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Another English/Metric "Spacecraft" Problem
SuperDry writes "There's been another spacecraft failure that's been attributed to an English/Metric units problem, this time at Tokyo Disneyland's Space Mountain. An axle broke on a "spacecraft" (a.k.a. roller coaster train) mid-ride, causing it to derail (nobody was hurt). The final investigation report has been released, and the root cause has been determined to be a part being the wrong size due to a conversion of the master plans in 1995 from English units to Metric units. In 2002, new axles were mistakenly ordered using the pre-1995 English specifications instead of the current Metric specifications. Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference."
It's more like an English spelling problem, no?
I could care less, but not without a lobotomy
whats a proble? ;-)
How come everything Disney does ends up so Mickey Mouse?
The Japanese who, like the rest of the modern world, switched to metric years ago?
Or the American designers who couldn't even do simple multiplication in order to convert from English to Metric?
I have been pwned because my
I'm Canadian, so I have to assume that 'proble' is the... imperial spelling... of problem?
"I get five rods to the hog's head!"
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
We need a one world government with one way of doing things! How many more people have to die because we have to hang on to old ways of doing things? Stop this madness now! Surrender your nationalist ideals. Borders exist in the minds of dimwitted politicians. Borders can't be see from space. We must unite and work together to advance mankind.
Support the New World Order now!
From the Article:
In September 1995, the design specifications for the size of the axle bearing for Space Mountain vehicles was changed from inches to the metric scale. Accordingly, the axle diameter was also changed, in this case from 44.14 mm to 45.00 mm. However, appropriate action to revise and maintain the design drawings was neglected. Consequently, two different drawings existed within our company after the changes were made and the old drawing showing the 44.14 mm diameter was used to order (in August 2002) the axles that were delivered in October 2002.
They actually changed the specs. The conversions were all done correctly but they failed to update everyone.
I don't know about you, but us English call the measurement system the Imperial system. Isn't the American version slightly different, in respect to fluid units, etc?
Why do you call them 'English' units, when everyone else knows them as Imperial units? :-) We stopped using most of them some time ago.
Hmm, maybe it would be a good idea to always use a standard international system of units, to avoid these kind of problems...
It wasn't mentioned in the article, but for my own reference, I'm wondering how many Rods to the Hogshead this ride gets?
Or if that info. isn't available, how many stone per fortnight this ride has in lifting capacity.
TDz.
In the automotive industry being off by that 'gigantic' mile of a discrepancy can be the difference between an entirely safe system or a potentially dangerous event just waiting to happen.
Anything from rubbing away the lining of important wires or hoses, different stress locations resulting in tear apart pieces that shouldn't be tear apart can happen by being off by that much...
0.86mm might at well be 3 feet off. A part that comes out that far off is nothing but scrap material. (Well at least in our area of automotive work.)
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Proving once again that the average person has a hard time coutning to ten.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Please don't say English/Metric units. The UK is effectively metric now, all schoolchildren are only taught metric units and everything has to be priced in metric units. I don't even have intutitions about how long feet are or how heavy a stone is. Pretty much everyone under the age of 25 only deals with litres, metres and kilograms. The only exception is vehicle speed, which is still measured in mph (and hence all our road signs are in mph). You won't, however, catch any British Engineers or scientists using Imperial units.
Better ways to describe them would be "Imperial" (what we call them), "American" or "Archiac". I think it's about time the US caught up with the rest of the world and ditched these stupid and difficult-to-remember units once and for all.
>Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference. At this very moment there are hundreds of geeks around the world trying to think of a great punchline for this.
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
nobody was hurt.
-n-
If you had read the article, you would know that the problem was, while converting to metric, they also changed the specification of the axle size, but didn't record the new axle size correctly. So, the problem really had nothing to do with any mathematical error, just an error in incorrect documentation.
A modern day witchhunt.
I think the joke is that thing about how the space shuttle wheel base is the same as Roman carts..
And suddenly the mods realized that "Problem" was fixed and they'd blown all their mod points on two-minute jokes.
Google's Cache is here.
The US needs to catch up to the rest of the world. The entire world uses Metric people. And it makes an infinite amount more sense to use Metric than the US system. If we don't, trade will continue to suffer as well as accidents such as this one.
http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID108300.asp
Great set of columns, by the way. I've always been a fan of how some of the disney technology was invented and implemented.
HAHAHAH! No one uses hands anymore to measure distance! How ARCANE!
We use feet.
A side note: in New Zealand (and possibly other Commonwealth countries - I haven't checked) they don't even refer to "English units". Their term is "Imperial units". Which tells you how long it's been since they made the switch...
in 18th century there were no railroads
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
Actually, Einstein, if you want to know, the meter was defined originally as the distance from the north pole to the equator divided by 10000.
Conversion from English units to metric units? That would be multiply by 1 then since we use metric almost exclusively in England? (Except for miles, which are still used on the roads)
http://blog.nexusuk.org
WRONG! See http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/brown/chpt2 .html
MANY persons, otherwise well-informed upon general topics, believe that railroads were constructed especially for locomotives, as the best-adapted road for the accom- modation of that peculiar machine and its train of cars. They never call to mind that a locomotive is a modern invention, and, for want of access to works such as we have referred to, they are not informed that a railroad is an ancient institution (if we may apply such a term to such a subject). They never have dreamed nor ever imagined that this peculiar kind of road was invented and in use several centuries ago, but, like the great auxiliary, the locomotive, was very defective and simple in its primitive state, and since that time, like the latter, has been subject to vast and continued improvements. Before, however, we enter upon the subject for which these pages were designedN" the history of the first locomotives in America"Nit will not, we trust, be deemed inappropriate here to devote a small space in our work in describing the peculiar kind of road upon which the locomotive travels, now known universally as the railroad; and to such information as we have gathered of its origin and early progress. Various devices have been employed, from the period when wheelcarriages were first used, for facilitating the movement over the ground in transportation. These devices, however, were mostly limited to the smoothing, leveling, and hardening the surface of the way. The early Egyptians, in transporting the immense stones they used in the erection of the vast pyramids from the quarries, learned the advantage of hard, smooth, and solid track-ways, and the remains of such, formed of large blocks of stone, are said to have been found on the line of the great road they constructed for this purpose. The ancient Romans made also some approach to the invention of railroads, in the celebrated Appian Way. This was constructed of blocks of stone fitted closely together, the surface presenting a smooth and hard track for the wheels. In modern times such tracks or roadways were constructed in several European citiesNLondon, Pisa, Milan, and many others. The first instance on record of rails being used on highways was as early as the year 1630, over two and a quarter centuries ago. They were invented by a person named Beaumont, and built and used for the transportation of coal from the mines near New castle, in England. Old Roger North alludes to railways as being in use in the neighborhood of the river Tyne in the year 1676, and he thus describes them: The rails of timber were placed end to end and exactly straight, and in two lines parallel to each other. On these bulky carts were made to run on four rollers fitting these rails, whereby the carriage was made so easy that one horse would draw four or five caldrons of coal at a load. We read of railways existing in Scotland in 1745, at the time of the Scotch rebellion. These railways were laid down between the Tranent coal-mines and the harbor of Cockenzie, in East Lothian. Improvements were made on these roads and continued until 1765, 2 when they began to assume the forms of our present roads, even to the use of flanges upon the wheels; but up to this period no iron surface was ever heard of The mode of constructing a railroad at that period was as follows: After the surface was brought to as perfect a level as possibleNor incline, as the case might be Nsquare blocks of wood, called sleepers, about six feet long, were laid two or three feet apart across the track; upon these two long strips of wood, six or seven inches wide mod about five inches deep, were fastened by pins to the sleepers, and parallel to each other, but about four feet apart. Upon this wooden rail was spiked a projecting round moulding of wood, and the wheels were hollowed out like a pulley to fit upon the round surface of the wooden molding upon the rails. The fir
24.13 centimeters
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
The problem had nothing to do with eglish->metric conversion.
