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The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes
Oily Pakora writes "Those of us in the United States are so used to our Letter and Legal paper sizes. We've seen the A4 paper size option in our printer trays and in printer preference menus. Metric sizes used almost everywhere in the world, save for the US and Canada. Here is an interesting article that discusses all of the aspects of metric paper. For those who enjoy a bit of math, did you know that in the Metric paper system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of 2? This means that you can place two sheets of A4 side-by-side and they will equal an A3 sheet exactly, and two sheets of A3 will equal an A2."
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That make me happy my rolling paper is not metric
-B
PC Load Letter!? WTF does that mean?!
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
There's also an Audi A4, and if you put two of those side by side, people say "Look, isn't that a coincidence".
Not at all, I thought everyone knew this... I don't live in America though...
I am of the firm belief that the metric system sucks. It is a global conspiracy created to cause the downfall of all things that we know and love. Upon careful examination it is clear that the metric 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 Euro
Slashdot Moderation: From positive to terrible in 2 "insightful" posts.
I will fight this metric paper bedevilment with every OUNCE of courage I have.
I can't deny it anymore.
I just read an article on metric pages and found it incredibly intresting.
At one point I said "Wow, Cool"
I think I've gone beyond 'geek'.
I feel dirty.
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
Jeez, must be a slow day. I'll go search the net for something that was new 30 years ago and post it on Slashdot!
remember that two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets equal an 11 x 17 sheet and four 4 x 5 cards can fit on a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. A ream of paper is 500 sheets and if you divide that by two, you get 250 sheets which really means nothing; I needed two extra facts for my post about math.
I'm not sure about "legal" paper and the rest.
And don't worry everyone, Microsoft is aware of the problem! To quote: "The paper sizes in the United States and Canada (such as letter, legal, and so on) do not satisfy the needs of all users in the world market."
Fear not! They'll solve this problem by embracing and extending the ISO paper-size standard. The new sizes will be MS-A4, MS-A3, etc. Of couse, you will only be able to print to these pages from MS apps, but what else is there?
This means that you can place two sheets of A4 side-by-side and they will equal an A3 sheet exactly, and two sheets of A3 will equal an A2."
And of course, 5 sheets of almost any metric sized paper folded into origami lions will inevitably merge to form Voltron, a robot so powerful that it will usually let it's enemies kick it's butt around for a good 15 to 20 minutes before it forms the blazing sword and finishes the fight.
did you get a box of 11.69" envelopes to go with that?
Would a metric discussion of PAPER be taken this far/seriously.. Only on /.
This is stuff that matters? Too WHO?!
Mod +5 Drunk
Now is that a solid ounce, a fluid ounce, or an apothecary ounce?
hmmm Original site must have been a vampire.. cause I don't see it in your mirror. ;o)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I take no responsibility for any spelling mistakes in the above post.
OOOoo! Look at me! I use the metric system!
I only know how to divide by ten!
Metric? Why is this called metric paper? Because we say it's 210mm × 297mm? These numbers are clearly rounded.
Please enlighten me.
GNU guru and mainframe hacker
Whilst I appreciate people's devotion to measurements based on the toe nail of some long-dead king, what they don't seem to realise is that the "root two" system really works well in practice.
It makes it really easy to take an A4 document (the normal paper size) and print it double-size on an A3 printer or photocopier. It's equally easy to print a document two-per page (or four or whatever) or to make an A5 pamphlet by printing it two pages per sheet and folding it in half.
And nothing needs to be rescaled or reformatted.
It's one of those "once you tried it you'll never go back" IT experiences, like full-screen text editors, network graphics systems, PVRs and video projectors.
John
that whols "A" paper size is a big fat zero...:
Simplifying
2A * 4 = A * 3
Reorder the terms for easier multiplication:
2 * 4A = A * 3
Multiply 2 * 4
8A = A * 3
Reorder the terms for easier multiplication:
8A = 3A
Solving
8A = 3A
Move all terms containing A to the left, all other terms to the right.
Add '-3A' to each side of the equation.
8A + -3A = 3A + -3A
Combine like terms: 8A + -3A = 5A
5A = 3A + -3A
Combine like terms: 3A + -3A = 0
5A = 0
Divide each side by '5'.
A = 0
Simplifying
A = 0
The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
My car is a jet dragster, you insensitive clod!
I'm just sitting here drinking my 2-liter soda and I'm thinking: we tried the metric system, and it failed. So what do I care about paper? /irony
An ounce is defined as the maximum weight that can be carried by 1 swallow.
In soviet russia stale jokes recycle you!
This happened years ago. I had a Chem. test and the question had something to do with densities - I can't remember. But the point is, I remembered that the density of water is one, all the units where metric, and calculating the density, volume, and mass were a no brainer with the metric system.
I once got into a friendly argument with an engineer over the merits of the metric system. His argument "Foot-Lbs. I know what that is - that's obvious! Newton - what the fuck is a Newton."
We don't want a foreign Ruler!
They FINALLY put a cancel button on their inkjets that actually cancels the whole job so you don't keep getting the remaing 500 pages of PCL interpreted as text.
but metric paper makes much better airplanes.
*cheesy homer imitation* mmmm... icon sized paper.
8.5mm x 11mm, i never heard of that paper size, it's like the world has gone crazy.
- "There is nothing quite like an ineffective solution to an nonexistant problem"
you are correct; I subtracted 8 instead of 18mm.
:)
skinnier is still ugly though.
``Did you know knives have sharp edges so you can cut things with them''
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
Dick.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Now you've gone and done it. Thousands of people will be linking to Staples, and purchasing size A4. Staples in turn will start stocking nothing but A4, and the whole of American society will be turned on it's ear. Filing cabinets will be the wrong size, and all other social aspects will deteriorate. In the end, George W. Bush gets re-elected, and Chaney declares a war on intelligencia.
