|
|
Everyone knows the metric system is better and easier, the problem is the amount of time and effort It would take for the US to adjust. Too many people, including myself, don't want to go through the effort of having to relearn measurements.
|
|
On July 07 2010 06:16 101TFP wrote:You think you know which way to write a date is right? You disagree with the metric or the imperial system? You have an important opinion on whether or not Fahrenheit is a flawed unit to measure temperatures? Then this thread right here is the place for your argument. Please refrain from discussing these topics anywhere else on tl.net. Thank you. + Show Spoiler [click if you need a jumpstart] + The imperial system is far superior to any other system because i know how long a foot is.
Writing a date YDM is the best way because a year is bigger than a month. and days are inside months.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit based his system on the temperature of a fart in a moderately heated room being 100 °F
Discuss!
If you grow up not using imperial system how would you know how long a foot is? Are your feet both 12" in length?
|
Tradition is a terrible reason to do anything and the imperial system is no exception. It's really frustrating in the school systems too because science relies on metric. So much time is wasted teaching the metric system again and again so people can actually do science experiments. If people just started out on metric it'd probably be easier to get kids interested in science.
Anyways you can't just switch and it's hard to transition, but people also blow it out of proportion. It's not like it hasn't been done before or anything. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication
|
Well everyone uses DD/MM/YYYY here so you have to do the same.
Scientific stuff: metric, everyday use: mix of both. Again, that's what everyone here does.
The only time I remember seeing Fahrenheit is when we were writing programs to convert it to Celsius.
|
Use metric for science. Because you need to be accurate
Use imperial for everyday use. Because who gives a shit how vague it is.
And wasn't 100F the temperature of freshly-squeezed pig's blood or something?
|
The only beef I have with the Imperial System is that there are 5280 ft in one mile.
I mean, why can't we just use nice and normal 1s and 0s.
|
imperial system takes more skill
|
To be honest, it's all semantics unless you're looking at it from an industrial/engineering point of view. Each industry has its standards, and even when there is collaboration between countries - there's generally consensus on which units are to be utilized anyway. I'm in petroleum engineering and a ton of countries use US Oilfield Units (psi, millidarcy, STB, and centipoise). I've heard from aerospace engineering students that the metric system is used primarily in that particular industry (NASA included I believe).
|
This is one of the most funny threads i seen in my life ;D On topic: the metric system is best because it makes sense. Also people shouldn't be so afraid of giving up a piece of culture for convenience. It's just silly, all countrys should learn english as a second language (preferably english since it's so wiedly used)!
|
On July 07 2010 06:22 Barrin wrote: Writing a date MM/DD/YY is the best way because that's the way most people in the US already do it. Again, no sense in confusing everyone now for potentially slightly more smoothness later.
I am often confused by MDY dates. Not very surprisingly as DMY is what basically everyone uses in Germany.
Both Fahrenheit and Celsius are worse than Kelvin. Well, Kelvin is a bit unpleasant for everyday use (the temperature today is 291K?), but only the unit 1K is arbitray, the 0 sits at a proper place, while both Fahrenheit and Celsius are completely arbitrary.
The foot is a horrible unit; not even a single person's feet are equally long. I prefer units that don't suggest that they are related to real objects when they are completely arbitrary.
And while we're at it I suggest that we define a base length via quantum physics, and based on that and the speed of light in vacuum we can define a new unit for time etc. Then we use a decimal or even better binary/hexadecimal system to deal with larger units. 2^n is much nicer than 10^n.
|
|
how can fahrenheit be flawed but not celcius, when fahrenheit is just a linear transformation of it
anyway I think kelvin scale is the best, since 0 is the coldest possible temperature and goes upward from there
|
What's the definition of a centimeter? What's the definition of a liter? What's special about the triple-point and boiling point of water?
The only thing special about the metric system is its base-10, not base-crazy-ass-bastard.
|
Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second
Well a foot = The length of something of something thats gone long time ago
What is most useful? Like can i be in Canada, UK, or Uganda and find out how much a meter is? YES because its universal and can be found in any laboratory.
But imagine we forgot how much a foot was, we couldnt figure out how much it was again.
Anyways How would you define a newton in imperical system? (with imperical units) o.0 LOL
|
Eh, even in the U.S. once you've taken some kind of science class you wish everyone were using metric instead of customary.
Like the hell is a foot-pound? A Joule is so much nicer...
|
As a mathematician living in America...
I cringe at my country's scales and systems.
We need to switch to metric.
|
So I had to measure the dimensions for a kitchen project this past weekend, going from inches to yards to inches is fucking annoying. When you actually work with the numbers, you appreciate it.
The basic argument of I know how long/wide/deep/etc. X is so that makes Y system superior applies to everyone regardless of what system you prefer.
On July 07 2010 07:19 Loser777 wrote: Eh, even in the U.S. once you've taken some kind of science class you wish everyone were using metric instead of customary.
