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How to get the metric system reinvented

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Re: How to get the metric system reinvented
Post by Keith_w   » Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:50 pm

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Location: Ontario, Canada

chrisd wrote: quote="Keith_w" quote="chrisd" quote="Joat42"

Found this post on a blog today, and it ties neatly into the discussion we have had here. It's written by a guy called Alessandro Rossini and IMO it's spot on.

It starts with a quote:
quote="Wild Thing by Josh Bazell"
In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to 'How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?' is 'Go f*ck yourself,' because you can't directly relate any of those quantities. /quote /quote

let's take an Imperial Gallon = 10 Lbs. of water

Room temperature, as specified minimum under the "Offices, Shops & Railway Premises Act" of 60ºF to be raised to 212ºF = 152ºF change

Total Energy required is 10 x 152 B.Th.U. = 1,520 BThU /quote

And how does that work for a US Gallon? and British Thermal Units? No thanks, let's have good old U.S.ofA Thermal units please! /quote

Not being American, but isn't your mnemonic "A Pint's a pound, the world around" which would make a US Gallon to be 8 lbs.?
(Whereas our mnemonic is "A Pint of water weight a Pound and a quarter")
Investigation suggests that the American Heat Unit you mention is the same as the BThU; to my knowledge Air conditioning units are expressed in BThU to this day in US and Asia.


I apologize for not indicating that there was, supposedly, humour involved in that post.
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A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
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Re: How to get the metric system reinvented
Post by chrisd   » Wed Mar 18, 2015 1:42 am

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Keith_w wrote:
chrisd wrote: quote="Keith_w" quote="chrisd" quote="Joat42"

Found this post on a blog today, and it ties neatly into the discussion we have had here. It's written by a guy called Alessandro Rossini and IMO it's spot on.

It starts with a quote:
quote="Wild Thing by Josh Bazell"
In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to 'How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?' is 'Go f*ck yourself,' because you can't directly relate any of those quantities. /quote /quote

let's take an Imperial Gallon = 10 Lbs. of water

Room temperature, as specified minimum under the "Offices, Shops & Railway Premises Act" of 60ºF to be raised to 212ºF = 152ºF change

Total Energy required is 10 x 152 B.Th.U. = 1,520 BThU /quote

And how does that work for a US Gallon? and British Thermal Units? No thanks, let's have good old U.S.ofA Thermal units please! /quote

Not being American, but isn't your mnemonic "A Pint's a pound, the world around" which would make a US Gallon to be 8 lbs.?
(Whereas our mnemonic is "A Pint of water weight a Pound and a quarter")
Investigation suggests that the American Heat Unit you mention is the same as the BThU; to my knowledge Air conditioning units are expressed in BThU to this day in US and Asia.


I apologize for not indicating that there was, supposedly, humour involved in that post.


Ah! "Alternative Comedy"?

or

"This is Comedy, Jim, but not as we know it"
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Re: How to get the metric system reinvented
Post by Annachie   » Wed Mar 18, 2015 4:22 am

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The simple answer is why would you risk the confusion in the middle of a war?
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You are so going to die. :p ~~~~ runsforcelery
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still not dead. :)
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Re: How to get the metric system reinvented
Post by Keith_w   » Wed Mar 18, 2015 7:19 pm

Keith_w
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Posts: 976
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:10 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

[quote="chrisd
Ah! "Alternative Comedy"?

or

"This is Comedy, Jim, but not as we know it"[/quote]

A certain important person in my life frequently looks askance at me whenever I attempt humour, often commenting that I have a strange mind/point of view. She loves me anyway. I love her too, because I figure, who else is going to put up with me?
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A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
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Re: How to get the metric system reinvented
Post by AirTech   » Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:32 am

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Annachie wrote:The simple answer is why would you risk the confusion in the middle of a war?


War is why the French did it - every town in France had a different set of length and weight measures. The metric system let the central government order goods and know what they were getting for their money. England had the advantage of already having national government defined dimensions - if a little spottily enforced (some of the British arms factories didn't agree to the governments standards till the next world (european)war (WWI)). BTW every country in Europe and most towns had a different definition of a pound and a pint.
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Re: How to get the metric system reinvented
Post by AirTech   » Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:41 am

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Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 4:37 am
Location: Deeeep South (Australia) (most of the time...)

Annachie wrote:The simple answer is why would you risk the confusion in the middle of a war?


War is why the French did it - every town in France had a different set of length and weight measures. The metric system let the central government order goods and know what they were getting for their money. England had the advantage of already having national government defined dimensions - if a little spottily enforced (some of the British arms factories didn't agree to the governments standards till the next world (european)war (WWI)). BTW every country in Europe and most towns had a different definition of a pound and a pint.
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