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New Book Says The Meter Is all Wrong
Bill Klemm writes "Ken Alder's new book 'The Measure of All Things' scandalizes the metric system as 'arbitrary.' CNN has a little article about a new book that explores the 'odyssey' of Delambre and Mechain to find the perfect unit of measure."
Originally, you see, the metric unit of distance was supposed to be one ten-millionth of the span from the north pole to the equator.
But the Earth isn't a perfect sphere -- it's an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles -- So, does this mean that the perfect measurment for the world is the cup/chest circumference sizing standard we've been using on bras for years?
Dang, the earth is hot.
--"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
Come here for your twenty-two cm of love baby!
~ Are to the Dubya to the Ess!
We have the hogshead, the dram, the cubit, the bushel, the gross, the furlong, and even the jigger. There's nothin' wrong with 'em by crackie!
How ya like dat?
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I think we should go with the time cube instead.
Cube proves you are stupid!
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
We all knew this would be posted ;)
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
It's all quite simple, really. Just because the French can't understand it is no reason for us to abandon a perfectly good system of measurement.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Yeah, what comes after "peta-"?
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Man, I wish I could spend all day coming up with inane assertions and then writing books about it and getting paid for it.
Of course the meter is arbitrary! Until you get down to the quantum level EVERYTHING is arbitrary. That's the way the universe works!
Geez!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Of course water is an element. It is one of the four. Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
How ya like dat?
Blaming difficult divisions on a system of measurement is stupid. The reason the metric system is so easy is that it mixes with the base we use and we all use base 10.
All of those people arguing that metric is bad due to this difficult division need to realise the problem is base 10.
I will now announce my plan to improve the world. We move to base 12. "How to get there?" you ask. We convert 2 letters to numbers, but which 2.
I propose Q & X. X will be replaced by ECKS and Z where it is necessary. Q by KW, in Iraq is will be replaced by c, ck or maybe rc (Rhymes with arc). This will have several benefits, SEX ==> secks and is thus longer for everyone who speaks English. Keyboards also become smaller. 3 rows of 8, with the numerals stuffed somewhere (not sure about how to solve that).
On the numerical side we can now convince aliens we don't count on our fingers. It will also help to weed out the ignorant (who DO count on their fingers).
There are various benefits in terms of division.
All numbers are now reported in base 12, the numerals are as follows: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Q X
The best one is time: there are now 50 seconds in a minute, so we can move 2 minutes to one, then we get 26 minutes in an hour, by quadrupling the hour to 100 minutes we now get 6 hours in a day, halving the length of a second will now give us 10 hours in a day. We have just decimalised time without significantly changing the base unit. Yeah. The metric system would remain the same, but things will all of course be done in base 12, allthe prefixes still work. I should add this scheme would have put off the millenium bug for about 1000 years. The only thing remaining nondecimal is the year, which short of altering the flight path of the earth will have to remain as is. Of course there are now 275 days or 276 in a year.
Regretfully 5 is no longer a nice number, nor is 10. The only reason we use these though is as our base is 10. Log_10 is now useless, but we add in log_12. Multiplication is easier, i think, I'm not sure of the patterns, but I'm sure multiplication by 3 and 4 is a lot nice. 6 becomes like 5 and is funky. There should be a pattern for 9 and 11 becomes as easy as 9 is currently. 13 is also really easy to multiply by.
Another drawback is that maths will be forced to find a new name for the arbitrary variable. Variables can't just be set to X, that would not work. The multiplaction system should also probably be changed. * could work.
The ultimate plus though is that there are now 20 letters, that respects our base people, beautiful.
I hope you all enjoy that.
A bunch of very angry pet lovers. =)
This sig no verb.
Ok, so water is an element. But it wasn't funky enough to join Earth Wind & Fire, now, was it?
This sig intentionally left justified.
Not that it's relevant, but...
Which is heavier? a pound of feathers, or a pound of lead?
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The pound of feathers is heavier!
Lead, being a metal, is measured in avurdupois weight; feathers, not being metal, is measured in imperial weight. Differences between an avurdupois pound and an imperial pound, mean that one pound of feathers is heavier!
bits and peace
Nicholas Daley