Also, there is nothing inherently better about the metric system of measurement, vs. the english system of measurement vs. any other standardized system of measurment. If something is measured at 1.5 inches or 38.1 mm, it's the exact same length. The only advantage is commonality and not having to do conversions (which is an advantage, I admit). But there is no inherent advantage as to how well one system can perform over the other.
A modern day witchhunt.
Errm... so 10000 metres is the distance between the equator and the North pole? (i.e. 10km). You live on a very small planet with a circumference of 40km then.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
What do you think would be the biggest hurdle in the US conversion to the metric system? I, at first, thought it would be automobile manufacturing/repair, but all auto shops already have to deal with foreign cars already with metric parts. My vote now would have to be for gas pumps and speed limits. I think it would take people a long time to adjust to liters and kilometers per hour.
Yes, yes, yes.
I thought about locomotives.
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
This is one thing that really embarrasses me as an American. How fucking hard is the metric system, really? I mean, really. A fucking meter is almost exactly the length of one fucking yard. Jesus H. Livingston.
Those are like the Darwin Awards filtered for Disney Resorts. Can't blame Disney for their customers being idiots. You can blame them, however, for their roller coaster developers being retards.
-n-
I don't think that the average girl would notice that small a difference.
'Hands' are used to measure the height at the withers of a horse.
Best Slashdot Co
I kinda like the way the "proble" was found : probably by harvesting the company's info database in order to track down the problem's root.
I am confident that it has now become even easier to find out such failures at all and within a decent time...
Of course, it'll soon be time to extend the ISO standard in order to take more things into account but I am already impressed.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Seriously. Metric is base 10, Imperial units are base 12.
Now, the cool thing about this is that 12 can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 6 - giving you the ability to easily measure a third for instance. It's why it's still used in the building trade. Metric only lets you divide by 2 and 5 - and is not as flexible.
Anyhows, totally off topic, but kinda interesting, and one reason why Imperial mesurements aren't going to disappear any time soon (no jokes about TIE fighter blueprint errors please).
In this case, the Imperial system isn't directly to blame : the article states that it's a communication problem that provocated the troubles.
I applause the initiative taken by engineers in this case : they did switch the plan to the metric system, and that's a good move. I just wish the whole US country would do the same.
Unfortunately (this is where I start drifting toward offtopicism), frenchs are the initial designers of the metric system. I wonder if this refrains US to switch completely to it, and keep the imperial system.
Still, doing the switch would be the most reasonable thing to do (widely used in the rest of the world AND simpler to manipulate), and could perhaps even have some beneficial political repercussions at the international level (and you can't deny US badly need some these days).
Actually, it was a decimal fraction of the distance between the north pole and the Paris meridian.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
Some things that would be nice to standardize (but will probably not happen in my lifetime)
- imperial - metric
- Letter paper - A4
- Fahrenheit - Celcius
- AM/PM - 24 hr notation
- month/day/year - day/month/year
Anything I left out?
Upon careful examination it is clear that the Imperial system is at least indirectly responsible for most of the world's problems, including but not limited to:
* Government conspiracy
* Microsoft Windows
* Rap Music
* Hondas and their drivers
* Transistors
* Pokemon
* Jerry Springer
* Televangelism
* Toxic waste
* The Republicans
* The Democrats
* Defective and bogus hardware
* Wrenches that dont fit
* Starbucks coffee
* Communism
* Soccer
* The Dollar.
No. The meter is currently defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second. (The definition has changed a couple of times as science has advanced to make the definition more precise.) The meter is based on the Earth's merideans (lines of longitude) - it is 1 / 10 millionth of one meridian.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
It was actually originally intended to be one 10 millionth the distance between the north pole and the equator.
In 1983 it was redefined as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
If you are going to bitch at someone for getting it wrong, you could at least get it right yourself.
Why? Because it's not base ten.
Using imperial measurements, you can accurately cut a third of a yard, half a yard etc. And I don't mean none of this 33.333333 recurring crap either. You can cut a perfect third.
It's one reason why Imperial is still used on the building trade. Ten divides by 2 and 5, yet 12 divides by 2, 3, 4 and 6 without the need for additional measuring gear. Great if you're cutting planks or copper tube.
Sometimes, base 10 isn't the best solution.
I worked in automotive engine factories in Detroit for two years. We had a problem with a cylinder head casting from a South American supplier once that was a direct result of them not updating their tool drawing when they fixed the problem the first time. Since the print was never updated, when they built a new tool to cast the heads, they left in a certain ejector pin. Once again, the pin wore out, sand built up around the pin, and we ended up with a little hole in the cylinder head after we machined it.
We caught the hole on the assembly line via the standard air pressure testing, but the mistake ended up costing the supplier an entire warehouse full of scrap parts that they had shipped (by ship) to the U.S.
Moral of the story: Update the damn prints, people!
Before everone rants about why 'America' hasn't changed to the Metric system...
Note that:
-Virtuall all US University engineering and science education is done using Metric units.
