Oh dear, what have I helped to get going :-) It has certainly been interesting reading! My point was, as Chuck notes, that the metre, kilogram etc. are no more 'precise' than a yard, pound etc. being, essentially, arbitrary units and the 'imperial' units can be defined just as accurately and in the same way. I will certainly concede that things become 'interesting' when converting between different units outside of the 'metric' system (and the 'metric' system went through several versions -with distinctly odd units - before the current standardised one) but that just relates to my comment on the reduction of mental arithmetic abilities nowadays as against simple decimal point shifting...... I'm not sure I would agree on being 'forced' to take on certain measurements - we are a lot closer to Europe (sort of...), after all - but pints, inches and miles do seem more 'natural' (a litre is just too much beer) and you could never measure a cricket pitch in metres! That's all from me, Paul Reeves G8GJA -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Harris [mailto:cfharris@erols.com] Sent: 14 December 2011 02:05 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] gravity controlled pendulumn clock? Arnold Tibus wrote: > I don't understand at all the arguments against the metric system and > the polemic remarks about. I second the statements of Neville and Jim. > > Without these intelligent french Astronomers like Jean-Baptiste-Joseph > Delambre, Pierre-François-André Méchain and J.J. Lalande (more infos: > Ken Alder, The Measure of All Things), we would still have the severe > problems they had centuries ago! > > Reading WIKIPEDIA, http://en.wikipedia.org > /wiki/German_units_of_measurement, > we find a good example of weird units (just for only a part of Germany): > > "Before the introduction of the metric system in Germany, almost every > town had its own definitions of the units shown below, and supposedly > by 1810, in Baden alone, there were 112 different standards for the > Elle around Germany. The metric system was a much-needed > standardisation in Germany." > > This was not only a german problem, and we still have today some > problems in the world in this area. Standardization is fine. Attempting to force the world's largest economy to bend to the wishes of Europe isn't fine. The US system has been standardized for more than a century, and works very nicely. Decimal inches, decimal pounds, and seconds is every bit as valid a measurement system as the equally arbitrary meter, kilogram and second. Decimal inches, decimal pounds, and seconds flies most of the airframes in the world, won WWII, and took mankind to the moon and beyond. Saying that the use of pounds, and yards is imprecise is simply ignorant. > > I believe we should think more about what we are saying and doing, so > we would do a big step forward to become a world community. ... Regardless of our measurement systems, we are already a world community. The strife we see in the world today is not the result of measurements, but rather is the result of religion, politics, and culture. -Chuck Harris _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of this company is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company. Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

Paul, a cricket pitch is 20 m. Sure when the curator draws the lines it is 12cm longer, (and I guarantee s/he uses a metric measure) but when we pace it out for backyard cricket - its 20 m. Also my American friends, all your imperial measurements are DEFINED in terms of metric. eg your inch is 25.4 mm exactly. By definition. It has been estimated you could save a trillion dollars a year in your economy by converting - which you will ultimately do. I just hope it is in my lifetime. On Wednesday, 14 December 2011, Reeves Paul <Paul.Reeves@uk.thalesgroup.com> wrote: > Oh dear, what have I helped to get going :-) It has certainly been > interesting reading! My point was, as Chuck notes, that the metre, kilogram > etc. are no more 'precise' than a yard, pound etc. being, essentially, > arbitrary units and the 'imperial' units can be defined just as accurately > and in the same way. I will certainly concede that things become > 'interesting' when converting between different units outside of the > 'metric' system (and the 'metric' system went through several versions -with > distinctly odd units - before the current standardised one) but that just > relates to my comment on the reduction of mental arithmetic abilities > nowadays as against simple decimal point shifting...... > I'm not sure I would agree on being 'forced' to take on certain measurements > - we are a lot closer to Europe (sort of...), after all - but pints, inches > and miles do seem more 'natural' (a litre is just too much beer) and you > could never measure a cricket pitch in metres! > That's all from me, > > Paul Reeves G8GJA > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Chuck Harris [mailto:cfharris@erols.com] > Sent: 14 December 2011 02:05 > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] gravity controlled pendulumn clock? > > Arnold Tibus wrote: >> I don't understand at all the arguments against the metric system and >> the polemic remarks about. I second the statements of Neville and Jim. >> >> Without these intelligent french Astronomers like Jean-Baptiste-Joseph >> Delambre, Pierre-François-André Méchain and J.J. Lalande (more infos: >> Ken Alder, The Measure of All Things), we would still have the severe >> problems they had centuries ago! >> >> Reading WIKIPEDIA, http://en.wikipedia.org >> /wiki/German_units_of_measurement, >> we find a good example of weird units (just for only a part of Germany): >> >> "Before the introduction of the metric system in Germany, almost every >> town had its own definitions of the units shown below, and supposedly >> by 1810, in Baden alone, there were 112 different standards for the >> Elle around Germany. The metric system was a much-needed >> standardisation in Germany." >> >> This was not only a german problem, and we still have today some >> problems in the world in this area. > > Standardization is fine. Attempting to force the world's largest economy to > bend to the wishes of Europe isn't fine. The US system has been > standardized for more than a century, and works very nicely. Decimal > inches, decimal pounds, and seconds is every bit as valid a measurement > system as the equally arbitrary meter, kilogram and second. Decimal inches, > decimal pounds, and seconds flies most of the airframes in the world, won > WWII, and took mankind to the moon and beyond. > > Saying that the use of pounds, and yards is imprecise is simply ignorant. > >> >> I believe we should think more about what we are saying and doing, so >> we would do a big step forward to become a world community. ... > > Regardless of our measurement systems, we are already a world community. > > The strife we see in the world today is not the result of measurements, but > rather is the result of religion, politics, and culture. > > -Chuck Harris > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > > This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication > intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is > addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary > or covered by legal professional privilege. If you have received this email > in error, please notify the sender upon receipt, and immediately delete it > from your system. > > Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses > of this company is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company. > > Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to > this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any > damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you > carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment. > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. >

Jim Palfreyman wrote: > Paul, a cricket pitch is 20 m. Sure when the curator draws the lines it is > 12cm longer, (and I guarantee s/he uses a metric measure) but when we pace > it out for backyard cricket - its 20 m. > > Also my American friends, all your imperial measurements are DEFINED in > terms of metric. eg your inch is 25.4 mm exactly. By definition. It has > been estimated you could save a trillion dollars a year in your economy by > converting - which you will ultimately do. I just hope it is in my > lifetime. I have to wonder how scrapping all of our gas pumps, road signs, cooking utensils, and most of our manufacturing machines would save us a trillion dollars a year. Sounds like wishful thinking. I would sure like to see how that number was arrived at! -Chuck Harris