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British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:47:04 AM   
fbastos


Posts: 827
Joined: 8/7/2004
Status: offline 		Folks,

While we wait for the patch, what about a good healthy discussion? Point being: don't you think it's backwards that while 95% of the World now uses the metric system, the US stands alone using pounds, inches, gallons, etc...?

Flame away!!

F.
Post #: 1
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 8:02:43 AM   
esteban


Posts: 618
Joined: 7/21/2004
Status: offline 		We'd lose too many good cliches!!

Can you imagine somebody indicating that they need to put out an extra effort by saying, "We need to go the whole 9 meters on this!!"

Or "give them a centimeter, and they will take a kilometer?"

Or "Barry Bonds hit a game winning 158.7 meter home run in the 8th?"

Do you think that Texans want to wear "37.85 liter" hats?

Football should be played on a 92 meter field?


This is just another artsy-fartsy, Eurofruity attempt to sap our national character!!!

(Besides, my generation was taught the metric system in the 70s, when we were supposedly going to convert, and the change was going to give the economy a big boost. Then it was found that changing the signage and federal regs alone would cost about 3% of GDP--to hell with that!!)

(in reply to fbastos)
Post #: 2
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 8:09:57 AM   
fbastos


Posts: 827
Joined: 8/7/2004
Status: offline 		One gallon is 4.54 liters. If Americans knew how many liters it takes to fill up a Hummer, GM would go bankrupt!!

So you see, it's all a conspiracy between GM and the oil industry (plus the Saudi family, of course).

F.

(in reply to esteban)
Post #: 3
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 8:19:12 AM   
Belce


Posts: 130
Joined: 10/3/2004
From: Canada
Status: offline 		What does it cost now to maintain the Imperial system of measurement?

Everything you sell aboard has to be labeled in metric since that is a requirement, unit of measure in another country is metric so you have to have US labels and labels for everywhere else. Same with product documentation and all. Instead of an export stream and a domestic stream for product, you have a stream for product.

Foreign manafacturers do not make Imperial measurement items, that is why you buy a socket wrench set with metric and Imperial size bits, your Honda is metric. How much less is that socket set with half the sockets?


(in reply to esteban)
Post #: 4
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 8:49:09 AM   
DrewMatrix


Posts: 1429
Joined: 7/15/2004
Status: offline 		I hate to tell you, but the US system and the Imperial system are different. An Imperial pint is bigger than a US pint.

Me, I think we should go back to versts and leagues as units of measure.

_____________________________


Beezle - Rapidly running out of altitude, airspeed and ideas.

(in reply to Belce)
Post #: 5
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 9:01:43 AM   
fbastos


Posts: 827
Joined: 8/7/2004
Status: offline
quote:

An Imperial pint is bigger than a US pint


Shocker!!!

So the US system is not only different than the rest of the world, but also different from the one used by the creators of the system themselves!!

Oh my God.. the problem is worse than I though!!

:)

F.

(in reply to DrewMatrix)
Post #: 6
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 9:31:30 AM   
dacharls

 

Posts: 12
Joined: 5/23/2002
From: Sweden
Status: offline 		Du you even know how the Imperial Yard was based on before it went standard length?

It was the arm length of the King, from nosetip to thumbtip. Thats just a stupid system and why have a base 3 system when we use base 10 in every other respect (ok not time where its base 60 and base 10).

And just what is a yard now a days what does it represent?

Just my 2 centimeters (cent as in 1/100 and meter as in how long the light travels in 1/299792458 sekund).

(in reply to fbastos)
Post #: 7
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 10:14:25 AM   
Bodhi


Posts: 1267
Joined: 8/26/2003
From: Japan
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: dacharls

Du you even know how the Imperial Yard was based on before it went standard length?

It was the arm length of the King, from nosetip to thumbtip. Thats just a stupid system and why have a base 3 system when we use base 10 in every other respect (ok not time where its base 60 and base 10).

And just what is a yard now a days what does it represent?

Just my 2 centimeters (cent as in 1/100 and meter as in how long the light travels in 1/299792458 sekund).


Distance from the king's nose to thumbtip may not be the best standard measure, but it's a bit easier to determine than the speed of light - providing the country still has a king.

