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Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 15:20
by pintle
You should try working in a brewery where imput is measured in metric terms (aside from the malt/hops which are measured imperially), and the output/sales is measured in pints and gallons.

Calculating % waste is not very much fun.

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 18:19
by rattle
"HEY I'M 5'7 ft AND WEIGHT AROUND 180 LBS/13 ST"
Yeah right. Just abandon the imperial system already, it's mostly useless.

Re: Countries which have not adopted the metric system

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 19:25
by TradeMark
quantum wrote:The 12 hour clock is not so bad. 12 can be divided by 3 and 2. Convenient.
3x8 hour shifts instead of 3x6 hours, 66 minutes shifts.
I do not understand what are you talking about. I just ment AM/PM system sucks... which is called as 12 hour clock. and IT IS BAD, and it TAKES EXTRA SPACE. IT IS UNLOGICAL also. i dont understand it, i always mix that where AM starts of where PM starts, its just fucked up logic. nonsense.

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 19:29
by Neddie
Illogical, not "unlogical" - oh, and it isn't actually illogical. It is, however, unintuitive.

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 19:30
by PauloMorfeo
:shock: UK changed to the metric system??????????????????? I had no idea...

When did that hapen?

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 19:38
by Neddie
Not sure. They still had some weapons in inches during the second world war, but those might just have been hold-overs.

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 19:41
by Relative
"In the UK, which is still in the process of changing over completely, Fahrenheit is almost never encountered (except when talking about hot summer weather) while other metric units are often used interchangeably with older measurements, and road signs use miles rather than kilometres. Such countries could be said to be "semi-metric"."

~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metricatio ... on_process

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 20:17
by Cabbage
neddiedrow wrote:Not sure. They still had some weapons in inches during the second world war, but those might just have been hold-overs.
It was well into the post war era that we went metric.. err started going metric

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 20:29
by Neddie
Cabbage wrote:
neddiedrow wrote:Not sure. They still had some weapons in inches during the second world war, but those might just have been hold-overs.
It was well into the post war era that we went metric.. err started going metric
Good to know.

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 23:38
by Lindir The Green
I like the whole multiplying-and-dividing-by 10 thing, but I much prefer feet to meters and Farenheight to Celsius and lbs to kgs.

I especially would never give up Farenheight for standard "what's the temperature outside today" use. It's just so much more convenient to know that 100 degrees is very hot and 0 degrees is very cold, than it is with Celsius where very cold is... like... -15? And very hot is like... 40-50? And plus with Farenheight you get more accuracy when you say that the high will be in the 80s today.

Celsius makes more sense scientifically, but who cares. We already use it for science.

Posted: 21 Jun 2007, 23:55
by Caydr
Re: "metric system isn't easier if you're unfamiliar with it" and "one system isn't better than the other". Everyone but you and a couple third-world, undeveloped countries disagree.

How many inches in a foot? 12. Ok, not hard. How many inches in a mile? How many feet in a mile? How many yards?

Uh huuhhh... Not even people "familiar" with the imperial system know the answers off the top of their head.

I'll give you a quick tip: Add and remove zeros. Woot you've just learned how to convert everything metric.

How many centimeters in a kilometre? There are 100 centimetres in a meter, and 1000 meters in a kilometre. Therefore, there are 100x1000, or 100,000. Kilo means "thousand", "mega" means million, "giga" means billion... like in computers. "Milli" means thousandth, "micro" means millionth, "nano" means billionth... etc.

Also it's interesting to know that (almost?) everything in the metric system is based on real-world, observable things that are part of the unalterable physical universe. Refer to the all-knowing Wikipedia for examples.

That said, I have no idea how tall I am in CM and I only know how much I weigh in KG by dividing my LBs by 2 ^^

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 00:56
by Tobi
+1

Just convert 13 psi to lbf/squared foot and then convert 13 MPa to 13 Pa and see what's easier in a decimal numbering system.

Or derive the unit to be used for density in a consistent system of units in SI (Nms) and a ft/inch based system.

Or derive some common physics / whatever science law and see in which system you get arbitrary constants or inconsistent units and in which system you get no arbitrary constants.

The only reason the imperial system is still alive is that there are people alive that have been taught to use it.

I mean (Fahrenheit has nothing to do with imperial system I think, but this is an example), how is it easier to to express temperatures in Fahrenheit as opposed to Celsius? It isn't. Since "hot" and "cold" are subjective, you can't say Fahrenheit is more logical then Celsius since it defines really cold as 0 and really hot as 100 or something (I definitely find Celsius easier since it's quite cold at 0 and really hot at 50, as a counterexample ;-)), it's just easier because you are used to it.

For all practical purposes and objective comparisons Celsius and the SI system are clearly superior. :twisted:

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 01:35
by Caydr
Celsius: 0 means water freezes, 100 means water boils. So don't go swimming unless it's right in the middle, or you might lose something important.

It's unfortunate there's no good way to work "absolute zero" temperature into the celsius system... Now we all gotta convert to kelvin an' stuff... :cry:

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 05:52
by Muzic
Caydr wrote:Celsius: 0 means water freezes, 100 means water boils. So don't go swimming unless it's right in the middle, or you might lose something important.

It's unfortunate there's no good way to work "absolute zero" temperature into the celsius system... Now we all gotta convert to kelvin an' stuff... :cry:
Yeah but only scientists and what not would use that scale. Its not as if id be cooking stuff any time soon with a Kelvin thermometer.

ZOMGZ!!!!!! I PUT MY MESSAGE IN TEH SUBJECT BOX!!!!!! HAX

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 09:07
by LOrDo

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 11:38
by KDR_11k
Celsius is easy: Above 0 it rains, below 0 it snows.

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 12:16
by Relative
KDR_11k wrote:Celsius is easy: Above 0 it rains, below 0 it snows.
Not exactly, it also depends upon pressure. What you said is only correct at sea level pressures. For example, at higher altitudes such as on a mountain snow can occur at higher temperatures.

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 12:26
by hunterw
Caydr wrote:Celsius: 0 means water freezes, 100 means water boils. So don't go swimming unless it's right in the middle, or you might lose something important.

It's unfortunate there's no good way to work "absolute zero" temperature into the celsius system... Now we all gotta convert to kelvin an' stuff... :cry:
kelvin uses the same unit intrevals, so converting to kelvin is as easy as subtracting 273.5

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 16:38
by KDR_11k
Relative wrote:
KDR_11k wrote:Celsius is easy: Above 0 it rains, below 0 it snows.
Not exactly, it also depends upon pressure. What you said is only correct at sea level pressures. For example, at higher altitudes such as on a mountain snow can occur at higher temperatures.
For outside temperature purposes it's accurate enough.

Posted: 22 Jun 2007, 16:44
by Ishach
>20 one shirt
<20 two shirts