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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 14, 2012
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hedwards: with Celsius you routinely end up being in negative territory without it being particularly cold.
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kavazovangel: What the ...?
Hedwards has been talking bullshit this entire thread, why should that particular snippet be more WTF that the rest of what he's said.
Post edited March 14, 2012 by Tormentfan
Posted March 14, 2012
Ah, this type of thread - the thread where everyone rabidly defends the measurement systems they grew up with because it's familiar to them.

By the way, the ISO standard for dates is YYYY-MM-DD, where it would still be pi day.
Posted March 14, 2012
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hedwards: What's funny is that you seem to think that metric is better than imperial. The fact is that unless you're a scientist there's very little reason to use metric over imperial measures. What's more imperial does have a few advantages such as being more suited to fractions and not requiring one to go into negative territory just because it's slightly below freezing.
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bazilisek: I always thought this was a strange argument. I don't know about you, but for me it's much easier in my head to go 0.25 + 0.33 = 0.58, which I can find on a metric ruler pretty easily and quite accurately, than 1/4 + 1/3, that's... 3/12 + 4/12 = 7/12, which is... a bit more than a half?

I'm not mocking the Americans for using their system (I understand changing it at this point would be quite complicated), but claiming the system is better in any way is just ridiculous. The system is better because you are used to it, end of story. Metric is more logical and infinitely better for any exact, scientific applications, as is the Celsius scale. You can't possibly deny that. When it comes to practical everyday use, of course it doesn't really matter. Neither of the two systems is better there.
Except you're basing your view on your experience. I've used the metric system when I was in college. Right now I live in a country that does things with the metric system and quite frankly it's not a better system for day to day living.

And no, it's not anymore exact than the imperial system is, we use fractions for that and I've never come across a situation where I had to pull out a metric ruler because I couldn't measure what I need to measure. For specialty applications I've seen tape measures that are read off in tenths of feet.

And yes, the advantages I listed are advantages. They aren't hugely significant, but you're being daft if you can't acknowledge them.
Posted March 14, 2012
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bazilisek: Stop shouting and tell me how is "2 in" better than "5 cm" when used in colloquial speech (as in "there's a hole in the wall, and it's about two inches/five cm big"). Because all I'm saying is that both are perfectly interchangeable.
I wonder how are they going to express 948371 nanometers in imperial.

1/4 of the 1/9 of the 1/3 of the 1/7 of the 1/2 of the 1/178 of the...

(okay, I was just joking :D)
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PoSSeSSeDCoW: Ah, this type of thread - the thread where everyone rabidly defends the measurement systems they grew up with because it's familiar to them.

By the way, the ISO standard for dates is YYYY-MM-DD, where it would still be pi day.
Lies! Metric is for smart people. Imperial is for Americans.

(joking hahahha :D)
Post edited March 14, 2012 by kavazovangel
Posted March 14, 2012
No mention of Tau yet?:)
Posted March 14, 2012
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kavazovangel: What the ...?
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Tormentfan: Hedwards has been talking bullshit this entire thread, why should that particular snippet be more WTF that the rest of what he's said.
No, I haven't said anything in any of my posts here which wasn't factually correct. 0 degrees Fahrenheit is pretty cold, 0 Celsius just means that you need to wear a proper coat.

I realize that most of the people posting in this thread are pretty ignorant about the imperial system of measure, but some of the claims being made by others are pretty outrageous.

Then again, I'm sure I'm the one that's been talking bullshit, because it's not like I didn't spend 4 years in college measuring everything in SI units and now live in a country that uses the metric system.
Posted March 14, 2012
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hedwards: Except you're basing your view on your experience.
Except you're completely ignoring what I have written.
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hedwards: Right now I live in a country that does things with the metric system and quite frankly it's not a better system for day to day living.
Acknowledged in my post.
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hedwards: And no, it's not anymore exact than the imperial system is, we use fractions for that and I've never come across a situation where I had to pull out a metric ruler because I couldn't measure what I need to measure. For specialty applications I've seen tape measures that are read off in tenths of feet.
I've never said imperial is less exact. Of course you can use imperial units with any degree of precision you like. That's not the point at all.
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hedwards: And yes, the advantages I listed are advantages. They aren't hugely significant, but you're being daft if you can't acknowledge them.
You haven't listed any except the fact that imperial rulers usually divide inches into fractions instead of decimals. Which can be an advantage for some applications, but clearly is a disadvantage for others.

(I'm not going to address the negative temperatures thing, as that is just silly.)
Post edited March 14, 2012 by bazilisek
Posted March 14, 2012
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hedwards: We won't be. The US was one of the few countries with a workable system of measure prior to the introduction of the metric system. Additionally, the scale of the job it would take to phase out the customary measurements and phase in metric ones would be nigh insurmountable.