_____________________________

Bodhi

(in reply to dacharls)
Post #: 8
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 11:58:12 AM   
dacharls

 

Posts: 12
Joined: 5/23/2002
From: Sweden
Status: offline 		Yea and the inflation would rise when king is shorter :-)

(in reply to Bodhi)
Post #: 9
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 2:02:56 PM   
Captain Cruft


Posts: 3652
Joined: 3/17/2004
From: England
Status: offline 		The thing is, IMHO, Imperial measures are more "natural" than arbitrary metric ones. They had years and years to evolve through practical usage. The only saving grace of the metric system is that a metre is virtually equal to a yard ...

BTW we still use both here in the UK, which is the worst of both worlds, lol.

(in reply to dacharls)
Post #: 10
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 2:18:09 PM   
tsimmonds


Posts: 5498
Joined: 2/6/2004
From: astride Mason and Dixon's Line
Status: offline
quote:

a metre is virtually equal to a yard

Yeah, it's not like three extra inches here or there makes any difference.

_____________________________

Fear the kitten!

(in reply to Captain Cruft)
Post #: 11
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 3:21:58 PM   
Chris21wen

 

Posts: 6249
Joined: 1/17/2002
From: Cottesmore, Rutland
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: dacharls

Du you even know how the Imperial Yard was based on before it went standard length?

It was the arm length of the King, from nosetip to thumbtip. Thats just a stupid system and why have a base 3 system when we use base 10 in every other respect (ok not time where its base 60 and base 10).

And just what is a yard now a days what does it represent?

Just my 2 centimeters (cent as in 1/100 and meter as in how long the light travels in 1/299792458 sekund).



Not true the story was made up during king Henry 1 reaign. The origin of the yard existed before Henry I was born. The yard was in the keeping of the guilds that dealt in cloth. If you want the full story check this site.

http://www.sizes.com/units/yard.htm#Britain

I can't see what the problem is. Take the mile for instance it much more sensible to talk about 1760yds than 1.609 metres don't you think.

(in reply to dacharls)
Post #: 12
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 3:50:41 PM   
Montbrun


Posts: 1498
Joined: 2/7/2001
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Status: offline 		Some more useless trivia:

Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers in the US measure lengths in feet, tenths of feet, and hundredths of feet. Inches are a totally foreign concept to us (LOL). If you look at your property deed, or map, you will notice that all of the measurements are in decimals.

For example:

1" = 0.08333'
2" = 0.16667'
3" = 0.25'
4" = 0.33333'
5" = 0.41667'
6" = 0.50'
7" = 0.58333'
8" = 0.66667'
9" = 0.75'
10" = 0.83333'
11" = 0.91667'
12" = 1.00'

You might see a distance along a boundary line of "100.67'" This would be 100'-8"

Brad

(in reply to fbastos)
Post #: 13
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 5:15:53 PM   
Theng

 

Posts: 259
Joined: 12/13/2002
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Brad Hunter

Some more useless trivia:

Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers in the US measure lengths in feet, tenths of feet, and hundredths of feet. Inches are a totally foreign concept to us (LOL). If you look at your property deed, or map, you will notice that all of the measurements are in decimals.

You might see a distance along a boundary line of "100.67'" This would be 100'-8"

Brad


So the surveyors have introduced the metric/decimal system through the back door. I think the issue of what is the "base" is less relevant (meter/yard) than a base of 10.

The metric system is inherently logical and intergrated. 1 meter is approx. 40th million part of the circumferance of the globe. So you have a measure of length. If you want to have a measure of volume you take 10cm (1/10 meter) cubed and you get 1 liter. The weight of 1 liter of water is 1 kilogram. The amount of energy it takes to increase the temperature of water by 1 celsius is a round number (I think 1 kilojoule) The temperature where water is freezing is 0 celsius, and it boils at 100 celsius and the system is linear. As far as I remember the amount of energy it takes to increase the temperature of water by 1 fahrenheit is different when you are at 10 fahrenheit than at 1000 fahrenheit. The metric system is just a much more elegant system. The US system has folklore, interia and polemics on its side. And BTW just because you change the official system it does make the cliches obsolete. Soccer is thriving quite well in a metric system even though it was devised in the imperial system - and the cliches are plentiful.

BTW Did you know how Fahrenheit decided on his 0 point? He decided that 0 fahrenheit is the lowest possible temperature possible in the universe. I am sure people in the northern US and Canada are relieved to hear that ;)

And BTW a US gallon is 3.6 liters

_____________________________

Molon Labe!