-The US Federal government is required to use the Metric system for doing business (Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act)
-The US FDA requires all consumer products be labeled in Metric units (actually dual labeling)
I guess some Euros wonder why the US doesn't pass laws saying like "You're not allowed to sell gas in gallons, you must sell it in Litres". Well, the US just doesn't work that way. If someone wants to sell gas in Litres, they are free to. Mostly, businesses choose not to.
Dare I say at the risk of downward moderation and flaming, that the US 'hands off' approach to business is working quite well in comparison to EU countries, where the recent recession hit much harder, largely blamed on overly beaurocractic governments that ensure companies are inflexible in changing economic times.
On the other end, starting this year, the EU will ban dual labeling. So, not only will Europe require US products to have metric labeling (the already do) they will not allow Imperial units to appear on the labels! That's just spiteful.
This incident (although caused by a transition TO the metric system) leads us to the question how many more years until we finally get rid of the imperial system. The US standard bureau has a page that describes their effort in the conversion. They quote the metric conversion act of 1975, but i don't know how much has happened since then. How many years do I have to buy US stuff here in Europe that is half metric and half imperial? For god sake, even the UK has switched! Does anybody know a real time-table for the transition??
Obligatory Pulp Fiction quote:
If you ever run into a imperial system freak ask him to calculate how many square inch there are in a square mile
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
No, the wavelenght of krypton is used to define the second combined with the speed of light and the meter.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
The problem has little/nothing to do with it being metric/imperial.
Someone ordered the wrong part. That's it.
This is why drawings should be controlled. Only current known valid drawings should be used for anything.
This problem is as basic as someone using patches for linux kernel 1.2.13 on a 2.6 series kernel
1m = 1000 mm
1km = 1000 m
1kg = 1000 g
1 Ton = 1000 kg
1 liter (water) = 1kg
1 hectare = 10000 m2
1 km2 = 100 hectares
Do you see the similarity with our numeric system ?
You only see 1's and 0's.
no, every country in the world, 'cos england admits it does not exist, and that it is Britain.
--- any post that takes longer than 20 seconds to write, isn't worth writing
> attributed to an English/Metric units problem
> new axles were mistakenly ordered using the pre-1995 English specifications
and from RTFA:
> appropriate action to revise and maintain the design drawings was neglected
Riiiiiight, so what you're trying to tell me is that if the pre-1995 specs were metric instead of imperial this mistake wouldn't have happened? Also why does a problem with Imperial measurements have to be an English problem? Americans use Imperial as well.
Don't you mean imperial. They actually stem from an arabic measuring system (as does our numbering system of base 10, we were roman until 17th century). Ive never heard of 'English units' and ive lived here practically my whole life.
And you think the English system isn't arbitrary. At least the metric system is based on multiples of 10 just like are numeral system making calculations easier.
E.g.: 1/23 = 0.0435, so how much is a 23rd of 1 km? 43.5 m. But how much is a 23rd of a mile, that demands a bit more computation.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world: Those who write in decimal and those who don't
(And the right term for "metric" is "SI").
SI units are legal in the United States and have been for a very long time. The inch was set at precisely 25.4 mm _by definition_ in July 1959.
The additional units, such as inches, miles, quarts, pounds, etc. which I believe are all legally defined by reference to SI units, are officially and properly referred to as "U. S. Customary" units. They have, of course, a strong historical connection to English units.
Unofficially, "Metric" and "English" are the U. S. customary designations for "SI" and "U. S. Customary."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
So they measured the distance between the equator and the North pole in meters right? Wait a minute...
If the U.S. hates the french so much, they should dynamite the Statue of Liberty, because that was a gift from the french to the U.S.
It would serve the french and the americans right!
See how stupid all this french or american bashing is?
Grow up, people.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
meridian
1. An imaginary great circle on the earth's surface passing through the North and South geographic poles. All points on the same meridian have the same longitude.
2. Either half of such a great circle from pole to pole.
So, the distance between the north pole and the Paris meridian == 0
Aren't these standards-based posts just wonderful for brining out the pedant in all of us?
Possibly you meant 'Parisian latitude'
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
You got the metric conversion wrong (off by one zero) and the other one right.
A modern day witchhunt.
>1 litre of water weighs 1kilogram and 1000 litres of water will occupy 1 cubic meter of space.
Thats not really true, because the dimension of water depends on the temperature.
1l water weighs 1kg if there are 4C
Ok, the difference is not big, but at disney it wasn't too:)
greets from Germany
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
[gets modded redundant]
[???]
[no profit for you!]
We should be using the metric system (better yet, SI) by now. Any half-retarded grade school kid understands base 100.
It's amazing the weird looks I get whenever I refer to shit in meters or liters, unless it's 400 meter dash or 2 liter Coke.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
Someone probably paced the distance :)
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Cost, space and weight are typically the limiting factors. Though I did think to myself: "What kind of safety factor were they using?"
Then again, if they put a axle into a bearing and that axle was 0.81mm too small, that's a BIG gap, which can cause all sorts of wear and scratches. Even a small scratch in a high strength steel shaft can cause it to snap like a twig under normal loading because that tiny cut can amplify the stress in the material ten or twenty times easily (Depending on the situation, of course).
You'ld think they'd use a SF of at least 2 (200% of the strength the design requires). But as I said, a small scratch and that axle it gone.
The guy putting it together shold have noticed that, too. Chances are not only did the bearing not fit, but the seals probably didn't fit either!
=Smidge=
The 'English' system used in the USA isn't even the same as the Imperial system in Britain. If I ordered a pint of beer in a pub and got a US pint, I would complain. A British pint is more than 20% bigger!
What about the OPEC nations who sell 42 gallon barrels of oil? Or how about Volvo, BMW, Honda, Toyota etc. whose automobiles measure performance in horsepower? And what about your furnaces that are probably rated in BTUs. And there are probably a bunch of other units I am forgetting. If you think your country has gone totally metric you are fooling yourself.
And then of course there is time. Is there a single country that has converted to metric time?
Obligatory Pulp Fiction quote:
... Mr. Buttle's harmless...
More apt Brazil quote:
nabbed from here...
When the internal security policy arrive to
arrest terrorist suspect Mr. Buttle - himself
an innocent citizen wrongly fingered due to a
mechanical problem in a computer system - the
Department of Works who come in after them to
clean up the mess have brought along the wrong
size repair kit to fix the hole in the floor
that they drilled to facilitate a surprise
entrance.
JILL: There must be some mistake
BILL: We don't make mistakes.
