Posted on 10/24/2017 6:00:25 PM PDT by cotton1706
If it’s a pitch shot from a shaved lie to a tucked pin, it could make a huge difference.
Displacement?
American currency is metric based.
Yep we win.
Eh, wrote the below last night - realized it was still on my computer... !
- - -
If it’s a good (performance) car it goes from 0 to 100 mph. Ask almost any 18 yr. old guy. (Joke) :-)
More seriously, though most of my technical work is in metric, and metric is generally superior there, the “English” system does have strengths in everyday measure. Many have been mentioned above, but I’d add that 1 lb. is a pretty nice meal (at least for me) — that depends on what is consumed, of course, but on average, 1 lb. is about right for supper. It’s also about the largest rock one can throw with much distance and accuracy, if that is one’s method for obtaining supper. Ok, maybe that’s going TOO far back... But, looking at it a little differently, a 1 lb. trout (B4 cleaning) or 1 lb. of bone-in meat (of most types before cooking) is also a great start on supper. :-)
One gallon is about the most liquid I’d want to tote any real distance. It is also just right for buying milk for my family.
One quart is perfect for ice cream for the family — and I HATE all the new somewhat smaller / odd ice cream container sizes!
One foot is right in the middle of typical objects’ dimensions that I might pick up and carry around, and 1/2 foot is about the length of an average human hand (average of adult males and females.) (It’s also close to something else I won’t state directly, but a hint is that it’s male only in a certain condition - well, normal females don’t have one, anyway.)
“Mils” (1/1000”) are VERY handy for measuring many types of thin sheet material: Nice even numbers w/ no decimals involved for all but very precise work. “3 mils” is 0.0762 mm, or 0.08 mm rounded off. Metric has no comparable unit that I know of?
One cubic foot is an extremely convenient volume to visualize, carry around, etc., and cubic feet are just plain useful for a lot of things - microwave or refrigerator interiors, storage containers (tho’ most are described in quarts for unknown reasons - I guess quarts sounds bigger?), loudspeaker enclosures of moderate size, water flow (although gallons per second is more common in household usages), and so on.
When it comes to temperature, metric’s 0 deg. @ freezing and 100 deg. at boiling (both @ std. conditions) makes a lot of sense, but, the degree steps in the Fahrenheit scale are closer to the “smallest difference one can readily detect” (without a thermometer). This is somewhat akin to the dB*, where a careful listener can detect a 1 dB SPL change in sound level, but usually not much less than that. Perhaps an “everyday” temperature scale which ran from 0 deg. at freezing to 100 deg. at human body temperature would make sense, but, good luck at getting that adopted. The “100 deg.” point would be a little “imprecise” anyway. What is a “standard human” under “standard conditions”?
*A “dB” is just a ratio: One has to reference it to a particular pressure for it to be a measurement, which “dB SPL” does.
Acres and 1/2 divisions of such are very convenient too, as in a 1, 1/2, or 1/4 acre home lot.