Like the hell is a foot-pound? A Joule is so much nicer...
I like slugs better than I like Newtons.
|
On July 07 2010 07:16 exeexe wrote: Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second
Well a foot = The length of something of something thats gone long time ago
What is most useful? Like can i be in Canada, UK, or Uganda and find out how much a meter is? YES because its universal and can be found in any laboratory.
But imagine we forgot how much a foot was, we couldnt figure out how much it was again.
Anyways How would you define a newton in imperical system? (with imperical units) o.0 LOL
Well pressure is measured in pounds per square inch (psi), and that's essentially Force normalized by gravity (weight/area, instead of force/area)
You obviously aren't going to use it for scientific calculations, but for everyday use the imperial system works fine.
You can't say that a meter is more scientific than a foot. But, you can say the metric SCALE is more scientific than the imperial scale. A meter is just a meter. Which is 100cm, which is 1000mm. A foot is just a foot, which is 12 inches, or 1/3 of a yard.
You also can't go around saying its more useful. I'm about 6' 2" and weigh about 15 stone (210 pounds). I use that for my height and weight all the time.
How many meters or kilograms is that? Couldn't give a shit. Nobody knows what I'm talking about if I say it in meters or kilograms.
My mother (back in England, where I grew up) still, to this day, converts everything back into shillings, crowns and whatever other crazy systems they had back in the day. Would you like to try converting that post-war generation to the metric system on the grounds that "its more useful, dammit!"?
|
On July 07 2010 07:25 Bibdy wrote: My mother (back in England, where I grew up) still, to this day, converts everything back into shillings, crowns and whatever other crazy systems they had back in the day. Would you like to try converting that post-war generation to the metric system on the grounds that "its more useful, dammit!"? Hahaha. Stubborn mothers CAN make hilarious situations.
|
anything thats not the metric system is bad.. really the usa should do what the rest of the world logicaly does.. its the stubborness the usa that uses a bad system.. metric is much more logical, much more acurrate, much more used, and its much easier to use..
I still cant find a reasonabe argument against metric when its compared to imperial but hey its a cultural thing..
its like some places that have money with a lot a zeros its unconfortable and stupid but there is no easy way to change it.. its a pitty you have to learn both..
|
Metric System is what makes more sense, no discussion about it.
1) DD/MM/YYYY is what we use here, and it does make sense. (Crescent order)
2) YYYY/MM/DD is used in Asia I believe, and it does make sense. (Decrescent order)
3) MM/DD/YYYY doesnt make any fucking sense.... (WTF order)
|
The best date format is YYYY-MM-DD, because with it you can sort two dates simply by reading them left-to-right and it's immediately obvious in a list of dates whether any are (badly) out of order.
|
United States24342 Posts
I definitely see the advantages of the metric system but why are people saying it's more accurate than the imperial system?
|
It's not, unless for some reason the person using metric units is better with a ruler.
I LOVE US Fluid volume units btw. (1 fluid oz = 1/16 Pint = 1/32 Quart = 1/128 Gallon) As far as I'm concerned the gallon is the greatest arbitrary amount of liquid ever.
|
United States24342 Posts
Yeah all the urinals by me are exactly 1 gallon per flush but 3.8 liters per flush...
TAKE THAT METRIC! :p
|
On July 07 2010 07:25 Bibdy wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:16 exeexe wrote: Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second
Well a foot = The length of something of something thats gone long time ago
What is most useful? Like can i be in Canada, UK, or Uganda and find out how much a meter is? YES because its universal and can be found in any laboratory.
But imagine we forgot how much a foot was, we couldnt figure out how much it was again.
Anyways How would you define a newton in imperical system? (with imperical units) o.0 LOL Well pressure is measured in pounds per square inch (psi), and that's essentially Force normalized by gravity (weight/area, instead of force/area) I dont know the answer of my own question but i do know that you are wrong.
My mother (back in England, where I grew up) still, to this day, converts everything back into shillings, crowns and whatever other crazy systems they had back in the day. Would you like to try converting that post-war generation to the metric system on the grounds that "its more useful, dammit!"?
yes, im that evil.
|
Am i the only one who thinks the date should be written on an ascending or descending scale of importance? D/M/Y or Y/M/D makes the most sense to me. And metric is based on base 10 whereas imperial is just some random numbers somebody pulled off the top of their head.
|
|
On July 07 2010 08:30 tarpman wrote: The best date format is YYYY-MM-DD, because with it you can sort two dates simply by reading them left-to-right and it's immediately obvious in a list of dates whether any are (badly) out of order.
I agree pretty much.
|
On July 07 2010 09:04 synapse wrote: I blame the English.
Hey, we just invented the system.
You're the assholes who adopted it.
