EPTDo you use Imperial or Metric? - Page 81
| Forum Index > General Forum |
|
nebula.
Sweden1431 Posts
| ||
|
OffCuts
10 Posts
why? cuz its clear as fk eg 16Oct12 | ||
micronesia
United States24768 Posts
On October 16 2012 00:49 Prog455 wrote: So after reading my post again, i find that i should not have used the phrase "grossly inaccurate". That statement was somewhat exaggerated. However, my point still stands that the notion of feet as a measure being more intuitive than the metric system, is limited to people who has grown up using feet and inches rather than centimeters and meters. And even in this case, it may aswell be just as intuitive to say that a distance is equal to 1 step, rather than 1 foot. In addition to this, it is also worth mentioning that the metric system will be more intuitive, or at least easier to understand, at certain distances. For instance, if you ask for the distance between your home and the nearest supermarket. If i tell you that the nearest supermarket is approximately 300 meters away from your home, you will know that it is just short of 1/3 kilometer. In comparison you could ask the same question. What is the distane to the nearest supermarket. If i told you that the distance is 1760 feet, it is nowhere near as intuitive that the distance is exactly 1/3 mile. What I have grown up with isn't really relevant. A foot is similar in size to the thing it's named after. A meter is far less obvious. I don't see why you keep trying to convince me that the metric system is better than the system we use in the USA... I don't even disagree with you about that. But I don't see how you've invalidated the one point I've made. | ||
|
oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
on the other hand, if you have a rough idea of how long a meter is, you can readily find objects around you to give a reference. for example, the length of a leg or arm. | ||
|
micronesia
United States24768 Posts
On October 16 2012 00:53 oneofthem wrote: a human foot comes in a variety of sizes. it is not easy for an alien to understand what to use as a reference. on the other hand, if you have a rough idea of how long a meter is, you can readily find objects around you to give a reference. for example, the length of a leg or arm. Uh, how is a leg or arm a better reference than a foot? They all come in different sizes. For almost any unit you can find some object that is approximately equal to that quantity and show it to the alien. But even without doing that a foot will still give the alien an idea due to its name. This is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things and I don't see why people want to take issue with it. Seriously this is like how we regard people who try to carefully work into the conversation very politely that they are slightly religious, and everyone jumps on them like a pack of zombies regardless of what they were actually saying. The metric system, overall, is better. No need to be so defensive about it... | ||
|
oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
basically i am saying the ease of reference is due to you having a clear idea of how long a foot is, a case of specific knowledge, and not due to the inherent ease of the concept itself. edit: "But even without doing that a foot will still give the alien an idea due to its name." i already argued why this is not the case. an alien will not automatically think of an adult, caucasian male's foot length when they read the name. they may think of a baby foot at the low range and bigfoot at the high range. | ||
|
micronesia
United States24768 Posts
On October 16 2012 00:58 oneofthem wrote: it's not that a leg or an arm is always a meter. they are just examples of objects that a person with an idea of how long a meter is can refer to. basically i am saying the ease of reference is due to you having a clear idea of how long a foot is, a case of specific knowledge, and not due to the inherent ease of the concept itself. Indeed. If the meter was named after something that was roughly a meter long, it would have the same benefit. | ||
|
brian
United States9639 Posts
| ||
|
Matoo-
Canada1397 Posts
| ||
|
oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
1 US gill ≡ 4 US fl oz ≡ 1⁄32 US gallon ≡ 77⁄32 in3 ≈ 5⁄6 imperial gills quiz on friday kids. | ||
|
DarkPlasmaBall
United States45458 Posts
On October 16 2012 00:53 oneofthem wrote: a human foot comes in a variety of sizes. it is not easy for an alien to understand what to use as a reference. the alien may not have the concept of 'adult human' or 'caucasian male' which is readily available to some humans. so it may be easy for a human to understand but not necessarily to an alien. on the other hand, if you have a rough idea of how long a meter is, you can readily find objects around you to give a reference. for example, the length of a leg or arm. I know you had a bunch of sarcastic joke posts earlier, but just to be clear: This is another one of them, right? You're saying that if an alien visits and doesn't know the length of the unit "foot", he won't be able to measure in feet, but if he does know the length of the unit "meter", he can measure in meters... and that validates the metric system. Are you kidding me? Alien comes, you hold out your arms and say "A foot (or meter) IS THIS BIG", and the show's over. Either he gets it or he doesn't from there on. What micronesia was pointing out is that- while explicitly showing the official length of a foot or meter is the same in both cases- the alien can intuit the length of a foot because it's approximately the length of a human foot. It's the same damn word. Meters aren't a "thing" that exist naturally that an alien can observe and approximate to be the length of a unit meter. I know there's an official, standardized bar for the meter measurement, but the alien won't have access to it like he'll have access to humans and their feet. | ||
|
oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
On October 16 2012 00:59 micronesia wrote: Indeed. If the meter was named after something that was roughly a meter long, it would have the same benefit. only for humans who automatically think of an adult caucasian male's foot. | ||
|
oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
On October 16 2012 01:01 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:snip not rly. i'm saying human feet do come in different sizes. aliens won't have the human context to understand the reference as the context factors are implicit within a specific culture. | ||
|
DarkPlasmaBall
United States45458 Posts
On October 16 2012 01:03 oneofthem wrote: not rly. i'm saying human feet do come in different sizes. aliens won't have the human context to understand the reference as they are implicit within a specific culture. On October 16 2012 00:58 oneofthem wrote: i already argued why this is not the case. an alien will not automatically think of an adult, caucasian male's foot length when they read the name. they may think of a baby foot at the low range and bigfoot at the high range. Yeah, because so many babies and imaginary monsters have created our measuring systems and units. Come on now. | ||
|
Matoo-
Canada1397 Posts
On October 16 2012 01:01 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I know there's an official, standardized bar for the meter measurement, but the alien won't have access to it like he'll have access to humans and their feet. Dunno about you but I don't want to be probed by an alien with a fucking foot fetish. | ||
|
oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
| ||
|
canikizu
4860 Posts
| ||
|
foxmeep
Australia2337 Posts
| ||
|
netherh
United Kingdom333 Posts
On October 15 2012 23:11 zatic wrote: The ml value from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce to the g values from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ounce It doesn't matter which kind of ounce, non of them match up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units 1ml of water does not weigh 1 gram. It's apparently 0.998859 g/mL at whatever standard temp / pressure they used: 28.41mL x .998g/mL = 28.35g | ||
|
turdburgler
England6749 Posts
| ||
| ||