(So saying, he drops the manhole cover, which is
faced with same material as the floor, over the
hole in the floor. To his surprise it drops
neatly through the floor into the flat below.)
CHARLIE: Bloody typical, they've gone back to
metric without telling us.
Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference.
Yes! I'm longer than that.
On Hawthorne Blvd, coming out of Palos Verdes going into Torrance in the sunny state of California there is a single speed limit sign that has both miles per hour and kilometers per hour. Frmom what I saw in the 10 years I lived there it's the only inperial/metric speed limit sign in the LA area.
Are't all liquor and wine bottles metric in the US now? And what about those 2 litre soft drink bottles?
Need Mercedes parts ?
I'm busy working on some robotics projects at home. So I go off to Ace hardware this weekend to get some measuring equipment as I need to do stuff acurately. Now I'm writing code that uses these real world measurements and most of the library calls for I/O of numbers (e.g. scanf, printf) support only the use of decimal to represent floating point numbers. So clearly it makes sense to use metric for measurements as I'm so lame I can't remember what a number like 3 7/32 looks like in decimal. Goddamnit! Do you think I could find any metric equipemnt anywhere in Ace? Maybe one steel ruler. And it was just a ruler. Stuff like levels, set squares and protractors all have rules on them marked in inches. It's pathetic. It's like waking up and suddenly finding myself in a medieval city measuring out my drinks in gills.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Bzzzzt. Thanks for playing!
From boson.physics.sc.edu :
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Danish astronomer Ole Roemer (famous for making the first measurements that showed that the velocity of light is finite) devised a temperature scale of his own for use with the alcohol-in-glass thermometers that he constructed. His thermometers attracted the attention of Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), a manufacturer of meteorological instruments in the Netherlands. In 1708 Fahrenheit traveled to Copenhagen to meet Roemer and see his thermometers, which were based on two reference points. For one reference Roemer used a mixture of ice, water, and salt to reach the lowest temperatures then attainable in the laboratory, which he called zero. His other reference was the boiling point of water, which he arbitrarily designated as 60 degrees.
Fahrenheit returned home to make thermometers like Roemer's. In 1714 he overcame technical difficulties with alcohol thermometers by substituting mercury as the expanding liquid. The use of mercury extended the range of temperature measurements from well below Roemer's zero to well above the boiling point of water. Furthermore, mercury expanded and contracted more uniformly than the other liquids then in use. As a result, Fahrenheit could mark his mercury thermometers more accurately and with finer divisions.
By 1724 Fahrenheit had adopted a new scale, similar to Roemer's but with much finer divisions. For the zero point he chose the same reference as Roemer. However, since his thermometer was intended for meteorological observations, he wanted a second reference point that would be nearer the maximum observed temperature for weather. He chose the normal temperature of the human body as the upper reference point, which he called 96. Fahrenheit gave no reason for his choice of 96, but it may have been due to his desire for a finer scale and because 96 is evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4, 8, and 12.
Why didn't Fahrenheit choose the freezing point of water for his zero reference, as Newton had done before him and as Celsius did later on? Perhaps Fahrenheit was influenced by Roemer, or he may have wanted to avoid the inconvenience of repeatedly using negative temperatures during winter. Also, in the early 1700s it was widely believed that water did not always freeze at the same temperature. Soon, using his newly calibrated thermometers, Fahrenheit learned that water always froze at 32 on his scale. He immediately added this third reference point to his instruments.
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
The Military uses metric, at Georgia Tech (civil engineering) we used both (however, they emphasized metric), I believe most in the scientific community use metric. I think the problem is with trying to teach the general population.
Have a look here.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
Uuhhhhh...a little over 2.2lbs in 1kg dude...
Seriously. Enough's enough.
Is that the metric system is flawed. It is defined in terms of the size of 18th century railroad tie sizes, which is totally arbitrary.
Mmm-hmm. So, clearly, defining length in terms of the feet of a 1200-year old dead Frankish king is a better choice?
The US (and the UK) has repeatedly adjusted the sizes of various units over the years (as has the metric system in defining the meter, second, etc).
At any rate, why doesn't the US simply redefine various units to match more evenly with standard metric units?
For example:
1 pound = 453.59 grams. Why not make 1 pound = 450 or, better, 500 grams. Then 1 lb = 1/2 kg. Easy to convert back and forth!
Similarly, everyone knows 1 meter ~= 1 yard. So redefine the foot to be 1/3 of a meter. Once again, it'd be easy to convert.
And last, 1 qt = 0.946 litres. So change it to be 1 litre. Then a 2 litre bottle of soda would be a 1/2 gallon.
After that, the unit names "ounce", "mile", "inch" become mnemonic terms. People would still use inches because it's more convenient to say than "1/36 of a meter".
"Brown University? We have one of those in Providence!" -- Outside Providence
Don't give me that crap about how much better the US economy performs than the EU. The median standard of living in the EU is higher than in the US. The US economy is great at producing wealth at the top, but conservative Americans have an aversion to using the economy to solve social problems ("communism! class war!"). I think this is a major reason why Europeans view the US as "backwards". Yes, both the US and the EU have economies that have solved the problems of food, shelter, and medicine. But the US has not seen to distributing those solutions to the people.
Many Americans have an ingrained sense that the only job of the economy is to grow. Things like social nets and environmental protections interfere with the ability of the (total) economy to grow at the fastest rate possible, so they must be inherently bad. This is the unifying economic philosophy of the conservative Republicans: government itself is inherently bad precisely because it siphons money (taxes) away from investment and consumption. If you believe in Reaganomics ("a rising tide lifts all boats") this makes some sense. But in the real world, it leads to a morally bankrupt society obsessed with money.
</rant>
So in conclusion, there are 36 inches in a yard.
Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
Around Universities in the US every roadsign in kilometers. My father works for a vitamin company in the US, and he use the metric system anyway. Big deal if it's not official in the country, if enough many people start to use it, it's going to catch on -- just like the word THRU.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
A friend of mine in college in the late 80's did an internship with Disney Imagineering. At the time, they were redrawing plans for several attractions that were to be copied almost exactly from California and Florida version for use in Euro Disney. There was great concern that the Imperial to metric round-off would be a problem. The contractor's union in France mandated that they only use metric units in the blueprints, which is reasonable. But if you're trying to duplicate a ride that was originally designed in Imperial units, you need to keep in mind quite a few significant digits when you're measuring. For example, a section of track in a given ride might be 10 feet in the US. In metric that's 3.048 m. Would the French contractors really measure to that precision? Or would they round off to 3.05 or event 3.0? They were concerned that roundoff might be systematic causing the errors to accumulate in one direction. This was a big concern, and there were debates over whether some rides needed to be redesigned in metric from the start and possibly give up economies of standardized parts.
