Slashdot Mirror
Our Friend, The Meter
dbirchall writes "Upon hearing that SpaceShipOne reached 100km today, I did some hasty math based on the altitude in feet sttated by Scaled Composites in their press release, and was surprised to come up with a number under 100,000 meters. Fortunately, a friend pointed out that my inches-to-meters conversion was flawed. Some quick Googling determined that lots of people still have no idea how many inches are in a meter, even after some folks have had big problems because of conversion errors."
It's not like the press release was wrong, the poster was an idiot
First, what the hell kind of post is this? "I can't convert, and my friend corrected me. Cool huh?" I don't get it.
Second, the imperial system is so ridiculous, I don't understand how it hasn't been replaced in the United States. I think the only good thing about it is the inevitable "my car gets 40 hogsheads to the slug" or whatever the hell it is. I laugh everytime.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
What is the rational given in the USA for not using metric?
Is it some badge of honour to continue to use an outdated, more complicated system of measurement?
I, for one, welcome our new dangling participle overlords.
Don't you people realize that if you use a preposition, you have to have an object for the phrase? Would it be too hard to just add three characters to that sentence and *not* be a pretentious nerd?
Like what I said? You might like my music
in keeping with my last grumpy post, what the fuck is this all about? "hey, I'm stupid. Here read about how stupid I am and how some people approximate a metre by 38 or 40 inches!!" A meter is a little more than three feet (easily approximated by 40 inches).. how hard is that to remember? I'm from Texas, and I can remember that. Also, a meter stick is a little longer than a yard stick.. guess how many feet in a yard.
P.S. I seriously doubt Dan Birchall submitted this story.