Are you still imperial?

[discrepancy]

...Metric is a logical system. Easier to work with to do math in your head. But only if the units mean anything. This thread is the 1st time I've seen the term BAR explained, or what the liter capaity of a tank is (I though it meant so many liters of air, which is meaningless to me). I still have no feel for them, diving for me has been cubic feet & PSI for over 30 years. BARs and liters are not how I think.

While I know the metric system (I lived in Turkey for 5 years), I don't use it day in & day out. I think in imperial units bc that's what we use. The fact that I do know those units, they mean something to me, makes the imperial system superior to me, for my day in & day out use. Not bc it's any better, but bc that's the map that exists in my brain.

I wouldn't be totally opposed to making the conversion to metric here, but if we did chaos would reign supreme for quite a while. Sometimes we're doing good to get people to do simple math with their shoes on, so going to a base 10 system is not a guarantee that they'll do any better than they do now

Well spoken, that man.

Just two more thing to add. It's only the numbers that change, not the things themselves, and chaos does not reign supreme in the end. Maybe it's like moving the helm on a big ship...there's a lag involved but it works in the end.

 

[Don Burke]

It's only the numbers that change, not the things themselves,

That would not provide significant benefit to anyone.

The major advantage to the US going metric would be standardization with the bulk of the world and scratching the "1/2" off a wrench and stamping "12.77mm" on it would do nothing useful in that regard.

It is going to take a very long time to overcome the 1/4-20 bolt.

Besides, many in the US enjoy listening to foreigners whine about inches and feet being "too hard."

 

[Kim]

Besides, many in the US enjoy listening to foreigners whine about inches and feet being "too hard."

Having been born and brought up in England in an Army family I have no problem with inches and feet. In fact I still prefer my beer in a pint glass.eyebrow
We lived in many different places though so I was exposed to meters (metres), kilometers, kilograms etc from an early age as well.

As far as diving goes I like the simplicity of 10 meters = 2ATM, 30 meters = 4ATM - or 150bar in a 12 liter tank = 1800 liters, 120bar in a 14 liter tank = 1680 liters, 60 bar in a 10 liter tank = 600liters.

These are calculations I can do in my head. I must say though, I'm 6'1" - 1.83m never quite seemed the same!

 

[Charlie99]

You have to admit though, using 10 as the base simplifies things a lot!

But the Japanese and Chinese have managed to make even base 10 a bit difficult sometimes by dividing things into groups of 4 digits rather than the western 3 digit groups.

I was always impressed when the simultaneous translator for the NHK news could immediately translate "1 oku 2,345 man" to "124 million 450 thousand." while at the same time converting Heisei 16 to 2004.

Charlie
(Musashino-shi / Kichijoji resident Heisei 1-4)

 

[Kim]

But the Japanese and Chinese have managed to make even base 10 a bit difficult sometimes by dividing things into groups of 4 digits rather than the western 3 digit groups.

I was always impressed when the simultaneous translator for the NHK news could immediately translate "1 oku 2,345 man" to "124 million 450 thousand." while at the same time converting Heisei 16 to 2004.

Charlie
(Musashino-shi / Kichijoji resident Heisei 1-4)

There's no way that I'm going to defend the Japanese counting system - or their written language. I find it somewhat insulting that they have an entire symbol set reserved exclusively for all things foreign. Hell, they won't even let me register my stamp officially as it's in Kanji - only Japanese may use Kanji, I may only use Katakana! As for that Heisei/Showa stuff..........
As for their television........I watch Sky! eyebrow

 

[Charlie99]

Hell, they won't even let me register my stamp officially as it's in Kanji - only Japanese may use Kanji, I may only use Katakana! As for that Heisei/Showa stuff........

[highjack]Both my personal and corporate hankos weren't even katakana, just my name in very simple, easy to forge Romaji.

As for Heisei/Showa, after being asked by strangers for the umpteenth time "how old are you?", I started answering that I was born in Showa 24. Try it. You'll probably get a puzzled look while they work on the concept that a westerner can indeed be born in a Showa year. [/highjack]

 

[Blox]

That would actually be one minute of latitude anywhere on earth or one minute of longitude at the equator.

Your are right ofcourse that it is one minute, not second. It's Latitude on the equator though, not longitude

 

[Blox]

Works with 10's doesn't it? At least in some definitions it would seem to equate to decimal.

You have to admit though, using 10 as the base simplifies things a lot!

Metric stands for 100s though and not for 10s (which would be decimal)

 

[Jamdiver]

(by the way....I teach English, so I do know exactly what I'm doing here! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get decent British English text books for students. I positively refuse to use the American English ones!)

Hehe it's the same here, in Prep. School all my textbooks were English with English spellings and my teacher would go into great pains to explain the difference between American and English spellings.
Metre/Meter, colour/color or oesphagus/esophagus come to mind .

Of course at times this textbooks would seem out of touch with reality with questions about the cost of a train ticket from machester to london .

 

[Don Burke]

Your are right ofcourse that it is one minute, not second. It's Latitude on the equator though, not longitude

It is latitude anywhere. There is a reason they are called "parallels".

At the equator, one minute of longitude is equal to one nautical mile. I can dig the Bowditch reference out for you if need be.