Fathoming airport wifi port tribbles
-
1/3 foot = 10cm or so?
1/3 m = 33.3 cmEasy!
-
2.5 cm = 1 heathen inch
so 30cm is ~= 1 devils foot.
-
1/3 foot = 10cm or so?
so 30cm is ~= 1 devils foot.
Note the qualifiers. Buildings that are built with "about this much" generally have to go back and be fixed later. :) My point, though, was simply that you have to say "about" or resort to multiple significant figures.
I guess you could reset the standards and start making all building materials to round Metric figures, but the people who make (for example) ceramic tile might be a bit upset at having to remake all their molds. :)
-
-
echo '30 / 2.5'|bc; echo '12 * 2.5'|bc;
huh. it is exact.... at least to two digits. IIRC the correct conversion factor has more digits tho. can't remember what they are and can't be arsed to look it up.
12 30
-
Just make the gaps bigger/smaller.
Go look at that icon in the top left corner of the page.
-
He thinks it's easier because it's what he is accustomed to. I say metric is easier because it's what I'm accustomed to.
This is true, and people can be abused to get used to just about anything. Look at how many cultures eat fish, for instance. But it's an objective fact that one was based on stuff that humans were doing instead of a relatively abstract and arbitrary standard.
-
-
-
Oh, were you talking conversion to metric? Then say so! From following the conversation, you were talking about converting units easily in your head. @another_sam was talking about converting from meter to mm. So I helped you with converting from 1/3 foot to inches. Not so much of a woosh, when you actually consider the damn context!!!
Damn wind bag.
-
This:
4 in
yawn
When you need a 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/6 of something, having 12 inches in a foot is really helpful.
-
Look. Metric users know their system is superior because it is newer. PROGRESS
-
When you need a 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/6 of something, having 12 inches in a foot is really helpful.
That was my point.
Metric fans never seem to agree that that is useful, though.
-
Why would you ever need to divide by something other than 10?
-
When you need a 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/6 of something, having 12 inches in a foot is really helpful.
Why would you ever need to divide by something other than 10?
How about we start using a
base-60-unit1 system? Then everyone will be happy!1You know what the fuck I mean.
-
@chubertdev said:
Why would you ever need to divide by something other than 10?
How about we start using a base-60 system? Then everyone will be happy!
base-(2^10)
-
How about we start using a base-60-unit1 system?
You ever think about how many seconds are in a minute, or how many minutes are in an hour?
-
You ever think about how many seconds are in a minute, or how many minutes are in an hour?
Gee, how did that never occur to me? </sarcasm>
Did you consider that maybe I was suggesting that a similar solution be used for weights and measures which is what we've been talking about.
Filed Under: Context: Do you use it? | Is @FrostCat this annoying IRL?
-
Magic numbers include 24, 60, 288, 1440, and 86400.
-
Did you consider that maybe I was suggesting that a similar solution be used for weights and measures
Well, given your last few not-as-good-as-Blakeyrants on this topic, no, I didn't. Maybe you should go take a nap or eat a Snickers bar.
-
Well, given your last few not-as-good-as-Blakeyrants on this topic, no, I didn't
Considering the entire conversation has been around fucking weights and measures, why would I have been talking about anything else, you asshole? Why would I suddenly give a shit about time, when the back and forth has been about metric vs. imperial weights and measures.
I'll say it one more time, so you can get the fucking context into your thick skull: weights and measures.
Now, go back and re-read my suggestion so I don't have to type it again.
-
Now, go back and re-read my suggestion so I don't have to type it again.
Sorry, I still don't get it. Could you explain one more time? Maybe in green letters this time?
-
Sorry, I still don't get it. Could you explain one more time? Maybe in green letters this time?
FOAD
-
-
-
-
I guess asking what is the significance of asking about small even divisors of length measurements isn't talking about measurements.
Edit: that sentence kind of took off, didn't it? I guess asking leading questions about the suitability of units of measurements isn't talking about measurements.
The 16 ounces of a pint lend themselves to a number of integral divisions, although not as many as a foot.
-
I'm not going to continue to set myself up for goading. blakey might, but I won't.
-
The 16 ounces of a pint lend themselves to a number of integral divisions, although not as many as a foot.
These divisions are kind of elastic are they not? Pints 1 and 2 are 1/8 or 1/16 (maybe 1/4 if it's been one of those days) but round about pints 5 or 6 it ends up being all 1/4 or 1/2 (or 1/1 if you're showing off)...
-
These divisions are kind of elastic are they not? Pints 1 and 2 are 1/8 or 1/16 (maybe 1/4 if it's been one of those days) but round about pints 5 or 6 it ends up being all 1/4 or 1/2 (or 1/1 if you're showing off)...
If you're at home, it might not matter. If you're at a restauarant or bar, well, isn't that why the bartender isn't supposed to be drinking on duty?
-
If you're at home, it might not matter. If you're at a restauarant or bar, well, isn't that why the bartender isn't supposed to be drinking on duty?
Oh, you're thinking pouring drinks not consuming them. Though I've known a few bartenders of the one-for-the-customer, one-for-me or "hey that sounds like a neat drink, I think I'll try one too" variety. Gets exciting late at night when they try to do acrobatics with the glasses without the proper coordination.
-
Oh, you're thinking pouring drinks not consuming them.