That this happened in Space Mountain is also interesting, because Space Mountain was the first rollercoaster to have ATIS (automated track inspection system). Since it was a tightly wound coaster in a confined space it was difficult to do visual inspections. ATIS uses two techniques to detect problems with the track. The rails are actually tubes and they're pressurized in sections. When small cracks start to develop, the pressure drop is detected. Sensors also time cars through different sections of the track. If there is a trend of cars slowing through a section over time, it indicates that the ties between the rails are starting to give. ATIS is so much better than visual inspections at detecting problems early that it's used on most modern roller coasters.
Statutory definitions of the American customary system (if you want to call it a system) of weights and measures are explained in the note to 15 United States Code Section 205.
The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a more detailed explanation of the American British, Imperial and Metric (SI) System in its Handbook 44 - Specifications, Tolerances, And Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices. Appendix C to the Handbook gives detailed tables of conversion among the various systems, and Appendix B explains a good deal of the history of the systems. Section 2.3 of that appendix gives an explanation of US/UK differences:
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
You need to ask yourself WHY you are risking your life on an amusement park ride that has less than a 0.86mm margin of error on a critical life-supporting part?
I never claimed it did. Perhaps you should re-read my post. My gripe is that the use of two different systems of units leads to lots of communications problems, and inevitably leads to errors when those communications channels fail. Now in the case of the Space Mountain mishap it seems that the problem was mostly related to poor configuration management, but it was exacerbated by the transition from one system of units to another which was poorly handled - i.e. a broken communications channel.
I don't want to get into a (pointless) argument about which is the "better" system. I happen to find metric easier to work with, and it seems to be the global standard system for science and engineering (except for some American throwbacks in fields like rocket engineering). So I'd like to see us standardize on metric. But frankly, I don't think it really matters whether we standardize on Imperial or on metric. I just wish we'd standardize on something.
Hello, I live in Montreal, Canada. Here we use three different systems; officialy, we use the metric system, for example: - road signs and cars are in kilometers - the pumps calculate gas in liters - outside temperature is indicated in Celcius by the medias - only the metric system is shown in school But, we also use the imperial system, which is the system of the English empire that we used previously (Canada is part of the Commonwealth as being one of the oldest english colonies). For example, lots of my uncles and aunts (I'm 25) will talk to you about their cars doing miles per gallon, miles per hour, etc. They will also buy stuff at the store in pounds. I personnaly weight myself in pounds and mesure myself in feet. That is not close to change... even if then babies are weighted in kilos at the hospital, and measured in centimeters, they also indicate the conversion on the official papers, otherwise the parents don't have a clue. Also, I personnaly have trouble reading the inside temperature in Celsius... I know exactly how warn I like it, but it's in Farenheits... (even if we only calculate the outside temperature in Celsius, and nobody converts them to understand, not even my grandfather). Also, I have never seen someone calculate the temperature of the pool or spa in Celsius... Don't ask me if 25 Celsius is hot or cold for a pool, I really don't know ! And finally, we also use the American system. The american system is different that the imperial for some measures like "gallons". For example, an imperial gallon is almost exactly 4 liters, while an american gallon is 3.78 gallons... this is why it's always frustrating when you put windshield washer fluid in your car, and they sell you the fluid in 4 liters containers, but the damn US car's ww fluid container is only 3.78 liters ! You always have to carry the damn container because they is always some left... Also, all the contruction is done in feet and inches. We produce the materials, lots of them, but none of it is produced in meters, because the main market is the US, so they just don't bother with our small market and produce everything in feet. This means that architects and engineers, even if they only learn the metric in school, must learn the english and american systems when in university. The same applies for a lot of people that do plumbing, mecanics, and even furniture. However, the people here always use the same terms as before, even if the units have changed; for example, we will say "a pint of milk", even if nore it's no more a pint, but it's a liter... Which system I prefer ? Well, I don't really care... I find the metric system the best, but I would certaintly have problem purchasing furniture in centimeters when all my house as been constructed in feet. I do like the feet and inches, because I find them conveniently easy to estimates, but when you start evaluating distances that are longer than the terrain my house is built on, I will say "300 meters further, turn left"... and will calculate in kilometers. The thing is, if the damn US could convert to the same thing as the rest of the world (which will never happen, or perhaps never before China is the new superpower), we will be stuck with the three systems in Canada...
...the longer we wait to convert.
Gawdamm--Looks like Jimmie Carter was right.
Hey, Mr Neocon Cant-bash-the-UN-enough: a global economy needs a global system of weights and measures. The Imperial system ain't up to it, so quit the kittens and get over it.
</rant>
Hooopla! that was nearly as good as coffee.
I can live with people insisting on using Imperial measures.
What bugs me is when they then only halfway use the Imperial paradigm.
Case in point: when the iPod Mini was announced, I went to the web page to check out the specs. 2" x 3.6". Not having any intuitive feel for what that might mean, I wandered around the office trying to borrow a ruler, and once I'd found one, started to draw an iPod-sized square on a piece of scrap paper.
A 2" line across the bottom was easy. Then I set about drawing the vertical. 3", then another 6 gradations... oh, wait a minute, each inch is subdivided into 16ths. Tricky. Grab calculator.
So please, either use mm, or go the whole hog and state 3 inches and (10/16)".
So, 32,256 gallons / mile.
or, ~3.1e-5 miles / gallon (which is about 2 inches).
"The Metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets 40 rods to the hogs head and that's the way I likes it!" --Grandpa
I've seen some relatively smart comments here so far, but most people don't seem to realise that the USA inherited the imperial system from the UK. (Imperial....)
It would be really good to see the USA abandon Imperial units, especially when they have changed some of them so that they are not the same...for example, how many of you know that a US gallon is 3.8 litres and a UK gallon is 4.5 litres?
Who's being cheated in petrol price comparisons?
YES! I welcome our new dead Frankish king overlords!!
..we should use metric time too!
Oh wait. That would be fucking retarded.
Please tell me that's now how the unit of measurement was actually created.... It's a total burn on that idiot above, but it's just hard to believe.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
(And the right term for "metric" is "SI")
Not always. SI is the metre / kilogramme / second system. The centimetre / gramme / second system is also metric, but not SI.
