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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: The good ol' U S of A
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
[x-post replying to mousethief]
Which is exactly my point. Any appearance of cuteness is a cunning trap.
Isn't everything in Australia?
Nope. Only the koalas. Oh, and the male platypuses. The snakes don't try to be cute. Wombats ARE cute, and will only try to ram you if they're scared (so Wikipedia tells me). Echidnas are cute too, though obviously not cuddly.
Kangaroos generally just vaguely look at you with mild disinterest.
[ 21. March 2013, 16:03: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Kangaroos generally just vaguely look at you with mild disinterest.
That was my experience of the girls in high school.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Kangaroos generally just vaguely look at you with mild disinterest.
That was my experience of the girls in high school.
You too?
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Being proud of what is, most often, random chance.
It is indeed a lottery of life. But some of us have won first prize.
Posts: 3613 | From: London, England | Registered: Nov 2009
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Kangaroos generally just vaguely look at you with mild disinterest.
That was my experience of the girls in high school.
Well, I've just been reading about how different species fill the same ecological niche in various parts of the globe...
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Kangaroos generally just vaguely look at you with mild disinterest.
That was my experience of the girls in high school.
You too?
Oh wait, did he say "disinterest"? I thought he said "distaste".
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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irish_lord99
Shipmate
# 16250
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Posted
Having spent a good amount of time living outside of my native US, I think I can safely say that I feel most 'at home' here, and probably will never live elsewhere again.
That said, we totally should import the metric system, dividing by 10 is so much better than 8th's, 16th's, 32nds' etc... that and calculating my truck's output of rods per hog's head of fuel gets tiresome. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Re the OP: I hear enough conservative talk radio at work to know that your talking heads think America is a pretty shit place to live too. They also think that we're doing poorly economically, and our foreign policy sucks, and basically everything is going down the toilet. They think the US is a horrible country, but of course it's still the 'best' at the same time. Somehow a single presidency seems to have destroyed the 'best and most well-founded' country of all time.
The cognitive dissonance astounds me, especially Glenn Beck: how he can spell out doom and gloom for this 'damned' country, and then turn around in the next half hour and chant the constitution while crossing himself and facing his holy wall on which hang icons of George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson.
The guy probably masturbates to an American flag.
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"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain
Posts: 1169 | From: Maine, US | Registered: Feb 2011
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by irish_lord99:
That said, we totally should import the metric system, dividing by 10 is so much better than 8th's, 16th's, 32nds' etc... that and calculating my truck's output of rods per hog's head of fuel gets tiresome.
Bah. Nobody divides recipes into 10ths. Cutting a recipe in half, or in thirds, all the time. And nobody uses rods or chains or furlongs anymore so all that is just rhetorical crap. Does anybody use decimeters and dekameters and every other name for every power of ten? If so that's a bloody lot to memorize. If not it's all a bunch of rot. The metric system is a good thing in a practical sense because it's used so widely. In an intrinsic sense, it's an inconvenient gimmick.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
1 recipe = 100%
half recipe = 50% = five-tenths
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
1/3?
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Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
who would bother to make a third of a recipe?
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
Not much of a cook, are you?
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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irish_lord99
Shipmate
# 16250
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Posted
Rods and hogsheads was a joke, MT.
That said, you ever build a house? Spend all day trying to subtract 16ths from quarters some time, or convert fractions of a foot from the blueprints into something useful. I've lived with both systems, and metric is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Posts: 1169 | From: Maine, US | Registered: Feb 2011
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irish_lord99
Shipmate
# 16250
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Posted
Oh, and as far as cooking goes, a third of a liter is a lot easier to figure than a third of a quart.
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"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain
Posts: 1169 | From: Maine, US | Registered: Feb 2011
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Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by irish_lord99:
That said, we totally should import the metric system, dividing by 10 is so much better than 8th's, 16th's, 32nds' etc... that and calculating my truck's output of rods per hog's head of fuel gets tiresome.
Bah. Nobody divides recipes into 10ths. Cutting a recipe in half, or in thirds, all the time. And nobody uses rods or chains or furlongs anymore so all that is just rhetorical crap. Does anybody use decimeters and dekameters and every other name for every power of ten? If so that's a bloody lot to memorize. If not it's all a bunch of rot. The metric system is a good thing in a practical sense because it's used so widely. In an intrinsic sense, it's an inconvenient gimmick.