Well, not just drinks, either--ounces aren't only a fluid measure. Maybe you're, I dunno, baking a cake.
-
How about we start using a base-60-unit1 system? Then everyone will be happy!
YESSSSSSSSSSSS. I prefer metric to "imperial" largely because metric (or SI, rather) is actually a coherent system (plus or minus a few abuses--anyone got a megabyte to spare?), but the metric system really does seem to have been devised with no regard to mathematics.
I wonder if 60 works better with floating point maths than base 10... hrm...
-
but the metric system really does seem to have been devised with no regard to mathematics.
What?
Filed under: try doing dimensional analysis in imperial units sometime
-
Yeah, had me wondering, too. SI is for math/science, imperial is for humans...
-
Would be only humans that grew up with it. I grew up with metric, and imperial's just weird and confusing to me...
-
Would be only humans that grew up with it. I grew up with metric, and imperial's just weird and confusing to me...
Your subset includes people that grew up with both.
-
But it's an objective fact that one was based on stuff that humans were doing instead of a relatively abstract and arbitrary standard.
Yes, such activities that are relevant to modern 21st century life, like measuring everything based on the size and weight of a barley grain. Or some dude's shoe size, which is different from my shoe size. Or how far a Roman legion can march on foot in a day.
Your objective facts are irrelevant today. Arbitrary is fine as long as it is logical.
-
Look. Metric users know their system is superior because it is newer.
I really hope you ride a horse to work each day, not drive one of them newfangled horseless carriages.
-
Arbitrary is fine as long as it is logical.
Arbitrary like a meter is supposed to be one millionth the distance between the North Pole and the Equator on a line through Paris?
-
I don't really care what a metre is based on, I care that a kilometer is 1000 of them and a millimetre is 1000th of one, and that I don't have to add more than two numbers to add two numbers or divide by funny numbers like 12 to convert from one unit to the next biggest (ha, which one?! points, inches, feet, yards, fathoms, furlongs, miles, and all those I forgot in between) and then I have a remainder in some other unit that I still have to keep track of leading to adding more than two numbers to add two numbers.
It's as stupid as pounds and shillings and pence and guineas and crowns and bits and farthings and bees and onions on your belt. You're going to tell me dollars and cents isn't better? Decimal currency is much easier to deal with, and metric measurements are also.
The metre is these days defined by the speed of light. Your definition isn't just out of date, it's also wrong, it was supposed to be one ten-millionth. :)
-
ha, which one?! points, inches, feet, yards, fathoms, furlongs, miles, and all those I forgot in between
You know, you don't sound very intelligent when you keep mentioning obsolete units nobody uses.
-
obsolete units nobody uses.
Like feet and inches?
http://alankerlin.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/infographic-of-nations-in-world-using.html
(Why no inline image? Thanks, discourse!)
I don't know what to tell you that this image doesn't. You are clinging to a bygone era. You are remaining intentionally inefficient, behind the times, primitive. You are competing with third-world countries in this. Your insistence causes spacecraft to be lost.
You also do not sound very intelligent when you don't realise the extra-super-obsolete units are for purposes of hyperbole, even when I have explicitly said so. Unless you're going for a whoosh, in which case, weak. Try harder.
-
You also do not sound very intelligent when you don't realise the extra-super-obsolete units are for purposes of hyperbole, even when I have explicitly said so.
You know, that sentence doesn't work very well as a whole. "I'm being silly by pointing out that obsolete units of measurement are obsolete!"
Whatever, pal. You use your "superior" metrics if you want.
-
Unlike many other Americans, I agree with you1. The US missed a golden opportunity to adopt the metric system in 1973, which was, AFAIK, the first time metric units saw any widespread use in the US. During the energy crisis, gasoline prices rose to >$1 for the first time ever, and gas pumps were not made to handle prices that high. For a time, many were modified to dispense in liters (with correspondingly lower prices), but soon manufacturers started producing pumps that could handle prices >$1, and the US's brief flirtation with the metric system fizzled.
1Generally. Except "Your insistence causes spacecraft to be lost." Any scientist or engineer that is using feet or pounds is overdue for retirement; even back in the 70's science classes used SI units.
-
When faced with a choice of crazy innovation, or joining the rest of the world, America will always choose the former.
-
"I'm being silly by pointing out that obsolete units of measurement are obsolete!"
The silliness is that you think I only listed two obsolete units of measurement.
Generally. Except "Your insistence causes spacecraft to be lost." Any scientist or engineer that is using feet or pounds is overdue for retirement; even back in the 70's science classes used SI units.
-
I am aware of the incident to which you were referring. I maintain my assertion that any scientist or engineer that is using feet or pounds is overdue for retirement.
-
Your objective facts are irrelevant today. Arbitrary is fine as long as it is logical.
Sure. But "fine" isn't the same as "better." Let me ask you, which is more logical for the basis of a system for humans, basing a 0-100 scale on common experience or physical properties that far exceed it?
I really hope you ride a horse to work each day, not drive one of them newfangled horseless carriages.
Apparently the metric system encourages sophistry, too. Meh, don't bother with the previous question.
-
physical properties that far exceed it
I assume you mean Fahrenheit vs Celsius, in which case:
EXCUSE ME?
More people in the world have experienced temperatures of 0°C than 0°F.
And 100°C is not extremely far away from human experience, either. Cooking is something that was already done in the late stone age.