That's like blaming cigarette companies for making addictive cigarettes. Really, who does that?
|
They're both arbitrary. Sure, you can say SI is based on certain physical properties of important things, like water, but that's pretty damn arbitrary in my opinion. Why not use methane, or mercury?
SI has going for it internal consistency, such as with the prefixes and their meanings (giga, mega, kilo, deci, centi, milli, etc).
Imperial has going for it the fact that it's already in use (in the states, that is... it loses this advantage anywhere else in the world).
Nothing else to say.
|
In English you say "July 7th" instead of "7th of July". People write MM/DD/YYYY because that's the way we say it. It wouldn't make sense if you didn't grow up in an English-speaking country.
|
From the pictures thread:
On July 07 2010 00:10 BabyFarkMcgeeZax wrote: 0 degrees Celsius = H2O freezing point <----smart 100 degrees Celsius = H2O Boiling point <----smart
32 degrees Fahrenheit = H2O freezing point <-----stupid 212 degrees Fahrenheit = H2O boiling point <-----stupid
I agree on the other metric points... but I've actually come to prefer Fahrenheit.
First, what's so special about water? How often is it important that water freezes at 0 degrees or boils at 100 degrees? I freeze and boil water all the time, and I don't know if I ever actually measure the temperature. I put water on the stove and turn it on; when it's bubbling, it's boiling. I don't pull out a thermometer and say "oh, it's at 80 degC so 20 more to go."
Meanwhile, to quote some Slashdot poster, Fahrenheit is "a wonderfully human" temperature scale. 0 degrees is too damn cold, 100 degrees is too damn hot, and 50 degrees is pretty pleasant. Even if you disagree with exactly where those points should go (perhaps you are crazy live in Arizona and find 0 degrees far more unpleasant than 100 and think 70 or 80 is ideal, Fahrenheit is still closer to covering "natural human temperatures" in an easy-to-work-with, natural range than Celsius is.
Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:19 Loser777 wrote: Eh, even in the U.S. once you've taken some kind of science class you wish everyone were using metric instead of customary.
Like the hell is a foot-pound? A Joule is so much nicer... I like slugs better than I like Newtons.
I find Newton's awesome because I rock climb and it's pretty convenient. 1 kilonewton is 1 bodyweight of a reasonably heavy climber (224lb), or a lighter climber who's bouncing around a bit. My harness can take 16 kilonewtons? That's 16 climbers, or one climber facing 16 g's.
Great for rough estimations.
|
On July 07 2010 09:48 EvanED wrote:From the pictures thread: Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 00:10 BabyFarkMcgeeZax wrote: 0 degrees Celsius = H2O freezing point <----smart 100 degrees Celsius = H2O Boiling point <----smart
32 degrees Fahrenheit = H2O freezing point <-----stupid 212 degrees Fahrenheit = H2O boiling point <-----stupid
I agree on the other metric points... but I've actually come to prefer Fahrenheit. First, what's so special about water? How often is it important that water freezes at 0 degrees or boils at 100 degrees? I freeze and boil water all the time, and I don't know if I ever actually measure the temperature. I put water on the stove and turn it on; when it's bubbling, it's boiling. I don't pull out a thermometer and say "oh, it's at 80 degC so 20 more to go." Meanwhile, to quote some Slashdot poster, Fahrenheit is "a wonderfully human" temperature scale. 0 degrees is too damn cold, 100 degrees is too damn hot, and 50 degrees is pretty pleasant. Even if you disagree with exactly where those points should go (perhaps you are crazy live in India and find 0 degrees far more unpleasant than 100 and think 70 or 80 is ideal, Fahrenheit is still closer to covering "natural human temperatures" in an easy-to-work-with, natural range than Celsius is.
not really. i mean first of all i disagree with those #s to begin with. 20f is also too damn cold, and 90f is also too damn hot. 50f is pretty damn chilly (not short/shirt weather that's for sure, unless you're running or something, then it's perfect). if i were to use f for too cold and too hot, it'd be like: below 30f is pretty damn cold and above 90f is pretty damn hot, but how is that any better than "below 0 is pretty damn cold and above 30 is pretty damn hot, 20's just right"
that said, it's all a matter of what you use it for i use metric for almost anything, but for distance (for my running) i use imperial (i mean technically i guess 5k's 10k's etc are metric but i still think of them in terms of 3.1/6.2mi and of my pace as min/mile .. it's just how people i run with do it here, even tho i'm in canada so /shrug) i mean, when i ask what pace they're jogging today at, and they tell me 8min/mile, sure i can roll with that. but tell me 5min/km and i'll be like "wut?"