If Mousethief ever ventured off the Queen's Highway in eastern Ontario into the back concessions, where everyone looks suspiciously inter-related, he would indeed hear about rods, chains, and furlongs; and where bushels and pecks are not just a phrase in a song from one's grandparents' courting days.
Still, this is a USA-related thread and I should let you all get back to it, all the while regretting that, on its foundation, the USA did not adopt the more honest name of The Lost Provinces.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
And nobody uses rods or chains or furlongs anymore so all that is just rhetorical crap.
A chain (22 yards) is the distance between the wickets on a cricket pitch. Although the word isn't used so much, the distance itself lives on around the world.
Furlongs are very much used still in horse racing.
[ 22. March 2013, 11:52: Message edited by: Anglican't ]
Posts: 3613 | From: London, England | Registered: Nov 2009
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TomOfTarsus
Shipmate
# 3053
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Posted
In the interest of Dimensional Ecumenism, I should point out that in my office (engineers), we frequently use heat transfer units such as Watts/(inch-°C). It just makes the numbers more comfortable.
But I work wood at home an would far rather use fractions than millimeters, and can quickly add them in my head. I have a machinist's text from the 1940's that says the ability to use halves, quarters, etc. is what makes the imperial system superior and is why the metric system will never be adopted in the USA (or "The Lost Colonies", thanks for that! ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif) ). But once below 1/64ths of an inch (~ .015 in. or 0.4 mm), I'm into decimals anyway, and certainly so on any drawings requiring precision machining.
Funny how we get used to things. I don't like a lot of furniture from a certain Swedish big box store in the US solely because it is metric; the proportions are different from imperial sizes and for some reason I notice it. It's quality, ease of assembly, etc, is just fine, I just don't like the proportions.
And in the end, it doesn't matter. We use a whiteboard math program here at work that allows you to perform calculations pretty much as they would be written on paper. The added bonus is that it keeps track of your units and their consistency - for instance, you can add millimeters and miles (and rods and chains and hands and barleycorns), but not millimeters and milliliters. This of course inspires my shenanigans, as I have all these oddball units defined and can occasionally provide the boss with a completely correct, but totally incomprehensible, set of results.
I'm not real good at this Hell thing.... enjoy!
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By grace are ye saved through faith... not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ... ordained that we should walk in them.
Posts: 1570 | From: Pittsburgh, PA USA | Registered: Jul 2002
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by irish_lord99:
That said, we totally should import the metric system, dividing by 10 is so much better than 8th's, 16th's, 32nds' etc... that and calculating my truck's output of rods per hog's head of fuel gets tiresome.
Bah. Nobody divides recipes into 10ths. Cutting a recipe in half, or in thirds, all the time. And nobody uses rods or chains or furlongs anymore so all that is just rhetorical crap. Does anybody use decimeters and dekameters and every other name for every power of ten? If so that's a bloody lot to memorize. If not it's all a bunch of rot. The metric system is a good thing in a practical sense because it's used so widely. In an intrinsic sense, it's an inconvenient gimmick.
Have been living in a hybrid system since the 1970s in Canada. We mix it up all the time.
Cooking? It is all in cups, ounces, tea spoons and table spoons. Distance travelled? It's all in clicks (kilometres). Height? feet and inches. Amount of snow accumulation? centimetres if a small amount, feet and inches if large. Rain tends to be in inches. Temperature? we generally understand both, but the shift is toward metric.
We buy food which has large indication by the pound, say apples. But buying some prepared sliced meat would be in grams. Beer comes in either 341 or 355 ml bottles or tin cans. It's really in the English system, relabelled as metric.
So I say, it is worth having both systems, in complete chaos, so as to represent the true state of most people's brains and the world in general. Apparently using your brain for complex thinking prevents dementia. So old Canadians will obviously be smarter than all the rest.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
Fact is, we do perfectly well with the imperial system, have always done so, and and whatever the charms of the metric system they aren't worth the effort of switching. We just don't need to know the number of quarter inches in a mile that often. Look at it as a quaint quirk instead of, as a lot of rather irritating people tend to, a searing indictment of American ignorance and xenophobia.
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
Have been living in a hybrid system since the 1970s in Canada. We mix it up all the time.