'The UK is effectively metric now'
i an.htm
Yes. In fact, this was an agreement between UK and France that took place in 1875. UK accepted to use the metric system as the official one, while on the other hand France accepted to use Greenwich as the prime meridian (France was using Paris before).
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/prime-merid
to throw together a 5 minute app in Visual Basic to do this stuff? Ok, maybe an hour to include a heavy test phase.
If they need more precision than an x86-32 box can give them, there are plenty of 64 bit systems that they can hack together a quick C or C++ or really any language- a conversion program doesnt' require any complicated math, and simple math such as that is trivial to code in any language I've seen. Hell, they could create a UDT fairly easily to represent floating point with an integer to represent each side of the decimal if the issues with binary floating point will throw it off too far.
I don't get it... what the hell is their problem?
Or screw the conversions outright, and make the entire project, from the most trivial piece of gear to the planning and execution phase use metric. Or all use American measures. There is no way in hell these goofs are acceptable mistakes.
That would be 0.435 miles.
We use decimal fractions of miles all the time in the US when measuring long distances. We even have 0.1 mile markers on all of our highways.
Next question.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Your wording is clear enough.
You're right about these things being political issues.
The only problem is that it has spilled out of the political arena into the public arena and as you alluded, the public don't have a history of deciding what is best (long-term) for themselves. I suppose that's why government is a necessary evil.
I used the Statue of Liberty to highlight your point before you even had a chance to make it in a way:
What good is it for peoples to hate each other because of their government's decisions?
In closing, I'd just like to say that I truly feel that waging war is the greatest crime governments can perpetrate against their own people.
I'm not saying there are no just wars.
Just that in a lot of cases wars are used by governments to manipulate their own population. We've certainly seen examples of that in the last few decades.
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond so thoughtfully.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Life in a metricized country.... (Canada to be specific) and with someone born in the 70s and grew up metric.
Distances when travelling are measured in metres and kilometres.
Distances when you're moving something around requiring some precision (like hanging a picture) are done in feet, centimetres and in rare very precise instance, millimetres.
You go to the convenience store to buy a 350 mil (ml), 750, 1 or 2 litre pop (as in fizzy sugary drink... soda being simply carbonated water). Likewise, milk comes in millilitres or litres.
You go to a bar or pub and still order a pint or a half pint of beer. Wine is served in a metric decanter but on menus, it's done by the oz.
Overall, I'd guess it's part tradition and whatever unit of measurement you can get away with using the smallest number infront of it.
You have no idea what you're talking about. You're confusing urban legends with reality. In fact, you're confusing one urban legend with another.
Go do some research on what the metric system is based on.
Besides, I see no reason why making a meter this size or that size alters its legitimacy. It's a system based on intertied and base-10-divisible units of measure. What the original source of the measure was is irrelevant. But in any case, it wasn't railroad tie sizes.
Please tell me that's now how the unit of measurement was actually created.... It's a total burn on that idiot above, but it's just hard to believe.
Well, like its name suggests, a foot was originally supposed to be the length of someone's (specifically some nobleman's) foot. In France before the revolution, the analogous unit was called pied du roi, "king's foot".
Who this king exactly was isn't known, I think, because there were probably many kings who went around breaking conventions and imposing their own measurements on the population, but Charlemagne is usually cited.
IIRC, the same goes for yards, I think.
More about foot as a unit of mesaurement is available here.
I'm just unlucky.
I'm not sure how far off the French were, but I don't think it's possible to "correctly" measure the meridian. The Earth is far from a perfect sphere, and the length of an actual meridian would not only vary depending on where it was located, but it would be fractal - it's distance would vary depending on the scale at which is was measured. It's possible to normalize the shape of the Earth, and come up with a reasonable value for the meridian, and I don't know how close to 10 million meters that would be.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
If you're a pot smoker, you can never be a rocket scientist--or maybe. If you've seen some of the things they've done recently. ...Here's a good one. I built the mars rover in feet, but I programmed it in meters. Instead of landing, fucker buried! $185 million WHOOPSIE!
No TiVo and no caffeine make me something something...
Here in Puerto Rico body temperature is measured in Celcius and environment temperature in Farenheit. Roads are measured in Kilometers while speed is measured in Miles per hour.
;-)
Its a good measurement of how stupid the people who made the compromises were or how smart we have to be only to manage with the daily commute.
Back in the early '80's, an Air Canada 767 made an emergency landing because it ran out of fuel.
The reason: The fuel was specified in kg, but was loaded in lbs. Needless to say, they plane only got 0.45 the distance it should have.
I pulled this from an article that I found via Google. From the same article:Also from the timeline:
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
A hogshead, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, is 54 gallons (3 kilderkins). Unless you're measuring wine, in which case it's 63 gallons (you get an extra firkin).
A yard is 3 feet. A rod is 5.5 yards. A chain is 4 rods. A furlong is 10 chains. A mile is 8 furlongs. A league is three miles. A cable is damn nearly metric, at 10,000 links, or a bit more than 12 miles.
A pound is 16 ounces. A stone is 14 pounds. A hundredweight is 8 stone. A ton is 20 hundredweight. I would break the ounce down into drachms and grains, if I could remember them, but I'm pretty sure no factors of twelve are involved.
--
E_NOSIG
It is very alien to me why it is called 'the English system'. In England the system historically used is called the Imperial system, and there are some differences in Imperial measurement and what Americans call English measurement, AND in England they use the metric system (except old people who use Imperial). Very confusing.
:::begin humorous remarks:::
:::end humor:::
These damned foreign countries. Don't you understand that the US run's the world. If the metric system were so great, wouldn't we be using it by now? Of course.
But we're not. Resistance is futile. You know why we don't use metric? Because it was invented by the French. Now, I love France -- cheese, Bordeaux wines, wonderful cusisine, art -- don't get me wrong. But the Froggies should stick to what they're good at and not try to mess with basic units of measurement. If your units were so great, why were you invaded by Germany twice in the last century? And who bailed you out? The Americans. And what units do we use? Not metric, mes amis, but good old SAE.
Convert to SAE. The lives of space probes, amusement park patrons, astronauts, and la France depend on it!
In the UK, nothing requiring any degree of accuracy is measured in inches, pounds or any of the other weird medieval(sp?) units that come with them.
I buy beer in pints but I know that 1 pint is approximately 568ml (except in the US where pints are only 0.8 "English" pints). There are probably other things that we still measure in the same way that pre-industrial Brits did, but I can't think of any. The only other situation where pre-metric units have any relevance is in speed limits. Many tourists think they are "quaint".