We do use metric for some things like medication, some cars and softdrinks, but imagine how far Europe would have been down the road if they hadn't gotten to build from scratch and had to do it at once.
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Tormentfan: You make it sound as if American's claim right of invention for the imperial measurement.. I fucking hope you're kidding, or that I've misread you.
You're misreading it. If you read it again I made it perfectly clear that the US wasn't the only one, it's just that the others abandoned the metric system as well. The UK had to change the laws to prevent people from continuing with the imperial measures. Something which wouldn't have been necessary had the system of measure not worked.
Posted March 14, 2012
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uchos: I thought UK already did, was I wrong?
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Ubivis: Yes, they use normal date format, but still lack in driving on the right side of the street or use the proper meter index :)
Considering that Britain had the first 'cars' on the road that pretty much says that it's Europe that's wrong.
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Tormentfan: Hedwards has been talking bullshit this entire thread, why should that particular snippet be more WTF that the rest of what he's said.
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hedwards: No, I haven't said anything in any of my posts here which wasn't factually correct. 0 degrees Fahrenheit is pretty cold, 0 Celsius just means that you need to wear a proper coat.

I realize that most of the people posting in this thread are pretty ignorant about the imperial system of measure, but some of the claims being made by others are pretty outrageous.

Then again, I'm sure I'm the one that's been talking bullshit, because it's not like I didn't spend 4 years in college measuring everything in SI units and now live in a country that uses the metric system.
I'll reitterate a previous comment.. WTF???

Zero celsius.. freezing point of water....of course there is colder.. but the point at which you get ice on the streets can be acurately and commonly reffered to as a base point.

You statement is coming at the issue with it's head up it's arse.
Post edited March 14, 2012 by Tormentfan
Posted March 14, 2012
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Ubivis: Yes, they use normal date format, but still lack in driving on the right side of the street or use the proper meter index :)
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Tormentfan: Considering that Britain had the first 'cars' on the road that pretty much says that it's Europe that's wrong.
UK is driving on the left side, and rest of europe on the right side.

Just read it loud and you will notice, we do drive on the right side ;)

And the first "real" car was made in switzerland ;)
Posted March 14, 2012
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PoSSeSSeDCoW: Ah, this type of thread - the thread where everyone rabidly defends the measurement systems they grew up with because it's familiar to them.

By the way, the ISO standard for dates is YYYY-MM-DD, where it would still be pi day.
ISO.. is this yet another American thing where they change the terminolgy used to describe a thing because it isn't intrinsically American?.. Just like you insist in calling GMT, UMT because at least that term you can lay claim to?
Posted March 14, 2012
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Ubivis: And the first "real" car was made in switzerland ;)
China.
Posted March 14, 2012
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PoSSeSSeDCoW: Ah, this type of thread - the thread where everyone rabidly defends the measurement systems they grew up with because it's familiar to them.

By the way, the ISO standard for dates is YYYY-MM-DD, where it would still be pi day.
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Tormentfan: ISO.. is this yet another American thing where they change the terminolgy used to describe a thing because it isn't intrinsically American?.. Just like you insist in calling GMT, UMT because at least that term you can lay claim to?
Heh. You should really do research before you put your foot in your mouth again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization

Also, I've never heard of UMT. Maybe you mean UTC which is, once again, an international standard.
Post edited March 14, 2012 by PoSSeSSeDCoW
Posted March 14, 2012
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Tormentfan: Considering that Britain had the first 'cars' on the road that pretty much says that it's Europe that's wrong.
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Ubivis: UK is driving on the left side, and rest of europe on the right side.

Just read it loud and you will notice, we do drive on the right side ;)

And the first "real" car was made in switzerland ;)
The first steam engine was produced by a jesuit priest in China as a toy for the Emperor... the designs then went through MANY stages with the better being done in France, but didn't take off because of impracticality.

The innovations then switched to Imperial britain 1784 had a full sized transit vehicle,. but not street worthy until 1801 and by 1865 we actually had the first laws governing autolocomotive usage on the roads, because of these laws innovation switched to steam trains and the US took up the slack on car design.

Switzerland doesn't even figure anywhere in the evolution of auto locomotive design... they 'may' have dicked around with steam designs at some point, just like everyone else, but they certainly can't be considered a progenitor.


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Tormentfan: ISO.. is this yet another American thing where they change the terminolgy used to describe a thing because it isn't intrinsically American?.. Just like you insist in calling GMT, UMT because at least that term you can lay claim to?
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PoSSeSSeDCoW: Heh. You should really do research before you put your foot in your mouth again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization

Also, I've never heard of UMT. Maybe you mean UTC which is, once again, an international standard.
I stand corrected.. UTC is what I should have written... but 'international' standard it certainly isn't... I've ONLY ever heard the term pushed by Americans.
Post edited March 14, 2012 by Tormentfan
Posted March 14, 2012
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PoSSeSSeDCoW: Ah, this type of thread - the thread where everyone rabidly defends the measurement systems they grew up with because it's familiar to them.
I know both I still hate imperial measures I can use pounds and ounces I can use grammes and kilo's hell I can even use the american cup system if I have to (and that is honestly the WORST way to measure things like flour it's a radically different amount depending on if you shook the bag first or left it compressed)
In general I prefer the metric system I don't have to worry about freaking fractions every time I'm working something out and don't have to work in base 12,16,18 or any of the other bases imperial uses.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)3/14(101 posts)(101 posts)
(101 posts)