General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
Altair8800:
So those with inquiring minds that want to know... Here is how nautical knots are measured...
SkyMaster:
--- Quote from: Altair8800 on January 03, 2020, 04:29:03 am ---So those with inquiring minds that want to know... Here is how nautical knots are measured...
--- End quote ---
I think you meant "how nautical knots are WERE measured... 100 years ago." :D
:)
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on January 03, 2020, 04:08:11 am ---you did just a couple of posts ago say that the knot and the nautical mile "have everything to do with metric".
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The knot is defined as 1852 meters per 3600 seconds. So it has everything to do with metric. Although it does not belong to the SI. Is my English not clear enough?
--- Quote ---We aren't stupid,
--- End quote ---
It's not me that is saying that. Watch this video.
@ 0:30 we have this dialog between Derek (Veritasium) and Dr. Patrick Abbott of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Veritasium: But what was this meter agreement?
NIST: The Treaty of the Meter?
Veritasium: Yeah! What is that?
NIST: It's the modern day foundation of the metric system.
Veritasium: So the US signed that?
NIST: The US signed it.
Veritasium: As if they were going to become metric?
NIST: Yes.
Veritasium: [laughs]
NIST: It's a little known secret and I'll tell you something else that all the units that we commonly use like feet and gallons and so on are actually defined in terms of metric units so it's just a little translation that we do here but our country is actually on the metric system.
Veritasium: [pauses and then laughs] doesn't that seem crazy?
NIST: Yes. Yes!
Veritasium: Saying that, like, you base all of these measurements on the metric system...
NIST: Uh huh!
Veritasium: ...and you add a conversion factor...
NIST: Yes.
Veritasium: ...and then later some people have to convert back?
NIST: Yes. It's stupid.
Veritasium: [laughs]
NIST: I agree.
Veritasium: Are you allowed to say that?
NIST: It's true.
--- Quote ---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.)
--- End quote ---
rstofer said that because I didn't go to the moon I accomplished nothing. I'm trying to accomplish something.
ebastler:
--- Quote from: KL27x on January 02, 2020, 10:31:12 pm ---IMO, and it's only an opinion, that looks like shit. >:D And it only gets worse when you get to 200's.
--- End quote ---
The grown-up response would have been: "I stand corrected."
It's strange; from other threads in this forum I clearly get the impression that you are a mature person. What is it about this topic that lets you channel your obnoxious-15-year-old self?
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: KL27x on January 03, 2020, 04:11:23 am ---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.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---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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No! No! No!.
The long tape, is like most such, made of material which is pulled out by hand & retrieved by winding a handle.
It has markings on both sides of the tape, so the whole width is available to mark for the different measurement standards.
(This is different to the shorter spring loaded ones, which use concave metal tape, with markings on the concave side only.)
If I look at the inch side, I need to turn the tape over to see the Metric side.
I thus, cannot see both calibrations simultaneously.(which is sometimes, although very rarely, a drawback)
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