General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on December 07, 2019, 08:02:50 am ---
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on December 07, 2019, 02:44:41 am ---
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I assume you did notice however, that they use both nF & decimal parts of a uF, as well as decimal parts of a M \$\Omega\$!
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The filter caps are in µF, the "low frequency" caps are in nF, while the RF-related caps are in pF.
The resistors involved in supplying power are in Ω or kΩ. The resistors that bias the VCL11 tube or convey signal are all in MΩ.
The person who drew this schematic was trying to use the prefixes as a specific unit for a specific application for the same measure, something that the metric system came to abolish. By the way, the nano and the pico prefixes were officially adopted by the SI in 1960. Although you can find them in schematics before that year.
rstofer:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1214350/boris-johnson-brexit-pound-ounces-measurements-rule-eu-law-election-pledge
CatalinaWOW:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on December 07, 2019, 10:14:01 pm ---
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on December 07, 2019, 05:04:34 am ---It is happening. Too bad everyone is not happy with the pace.
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Now we're talking. The only sensible answer to the OP's question is: Yes we know about metrication and we're doing what we can to adapt. Just give us time.
End of discussion.
Responses like "we'll never metricate our road signs because we don't care" serve the US no purpose and make the country look like a land of morons.
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So in this case, waiting to switch to metric for cost reasons was perfectly rational, but other cases are not?
I would sure like to see your computers. They might be like the prank ones we generated in university that did arithmetic wrong. Students who just blindly assumed that the machines were infallible went crazy. Same thing for the prank compilers, that parsed lines to determine what type of statement they were and generated a sort of appropriate error. And a computer like that generates inconsistent behavior. Sound familiar? Maybe the land of morons has very wide boundaries in latitude and longitude.
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on December 07, 2019, 04:22:45 pm ---Ahah, well, this would be a pretty old definition, and completely irrelevant nowadays, but even so - back in the day, what it meant is basically someone who was REALLY in charge of an engine, in a train or boat for instance, in which engines required constant maintenance and care, and a fair bit of knowledge for doing so. A car driver is definitely NOT in charge of an engine in that sense anyway. :-DD
Not any more that you're in charge of the CPU when you're using a computer.
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My reply was meant as joke because someone said pages ago that the road signs in the US couldn't be metric because, when you're driving a car, you're not practicing engineering.
Of course a driver's license doesn't qualify you to design engines, or structures, or circuits, whatever, but you're in control of a engineering product. In the modern world, the common citizen is in constant contact with engineering, surrounded by it, dependent on it.
Engineering became so part of everything we do that it is only natural that the system of units used in engineering be also part of the everyday life of the common citizen.
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on December 07, 2019, 11:01:47 pm ---So in this case, waiting to switch to metric for cost reasons was perfectly rational, but other cases are not?
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Who said that?
--- Quote ---Maybe the land of morons has very wide boundaries in latitude and longitude.
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I don't know about any land of morons, but if you find one, I'm sure they'll be fighting the metric system.
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