I expect I am older than many people here - I can remember Neil Armstron walking on the moon. My wight is 114kg and my height is 1.82m. I could not care less about what it is in units of measure that would have been familiar to Henry VIII.
The English, and the rest of Britain are managing to move much of their units into the 20th/21st century. It is curious to see the USA stuck in the 19th...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference.
Don't you mean 0.034 inches?
*badum crash*
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
This is one of the most important reasons why the engineering community her in the US will continue using Englinsh units for the foreseeable future
Really? Well, his argument was that the Imperial system is easier to eyeball. That's fine for casual use, but if you have Engineers who eyeball measurements then they should be fired.
Aw crap, ninjas!
Which system should we use to convert? IIRC, an American inch is 2.55 cm, where a British inch is 2.54 cm.
So when we convert our measurements in inches, do we assume that we are using British or American conversions? After all, in engine parts machined accurate to one ten-thousandth of an inch, .01 cm makes a big difference.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
i tried the metric systems but it was just too hard. what comes after one sixteenth of a centimeter?
A 1mm gap/variance leaves bearings, seals, valves, and gears unusable in most situations.
Luke, help me take this mask off
because everyone is keen to argue about metric vs. U.S. units, and apparently no one has noticed that the cause of the problem was not anything to do with how broken the U.S. system is.
This accident was a version control breakdown, not a unit conversion problem. When the units on the drawing were changed, the dimensions were also changed, deliberately. The specified axle diameter was changed from 44.14 mm to 45 mm. Parts were then ordered from the wrong drawing, but if the unit conversion had been the only change, those parts would have worked correctly.
Lovers of the SI system (which is fundamentally broken in a number of ways) love to crow every time something like this happens. The last time was when the Mars Orbiter failed because of a unit conversion problem. Again, people blamed it on SI/U.S. unit conversion, when the actual problem was that the wrong units were used, not that U.S. units were used. If the teams had been working in meters and kilometers, respectively, instead of miles and kilometers, the problem would still have occurred, because they would still be using differing units. In this case, the solution would have been to designate the units used in all specified measures.
Now I'll be a hypocrite and go off-topic like the rest of you. Why SI is broken:
Every time this issue comes up it turns into an opportunity to bash the U.S. It would be nice if lovers of SI would open their eyes and see the problems in the system that make it unattractive to a society that is getting by just fine with measures that are based, for the most part, on factors of 2 and 3. A new system that resolved the problems listed above would be much more useful, but the SI users are just as entrenched in their broken system as the U.S. is in its own.
What's the problem with using SI units for everything?
They're standardized in the scientific community and have units for *Everything imaginable.*
No real reason to not use them except people don't want to change.
I'm quite comfortable using metric for lengths and semi-comfortable with temperatures...weights and masses however, I don't have a great grasp of.
The old axles were Nash car axles/bearings. Disney bought them from Nash & American Motors and standardised all their rides using those axles and bearings. Disney finally bought the tooling from AMC to make thier own after AMC quit making them.
:)
They have worked well for about half a century.
Funny how problems always occur AFTER metric conversions.
Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
according to this site the circumference of the earth measured through the poles is 40,008 km which fits pretty well with the equator theory.
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imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie...
The world can abolish Daylight Savings Time please. I was shocked and horrified to learn that the USA was not the only country to do this. I think we have it worse here in the US since there are pockets of the country that don't participate, making it really difficult to determine what time it is in any given location at any given time without consulting some sort of guide.
I personally think we should do away with time zones (and DST) entirely. Everyone should just use GMT.
or in DIY shops where it is common to see a sheet of wood 4ft by 3ft by 12mm for instance.
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imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie...
This is just one more among the many costs of having more than one system of measurement.
1. Cost of learning -> americans who travel anywhere in the world have to learn how to use SI units. And its an unpleasant shock for foreigners when they are confronted with the Imperial system in the US. How many hours of useful productivity are lost as a result?
2. Cost of manufacturing -> Global manufacturers of equipment such as thermometers and speedometers have to maintain more than one setup, so that they can sell in the US and other countries. Think of how your cars could be cheaper if the US used kmph instead of mph.
3. Cost of errors -> By having more than one system, we introduce the possibility of errors while converting. Human nature being what it is, somebody will eventually goof up. How much do these errors cost?
Offset against these costs is the cost of converting from Imperial to SI. This is a one-time cost that can be achieved relatively painlessly, as Britain showed in the 70s. By avoiding it for so long, the US has only wasted more time and money.
more about me
here is a page that shows just how different the English and American versions of units like gallons and tons etc. Even fluid ounces are different.
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imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie...
I'm Canadian too, so I share your pain in dealing with 2.5 measurement systems. :P). But I still measure people in Imperial. I'm 5 foot 8, and 165lbs. Whats that in metric? I have no fucking clue. If someone told me they were 172cm and 75kg, i'd be thinking "Goddamn you're tall. And skinny." even though they're identical to me in height and weight.
;)). :P. Hell, even our screw ups were confusing! I overfilled a 55 gallon barrel by 18 liters once, and it shot oil 25 feet up the wall and all across a 120 inch, 10,000 litre tank. "Huh?"
;)
I'm a bit young though (20), so I rely on metric more than my parents (for example). I think of most things in metric, like litres for fluids, meters/kilometers for distance, and Celcius for temperature (honestly I find Fahrenheit to be confusing because it scales differently. Also, I can't spell it. Always seem to be looking it up
Fortunatly (or unfortunatly, depending on your perspective), I've had a lot of exposure to Imperial units too. One of the most noticible things (for me), was playing Warhammer, and other Games Workshop games. All the tabletop distances were measured in inches, so I became VERY good at estimating short distances in inches. You had to be to understand troop mobility and guess artillery ranges. Especially artillery - once I got good with my distances, I was so f00kin deadly with artillery that my friends started banning artillery-heavy armies for me. They didn't much like being hammered into the ground by 3 Earthshaker Cannons, 5 Deathrockets, and 3 HG Bolt Throwers. (Bonus points for Warhammer geeks: Can anyone name the army I played?
But I also had repeated exposure from other places to, especially my father. He worked as a cabinet/furniture builder for several years, so any time I went to his shop or watched him in the garage, it was *always* imperial. Feet, inches, 3/16th drill bits, etc. Even now, when I walk into the garage (he builds boats in his spare time), I have to switch my thinking from Metric to Imperial. Sometimes I get screwwed up, but mostly i've managed.