actually for my height i use imperial too, pretty much everyone does. meh it's not like one is any worse than the other for everyday purposes
|
On July 07 2010 09:54 JeeJee wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 09:48 EvanED wrote: ... (perhaps you are crazy live in India ... Just as a point of clarification, since JeeJee quoted an older version of my post: I changed this later to "Arizona" instead of "India", but that actually what I originally wrote. Then I decided that I could pick a hotter place than Ari-'it's-a-dry-heat'-zona and went with India, then only later realized how it was worded. I didn't mean to imply that Indians are crazy for living there nearly as much as I want to imply Arizonians are. ;-)
not really. i mean first of all i disagree with those #s to begin with. 20f is also too damn cold, and 90f is also too damn hot. But both of those temperatures are (1) still pretty livable and (2) temperatures that nature will throw at you with reasonable frequency in lots of places where lots of people live. 100 degrees C? Not so much.
|
On July 07 2010 09:37 jalstar wrote: In English you say "July 7th" instead of "7th of July". People write MM/DD/YYYY because that's the way we say it. It wouldn't make sense if you didn't grow up in an English-speaking country.
To be fair you can say it either way and it's still correct/people will understand you.
|
On July 07 2010 06:22 Barrin wrote:
Writing a date MM/DD/YY is the best way because that's the way most people already do it. Again, no sense in confusing everyone now for potentially slightly more smoothness later.
that has to be the worst agrument against progress in the history of man kind everything should be common sense
the date should be just like the FUCKING TIME, it's fine either doing yy mm dd, or dd mm yy though i prefer the later but they should be in some order like that
and go celcius! water freezing at 0 and boiling at 100 makes so much more sense.
convert you damn americans convert
|
United States24342 Posts
On July 07 2010 10:08 Divinek wrote: and go celcius! water freezing at 0 and boiling at 100 makes so much more sense.
convert you damn americans convert Actually it doesn't matter at all for 99% of Americans... there are many reasons to convert and this is not a good one.
|
YYY-MM-DD-HH-MinMin-SecSec is probably the best, its the easier to sort, and the time convention is common too. Nobody does 10:30:45am as 45:30:10 (or the USA edition 45:10:30).
But I always write the month in letters (Feb etc) in order to avoid confusion. Thank you USA for making me write an extra character every time I write the date, wearing out my keyboard/pen ink/hand prematurely.
Metric-wise i believe Burma, Liberia, and USA are the only ones still on imperial. If USA were metric they would probably be threatening all sorts of UN sanctions or unilateral invasions on the other two, but might is right I guess :p?
|
User was temp banned for this post.
|
On July 07 2010 07:25 Bibdy wrote: You also can't go around saying its more useful. I'm about 6' 2" and weigh about 15 stone (210 pounds). I use that for my height and weight all the time.
How many meters or kilograms is that? Couldn't give a shit. Nobody knows what I'm talking about if I say it in meters or kilograms.
Who the hell uses stones as a measurement (other than British people)? The fact that you needed to put the mass in pounds proves that it isn't widely used...and therefore, not useful.
|
United States24342 Posts
On July 07 2010 10:12 Konfustikator wrote: Metric-wise i believe Burma, Liberia, and USA are the only ones still on imperial. If USA were metric they would probably be threatening all sorts of UN sanctions or unilateral invasions on the other two, but might is right I guess :p? Yes, your implication that the USA invades any country that does something differently than the USA is correct. Especially if it is hypocritical to do so.
|
On July 07 2010 10:36 Linx_101 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:25 Bibdy wrote: You also can't go around saying its more useful. I'm about 6' 2" and weigh about 15 stone (210 pounds). I use that for my height and weight all the time.
How many meters or kilograms is that? Couldn't give a shit. Nobody knows what I'm talking about if I say it in meters or kilograms.
Who the hell uses stones as a measurement (other than British people)? The fact that you needed to put the mass in pounds proves that it isn't widely used...and therefore, not useful.
The British...because I'm British..durp durp.
Should I say it in pounds so all those Canadians in Salisbury will understand me better?
I said that because I switch back and forth between the two numbers depending on who I'm talking to.
I NEVER use Kilograms or Meters. For anybody. Why memorize my height/weight in another format that I'm going ever going to use in Europe? And why would I run around Europe announcing my height/weight to anybody? My doctor, friends and family, the only people likely to be interested in such numbers, aren't there.
|
Haha cool thread
Americans have secretly been using the metric system all this time. Look at the smallest unit of length in the imperial system in this table. It's called the Thou, or Mil or Point, and is 1/1000 of an inch. (Notice "Mil" as in Milli as in 1/1000).
Now for some imperial calculations gogo!
I want to build the worlds largest swimming pool with the following measurements:
length = 1 furlong and 3 chains width = 2 chains, 7 fathoms and 2 feet depth = 4 yards and 7 inches
How many gallons of water will fit in my swimming pool?
|
As an American who was raised with the Imperial system my whole life I will say this. The metric system definitely makes more sense but it is not without it's flaws.
