Posted on 09/29/2009 7:01:04 PM PDT by CedarDave
OTOH: There are 1,000,000,000,000 (1E12) litres in a cubic kilometre.
Registered since 2000, and my sarcastic little post is "the most absurd thing" you've ever heard here? LOL
No, it's not.
I understand that the metric system is a base ten system, which of course is quite sensible, logical, etc. The problem is that we civilians never learned it in school, so people that insist on speaking metric to us are simply speaking Greek to our ears.
It's annoying, and fails to communicate to most Americans. "How big is a meter, honey?" "Dunno, hon. "Bout a yard, I think?" "The news just said that the tsunami will be 63 centimeters! Should we pack up the kids and head for the mountains?"
Sheeesh...
Speak to me in a language I understand, or don't speak at all. I wouldn't think of imposing English measurements on European civilians if I were creating a program specifically for broadcast to them.
It's not that the US hasn't tried to move toward adopting the metric system. I went to military schools as a child, and we had instruction in the metric system for the better part of a year around the 6th grade. Guess what? It didn't stick, so they dropped it.
At the time, everything outside the school house was in English measurements, so we couldn't actually apply it to the real world. It's unbelievable how fast I forgot everything we'd studied by the start of the next school year.
No FReekin DUH Windflier. We sure wouldn't want any university trained egggead engineers over here.
Somebody wanna remind me just what the hell a click is again?
Hey, Squantos, you EOD guys use that metric stuff dontcha? Are you guys "assuredly pompous libs?" Or do you just not talk about it? I'm sure our snipers and engineers use "meters" just to be cool among the left, eh?
I'm gonna go eat some metric bacon and eggs (64g each). Thanks. They're so much more tasty when measured in "lib" terms. Also, note, I only target shoot in meters, just to piss off, um, conservatives.
Sheesh.
Sounds as if you are a non-scientific type of person.
Yes, but do you use metric measurements in casual conversation with friends and non-chemists? I hope not. If you do, they won’t get a clear picture of the proportions you’re attempting to communicate to them.
I haven’t said that the metric system is inferior to English measurements. It’s actually a better way. The problem is, Americans, by and large, don’t know it, so when they hear it being used, they don’t comprehend the volumes and sizes of things being discussed.
My consideration is that it’s inconsiderate to force unfamiliar terms on people when you’re speaking to them. It causes them to have blank spots in their understanding of whatever it is you’re saying.
This is why I made my earlier comment. In my observation, it’s very like liberals to habitually communicate using obscure words and references, when they could easily do so with plain language that their audience understands clearly.
No, just the opposite, although I'm not a scientist. Perhaps I made my point a bit too sarcastically, or too subtly.
If I were a European, watching a television program which was clearly produced for a European audience, I would be offended if the principles of the program insisted on using English measurements to describe things.
Likewise, I find it irritating that the media in this country creates so much programming with dialog that expresses concepts of measure with the metric system.
I know that metric is a better system of measure. I just don't like feeling fuzzy when people insist on communicating to me with it.
Good post. That was even more sarcastic than mine.
I don’t actually have a problem with the metric system itself. It’s a better way to measure things.
What I have a problem with, is people who insist on communicating concepts of measure to large generic audiences of Americans using metric terms.
Most Americans don’t use the metric system, so don’t have a clear mental picture of the volumes being discussed when they’re expressed in metric terms.
I can totally understand professionals using metric terms to communicate concepts of measure amongst themselves. That makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense is using that terminology on a public who are only vaguely familiar with it. It just creates blanks in their comprehension.
Rev. Horton Heat : Bales of Cocaine
You know, when the %^&&! wave was supposed to hit?
For record; I know that I can get a rough idea of kilometers by dividing by nine and multiplying by five.
I could never figure out how I'm supposed to know if the hilo is a mile or a kilometer away when it's raining and the only reference is my thumb.
I know that a 650 Triumph is 41 inches,
and I know that Ford believes that 302 inches is five liters.
Guess that I'm OK with the metric system.
(PS: That would be square inches, and Ford also believed that seven liters was 427 inches, so I guess you could get more scientific if you took the additional time. Maybe.)
PS: That would be square inches.................no, that would be cubic inches!
You’ve got that right. It is such a beautiful place, as you can see.
Do you object to the use of the metric system in our currency?
Or would you prefer to calculate change for someone who gave you a half crown, a florin, a sixpence, and a farthing?
I delight in exotic foreign currency. If they want to use such coins, what skin is it off our nose? The thought of a uniform worldwide currency is repulsive to me.
I’m talking not about some exotic foreign currency, nor about a uniform worldwide currency, but about the metric system in use in our own currency: 100 cents to the dollar, instead of 20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling, and four farthings to the pence.
Thomas Jefferson was a big proponent of the metric system, and even proposed a system of measurement based on an iron rod with a 1-second period of vibration, with 10 points per line, 10 lines per inch, 10 inches per foot, and 10 feet per decad.
| Tide Station | Observed Height |
| Apia | 70.3cm/2.3Ft |
| Pago Pago | 178.8cm/5.9Ft |
| Penrhyn | 8.0cm/0.26Ft |
| Tonga | 14.0cm/0.46Ft |
| Rarotonga | 0.47m/1.5Ft |
| Nawiliwili, HI | 21.7cm/0.71Ft |
| Honolulu, HI | 16.3cm/0.54Ft |
| Kawaihae, HI | 24.3cm/0.79Ft |
| Kahului, HI | 36.5cm/1.19Ft |
| Hilo, HI | 16.2cm/0.53Ft |
| Arena Cove, CA | 42cm/1.38Ft |
| Cresent City, CA | 23.3cm/0.76Ft |
| San Francisco, CA | 9.3cm/0.31Ft |
| Monterey, CA | 15.8cm/0.52Ft |
| Port San Luis, CA | 29.8cm/0.98Ft |
| Point Reyes, CA | 20.5cm/0.67Ft |
| Charleston, OR | 33.6cm/0.45Ft |
| Easter Island | 29.2cm/0.96Ft |
| Port Vila | 18.2cm/0.60Ft |
| Shemya, AK | 10.2cm/0.34Ft |
| La push, WA | 14.0cm/0.46Ft |
| Port Orford, OR | 17.0cm/0.56Ft |
| South Beach, OR | 8.8cm/0.29Ft |
cool graphic, what is the source?
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