The third place of exposure was working in an oil warehouse. Now THAT was a shock. Canadian warehouse, with Canadian customers... supplied by an American distributor. I got so fucking confused, dealing with litres and gallons and crap. It took me a couple weeks before I really actually understood all the measurements that were being thrown around. But for the first little while, it was just weird... I mean, we had 55 gallon drums that would hold 208 litres, and 5 gallon buckets that we'd put 19 litres into (all our pumps were metric). And then you'd get 5000 gallon bulk shipments from the US that'd you'd have to pump into a 30,000 litre holding tank that had 8,000 litres in it. Will it fit? Pull out the calculator.. yeah, ok, it fits, start pumping. It got pretty wild sometimes, especially when someone screwwed up. Anyone in the room ever had an ATF (automatic transmission fluid) shower? I have. Not fun
The other damned confusing thing for me is farming. I've got good ol' redneck roots in Saskatchewan, and most of my grandparents, aunts and uncles are either farmers or used to be farmers. So when you get them talking you've got to flip your thinking over to acres and buschels and square miles and townships and tons, etc. ACK!
All in all, its just a giant pain in the arse, and I really wish the US would just up and start the switch now (it takes a few generations), because I really don't want to go through the same crap with my kids.
"Daddy, how long is 3 feet?"
"Well ya see mommies butt?... *ducks incoming lamp*"
Could be painful trying to explain to my kid how heavy a US ton is!
Who needs all these different time zones anymore.
Lets just move to one all encompassing time zone and have done with it.
Oh, yeah, no more daylight slavings time either.
emt 377 emt 4
In any industrial or commercial setting where accuracy is important, you'll always find decimal inches (i.e. 123.456"). I've never seen a blueprint for a machined or manufactured part or assembly dimensioned in anything but inches, and decimal fractions of an inch.
For some reason, the true Imperial system of feet, inches and fractions is still used in building construction and architecture. Perhaps they're just more conservative. Or, maybe it's simply because contractor's measuring tapes are still made with feet, inch, and fraction markings.
-Mark
haha, that's really informative, I've not seen the differences head-to-head before. If I had mod points I'd slap them on you and the grandparent. Funny how the American measurements seem smaller than the Imperial ones.
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FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
The top speed of my truck is around 10,000 furlongs per fortnight. And the fuel economy is about 1000 chains per dram. Pretty slick, eh? A perfectly cromulent system, to be sure.
It's funny because it's true.
This really isn't the problem. The problem with the English system is derived units. For example, energy:
metric: 1 J = 1 N*m
English: 1 Btu = 778.169325 ft*lbf
If English units defined derived units in terms of its basic units, I'd find both systems equally appealing.
'Q' is for Dr. Tran
There are non-metric units in common use all over the world. I think you confuse the declarations of various gov't bureaucracies with real life. "Societies" are not the same as their gov't agencies.
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
Now by 'American' do you include Canada? That plane was an Air Canada flying from a Canadian city (Montreal) to an other Canadian city (Edmonton) and was fueled by Canadians and only occurred because they were switching from imperial to metric. If they had kept the metric system they would not have had the incident in the first place.
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org
'Hands' are used to measure the height at the withers of a horse.
And now we see why the unit of measurement `hand' has withered away . . .
*rimshot*
Sorry to pick on this...
... has mass of 1kg at 4degreesC
1 litre water
the weight will vary depending on where you measure on this planet's surface (9.81 at poles and 9.79 at equator) which is a function of how far the 1 litre water is from the core of the planet.
Ciao
Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
So, if the problem occured after they switched from the english to the metric system..
How come the english system is bad, and the metric system is supposed to be good?
</reply>
we need an "-1 Plain wrong" moderation option!
Myanmar is not recognized by many nations for good reason: it is the name imposed by the ruling military junta (SLORC, google for it, it is truly Orwellian) that amongst some niecites have keeped Aung San Su Yi, the democractic leader of the winner of the last clean elections, on house arrest for most of the past 15 years.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
You always have a rules with centimeters and millimeters marked, it is not like we live in ancient Greece and thus we need to refer to Euclides.
You need to serve pint measures? Why? In places using the metric system you serve half liters, quarter of liters if required.
All the "problems" you see in the metric system are just nonsense made up. When it comes to precise calculations made with ease there is no doubt which system is superior.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
For example, when I go to the store, I know I can buy a pound of ground beef. I know about how much of that I will eat, and I can make a judgement about prices, because I have a good visualization of what it is.
Alas, in places using the metric system you buy half a kg of ground beef and you know how much you would eat. Or one kg, or whatever.
You are beyond redemption, but there is no need to subject young children to a life of pain and misery.
In a place using metric you use metric for everything, it is not uncommon for merchants to handle figures and measurements in their heads with ease, the scientist uses the same frame of reference when he goes to the supermarket or when he is designing the latest WMD.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The point is that people proficient with the SI system can make a calculation of similar complexity with easy.
People familiar with the English (Imperial, whatever) system will struggle in many instances because it lacks any logic whatsoever.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I live in Arizona. Interstate 19 between Tucson and the Mexican border mileposts are in km and the speeds are in km/h. There are plans to convert I10 I8 and I17 to metric as well. When was the last time you went to Safeway and bought a half gallon of Coke?
What a coincidence! When I was talking about roadsigns in kilometers I was thinking about Tuscon! I guess this mostly has to do with the university and that foreign students come there.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
As a foreighner living in the US, I have had some pains getting used to the non-Metric system.
I can use gallons for volume, miles and feet for distance, but the temperature is a bitch.
Even after eight years here I still need to convert into Celsius each time.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
US is getting there - slowly but steadily.
First of all, all packaged groceries have both Metric and American numbers printed on the package.
Second, some corporations who want to sell their goods internationally have to move to Metric internally. I have heard of Boeing doing that.
Also, US Geological Survey and some other government organizations that international in their essence have moved to Metric.
Still, it would be really hard to convert the entire country.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
IIRC, North American grid system differs from the entire world. The entire world uses 220/50, and not 127/60. Hence the waste of a switch in most of the power supplies.
And what about different electrical outlet' shapes?
I have had a girlfriend from Sweden visiting me, and she brought a converter that had about 6 or 7 different forks. Only that allowed her to recharge her cell phone and digital camera that would otherwise be incompatible.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
Don't forget the difference between avoirdupois ounces and troy ounces...
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
It's like waking up and suddenly finding myself in a medieval city measuring out my drinks in gills.
Made me laugh!
-kgj
-kgj