Posted on 05/15/2006 10:41:02 AM PDT by Junior
>>We have metric in Canada
If you head toward Canada you'll see signs with distances in both units: Montreal 100 mi./160 km
and of course once you cross the border, there are reminders
that speed limits are in metric (km per hr)
For a few years I remember TV and radio stations doing temps in both styles but after awhile, US stuck to just Imperial.
(And digital bank thermometers would give temps in both styles
but other than maybe up nr the Canadian border, that has
also stopped, from what I can see)
And yup, your US bought car does have the km per hour
in small print under the mph. (I don't have a digital readout on my speedometer but I assume they have a button you press which would give you km p.h. etc.)
One reason, America still leads aerospace. And there is a HELL of a lot of data in Imerialist Dog units. God Bless US!
Yes, but we're illiterate in two systems.
SD
Are you sure the Doctor didn't mean that he was half stoned? :-)
"There's something intuitive about measuring force as being analogous to mass (not so with Newtons and Kg)"
Intuitive maybe, but wrong. Force and mass are two entirely different things, as I'm sure you're aware. A unit like a lb(mass) or Kg(force) is an ambomination as far as I'm concerned.
Exactly. Halving and doubling are really possible and practical tasks. If I gave you a pile of flour or a container of water and asked you to divide it into 8, this would be a lot easier than dividing it into 10.
SD
Remember, football is a game of centimeters?
That is possible. It was the 60's.
But his handwriting is clear as day: "1/2 stone" under "weight."
I make my daughters mad by giving weight in stones.
(For those who do not not, a stone is 14 pounds.)
But highly useful abominations. Real life tends to intrude on the perfection of idealized systems. Nearly every item in the grocery store gives the weight in pounds and the mass in grams as equivalents.
SD
"Exactly. Halving and doubling are really possible and practical tasks. If I gave you a pile of flour or a container of water and asked you to divide it into 8, this would be a lot easier than dividing it into 10."
So why doesn't a foot have 16 inches, or a yard 4 feet? Ok, ok, I know that 12 is a good number because it can be divided evenly in so many ways. But that's the whole system - an inconsistent mish-mash of multiples that confuses the heck out of most people. Then again, most people probably can't understand the metric system, either. Let's face it, most people just aren't that bright ;)
I was in Saudi recently. We had some Norweigian engineers with us. Never been to the desert before and were worried about the temp.
We were talking about the weather --- going to be 110 (F, of course) outside.
They were in a complete state of panic until they figured out we were talking F. Then they still freaked because it was too hot for them.
in for a penny, in for a pound
And communists have sex, too.
That being said, even in the sciences, there are different units used in different disciplines. Metric, acually known as SI units (Systeme Internationale - yes, the metric system was officially named by the French) can be broken into the 'kilogram-meter-seconds' and the 'gram-centimeter-second' subdivisions, plus all the esoteric units derived from those two systems!
It is much easier to calculate using the metric system.
There were 12 Apostles. ;-)
SD
Exactly, both systems are intuitive to people who grew up with them. I'm a little in-between because it changed over when I was about 8 or 9. But I know without the need for any mental conversions that 30 is verging on uncomfortably warm and 35 is uncomfortable, and 40 is pretty much unbearable (for a northern boy like me, anwyay, LOL).
"With the exception of two or three liter soda bottles, I've done fine without it."
If you are an engineer like I am, the English system is impossible.
You're right, actually, I'm lucky to have a background in both systems. And when I studied engineering we were force to work problems in both system, sometimes even with mixed units.
The MKS system does result in some rather useless units - like the Pascal, for example. One Pascal is a ridiculously small unit of pressure, so that you end up having to use kiloPascals for just about everything in the real world. Of course you could say the same thing about the kilogram, which is so commonly used that it is considered a unit in its own right.
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