Metric and how not to use it.

cthia wrote:

Bill Woods wrote: This. And acceleration should be measured in multiples of 1 m/s^2, not of 9.8 m/s^2.

Do pardon my bold to call attention.

[Caveat] Unless latter unit provides better visualization. Sometimes, oftentimes, changing the unit of measure globally allows better recognition of patterns. Especially on something as covetous as a holo tank.

For small values, it does. "Imagine three other men your size lying on top of you...." Ooph.
But once you get past ten gees or so, no one has an intuitive feel. If you want to know the effect of acceleration on a Mk16 missile, you're going to have to calculate it -- so save yourself some trouble by getting rid of that factor of 9.8.

In Australia we converted many years ago.
I still remember an old lady on Newsreel (before general TV) complaining "Why couldn't they have waited until all the old people have died?"

Weird Harold wrote:A US Pint is 16 fluid ounces, an Imperial Pint is 20 floz.

This is true but an Imperial fluid ounce is slightly smaller than a U.S. fluid once so a U.S. pint is ~ 0.83 (rather than 0.8) Imperial pints

Bill Woods wrote:And acceleration should be measured in multiples of 1 m/s^2, not of 9.8 m/s^2.

cthia wrote:[Caveat] Unless latter unit provides better visualization. Sometimes, oftentimes, changing the unit of measure globally allows better recognition of patterns.

Bill Woods wrote: For small values, it does. "Imagine three other men your size lying on top of you...." Ooph.
But once you get past ten gees or so, no one has an intuitive feel. If you want to know the effect of acceleration on a Mk16 missile, you're going to have to calculate it -- so save yourself some trouble by getting rid of that factor of 9.8.

Especially since each planet has a different value of G; much better to be clearly independent of place.

Peregrinator wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:A US Pint is 16 fluid ounces, an Imperial Pint is 20 floz.

This is true but an Imperial fluid ounce is slightly smaller than a U.S. fluid once so a U.S. pint is ~ 0.83 (rather than 0.8) Imperial pints

And a troy ounce (used only to weigh gold, silver and gemstones) weighs ~1.1 standard ounces. And a troy pound has only 12 troy ounces, making it weigh less than a standard pound with 16 ounces.

Vince wrote:And a troy ounce (used only to weigh gold, silver and gemstones) weighs ~1.1 standard ounces. And a troy pound has only 12 troy ounces, ...

Hence the trick question, "which weighs more:
a pound of gold, or a pound of feathers?"

(A) Duh, gold's heavier.
(B) Wait! -- a pound's a pound! (Hah!)
(C) ??? (Troy pounds?)

Bill Woods wrote:For small values, it does. "Imagine three other men your size lying on top of you...." Ooph.
But once you get past ten gees or so, no one has an intuitive feel. If you want to know the effect of acceleration on a Mk16 missile, you're going to have to calculate it -- so save yourself some trouble by getting rid of that factor of 9.8.

And if you always use KPS^2 instead of switching back and forth you don't risk the occasional right value with wrong units mixup. (But hey, what's a rough order of magnitude either way among friendly forum readers )

Bill Woods wrote:

Vince wrote:And a troy ounce (used only to weigh gold, silver and gemstones) weighs ~1.1 standard ounces. And a troy pound has only 12 troy ounces, ...

Hence the trick question, "which weighs more:
a pound of gold, or a pound of feathers?"

(A) Duh, gold's heavier.
(B) Wait! -- a pound's a pound! (Hah!)
(C) ??? (Troy pounds?)

Huh. I knew about troy ounces but I'd somehow missed (or forgot) that there was also a troy pound.

Of course if your lying under them the the feathers, despite weighing about 22% more, probably cover much more area hence have lower pressure than the dense gold -- so they'd probably feel lighter.

Jonathan_S wrote:And if you always use KPS^2 instead of switching back and forth you don't risk the occasional right value with wrong units mixup. (But hey, what's a rough order of magnitude either way among friendly forum readers )

Misplacing decimal points is a old pastime on the Honorverse forums. It goes back even before the forums to the author's original text--even though many characters in the Honorverse spend time worrying over dropped decimal points.

Daryl wrote:In Australia we converted many years ago.
I still remember an old lady on Newsreel (before general TV) complaining "Why couldn't they have waited until all the old people have died?"

I wasn't aware you converted. You still measure the length of your crocs in feet. You still record how many feet are found inside of them.

Bill Woods wrote:

Vince wrote:And a troy ounce (used only to weigh gold, silver and gemstones) weighs ~1.1 standard ounces. And a troy pound has only 12 troy ounces, ...

Hence the trick question, "which weighs more:
a pound of gold, or a pound of feathers?"

(A) Duh, gold's heavier.
(B) Wait! -- a pound's a pound! (Hah!)
(C) ??? (Troy pounds?)

They both weigh 0. The feathers will blow away, the gold will be stolen

I have a very old scale that has been in the family for centuries. It is a counter balance scale. There is a counter weight of 1 avoirdupois lb (16 oz) and a counterweight of 1 troy lbs (12 oz). From 13th century England.

Counterweights. . .
There is also a tower lb
A troy lb
A London lb

And a slew of updated weights.