I don't get it, why is metric better?

Aug 05, 2016 514 Replies

On 08/08/2016 1:01 PM, graham wrote: ...

Hmmm....perhaps but there really certainly wasn't much in the way of any hill in the area I was aware of--it's all pretty much flat as W KS (altho a _whole lot_ greener :) ) that I saw...it's not but a few miles to the channel. I know the peninsula it's in between the two river mouths was also "Hoo" just wondered the origin...lacking a better explanation, guess this one'll do as good as any! :)

Doesn't look like with the "war on coal" currently going on there'll be any further development on the pulverized coal-flow instrumentation we were developing/testing there and I've pretty-much given up the tech consulting gig being back on the family farm so doubt I'll get back over there again...was very enjoyable/educational; had four trips iirc and managed to take at least some extra time with each...including a motoring trip across the middle off all the main roads to "The North" and on up as far as Edinborough and then swing back down the west side to get back to London for the flight home...no preset itinerary, just found B&B's along the way and puttered.

"Give him an inch and he'll take an ell!"

On 08/08/2016 12:39 PM, Leon wrote: ...

Yeah, "I feel a lot better now..."

dpb wrote in news:noa4t7$k62$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Unfortunately very likely, and, as I said, a common source of error.

While IEEE-754 defines an exact floating point equivalent for integers, not everything abides by IEEE-754. So while your PC is likely to get int 1 == float 1.0 correct, an embedded processor (like the one in your cell phone) may not.

Mixing ints and floats gets a lot of programmers that are new to embedded processors in trouble.

John

ROTFL

I put 45 minutes in out in the shop. Now I am waiting for the sun to stop shining inside.

I can understand your frustration about the "war" as I consult to the oil industry and often work on projects from the Alberta Oil Sands, as I will be later this week.

..was very enjoyable/educational; had four trips iirc and

I go back every year and enrich the trip by going on cycling holidays in France with my b-i-l. I left the UK in 1971 and there's no way I would ever go back to live. It's a foreign country to me now. Graham

Post whatever numbers you feel happy with. I still choose my HP50g's answer over yers. FWIW, my calculus intructor would side with me. ;)

nb

Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Size and volume are different things too. Each pile might be

17 and 1/7 apples (which would imply someone went to a lot of trouble to cut up an apple to make the piles equal).

John

BTW, 20 oz. is approx. 0.591 liters, so making a 0.6 liter product would be very little difference.

notbob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

I would like the answer in moles, please.

John

It depends on the number. Anywhere from zero on up as far as you care to go.

On 08/08/2016 2:05 PM, graham wrote: ...

Kewl...I presume current oil prices aren't helping there, either; it and the glut of NG that's the byproduct of enhanced oil production technologies besides the oil have essentially completely shut down any work at all around here...to the point Halliburton closed the local field office, moved out and has the facility up for sale.

...

Well, the US is turning into that as well for us it seems...or at the very least we've got a crowd in control seemingly determined to do so. :(

On 08/08/2016 2:01 PM, John McCoy wrote: ...

Which is again yet an entirely different problem (and certainly even raising floating point in the thread is/was totally a red herring).

But, it goes w/o saying, GIGO as far as results.

Only when counting objects, not when measuring. You can have precisely two boards, but it is highly unlikely that you would have a board that is "infinitely precisely" two yards long. Q. How long is a 72 1/2 inch board to the nearest yard? A. 2 yards.

2 yards is NOT an infinitely precise measure of the board. To three significant digits, the board is 2.01 yards long.

Well, I've not gone back out after dinner...it's only 90F but dewpoint is 70F (almost unheard of for us in August but it's rarely been out of the 60s most of the summer except for just a few days this year) and hardly a breath of wind for any relief at all. Not as bad as Houston or DC or even E TN, but we're just not used to this... :)

I do need to get out and do some stuff in the shop while the field work is at a standstill though...there may be enough air moving in the barn to be able to stand it for a while...

I think I need the molecular breakdown of sed apples.

That or my math has gone to pot. ;)

nb

It depends on what you're doing. If you are counting discrete objects (1 apple) you are correct. But if you are measuring something, those two zeroes mean a lot. 1 pound of apples (leaving off the decimal) could actually be 0.95 pounds of apples, or 1.05 pounds of apples.

I give up. How many moles in an apple?

I know there's a joke in there, somewhere, but I'm not a comedian. Perhaps you could ask a rodent comedian. ;)

nb

On 08/08/2016 2:11 PM, John McCoy wrote: ...

(A mole of moles...)

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