For example, It goes from millimeters to centimeters straight into meters (sure there are the lesser used deci- deka- or whatever but no one uses those). Centimeters are much too small for daily use of measurement, Inches are just so much more approriate in so many circumstances. That is not to say CM/MM are useless, they have their use in exactly the same way that inches are too large to be measuring smaller things. Same with Feet, It's absurd to say I'm 185cm tall, when you could simply say 6 feet tall. It's much easier to measure out, and much more practical in the same way inches are when measuring things smaller than a meter/foot but larger than a cm.
Yards are kind of dumb, since meters are the equivalent and there are almost never used unless referring to NFL or other sports.
The only reason why I don't us kmph over mph is because all the roads here are written as mph, all the ads are written as mph, etc. I have literally no clue how fast 30 kmph unless I look it up. So that's just unfortunate.
As far as weight/volumes I use those in the same manner as distance. kilos are too light, liters are too small, need my gallons and pounds. Ounces are around only because of a shotglass as far as I'm concerned. and cups, tsp, tbsp, are only around for cooking.
F and C are both kind of fucked up imho.
PS- all the rest of the imperial units; chains, fathoms, leagues, cables, etc. I guarantee you 95% of americans have no fucking clue what they measure or what they are mutliples/divisions of. Most use a mix of both systems like I do.
|
On July 07 2010 09:48 EvanED wrote: From the pictures thread:
I agree on the other metric points... but I've actually come to prefer Fahrenheit.
Meanwhile, to quote some Slashdot poster, Fahrenheit is "a wonderfully human" temperature scale. 0 degrees is too damn cold, 100 degrees is too damn hot, and 50 degrees is pretty pleasant. Even if you disagree with exactly where those points should go (perhaps you are crazy live in Arizona and find 0 degrees far more unpleasant than 100 and think 70 or 80 is ideal, Fahrenheit is still closer to covering "natural human temperatures" in an easy-to-work-with, natural range than Celsius is.
0 celsius is too damn cold. 50 degrees is too damn hot and 25 is exactly room temperature. 50 farenheit is 10 celsius. Which I think is quite cold. Not that this argument means anything lol but I think celcius is more human. Also 0 and 100 actually mean something. Correct me if I'm wrong but 0 and 100 farenheit don't actually mean anything?
|
On July 07 2010 23:00 TheFinalWord wrote: 0 celsius is too damn cold. 50 degrees is too damn hot and 25 is exactly room temperature. 50 farenheit is 10 celsius. Which I think is quite cold. Not that this argument means anything lol but I think celcius is more human. The problem is that 50 C is way more "too damn hot" than 0 C is "too damn cold". (I don't even consider 0 C "too damn cold" for just hanging around outside, but that's latitude bias I think.) Consider that the highest natural temperature recorded anywhere on Earth ever is 58 C, but the record low anywhere is -89 C. I'm not sure if I've ever been in 50 C natural heat, but we have weeks each winter where the high is below 0 C, and I don't even live anywhere particularly cold.
IMO if you want a scale that measures "weather" temperatures in a nice natural scale, Fahrenheit is the one to use.
Also 0 and 100 actually mean something. Correct me if I'm wrong but 0 and 100 farenheit don't actually mean anything?
They mean Fahrenheit was kinda crazy. (At least the legend I heard was that 100 was a mis-measured body temperature and 0 degrees was as cold of a ice-salt-water mixture as Fahrenheit could make.)
That said... while it's true that 0 and 100 Celsius mean something, what they mean I think is somewhat arbitrary. And here the usual metric arguments don't hold. The metric system is nice because you've got 10 millimeters in a centimeter, 1000 meters in a kilometer, 1000 grams in a kilogram, etc. Conversions between units. How often do you see "millicelsius" or "kilodegrees Celsius"? It's almost never true that you'll see someone arguing for the metric system on the basis of "one meter is a more natural unit than one foot", but it's exactly that sort of argument people are trying to make with Celsius.
The only scales that actually mean something with any non-arbitrary basis are those where 0 is rooted at absolute zero.
|
On July 07 2010 16:55 CharlieMurphy wrote: For example, It goes from millimeters to centimeters straight into meters (sure there are the lesser used deci- deka- or whatever but no one uses those). We use the term decimeters all the time...
On July 07 2010 16:55 CharlieMurphy wrote: Same with Feet, It's absurd to say I'm 185cm tall, when you could simply say 6 feet tall. It's much easier to measure out, and much more practical in the same way inches are when measuring things smaller than a meter/foot but larger than a cm. How many are exactly 6 feet tall? Also when we talk about length of people we say "1 and 85", we don't mention the units so no problem with the speech.