I think that's pretty much how it is in the UK (with some obvious differences to Canada - road signs are all in miles, for instance).
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
Fact is, we do perfectly well with the imperial system, have always done so, and and whatever the charms of the metric system they aren't worth the effort of switching.
I agree - after all, the Americans put a man on the moon and built a coast-to-coast railway using the imperial system, so it can't be all bad, can it?
Posts: 3613 | From: London, England | Registered: Nov 2009
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by irish_lord99:
Oh, and as far as cooking goes, a third of a liter is a lot easier to figure than a third of a quart.
Not really, by the by. 4 cups in a quart, divided by 3 equals 1 1/3 cups. It's the virtue of the imperial system. We can just make fractions and call it a day.
[ 22. March 2013, 13:45: Message edited by: Zach82 ]
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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TomOfTarsus
Shipmate
# 3053
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Posted
But in case you do, Zach82, it's 251,040 (with a comma, not a decimal point!).
I like your take... it really is just that. On a woodworking forum I've posted on, by far the longest thread they have is a metric-vs-imperial one. And guess what? The wood doesn't care!
ETA: Oh, blast it. CP'd with Anglican't and Zach82
[ 22. March 2013, 13:46: Message edited by: TomOfTarsus ]
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By grace are ye saved through faith... not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ... ordained that we should walk in them.
Posts: 1570 | From: Pittsburgh, PA USA | Registered: Jul 2002
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
If we can't live with fractions, a third of a cup is one third of 16 tablespoons, which works out to 5 1/3 table spoons, which is the very easy 5 tablespoons 1 teaspoons.
Though now we're just being masochistic.
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
I agree - after all, the Americans put a man on the moon and built a coast-to-coast railway using the imperial system, so it can't be all bad, can it?
They also crashed a spacecraft into Mars because of their inability to talk with their European colleagues.
[ 22. March 2013, 14:48: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Does anybody use decimeters and dekameters and every other name for every power of ten? If so that's a bloody lot to memorize. If not it's all a bunch of rot.
In general it's more convenient to jump 2 or 3 powers of ten, rather than just 1.
A bloody lot to memorize? Once you know what centi-, milli- and kilo- mean as prefixes, I'd say you're just about set. The same set of prefixes regardless of whether you're measuring distance, volume, mass etc etc etc, instead of having a different set of names for each type of measurement.
The whole point is that it's systematic. I'd say it's a lot easier for a new English speaker to grasp metre, centimetre, millimetre and kilometre than it is to grasp yard, foot, inch and mile.
[ 22. March 2013, 14:53: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
quote:
Originally posted by irish_lord99:
Oh, and as far as cooking goes, a third of a liter is a lot easier to figure than a third of a quart.
Not really, by the by. 4 cups in a quart, divided by 3 equals 1 1/3 cups. It's the virtue of the imperial system. We can just make fractions and call it a day.
I think you picked the wrong one to make a point with - quarts. The USA quart is a different number of American fluid ounces (16) than the Imperial quart (20), the American and Imperial systems have ounces of different sizes (29 ml versus 28 ml). We sometimes get things in American gallons in Canada, which is 3.87 L, An Imperial gallon is 4.54 L. An Imperial quart is 1.2 (approx) USA quarts and larger than a litre, and the USA quart is smaller than a litre.
This is where we might be using metric to sort out the small USA quart from the Imperial (English). If you want to be more confused, Wikipedia demonstrates the confusion.
When I cook, 2 tablespoons is 1/8 of a cup, which is the way I do small amounts. Not sure if 2 Tbsp is 1/8 of a cup in the USA or not.
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
If you want to be more confused, Wikipedia demonstrates the confusion.
Christ on a bike. If that's simpler than a system where you simply move the decimal point up and down between numbers that don't have to change because we count in base 10 in the first place, then I'm a happily married housewife named Alison who lives in Wyoming with her 3 children (one of whom is a state junior baseball representative), cross-dressing husband and a pet llama.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Christ on a bike.
How would Jesus measure anyway? I'm thinking he peddles only when he wants to.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
quote:
I think you picked the wrong one to make a point with - quarts....
Did have have the misapprehension that I was converting US quarts to British cups or something? What do liters have to do with it?
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
I agree - after all, the Americans put a man on the moon and built a coast-to-coast railway using the imperial system, so it can't be all bad, can it?
