Re: [time-nuts] gravity controlled pendulumn clock?
The beautiful irony in all of this, is that the negative statements about
metric and the desire not to change to the metric system comes from the US,
yet it was Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who took the original
idea to France when they were ambassadors. The French ran with it and the
US didn't (missing out by only a few votes).
Oh well.
Jim
On 14 December 2011 12:01, Arnold Tibus arnold.tibus@gmx.de 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.
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. ...
Sorry for this personal opinion and comments,
let us come back to timing problems with scientific and technical
discussions,
regards,
Arnold
Am 14.12.2011 00:15, schrieb Jim Lux:
On 12/13/11 12:26 PM, shalimr9@gmail.com wrote:
Having spent more of my adult life in the US than in France, and
having been thoroughly exposed to both systems, I can testify (in my
own name) that it is easier and faster to get a good approximation
when doing mental arithmetic on engineering problems using the metric
system than the imperial system.
Of course, when you punch numbers in a calculator, the difference is
less (even though there are fewer constants involved when using the
metric system in general) so there is less typing involved.
If you don't care about being accurate, then the imperial system is
fine :)
A gallon ( a yard, a pound,...) are not the same depending on where
you are, and I am not talking about relativistic effects (or maybe I
am...). Who cares how much is an ounce of water anyhow?
Oh, then you're getting into all sorts of interesting units. Gallons,
corn gallons, Scots gallons, etc.
And when speaking of drink, for some amount of time in England, if you
bought it in a bar, it could only be served and priced in fractions of a
gill (for distilled spirits) or no less than a pint (for cider, beer,
etc.) (a pint is, of course, 4 gill (except in Scotland), and since a
gill is 5 fluid ounces, that makes the pint of beer some 20 ounces).
And we are not speaking here of archaic units that haven't been seen in
centuries. I think the UK went away from the gill fraction thing in
bars (I don't recall seeing the sign about "all spirits sold in this
establishment..." last winter in Heathrow), but it certainly existed in
the early to mid 90s. (There's this weird alcohol unit thing, but I
have no idea what that is.. probably some quasi metric measure of
equivalent ethanol). I think, also, that in Australia, the "pint of
beer" varies among states.
And the stone is still used as a measure of human weight (and for
perhaps other purposes) My wife's English relatives talk about gaining a
stone over the holidays. And when hiring a horse to ride in the
southwest of England, they tend to ask what you weigh in stone (but the
horse business is the epitome of archaic.. Even in the more modern US we
run races in furlongs, timing them in 1/5ths of a second, measure height
of the horse in hands, although we do weigh jockeys in pounds)
There are also a whole host of "fair weight and measure" laws in most
countries which regulate the minimum sale quantity of something (e.g.
you cannot buy a loaf of bread weighing less than a pound in the state
of Oregon, raising an issue if you wish to purchase a demi-baguette).
Likewise, vegetables and fruit have minimum sale quantities (the odd
"dry pint"). I think in Germany, there's a minimum sale quantity for
beverages, as well.
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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
Dave Martindale dave.martindale@gmail.com wrote:
But where the metric system has an advantage is that the units with
the same name are the same size everywhere; that's not true of
"English" units. I can remember mixing Kodak photographic chemicals
for darkroom use, where the mixing instructions are in terms of ounces
and gallons. But I was in Canada, where the Imperial (British) ounce
and gallon are both different volumes than the American (and thus
Kodak) units of the same name.
Fortunately, the inch seems to be the same size everywhere, so I don't
have to figure out whether someone is talking about British inches or
American inches.
It's possibly worth noting that it is only the units of volume that differ
between the American customary and British Imperial systems of units. The
systems diverged because in the 18th century there were multiple volume
measures in use (the ale gallon, the wine gallon, the Winchester bushel).
The US simplified by using the wine gallon for all liquid volumes and kept
the Winchester bushel for grain volume. Britain was more influenced by
French metrication, which led to a new unified system based on the
Imperial gallon, defined as the volume of 10 lb water.
Tony.
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