On July 07 2010 16:55 CharlieMurphy wrote: As far as weight/volumes I use those in the same manner as distance. kilos are too light, liters are too small, need my gallons and pounds. Ounces are around only because of a shotglass as far as I'm concerned. and cups, tsp, tbsp, are only around for cooking. Um, one pound is roughly half as much as one kilogram, also the reason litres and kilograms are superior is due to the ease of transforming from the other metric units! One litre is a cubic decimeter, one kilogram is a litre of water and most organic stuffs density like meat can be approximated well with waters density so it makes total sense.
Now, how many gallons is a cubic feet??? What is the transition between gallons and pounds???
On July 07 2010 09:48 EvanED wrote:From the pictures thread: Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 00:10 BabyFarkMcgeeZax wrote: 0 degrees Celsius = H2O freezing point <----smart 100 degrees Celsius = H2O Boiling point <----smart
32 degrees Fahrenheit = H2O freezing point <-----stupid 212 degrees Fahrenheit = H2O boiling point <-----stupid
I agree on the other metric points... but I've actually come to prefer Fahrenheit. First, what's so special about water? How often is it important that water freezes at 0 degrees or boils at 100 degrees? I freeze and boil water all the time, and I don't know if I ever actually measure the temperature. I put water on the stove and turn it on; when it's bubbling, it's boiling. I don't pull out a thermometer and say "oh, it's at 80 degC so 20 more to go." Um, have you ever heard about snow and ice outside? When you got negative degrees it is white outside and the roads/walkways might be slippery, that is by far the most important temperature jump in everyday lives so it makes total sense to have it as the 0 point on a layman scale unless you live so far south that the temperature never drops below 0. Water boiling at 100 is just a good reference point to have since it is something everyone can relate to, every time you boil water it is almost exactly 100 degrees, not a single degree above or below.
|
On July 07 2010 23:31 Klockan3 wrote: Um, have you ever heard about snow and ice outside? When you got negative degrees it is white outside and the roads/walkways might be slippery, that is by far the most important temperature jump in everyday lives so it makes total sense to have it as the 0 point on a layman scale unless you live so far south that the temperature never drops below 0. Water boiling at 100 is just a good reference point to have since it is something everyone can relate to, every time you boil water it is almost exactly 100 degrees, not a single degree above or below. Okay, fair enough; I will concede that benefit of having 0 at freezing. I still stick by my original point though which is that Fahrenheit is more natural for measuring "weather" temperatures.
Though I'm starting to wonder if I'm biased in that respect by where I've lived: in central PA, where I grew up, the temperatures you'd experience during a typical year would run from about 10 F to 95 F. Here in southern Wisconsin, it's more like -10 to 90 F. But both of those are quite close to the 0-100 scale in Fahrenheit, but those are like -12 C to 35 C or -23 C to 35 C, resp. Neither of those scales are very natural at all IMO.
|
On July 07 2010 06:22 Barrin wrote: Writing a date MM/DD/YY is the best way because that's the way most people already do it. Again, no sense in confusing everyone now for potentially slightly more smoothness later.
so you're saying its easier to confuse 6 billion people on a day-to-day basis rather than 300 million for the sake of semantics.
right on.
|
Ideally 1 unit of temperature should be defined in such a way that 1 Joule and 1 Calorie becomes equal. 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1 cubic centimeter of water 1 degree celcius, while 1 joule is the energy required to push 1 cubic decimeter of water with a force of 1 newton a distance 1 meter. So we would have 1 temperature unit being 1/4.184... of 1 celcius.
Of course this isn't exact since the density of water and such isn't exact but it would be extremely close making calculations even easier than they are now!
|
On July 07 2010 07:16 exeexe wrote: Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second
Well a foot = The length of something of something thats gone long time ago
What is most useful? Like can i be in Canada, UK, or Uganda and find out how much a meter is? YES because its universal and can be found in any laboratory.
But imagine we forgot how much a foot was, we couldnt figure out how much it was again.
Anyways How would you define a newton in imperical system? (with imperical units) o.0 LOL
The imperial counterpart to a newton is the pound. The imperial counterpart to a kilogram is actually a slug, approx. 32 pounds on earth.
The imperial system is based on the old system of base 12 (dozens, etc.) and base 12 is easier than base 10, but we use base 10 these days so the imperial is fucked up now.
12 inches = foot 12/4 or 3 feet = yard 12/2 or 6 feet = fathom 12/6 * 1000 (yay, base 10) or 2000 pounds = ton 12 * 440 (that one's arbitrary, i think it has something to do with the Romans) = mile
base 12 for the win.
As for dates, I prefer DD/MM/YYYY because it goes from smallest to largest.
Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second
Are you telling me you want kids to memorize THAT number? I can't even remember it for more than 30 seconds!
And if such, we can remember feet by the 1:30.48 foot to centimeter ratio.
|
On July 08 2010 00:12 [UoN]Sentinel wrote: Are you telling me you want kids to memorize THAT number? I can't even remember it for more than 30 seconds!
And if such, we can remember feet by the 1:30.48 foot to centimeter ratio.