They also crashed a spacecraft into Mars because of their inability to talk with their European colleagues.
How many vehicles has your country launched into space? Landed on the moon? Mars? How many vehicles launched from Australia are reaching the farthest edges of the solar system?
[ 22. March 2013, 17:33: Message edited by: RuthW ]
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
How many vehicles has your country launched into space? Landed on the moon? Mars? How many vehicles launched from Australia are reaching the farthest edges of the solar system?
Why go to Mars when you can go to Western Australia instead?
Posts: 3613 | From: London, England | Registered: Nov 2009
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
Furlongs are very much used still in horse racing.
Well enough. But does anybody worry about converting them to anything? Indeed does anybody worry about just how long they are, except racetrack designers?
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
They also crashed a spacecraft into Mars because of their inability to talk with their European colleagues.
Or vice versa. Talking requires two parties.
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
When I cook, 2 tablespoons is 1/8 of a cup, which is the way I do small amounts. Not sure if 2 Tbsp is 1/8 of a cup in the USA or not.
Yes.
Finally, what Zach said about anti-Americanism. Times two.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Dark Knight
Super Zero
# 9415
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
I agree - after all, the Americans put a man on the moon and built a coast-to-coast railway using the imperial system, so it can't be all bad, can it?
They also crashed a spacecraft into Mars because of their inability to talk with their European colleagues.
How many vehicles has your country launched into space? Landed on the moon? Mars? How many vehicles launched from Australia are reaching the farthest edges of the solar system?
Why the fuck would we want to go there? Life's too good here.
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So don't ever call me lucky
You don't know what I done, what it was, who I lost, or what it cost me - A B Original: I C U
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Love is as strong as death (Song of Solomon 8:6).
Posts: 2958 | From: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road | Registered: Apr 2005
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
Furlongs are very much used still in horse racing.
Well enough. But does anybody worry about converting them to anything? Indeed does anybody worry about just how long they are, except racetrack designers?
I strongly suspect that the answer is 'no' to both questions. I suppose if one is interested at all in horse racing one needs to have an understanding of how long a furlong actually is, so that when the commentator says 'there are two furlongs to go' you know what sort of distance is involved.
As an aside, while looking at the Wikipedia article on furlongs, I found that - bizarrely -
Burma still uses them for road signs.
Posts: 3613 | From: London, England | Registered: Nov 2009
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
If we can't live with fractions, a third of a cup is one third of 16 tablespoons, which works out to 5 1/3 table spoons, which is the very easy 5 tablespoons 1 teaspoons.
But only if you use US cups and Tablespoons. Imperial cups (10 imperial oz, not 8 US oz)and Tablespoons are different. I have no idea whether the relationship between them is the same.
John
[ 22. March 2013, 17:58: Message edited by: John Holding ]
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
I suppose if one is interested at all in horse racing one needs to have an understanding of how long a furlong actually is, so that when the commentator says 'there are two furlongs to go' you know what sort of distance is involved.
Yes but the understanding of furlongs you get that by feel from watching many horse races is worth more than the converting it to feet many times over. That's how we get a feel for any measurement. When the sign says the next exit is 1.5 km, you don't think about how many meters that is, you have a feel for how long that will take from driving many times past signs that say something is 1.5 km away.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Christ on a bike. If that's simpler than a system where you simply move the decimal point up and down between numbers that don't have to change because we count in base 10 in the first place
And people are far too stupid to do anything else. This attitude just coddles math ignorance. It's no more difficult to divide 10 by 2 and get 5 than it is to divide 12 by 2 and get 6. The computations we have to do with measurements in every day life require multiplying or dividing by powers of ten just about zero times.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
If we can't live with fractions, a third of a cup is one third of 16 tablespoons, which works out to 5 1/3 table spoons, which is the very easy 5 tablespoons 1 teaspoons.
But only if you use US cups and Tablespoons. Imperial cups (10 imperial oz, not 8 US oz)and Tablespoons are different. I have no idea whether the relationship between them is the same.
John
This is the second time someone has made this objection. How did you get it into your head I was converting British quarts into US cups? Am I the only one that understands what proportionality is?
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
Actually, I assumed you were relating US cups (8 oz) to US TAblespoons. Since 16 US Tablespoons is indeed roughly a (US, 8oz) cup. And that was the relationship you were talking about.
