General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: SkyMaster on January 03, 2020, 02:55:50 am ---We pilots, do not give a flying sh*t about the metric value equivalent of the nautical mile.
--- End quote ---
But we engineers who design the instruments you rely on and the sh*t you fly do.
SkyMaster:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on January 03, 2020, 03:09:29 am ---
--- Quote from: SkyMaster on January 03, 2020, 02:55:50 am ---We pilots, do not give a flying sh*t about the metric value equivalent of the nautical mile.
--- End quote ---
But we engineers who design the instruments you rely on and the sh*t you fly do.
--- End quote ---
Surprise... I am an engineer ;)
The old report you dig out is merely an agreement to have different "important" countries (at the time) agree on the length of the nautical mile.
The nautical mile is not a metric unit ;)
:)
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: SkyMaster on January 03, 2020, 03:23:38 am ---Surprise... I am an engineer ;)
--- End quote ---
Cool! Now you're free to give a flying sh*t.
--- Quote ---The nautical mile is not a metric unit ;)
--- End quote ---
Never said it was. Just that it is defined in terms of metric units.
CatalinaWOW:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on January 03, 2020, 03:43:12 am ---
--- Quote from: SkyMaster on January 03, 2020, 03:23:38 am ---Surprise... I am an engineer ;)
--- End quote ---
Cool! Now you're free to give a flying sh*t.
--- Quote ---The nautical mile is not a metric unit ;)
--- End quote ---
Never said it was. Just that it is defined in terms of metric units.
--- End quote ---
Bfeeschannel, you have not announced your country, and thus we have no idea what your native tongue is, or how fluent in English you are, but you did just a couple of posts ago say that the knot and the nautical mile "have everything to do with metric".
I don't know what you meant by that. You had quoted the definition in terms of metric units already, so presumably you meant something more than just that they are defined in terms of metric units. If people have misunderstood you, you must accept part of the blame. It may be because of a language which is not native for you. It may be because of some painful incidents in your personal history. It may be that you are just a troll and enjoy stirring the pot whenever it stops churning a bit. But whatever it is, many of us are confused by the particulars of your various diatribes against US use of other than metric units.
We aren't stupid, we understand the ease of multiplying by ten. In fact we are far enough from stupid that we can remember a handful of non-decimal constants and are able to multiply or divide by them as required. Sometimes without the use of calculators and computers. We know that there would be benefits from common worldwide standards. But we also recognize that there are transition pains from switching and also that there are benefits from barriers to competition with local sources. Switches occur when we want to, and when we feel it is a benefit to us. Not to please random folks on an internet chat group. And if that makes you feel superior to us, I am more than happy to let you feel that way. Whatever floats your boat. Reality tends to respond to more substantial phenomena than feelings of superiority. (That applies to proponents of superiority for any system or country.)
KL27x:
Love the signal to noise ratio when bsfeechannel wakes up and has a thought. No use replying to him. I used to hold him against the aussies and uk guys who are gungho "imperial is for retards." But he is his own category of stupid and should not be held against any other human.
v6kzgo:
--- Quote ---On the Imperial side, the numbers restart 1,2,3 ------etc, every foot (12 inches) & are not cumulative.
It would obviously be impossible to use cumulative numbers of inches for a long tape like that one.(how would you fit the last one in, at 1,980 inches ?)
--- End quote ---
Well, for starters, there's 2.54x as much space on the inch tape than the cm tape. So if you can fit 3 digit numbers on a metric-only tape, you can fit 7 digits in the same font on an inch tape? And second, the inch tape will be 2.54x as long by the time it gets to quadruple digits. So...
On my go-to garage tape, the blank spaces between the numbers are still about the same length as the numbers, when they get to triple digits. And that's on a combo tape. That looks better to me. Like knots on a rope vs a rope made of all knots.
That sucks, though, to have the inches roll over like that at 12. I dare say close to none of our tapes will do that. That is obviously the shitty side of the tape measure, though, right? I would think you guys (in addition to giving more real estate) have the cm on top, and the inches are relegated to the bottom? Compared to here, where a combo tape will almost always have the inches on the top and the cm on the bottom.
edit: in fact, on either my combo or my inch-only tape measures, the length of the (bold, easy to read, nicely spaced) numbers when they hit 100's are respectively 0.55" long and 0.5" long. So this would not even fit on a cm tape without the numbers running over each other.
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