If y'all want to include "maybe", we're gonna need to move to trinary. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Established Member
If y'all want to include "maybe", we're gonna need to move to trinary. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Order of Kilopi
No, just a 2-bit field.
Established Member
I had almost forgotten about this thread that I started. Great posts, folks! I still think that SI units are the way to go. If somebody does not want to learn SI units, he or she (she or he?) should stay far away from the sciences.
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Of course, English measurements are kind of cute (quaint), but they do not have much scientific utility.I like English measurements. It's not that I wasn't taught Metric or I don't know how to convert. I just like them the way they are.
ljbrs [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img]
Vulcan Administrator
How about octal as a compromise?On 2002-12-08 19:44, Wiley wrote:
I may be doing too much computer programming these days, but I'm gonna have to vote for binary. It's as simple as buttoning your shoe. What do y'all think? Yes or no?
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Established Member
I always enjoyed doing the double conversion for the price of gold from $US/USoz to local currency per kilogram.
God bless the USA.
Order of Kilopi
Yeahbut!On 2002-12-18 01:33, Senor Molinero wrote:
I always enjoyed doing the double conversion for the price of gold from $US/USoz to local currency per kilogram.
God bless the USA.
Gold is not priced in $US/USoz. It is priced in $US/troy oz.
Order of Kilopi
Yep! Hence the correct answer to "What weighs more, a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?" is, in fact, the pound of feathers . . . [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]On 2002-12-18 06:24, Kaptain K wrote:
Yeahbut!On 2002-12-18 01:33, Senor Molinero wrote:
I always enjoyed doing the double conversion for the price of gold from $US/USoz to local currency per kilogram.
God bless the USA.
Gold is not priced in $US/USoz. It is priced in $US/troy oz.
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But I'd rather have the pound of gold. You can keep the feathers. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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TROY OUNCES. Consarn it!! Any wonder I'm broke. Another conspiracy.
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I agree that in the US it is hard to use metric, since almost everything is either in standard US measurement only or in both systems, but the metric in small print. I do have a quirk though. I estimate distance in meters, since that is how I was taught in the U.S. Army Infantry. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] In everything else, I use the US system.On 2002-04-11 10:39, The Bad Astronomer wrote:
I prefer metric, though I still think in miles. It's impossible to use metric in daily life still, but I try to squeeze it in when I can. In interviews, I always try to use both.
Kizarvexis
I also use the 24 hour clock and this annoys my wife. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] The kids are learning the 24 hour clock though. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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How about that - a troy pound = 1.215 standard pounds.
By the way, all of you measurement nuts should get yourselves a copy of "Measure for Measure" by Young and Glover, a handy little pocket book which covers standard, English and all kinds of measurements from antiquity. If you want to know that there are 0.158 scruples in a carat, this is where you find it.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
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on airplanes, it's "english", xcept russians who use metric.
and that may explain why soooo many accidents with russian planes: pilots got confused.
unless it's reliablity ? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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No, a standard pound = 1.215 troy pounds.On 2002-12-23 23:03, Rodina wrote:How about that - a troy pound = 1.215 standard pounds.
And a standard ounce = .9115 troy ounce.
Order of Kilopi
The Metric System can be useful. I use it when I want to be annoying. Like when someone asks me how tall I am or how much I weigh when it's really none of their business.
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About the bases... I wonder what's so great about base 60? I personally like to write my numbers with one symbol per digit. As he was saying, people like to divide things into halves, thirds, quarters. So why not take the least common multiple of 2,3,4? It's 12 (2*2*3), only 2 more symbols needed. I myself wouldn't mind doing away with a 5 factor, if it meant having base 12 rather than 60.
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But divisions into five have been the basis of our number system for so long...it'd be a shame to quit now. Just my two cents.
Order of Kilopi
You can use base 60 and still have only one symbol per digit. You just need to memorize a whole lot of numerals. But it would still be a lot simpler than, say, Chinese writing, which has several thousand characters in common use.
Of course, those of us who write real software (in Assembly) know that the only truly useful number system is hexadecimal.
