Metric system dumbs us down.

[svmariane]

Originally Posted by AiniA

Looking at it more broadly....

I remember buying 70 lines for $1 in the market in Ecuador.

BTW, I think the title for this thread was at least somewhat tongue in cheek.

Whoa.... You've got flat-rock serious connections there! Figure 4 lines per 1/4 gram, street price approx USD 80 per gram outside central or south America...

70 lines for a buck! Just... like wow....





(Now where's that tongue-in-cheek icon?)

[svmariane]

BTW....

Urban Dictionary: flat.rock.serious

Dude is flat-rock serious. Practical and efficient while overcoming all obstacles. Derivation: Romans built their roads with flat rocks carefully arranged and leveled so their chariots could travel longer istances, at higher speeds, for longer intervals between vehicular breakdowns/repairs.






¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[kas_1611]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

Yes, I know I've told this one before

Years ago, working as a programmer on a pipeline control system, I had to find a unit conversion: we knew the diameter of the pipeline in feet and its length in miles; we needed to calculate its volume in barrels.

ID^2/1029.4

ID in inches will give you barrels/foot so multiply by 5280 will give you barrels per mile

Oil Industry magic number

Keiron

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by StuM

Although it makes perfect sense, it is also totally irrational.

(Hands up if you understand that comment! )

Nice one, Stu!

Jim

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Catalysis

An imperial pint is 25% larger than a US pint.
However a US pint is 20% smaller than an imperial pint.

An imperial pint is indeed 25% larger than a US pint but a US pint is only 4/5ths of an imperial pint.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

An imperial pint is indeed 25% larger than a US pint but a US pint is only 4/5ths of an imperial pint.

yeah but for us capitalistic business types - our mark-up may be 33% but our gross margin is only 25%

percentages can work wonders

[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by mrm

This is a funny thread and an interesting one, in seeing as different geographies/cultures explain the same phenomena (be it in more or less hilarious way) ;-)

To me it is interesting, as the explanation of right-sided traffic I was given referred to Medieval times, where travel was never quite safe and people carried arms and shields. As most folks were/are right handed, they carried shields on their left arm and had their right arm free to handle any weapon they might have (be it a club, a sword, a knife etc.). Then, when they met a stranger on the road coming from the opposite direction and never being sure whether it was a friend or foe, they tended to keep right, to have a shield between them an the coming stranger...

In the more civilised counries they stayed on the left so they could shake hands.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by K_V_B

Why is a system that needs 5 different units of length, better than one that only uses one unit?

Most of the people that are "getting things done" use metric. It's strangely how you will not find someone who grew up in the metric system advocate for switching back to the imperial system, but you will find a lot of people who grew up in the imperial system advocating for the metric system.

I wish I had time to answer you in more depth, but, er, I have things to do. I will say only that I grew up in metric countries (Colombia and Mexico), had the metric system thoroughly forced upon me, and still acknowlege the Imperial to be better. Perhaps I am the exception that proves the rule? I am willing to believe that.

Now, five different units of length are better than one because each is used to describe distances of a different scale. Once you hear the word 'degrees' you can know that vast portions of the earth's surface are being spoken of. Hearing 'fathoms,' you know that very probably a distance less than a cable's length is being discussed. It allows for more precise communication.

I have to say, K_V_B, I admire the tenacity with which you continue to defend ever more untenable positions, both in this thread and in the other metric discussion of yesteryear. It is a joy to engage with you, sir: you do seem to know the random-est things (that paper stuff is dynamite) and the world would be a poorer place without the likes of yourself to keep us entertained.
God bless you.
Ben
zartmancruising dot com

[StuM]

Originally Posted by mrm

This is a funny thread and an interesting one, in seeing as different geographies/cultures explain the same phenomena (be it in more or less hilarious way) ;-)

To me it is interesting, as the explanation of right-sided traffic I was given referred to Medieval times, where travel was never quite safe and people carried arms and shields. As most folks were/are right handed, they carried shields on their left arm and had their right arm free to handle any weapon they might have (be it a club, a sword, a knife etc.). Then, when they met a stranger on the road coming from the opposite direction and never being sure whether it was a friend or foe, they tended to keep right, to have a shield between them an the coming stranger...

Funny, I heard the exact opposite. Swords were a lot more common than shields for travellers. People on horseback tended to keep left so that their sword arm was on the side of the approaching horseman.

[michaelratinter]

[QUOTE=CaptTom;2347461]

Example: Cup, pint, half-gallon, quart, gallon. Easy.

/QUOTE]

Half-gallon is 1 pottle.

Don't leave out the pottle!

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Benz

I'd like to see how this plays out on paper. Can you link to a drawing?

Try this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...le_radians.gif

So where do "grads" come in? If the 'rad' is standard, where does that leave the other? If I see two circles divided, one by rad and one by grad, how do I tell which one is which? Is there a standard label?

Radians are usually not labelled, so if you see an angle which is not followed by "°" or "g" or "mils" then you can assume it is in radians.

Is there such a thing as a milligrad? a kilograd? a Leningrad? (that would be a Russian circle )

There are centigrads but since there are 40,000 of them in a circle, there is not much point in trying to divide them further.

Can I, using only a ruler, divide a circle into correct grads or rads like I can into degrees?

How do you divide a circle into degrees with just a ruler? Normally it takes a compass as well.

But if you can do it in one system of units, you can do it the same in another.

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by svmariane

Whoa.... You've got flat-rock serious connections there! Figure 4 lines per 1/4 gram, street price approx USD 80 per gram outside central or south America...

70 lines for a buck! Just... like wow....





(Now where's that tongue-in-cheek icon?)

Got me, it was limes, but the bigger ones were 40 per dollar.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Jason Flare

Are you saying someone said, "Let's make the yard 0.9144 the length of a meter?"

Or, words to that effect.

Yes, that's exactly what they did.

[Jason Flare]

Originally Posted by StuM

Yes, that's exactly what they did.

Cite.

[Jason Flare]

Wait. I get it.

They invented the meter and had the yard sitting around and said, How are we going to plug the yard into the meter. And everyone said, "Well the yard is .9144 of the meter."

Are you the word game guy in the math department?

Riddle me this, "Which came first, the foot or the meter?"