YES! and i want kids to rule the world ! irony may have been used.
So you base the foot on the metric scale, well thats a step in the right direction. Next step would be to just skip the imperical scale.
For the rest of your post i choose to ignorre it, because you seem to be happy with having an inferior system and i dont want to ruin it when you are happy and as long as i dont have to use the imperical system im happy too ^_^.
On July 07 2010 23:51 Klockan3 wrote: while 1 joule is the energy required to push 1 cubic decimeter of water with a force of 1 newton a distance 1 meter.
pushing water? what are you talking about? Joule is the energy required to lift 1 kg by 1 meter.
|
I can't really say which is better but I am a Canadian and prefer to use the imperial over metric, for some reason it just clicks easier. Also its better in construction, its rare you will see people use metric unless its very fine carpentry cause the ticks are too close to matter and your pencil mark alone is going to screw the measurement. For me its just easier to see in feet and inches but of course I am bias because construction and carpentry work. EDIT: I think Imperial is better for practical uses like measuring a persons height, most carpentry and things of that nature but for anything requiring fine numbers and measurements metric is the way to go.
|
Germany2896 Posts
In every day life I use metric, at university we usually don't. Imperial is retarded. The right way to write a date is YYYY-MM-DD, lexical sorting for the win. And never ever use AM/PM when writing a time.
@exeexe "Joule is the energy required to lift 1 kg by 1 meter." no, just no. Klockan is right even if his sentence written a bit strange.
|
masterofchaos, no it is correct, i looked it up before i posted it. Never heard of pushing water before, but funny and nice try ^^
edit: right i hate to be wrong but none of us is right anyway: upon further looking deeper into it i found this frase to be the truth: One joule is defined as the amount of work done by a force of one newton moving an object through a distance of one metre
What i dont get then, is if you move something 1 meter, there would be resistance like friction or air resistance and even if you put it into space and there are no external forces like gravity you should only give it a very tiny tip and it will move 1 meter with easy, and this little tip can be less than equelevant to 1 joule.
? can you explain that?
edit: ok i get it now
|
On July 08 2010 04:43 MasterOfChaos wrote: In every day life I use metric, at university we usually don't. Imperial is retarded. The right way to write a date is YYYY-MM-DD, lexical sorting for the win. And never ever use AM/PM when writing a time.
@exeexe "Joule is the energy required to lift 1 kg by 1 meter." no, just no. Klockan is right even if his sentence written a bit strange.
After many asked me whether it's DD/MM or MM/DD I just use YYYY MM. DD. When I write without year, I'm now doing it MM-DD with a 0 in place of first D if it's a single digit day so people won't ask again.
|
On July 08 2010 00:12 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:16 exeexe wrote: Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second
Well a foot = The length of something of something thats gone long time ago
What is most useful? Like can i be in Canada, UK, or Uganda and find out how much a meter is? YES because its universal and can be found in any laboratory.
But imagine we forgot how much a foot was, we couldnt figure out how much it was again.
Anyways How would you define a newton in imperical system? (with imperical units) o.0 LOL The imperial counterpart to a newton is the pound. The imperial counterpart to a kilogram is actually a slug, approx. 32 pounds on earth. The imperial system is based on the old system of base 12 (dozens, etc.) and base 12 is easier than base 10, but we use base 10 these days so the imperial is fucked up now. 12 inches = foot 12/4 or 3 feet = yard 12/2 or 6 feet = fathom 12/6 * 1000 (yay, base 10) or 2000 pounds = ton 12 * 440 (that one's arbitrary, i think it has something to do with the Romans) = mile base 12 for the win. As for dates, I prefer DD/MM/YYYY because it goes from smallest to largest. Show nested quote +Well 1 meter = the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second Are you telling me you want kids to memorize THAT number? I can't even remember it for more than 30 seconds! And if such, we can remember feet by the 1:30.48 foot to centimeter ratio.
The base 12 system makes use of the fact that 12 can be divided in many ways. It has factors 6, 2, 3, and 4, making it the optimal system for approximation. Back when easily approximating something was key using the Imperial system was very effective. However, now that we value accuracy over approximation Metric makes more sense. Therefore, those that say Imperial is more usable in every day life have some merit. I mean, just look at the measurement of angles: the degrees system is alot easier because 360 is very divisible number, but radians is the better but harder to use measurement because it is more usable in mathematical equations.
|
United States24342 Posts
On July 08 2010 05:28 exeexe wrote: masterofchaos, no it is correct, i looked it up before i posted it. Never heard of pushing water before, but funny and nice try ^^
edit: right i hate to be wrong but none of us is right anyway: upon further looking deeper into it i found this frase to be the truth: One joule is defined as the amount of work done by a force of one newton moving an object through a distance of one metre
What i dont get then, is if you move something 1 meter, there would be resistance like friction or air resistance and even if you put it into space and there are no external forces like gravity you should only give it a very tiny tip and it will move 1 meter with easy, and this little tip can be less than equelevant to 1 joule.
