It was fifty years ago today (well, yesterday)

When supermarkets started selling loose items by metric rather than imperial weight, Tesco initially put up signs saying that you could now only *ask* for items in grammes rather than ounces. There was lots of guff about "which is easier to say - an ounce or 28 grammes", but that rather missed the point. When you ask for "four ounces of boiled ham" you don't mean "exactly four ounces, to three decimal places". You mean "about 4 ounces - add slices until it's either just under or just over". And on that basis, you wouldn't ask for "113 grammes" (the exact equivalent). You'd ask for the nearest round number in that measurement system - 100, 120, 150 grammes or whatever.

I'm old enough (58) that I was taught (parents, grandparents, primary school) imperial rather than metric as my "folk units" - for everyday use. I know my height in feet and inches, and my weight in stones and pounds, whereas I don't know them in the metric equivalent. I estimate and judge in imperial - "it's about ten feet away". But I always measure in metric, for ease of calculation. And for me, ease of calculation is *far* more important than whether the units are "human-sized". The only change I'd make to the metric system is to make the base units for measurement the centimetre (ie give that distance the simple name "metre") to avoid the multiple syllables of "centimetre" for the human-size unit. Or else invent a new, single-syllable name for the centimetre.

I'd also make it a hanging offence (!) to pronounce kilometre (KILLoMETre) as "kill-OMMi-TAH" ;-) That really gets my goat, because the "folk" pronunciation is different to that of every other SI unit and SI prefix: MIcro, MILLi, KILo, MEGa, and SEcond, MEtre, FARad, AMPere. The only exception I can think of immediately is becquerel - and that's because it's his name. It's amusing to hear scientist-presenters such as Brian May. They switch between the two pronunciations, sometimes in the same sentence: evidently the director has said "pronounce it the popular way" and they usually remember but sometimes instinctively revert to the scientific pronunciation.

Reply to
NY
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i was taught that it was blood heat.

Reply to
charles

IOW, not arbitrary. Unlike the metre, which *is* arbitrary.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Absolutely not. One 40 millionth of the earths circumference measured by a Frenchmen?s in Paris, or summat

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

As I said, arbitrary.

Reply to
Tim Streater

0K is absolute zero, where all movement (at the atomic level) ceases - approximately -273.15°C. so the triple point of water (about 0.01°C) is approximately 273.16K.
Reply to
Steve Walker

Wrong.

Reply to
Tim Streater

It was blood heat. Blood heat and the freezing point of a saturated Sodium Chloride solution were, in Fahrenheit's time, pretty good candidates for fixed points.

Later on Fahrenheit's scale was crunched to make 9 Fahrenheit degrees equal to 5 Celsius degrees. Hence 98.<whatever> °F

Poor Fahrenheit - first plagiarised, and then run over by a JCB...;)

PA

Reply to
Peter Able

Nope, it was originally a ten millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole by the great circle route and is now how far light travels in a second in a vacuum.

Reply to
Fred

Light travels at 1 metre/sec? Gosh - who knew!

Reply to
Tim Streater

Depends on the medium.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

Just as true of the ones you claim arent arbitrary.

Reply to
Fred

There you go again! Remarkable.

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

But a pint costs £3.

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

Does that apply to all substances then?

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

Or that mountain in Africa, Killer Manjaro. Or wasn't that a Mexican bandit?

Bill

Reply to
williamwright

maybe in Yorkshire, but down here it will probably be a fiver when they open again.

Reply to
charles

only to substances with a density of 1 g/cm3 or 1000 kg/m3 :-)

Reply to
S

No "Degrees" of K, just K

Reply to
John Rumm

But that is the American practice, here it would be the larger dimension first, so 4x2

Reply to
John Rumm

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