Established Member
There are 10 types of people in this world.
Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Newbie
Some even advocate balanced ternary...[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]On 2002-12-08 19:44, Wiley wrote:
I may be doing too much computer programming these days, but I'm gonna have to vote for binary. It's as simple as buttoning your shoe. What do y'all think? Yes or no?
Established Member
Yeah airplanes use english units excepts the airspeed is in knots and not mph and distance is in nautical miles and standard miles depending on where you look. Of course some planes also measure airspeed with a mach meter as well.on airplanes, it's "english", xcept russians who use metric.
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Well, born and raised metric user, i don't even know first thing about all other systems! Imagine... 2 km to the train station, 10 kilos worth of books... Ach... Life is sweet.
Ok, back to the metric debate. I can't believe how illiterate some of you are! (for not pointing this out!) Meter is NOT one ten millionth the distance from equator to the North Pole! It has been redefined! Three times!
Ok, so after the definition you know, meter was made the distance between marked lines on a rod, made of platinum-iridium alloy. Of course nobody liked that, and it was again redefined in terms of the wavelengths of red light from a krypton isotope. But that didn't hold either. Sometime in the 80s meter was once again redefined into something even better - a distance light travels 1/299792458 of a second!
So the lesson is - metric system IS (SI!) the best, so start unlearning your birth given gogawooga!
Order of Kilopi
Doesn't this mean that the length of the metre changes every time we measure the speed of light more accurately?But that didn't hold either. Sometime in the 80s meter was once again redefined into something even better - a distance light travels 1/299792458 of a second!
Established Member
Perhaps you missed this post, or even one of mine?Originally Posted by poorleno
Or were those the posts you were talking about?
Order of Kilopi
And Europeans complain that Americans are arrogantly ignorant? :roll:Well, born and raised metric user, i don't even know first thing about all other systems! Imagine... 2 km to the train station, 10 kilos worth of books... Ach... Life is sweet...
...So the lesson is - metric system IS (SI!) the best, so start unlearning your birth given gogawooga!
How does knowing one system (SI) exclusively make one superior to one who knows another (avoirdupois) exclusively? :-?
I pride myself in being fairly fluent in both. 8)
Established Member
kilopy - i sure missed a sentence in one, saying that it was redefined, but still it was unclear.
Kaptain K - Who said ANYTHING about me being superior to any of you guys? I just might be, but that’s not the point. That's my self-esteem. =)
I was just pointing out how WIERD SI system is for you, and how infinitely more weird the imperial system is for me. Stop being a jerk, read between the lines!
And chuck - Hm... What a stupid thing to say about my precious meterWell actually it just might... But I don't think it'll make much big of a deal anyway.
Established Member
Kinda ironic though, since you accused us all of illiteracy, then ain't it?
The original meter seems to be the length of a pendulum that took one second to swing. Then they noticed that it was almost one ten millionth of the quarter-circumference, and decided that measuring it would make a nice publicity boondoggle for the new system. Had they kept the seconds-pendulum definition, the acceleration of gravity would have been exactly pi squared meters per second per second. I would have liked that.
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No it ain'tKinda ironic though, since you accused us all of illiteracy, then ain't it?
pi^2, eh.. Å_Å
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For the record, that's Imperial units, not English units. They've been taught as standard in UK schools for ages and are legally required in shops in the EU, including the UK. Which is good, they're easier to figure out.
Of course, I still measure my weight and height in pounds, stones, feet and inches.
Established Member
I think that if one is going to be a scientist in today's world, one needs to use the units (SI) which are used in science. The students in the United States (my country) are at the level of the undeveloped countries when it comes to math and science, (Or so I have read somewhat recently in one of my various science publications -- SCIENCE or NATURE or PHYSICS TODAY, etc.) or in the many journals in the Science and Engineering Library (of my alma mater). Why waste one's time on terms never to be used in science? Then again, if one is going to become a historian of outdated and unwieldy mathematical, scientific, and engineering terms, one might want to reconsider. I, myself, would not want to be handicapped by such useless knowledge.
ljbrs :roll:
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