In woodworking, trying to hit a cut to within 1/32” (coarse work, for me) or 1/64” (fine work) is about right. 1mm error is “too coarse” for me, generally, and I’ve never even seen a scale with 1/2 mm divisions — maybe they exist in Germany? OTOH, drawings are a lot easier in either metric, or English with a decimal inch scale, and in fact I have multiple “tenth’s inch” rulers @ my desk and in my shop for various purposes. 1/100” though — not only can I not often hit that in a cut, I can barely SEE it anymore. :-(
Miles is convenient in one very nice respect: 60 mph is about right for average highway travel in an open area, and is equivalent to “a mile a minute” — handy for guesstimating how long until I will be home if I am, say, 25 miles “out” from supper. :-)
THE SEVEN SI BASE UNITS
| Quantity | Name | Sym | Definition (CGPM) |
| length | metre | m | The metre is the length equal to 1 650763,73 wavelengths in vacuum of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the levels 2 p10 and 5 d5, of the krypton-86 atom.[ 11th CGPM (1960), Resolution 6.] |
| mass | kilogram | kg | The kilogram is the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram recognised by the CGPM and in the custody of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, Sevres, France.[ 1 st CGPM (1889).] |
| time | second | s | The second is the duration of 9 192631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom. [13th CGPM (1967), Resolution 1] |
| electric current | ampere | A | The ampere is that constant current which, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of cu rrent infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, and placed one metre apart in vacuum would produce . between these conductors a force equal to 2 x 10-7 newton per metre of length. [CIPM (1946), Resolution 2, approved by the 9th CGPM (1948).] |
| thermo-dynamic temper-ature |
kelvin | K | The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, is the fraction 1/273,16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water. [13th CGPM (1967), Resolution 4 ] |
| amount of substance |
mole | mol | The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0,012 kg of carbon 12. [14th CGPM (1971), Resolution 3.] |
| luminous intensity |
candela | cd | The candela is the luminous intensity, in the perpendicular direction of a surface of 1/600000 square metre of a blackbody at the temperature of freezing platinum under a pressure of 101 325 newtons per square metre. [13th CGPM (1967), Reso'n 5.] |
All other units can be calculated as being derivatives of the above seven definitions. For instance, given the definition above for length, you can calculate volume.
That is one reason they are attempting to set certain other physical constants as defined calculable units for which you can derive the above. For example, if you have a hard definition of Avogadro's Constant, you can use it to derive a mole. From this you can derive a kilogram of a substance.
To me, it's kind of elegant. The intent is to have all of our units of measure be directly related to a very few fundamental physical constants that do not (we hope) change over time, or are affected by such things as gravity wells and other phenomena.
Once that is achieved, maybe we can start looking at a new system for time. Right now it is Wed Oct 25 18:23:14 UTC 2017. Frankly, all of that is a mess. Fractions of a second is normally represented in base 10. Seconds are split into base 6 and base 10. Minutes are also split into 2 digits using base 10 and 6 respectively. Hours are split into base 10 and 2 (if you're using military time). Then you have variable lengths for months, leap years, and all kinds of other stuff.
Could you imagine what the transition to a metric time system would be like? When you start thinking about everything that would have to change, it soon becomes pretty apparent that 5000 years from now when mankind is exploring the stars, they'll still have 24-hour clocks, with 60 minute hours.
Ah, O.K. I had remembered a line from an old automobile magazine (or article about a car in some other magazine) where they were calculating their MPG based upon a quart of gas they fueled it with and then multiplied by 4 to get their MPG. The editors then said why not a Hogshead - the number 63.6 popped up a few minutes later but it’s been 40 years or so since I read that article.
Interesting list.
An acre is a really odd unit of area. Officially it is one chain (66 feet) times one furlong (660 feet) or 10 square chains. 43,650 square feet. It does not however need to be a square as its perimeter is undefined. Think of a sidewalk 3 feet wide and 14,550 long and that too is an acre.
Insofar as it relates to casks for scotch! 63.6 gallons is really close to the US gallons of 64.8 (ish) Hogshead volume.
10, 5 and 1 are clumsy?! Are you perhaps missing fingers? Clumsy is the imperial system that doesn’t even maintain consistent bases. 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1760 yards to a mile. Yeah THAT’S intuitive {sarc}.
Well, at least we know you are not a drug dealer!
My MIL used to live on a ranch that was 2 sections. That is a decent sized hunk of land.
I wouldn't want to mow it.
... or at least not a small time one! /s
I do have a really accurate kitchen scale that will measure down to 1/10 grams if I want. I use it to measure out 8-ounce batches of green coffee to roast. I could do it in grams, but ounces make more sense to me. mmmmm... freshly roasted coffee.
cooking measurements are in a 16 base where as land measurements are in a 12 base. My fault
You have failed to entice me into the metric camp.
It’s good to be able to speak more than one language too.
Best to You and Yours.
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