 kg/m^3 / 1,000 kg/ton = 36,100 tons

Since the 361 km^2 is in millions you get 36.1 billion tons. Not trillion, you forgot that 1 cm is .01 m, your calculation comes out right for raising the sea level one meter.



If you wanted to do a more in-depth analysis you need to consider the expansion of the water as it warms. Offsetting that you would also need to consider the expansion of the surface area of the ocean as it rises. But that probably goes farther than you wanted to do with your approximation.

There are 1,000 meters in a kilometer, and therefore there are 1 million m^2 per km^2. Change that in your calculation and your result matches mine.

isaac_newton wrote:

chrisd wrote:The Inch = the length of the thumb to the first joint
The Hand = The width of the palm
The Foot = Self explanatory
The Yard = from the extended finger tips to the nose

Add the Cubit = From the finger tips to the elbow
The Fathom = from the extended finger tips to the opposite finger tips.

Not very precise but they refer to YOU

As for the replacement of £-s-d. in the UK by decimal Currency, this was a con-trick and a contributory factor in the hyper inflation that we suffered at the time.

("Prices will not increase" - my 3d. bus fare went up overnight to 5p. (x4))

Ask any European what happened when the €uro was foisted on them by the Franco-German Mafia

Well - since all the pre euro currencies were already metric that last is totally irrelevant to the topic in hand.

As is the rant on decimalisation causing price rises

Indeed I might say with equal value/accuracy that one centimeter is the width of a thumb, and a meter is the distance from extended finger tip to nose. People have different length arms!!!

Decimal Currency cost millions to implement and WAS NOT NECESSARY.

Friends in France, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy & Belgium all say they would rather have kept the Franc, Guilder, Punt, Lire and Franc and avoided the price rises that were camouflaged in the changeover to the €uro. As well as avoiding the financial problems that have beset Ireland and Italy plus the rest of the PIIGS, since.

The general received opinion is that only the "Brussels Mafia" and the out-of-touch Political Elites had any stomach for the €uro, ordinary people did not need nor want it. Decimal currency before the changeover or not.

"Nose to fingertips" is far nearer the Yard than the Metre

chrisd wrote:

Keith_w wrote:I would very much like to know exactly how Imperial measure is related to the human body! I have neither 12 fingers nor 12 toes for counting on. Nor are fluid and solid ounces the same measure, and for that matter the United States doesn't even use imperial measure - a gallon in the US is only 5/6 of a gallon in the UK, and let us not speak of pecks, bushels or stones!

The Inch = the length of the thumb to the first joint
The Hand = The width of the palm
The Foot = Self explanatory
The Yard = from the extended finger tips to the nose

Add the Cubit = From the finger tips to the elbow
The Fathom = from the extended finger tips to the opposite finger tips.

Not very precise but they refer to YOU

As for the replacement of £-s-d. in the UK by decimal Currency, this was a con-trick and a contributory factor in the hyper inflation that we suffered at the time.

("Prices will not increase" - my 3d. bus fare went up overnight to 5p. (x4))

Ask any European what happened when the €uro was foisted on them by the Franco-German Mafia

and a mile was 1000 roman paces.

however, I am pretty sure there is not a direct relationship between the distance from the tip of your thumb to end of the bend (almost 1.5" on my right hand, a shade less on my left) (yes, a shade is an official distance, at least in my house when I was growing up) which should put my foot at c.18" - but it's not, it's only 11". I am 6'2" so my yard is actually 37" not 36. I would share with you my weight in stones but that would be going too far - and why would anyone want to weigh anything in 14 pound groupings?

As for merchants taking advantage of the change over from £-s-d to decimal, what a surprise that is! On the other hand, my mother used to work in the payroll department of Stevenson's in Darlington, calculating the amount of farthings, half-pennies, pennies, three-penny bits, sixpences, shillings, half-crowns and notes were required for each man's pay packet. I cannot imagine that anyone misses doing that!

chrisd wrote:..snip..
Decimal Currency cost millions to implement and WAS NOT NECESSARY.

Friends in France, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy & Belgium all say they would rather have kept the Franc, Guilder, Punt, Lire and Franc and avoided the price rises that were camouflaged in the changeover to the €uro, as well as avoiding the financial problems that have beset Ireland and Italy since.

The general received opinion is that only the "Brussels Mafia" and the out-of-touch Political Elites had any stomach for the €uro, ordinary people did not need nor want it. Decimal currency before the changeover or not.

Actually, Irelands financial problems has little to do with the Euro. Irelands problem stems from a number of banking scandals and a property bubble which burst, the problems was then exacerbated by the financial crisis in 2007 (2008?) and led to a recession.

In Italys case, their economy started to go south already in 1980's and it didn't get better because of high taxes and a barely functional bureaucracy which has hampered any economic revitalization.

In other words, the switch to Euro has nothing at all to do with their problems.

As I said in an earlier post, most EU countries wanted to switch to the Euro. Some even lied about their economic state to be able to join the Euro-zone even though they didn't fulfill the economic requirements.

Joat42 wrote:Actually, Irelands financial problems has little to do with the Euro. Irelands problem stems from a number of banking scandals and a property bubble which burst, the problems was then exacerbated by the financial crisis in 2007 (2008?) and led to a recession.

In Italys case, their economy started to go south already in 1980's and it didn't get better because of high taxes and a barely functional bureaucracy which has hampered any economic revitalization.

In other words, the switch to Euro has nothing at all to do with their problems.

As I said in an earlier post, most EU countries wanted to switch to the Euro. Some even lied about their economic state to be able to join the Euro-zone even though they didn't fulfill the economic requirements.

The financial problems were exacerbated by the "tie" in the €urozone and it was not the people of the countries who wanted the €uro but the bankers, the bureaucrats and the politicians.

AS usual, "officialdom" was wrong and bad for the people.

1) You might be able to do a simple conversion in your head to 5 decimals. I could, if I needed to.
But the metric system simplifies all calculations, so a more complex formula will be simplified several times. The more complex it gets, the more the metric system helps.
Forget the simple examples. Eventually you will run into complexities that will be hard to do in your head.

2) Metric system helps everyone, the entire population. Starting from calculating a simple change for a payment, to the amount of flooring you need, to the rocket science and nuclear science stuff. Not everyone can do weird conversions (cubic inches, fluid ounces and the like) in his head so fast that it doesn't make a difference.

3) Existing info in the Owl's library is in metric. Yes, Owl could recalculate it... but what's the point in making all that science more convoluted than it needs to be?

4) Numerical system is decimal anyway. The metric system is naturally aligned with that.