Metric

[David Nebenzahl]

On 9/9/2009 7:28 PM Kevin spake thus:

Easy; 6-1/6".

[Steve Turner]

When you say "10", I don't know whether you're talking binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal, or what. At least have the common courtesy to specify what number base you're using! Sheesh. :-)

[Ed Edelenbos]

Yes.

And I also think that at this point, you are acting dense for effect.

Ed

[krw]

There are 10 types of people in this world; those who can do binary arithmetic and those who can't.

[Kevin]

Yes. Got a tape/ruler that does sixths, do ya?

What happens when the calc spits out 5.2917364? Got your decimal equivalents of the 32nds all memorized, do ya?

Imperial does powers of 2 really nicely, but metric does everything equally well.

-Kevin

[Leon]

?

[notbob]

(sigh)

OK. What is it you don't understand, this time, Leon?

HINT: no one makes rules for bullet calibers, either.

nb

[Andrew Barss]

Doug Miller [e-mail] wrote: : In article <iaYpm.704984$ [e-mail]>, "Martin H. Eastburn" [e-mail] wrote: : [...] :>There were at least three metric systems. It isn't a French :>system. It is a standard - a unified German, British, French and Japanese. :>Oh - the US had people there - and they agreed. And yes :>the standard is generated in France. :>

:>It was the measure used in the bible. It is much older than :>England or Britain.

: The metric system? Used in the Bible? I don't think so.

Yeah, it's right after the section on how to write iPhone apps. Corinthians, I think.

You musta missed it somehow.

-- Andy Barss

[David Nebenzahl]

On 9/9/2009 8:02 PM J. Clarke spake thus:

Really? Can you say "TGV"? "European extremely large telescope"?

[Andrew Barss]

:>

:> Why should we change _anything_?

: Dollars are 10 based, just like metric, and it works. You seem to think is : is bizarre.

Well, it's base 10, like the metric/SAI system (actually the dollar is base 100, as witness the penny, the nickel, and the 25-cent and

50-cent pieces, none of which correspond to a power-of-ten division of a dollar).

There's two separate things in the metric/Imperial debate (aka the wrong vs. right way debate). These often get confused.

One is the numeric base. The Imperial system is a mix of base 12 and base

1. Metric is base 10. It's easier to divide Imperial units into thirds, quarters, and so on than metric; and easier to divide metric amounts by powers of 10. Both 12 and 16 have more integral divisors than 10 does, and so Imperial makes it easier, one may argue, to divide lengths and areas and so on into equal-sized parts.

The other is the relative utility/ergonomicness/intuitiveness of the size of the basic units. In metric, the basic unit is the gram and kilogram; the millimeter and meter; and so on. tghere is a 1000-fold jump between the official units.

Some people feel, and I am one of them, that these central units are clunky, too far apart in their ratios, and don't corespond to the size discriminations I find useful to make.

Money is a very different thing, in that's it's a totally abstract system, and isn't subject to the same usability constraints that physical measurement systems are.

-- Andy Barss

[Andrew Barss]

:>Ok, What ia half of 5.3 mm?

: What's 18.5" divided by 3?

What's 18.5 mm divided by 3?

-- Andy Barss, quizzical

[notbob]

...or the fact France supplies 78% of their electrical power through safe nuclear powerplants vs our shakey 18%. They were the first to isolate and identify the aids virus.

I've worked with French engineers and scientists. They have a lot of weird characteristics and some bizarre facets to their culture, but stupidity isn't in it. They're some sharp cookies when they put their minds to it.

nb

[Tom Veatch]

Nor do I. I really wouldn't use the Bible as a scientific/engineering guide. A cursory reading implies Pi = 3.000. KJV, I Kings 7: 26ff and II Chronicles 4: 2ff

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

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notbob [e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

*snip*

Beware sharp cookies. Sometimes they bite back when you bite in to them! Just stick with the safe rounded ones like homemade chocolate chip! (Yum, Yum!)

Puckdropper

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Kevin [e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It's 6.(5/3).

It's valid... just unusual. You'd probably trip up quite a few computer programs with it.

Puckdropper

[J. Clarke]

If you grew up in England then you might think it so.

So you're saying that we now live in a doctorocracy where "health care providers" get to tell us how to live our lives?

Fine. When they do then they'll vote to change the system and it will get changed. Meanwhile, get a life or take some Ritalin or do whatever you need to do in order to obtain some _PATIENCE_.

Yeah, like people walk into a car showroom and the first thing the do is pull a fastener and check the threads to see if it's metric.

You had to learn a new system in order to use Austrian made machines? What system was that, or didn't you already know metric?

Please be aware that I've been USING metric for going on 40 years. I just don't find it this totally wonderful life-improving convenience that its advocates claim it to be.

What change did they resist? Did the simply not make tooling for machinery that was becoming popular? If so that's stupidity having nothing to do with a measurement system.

I don't see where buying the tools you need is "adapting". You're making far too big a deal out of the metric system. I have tools that are English system and tools that are metric and a few that are neither. I use whichever tool I need for a job and don't really worry about it.

"Adapt" all you want to. JUST DON'T GO AROUND PASSING LAWS THAT TELL OTHER PEOPLE THAT THEY HAVE TO.

[J. Clarke]

JEEZUS, would you people get a humor transplant or something?

[J. Clarke]

Get out your reloading manual and check the bullet dimensions for the more popular of the cartridges normally described as ".38".

[Doug Miller]

The Legislature of the State of Indiana didn't do much better, four thousand years later:

[Doug Miller]

Yes. <g>