(in reply to Montbrun)
Post #: 14
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:04:12 PM   
steveh11Matrix


Posts: 944
Joined: 7/30/2004
Status: offline 		Yes, but even the ardent 'Metricists' don't use consistent SI units: You talk in terms of Km/hour not m/s, for example. Not to mention the use of the Celsius scale when you should be talking Kelvins...

So, in this spirit: Speed of light is (approximately) 3,605,191,159,912.91 furlongs per fortnight!

Default bombload of a Mosquito FBVI (Love the Roman Numerals!) is One Hundred and Forty-Two Stones and Twelve Pounds.

I'm old enough to remember when LSD meant Pounds, Shillings and Pence not lysergic acid diethylamide, and personally regret the change to decimal currency. You can't divide 100 into integer units of 3, 6 or 8, but you certainly could in the old style...

OK, OK, I'm feeling better now. Rant off.

Steve.

_____________________________

"Nature always obeys Her own laws" - Leonardo da Vinci

(in reply to Theng)
Post #: 15
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:21:01 PM   
dr. smith

 

Posts: 221
Joined: 6/30/2004
From: lost in space
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: irrelevant

quote:

a metre is virtually equal to a yard

Yeah, it's not like three extra inches here or there makes any difference.


Only to a woman !

(in reply to tsimmonds)
Post #: 16
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:27:21 PM   
fbastos


Posts: 827
Joined: 8/7/2004
Status: offline
quote:


quote:



Yeah, it's not like three extra inches here or there makes any difference.


Only to a woman !


Ops... don't know about other people, but I'm not a woman and if someone cuts some particular extra inches of mine, I would be VERY upset!!!!!

:)

F.

< Message edited by fbastos -- 10/14/2004 5:27:10 PM >

(in reply to dr. smith)
Post #: 17
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:29:56 PM   
strawbuk


Posts: 289
Joined: 4/30/2004
From: London via Glos
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft
The only saving grace of the metric system is that a metre is virtually equal to a yard ...

.



A meter measures 3 foot 3"
It is longer than a yard you see

That's the kind of assumption that puts ships on rocks and shells on your own trenches

< Message edited by strawbuk -- 10/14/2004 5:33:39 PM >

_____________________________



Twinkle twinkle PBY
Seeking Kido Bu-tai
Flying o' the sea so high
An ill-omen in the sky
Twinkle twinkle PBY
Pointing out who's next to fry

(in reply to Captain Cruft)
Post #: 18
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:31:39 PM   
strawbuk


Posts: 289
Joined: 4/30/2004
From: London via Glos
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: steveh11Matrix

So, in this spirit: Speed of light is (approximately) 3,605,191,159,912.91 furlongs per fortnight!



Is Speed of Light the horse that Alderneaty beat in his last race?

(UK racegoers joke only)

_____________________________



Twinkle twinkle PBY
Seeking Kido Bu-tai
Flying o' the sea so high
An ill-omen in the sky
Twinkle twinkle PBY
Pointing out who's next to fry

(in reply to steveh11Matrix)
Post #: 19
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:33:15 PM   
strawbuk


Posts: 289
Joined: 4/30/2004
From: London via Glos
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: steveh11Matrix

Default bombload of a Mosquito FBVI (Love the Roman Numerals!) is One Hundred and Forty-Two Stones and Twelve Pounds.

S


Effect of most WITP Japanese bombloads = same as dropping a Stone

_____________________________



Twinkle twinkle PBY
Seeking Kido Bu-tai
Flying o' the sea so high
An ill-omen in the sky
Twinkle twinkle PBY
Pointing out who's next to fry

(in reply to steveh11Matrix)
Post #: 20
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 7:40:24 PM   
strawbuk


Posts: 289
Joined: 4/30/2004
From: London via Glos
Status: offline 		God I'm bored - give me the bloody patch or a large whiskey (that would be two thirds of gill = 0.141748 litres)

Though I could probably go a firkin (=40.8233 litre) of beer.