You bastard!
The funniest (sadest?) thing is that you kicked the british out and kept the worse thing they had voluntarily. The *imperial* system!
Even thought the french helped you! That's the real loser part.
BTW: It was Napoleon who established the metric system big time in large parts of his area of influence.
Shame he couldn't follow the other guidelines:
Universal Rule Number One: Never start a land war in Asia.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
And they always fly a decimal fraction of the Earth's circumference.
We didn't start this crazy system... It was forced on us by the English, and I feel, as a U.S. citizen that they should flip the bill to convert us over.
wow! great discovery!
any ten-year-old in europe knows that...
lol, chop sticks are more versitile then forks. You can do eevry thign you do with a fork, but also some things you can't, like picking up a tiny grain of rice
:-) (how long does it take you to eat a bento one grain at a time anyway?)
Well, maybe *you* can, I can't even keep them in my hands
It's an SUV! It's his right to drive such a beast! God bless the American Way (tm)! And yes, he whines about gas prices.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Actually, it has to do with apple pie. Since there is nothing more American than apple pie, the apple pie recipe is considered sacred. It has been passed down from generation to generation since the start of this glorious nation. Unfortunatly, it has been passed down on the female side of our ancestry, and we men have been telling our women that:
|------| = 10 inches, when in fact
|---------| = 10 inches.
This has caused them to become totally confused with regard to units of measure, and they are thus unable to convert imperial to metric units. Thus, if we were to switch to using the metric system, we would no longer be able to bake apple pies, a situation we are just not willing to accept.
Newtons are fruit and cake.
--The Programming goddess from Gorflaz
For those who enjoy a bit of math, did you know that in the Metric paper system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of 2?
Slow News Day of the Year Award nominee here.
Did it say "Purple-Tinged A4 x 500 Sheets" on the packaging?
I'll be ready, cause I saw the movie in school, 'splaining that we'd be all metric by 1976
weird thing is, i saw that same movie in 1987
this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
Does this apply to Volumes?!?! cut a D-Cup size bra to get 2 C-cCup size bra?!?!
504 gallons to go 1 mile!
Yep, sounds like a True American car to me.
The same place I store my 200 foot coil of rope, and 15 foot staff!
Also, if you take 3 8.5x11 sheets, line them up along their longer sides, attach them to eachother, put a staple through the middle of the first and second sheet join and then hang them from a height of approximately eye-level it makes the idea place for a picture of a naked "girl next door".
My buddy Heff taught me that trick.
Actually, not quite. For example, When I ask for a pint and get a glass with a bulge it is (usually) an Imperial pint (i.e., 20 fluid ounces). A a stright-walled glass is a U.S. pint (or English), and is, sadly, only 16 fluid ounces.
Distinctions are made between the 'English' (or U.S.) and 'Imperial' systems of measure, it's just that most people do not often run into the Imperial system except at bars, and debating the differences between measurement systems is no way to pick up chics.
How do you play the piano with a fork?
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
If Fermat had used American paper, we wouldn't have had to wait 350 years for a proof of his last theorem.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I wonder why Westerners insist on using both a fork and spoon to eat after they've seen the Spork.
Wow, I'd like to see your saw. It leaves a kerf of 30 cm.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
504 gallons to go 1 mile!
From here, the gas mileage of a modern aircraft carrier is seventeen feet per gallon...so he's getting 40% less distance per unit of fuel.
Consequently, I speculate that his vehicle must be an aircraft carrier...operating on land.
My only question is, where the hell does he park it?
~Idarubicin
maybe its strictly designed for slingshot use. Probably take down a medieval castle with that thing.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
fork chop sticks!!!!
Mommy!!! Look! Look! I just made 8 piercings in my tongue!
Consequently, I speculate that his vehicle must be an aircraft carrier...operating on land. My only question is, where the hell does he park it?
If it's still fully equipped and armed, then the correct answer is:
Wherever he wants to.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Yeah... and there's countries that aren't part of the US, too.
:-/
It's called "The Rest Of The World". You'll find we do a lot of things differently here, if you ever bother to look.
Um. Sorry. Bad day.
Yeah... and there's countries that aren't part of the US, too.
Not for long...
What?
Don't tell George Bush that he's using Arabic numerals...
~Idarubicin
Is that an African or European swallow?
"PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?!?"
Isn't it interesting how you come to recognize posters based solely on their sigs???
Go to your nearest outdoor store and if you're lucky you can find the wondrous eating implement that is the Titanium Spork! I never leave home without mine...
You mean, "...the French AM smarter then us"..."
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
that you can prolly buy movies with titles like "N-Cup Fuck" or shit like that. *eeeew*
Hmm. Shouldn't have used that as a reference then. It totally compromises my explanation.
Silly websites, with their alternative opinions.
We Build Beautiful Websites
We have units that correlate... So 1 cubic decimetre equals 1 litre... it's fucking amazing... and don't get me started on how our temperature system actually relates to something sane...
(The funny thing is, it was a countryman of mine who invented what later became modified to be the Fahrenheit system - and it was based on stuff like "the temperature of a healthy mouth" and the temperature under the arm of a sick person" etc.!)
we saw a movie that warned us about the dangers of Trench Foot - it was made around the time of WWII, in the US.
My first day in the army was the 3rd of December, 2001. Ahem.
Another difference is that a British plug and socket was designed to cope with 250V at 13 amps - which would melt a continental one.
The reason? Some say it's the British love of a cup of tea. You've got to be able to power that electric kettle somehow...
I bow before the you O Wise One. (and I just ordered my titanium spork)
Lacking the proper equipment do measure 1/299,792,458th of a second, I'd say it is close enough.