I was merely pointing out that the relationship between UK cups and tablespoons was (potentially) different, given that both cups and Tablespoons are different sizes in the UK.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
I was merely pointing out that the relationship between UK cups and tablespoons was (potentially) different, given that both cups and Tablespoons are different sizes in the UK.
John
Metric tablespoons differ too. In NZ (and I think Uk) a tablespoon is 15mls whereas, according to the Australian recipe book I have a tablespoon is 20 mls.
The difference can play havoc with baking if you don't know the source of the recipe.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
Our tablespoons are 15 ml. (Or as close as makes no nevermind.)
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Jay-Emm
Shipmate
# 11411
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by orfeo:
[qb]...The computations we have to do with measurements in every day life require multiplying or dividing by powers of ten just about zero times.
If daily life includes school level calculations, then it it does in the metric system, because that's where all the unit conversion goes.
In the imperial, you either need to remember a bunch of numbers for different situations, or multiply by 172 (or potentially 4/3) or whatever before and after.
It really shows it's worth in something like calculating the gravitational force between two objects. But even in something mundane like I need to make 13, 5 oz cakes are my 4 1 lb bags of sugar enough you save a [non power of 10]calculation*
*I initially had 4oz, but that works unreasonably well in both systems. Speeds would be perfect as an daily example that really gains, if our planet wasn't so inconvenient.
[ 22. March 2013, 19:11: Message edited by: Jay-Emm ]
Posts: 1643 | Registered: May 2006
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
If daily life includes school level calculations, then it it does in the metric system, because that's where all the unit conversion goes.
Huh?
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
So America is the Great Satan on account of measuring cake mix in spoons - and possibly furlongs - which differ from other people's spoons/furlongs. ?
Damn, no wonder they're hated across two hemispheres.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jay-Emm
Shipmate
# 11411
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
If daily life includes school level calculations, then it it does in the metric system, because that's where all the unit conversion goes.
Huh?
As an example of what I mean (and indeed I do need to do around once a week in real life*)
g=9.81m/s/s
can be used in a situation that calls for km (/1000) mm (*1000)
g=32.17'/s/s
can be used in a situation that calls for ",etc... but you then you need to multiply by 12, etc...
and even in the cake situation, the equivalent of 5oz*13 becomes 5/4*100 g * 13
So the metric system does lead to multiplication by 10 occurring in real world more often than it 'ought'.
*or I could write them down.
Posts: 1643 | Registered: May 2006
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Kangaroos generally just vaguely look at you with mild disinterest.
That was my experience of the girls in high school.
You too?
Huh! You don't know how lucky you are! They nearly all liked me.
Just Not In That Way ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
[ 22. March 2013, 19:50: Message edited by: ken ]
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
are we really having an argument over units of measurement?
just can't get any decent reading around here. pathetic.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
And Americans did not build the first atom bomb in Imperial units. They used metric like everyone else. Well, not quite like everyone else, they used cgs instead of mks but you can't have everything.
American scientists tend to be sensible about these things. And they now use SI like the rest of us. Its the engineers that stick to the old units.
Its sort of quid pro quo among the great old civilisations. In the future (a future that is already here in science) every serious project anywhere in the world will use the English language to write in (and often to talk in), French units of measurement, American software & telecommunications standards (except for the Web, we did that one), and Chinese date formats. We had to leave something for the Chinese.
And I still don't get what this thread is about.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
The one that is highly curious is related to computers. Everyone assumes the metric "10" applies to them. Except that a byte is 8 bits. Thus a megabyte or gigabyte does not actually represent what it is.
The other ones that might convince us that, although metric can assist in calculations, God prefers esoteric numbers, are pi (3.14), phi (1.6) and e (2.7)**. God obviously likes us to have to calculate in complex ways or we'd have different sensible 10-based numbers built into mathematical constants of the universe.
** Hellish footnote: if you don't know these numbers, your school was crap, you didn't pay attention or you're just stupid (or all of these).
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Organ Builder
Shipmate
# 12478
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
And I still don't get what this thread is about.
When it first started, I thought moron was trying to stir the shit with the Ship's liberals. It seems to morphed into something strange and ghastly, though.
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How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.--E.F. Benson
Posts: 3337 | From: ...somewhere in between 40 and death... | Registered: Mar 2007
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