? can you explain that?
edit: ok i get it now It was kind of strange that Klockan3 specified that water was being pushed... and how much of it... but it's not really incorrect. It's 1 Newton a distance of 1 meter. W=FD, J=N*m
You say you get it now but didn't explain it... in case you are wrong or other people needs help the reasoning:
If you push something where there is no friction such as outer space then there wouldn't be any F in the formula W=Fd so there wouldn't be any W in Joules.
|
On July 08 2010 06:57 RifleCow wrote: I mean, just look at the measurement of angles: the degrees system is alot easier because 360 is very divisible number, but radians is the better but harder to use measurement because it is more usable in mathematical equations. The divisibility of 360 is important, but I suspect the fact that common measurements (like that of a right angle) are rational numbers has more to do with it being more popular.
|
You guys may not know this but in mandarin chinese the spoken date is month, day, year.
Although I cant remember the written. I think its written in day month year
|
On July 08 2010 07:19 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2010 05:28 exeexe wrote: masterofchaos, no it is correct, i looked it up before i posted it. Never heard of pushing water before, but funny and nice try ^^
edit: right i hate to be wrong but none of us is right anyway: upon further looking deeper into it i found this frase to be the truth: One joule is defined as the amount of work done by a force of one newton moving an object through a distance of one metre
What i dont get then, is if you move something 1 meter, there would be resistance like friction or air resistance and even if you put it into space and there are no external forces like gravity you should only give it a very tiny tip and it will move 1 meter with easy, and this little tip can be less than equelevant to 1 joule.
? can you explain that?
edit: ok i get it now It was kind of strange that Klockan3 specified that water was being pushed... and how much of it... but it's not really incorrect. It's 1 Newton a distance of 1 meter. W=FD, J=N*m You say you get it now but didn't explain it... in case you are wrong or other people needs help the reasoning: If you push something where there is no friction such as outer space then there wouldn't be any F in the formula W=Fd so there wouldn't be any W in Joules. Yeah, sorry, I should have talked about acceleration but I tumbled around a lot with the definitions and got something really strange. I should have gone in smaller steps to keep it sane, like 1 Newton is defined as the force required to accelerate 1 kg 1 m/ss and from the definition of energy as force times path you get 1/2 joule is the energy required to accelerate 1 litre of water up to a speed of 1 m/s since 1 joule is what you get if you have 1 Netwon for 1 meter.
|
1019 Posts
Yes I live in america and the metric system is way better than the american system. Its so annoying when I hear other americans trying to justify the american system usage. But the good news is that most schools are teaching metric system so hopefully our next generation of americans are competent in both metric and imperial
|
On July 08 2010 19:00 caution.slip wrote: You guys may not know this but in mandarin chinese the spoken date is month, day, year.
Although I cant remember the written. I think its written in day month year
I just went to China, and I saw it written Year Month Day quite a few times.
|
Gotta go metric, I think its not even close. I'll admit though, I still use lbs for (human) weight instead of kg, from being too used to it.
C and F are similar enough, but I think Celsius is just nicer with 0 and 100 being benchmark figures.
Date is tricky.. I have no strong preference. Even if one has a nicer logic to it, its arbitrary and not really a strong preference. I guess Y.M.D (SI) or possibly DMY makes the most sense in terms of logical ordering.(ie ascending or descending by magnitude of time unit.) I think MDY got popular due to how people say it spelled out. Eg July 8th, 2010.
|
United Arab Emirates5090 Posts
I dont even know how many inches in a foot and how many feet in a yard. brb googling.
12 inches = 1 foot 5280 feet = 1 mile 1760 yard = 1 mile 1 yard = 3 feet
let's look at metric system 10mm = 1 cm 100cm = 1 meter 1000 meter = 1 km
I think those numbers speak for themselves.
Fahrenheit is stupid since it has body temperature as 100 but humans do not have a constant body temperature.
Celcius has 0 as freezing point of water and 100 as boiling point of water at 1 atmosphere iirc. Makes much more sense obviously.
and if you're still not convinced, no one uses that stupid system except america and some place called belize. everyone else has third grade common sense.
just wait until the US isn't a superpower anymore and not calling the shots. no one is going to put up with that bullshit anymore.
|
so basically USA isnt more advanced in terms of advanced technology than this place called belizie.
+ Show Spoiler + Telephones - main lines in use: 31,100 (2008) country comparison to the world: 177 Telephones - mobile cellular: 160,000 (2008) country comparison to the world: 175
Internet hosts: 3,017 (2009) country comparison to the world: 142 Internet users: 34,000 (2008) country comparison to the world: 178
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bh.html expand communication
around ~170th compared to the world.
|
|
|
|