_____________________________



Twinkle twinkle PBY
Seeking Kido Bu-tai
Flying o' the sea so high
An ill-omen in the sky
Twinkle twinkle PBY
Pointing out who's next to fry

(in reply to strawbuk)
Post #: 21
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 8:39:45 PM   
Oznoyng

 

Posts: 818
Joined: 4/16/2004
From: Mars
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: dacharls

Just my 2 centimeters (cent as in 1/100 and meter as in how long the light travels in 1/299792458 sekund).

The metric system is almost as arbitrary and stupid as the English system. I mean, if you want 10's in everything, shouldn't a meter be more like "how long the light travels in 1/1000000000 of a second"? I guarentee you it took some spineless, arrogant, dwarf Frenchman (I know, I am being repetitive) to come up with a measure like that:

He just measured his height and said "Ha! I shall measure the length of my body and make it the standard for all the world!" He measured something else and declared, "Aha! My pecker is precisely 100th the length of my body! I shall make it too a standard measure! I shall call it a Centimeter!"

So the whole dang system was founded by some French dwarf - and the rest of the world bought it!

(in reply to dacharls)
Post #: 22
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 8:50:13 PM   
RUPD3658


Posts: 6922
Joined: 8/28/2002
From: East Brunswick, NJ
Status: offline 		We have converted to the Metric system in the US (Remember School House Rock " a meter is a little more than a yard").

The problem is that only criminals and drug dealers use it (ie. a kilo of coke or a 9MM pistol).

I know it is screwed up but at least we don't measure our gun rounds by weight. What the hell is a 6lb round and why praytell would anyone use that as a system of measure? Should my .40 cal pistol be called a 1 ouncer?

This must have been thought up by the same person who decided the sizing system for women's clothes. Very little usefulness.

_____________________________

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits"- Darwin Awards 2003

"No plan survives contact with the enemy." - Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke


(in reply to fbastos)
Post #: 23
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 9:56:28 PM   
fbastos


Posts: 827
Joined: 8/7/2004
Status: offline
quote:

The metric system is almost as arbitrary and stupid as the English system. I mean, if you want 10's in everything, shouldn't a meter be more like "how long the light travels in 1/1000000000 of a second"? I guarentee you it took some spineless, arrogant, dwarf Frenchman (I know, I am being repetitive) to come up with a measure like that:


Originally, one meter = 1/10000 of the distance from equator to the Poles, through the meridian that passes through Greenwich (0 degrees).

F.

(in reply to Oznoyng)
Post #: 24
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 10:04:01 PM   
Belce


Posts: 130
Joined: 10/3/2004
From: Canada
Status: offline 		Actually the metric system makes a lot of sense and is very much in tune with the world around us.

1 gram of water is a mililitre, it takes 1 calorie to raise the temperture of that much water 1 degree C. 1 litre of water weighs a kilogram. If you know how many gallons of water you have say, 5.345 gallons, how much does it weigh?

And yes I know that the US variation of the Imperial system has smaller volume mesaures for pint, quart and gallon.

(in reply to fbastos)
Post #: 25
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 10:11:26 PM   
tsimmonds


Posts: 5498
Joined: 2/6/2004
From: astride Mason and Dixon's Line
Status: offline
quote:

If you know how many gallons of water you have say, 5.345 gallons, how much does it weigh?

Since there are 8 pints in a gallon, and a pint is 16 fl.oz., and 16 fl.oz. of water weighs 1 pound, a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds.

_____________________________

Fear the kitten!

(in reply to Belce)
Post #: 26
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 10:52:38 PM   
anarchyintheuk

 

Posts: 3921
Joined: 5/5/2004
From: Dallas
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: fbastos

Folks,

While we wait for the patch, what about a good healthy discussion? Point being: don't you think it's backwards that while 95% of the World now uses the metric system, the US stands alone using pounds, inches, gallons, etc...?

Flame away!!

F.


Nope, as long as NASA engineers remember the difference, I could care less. However, I'd would push the launch button before I'd watch football go metric.

(in reply to fbastos)
Post #: 27
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 10:59:12 PM   
caslug

 

Posts: 48
Joined: 8/19/2004
Status: offline 		4th and centimeters...

Sounds little woosy versus 4TH AND INCHES!!!

(in reply to anarchyintheuk)
Post #: 28
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 11:34:57 PM   
Xargun

 

Posts: 3690
Joined: 2/14/2004
From: Near Columbus, Ohio
Status: offline 		Just kinda funny that everyone who uses the metric system uses degrees C which is not metric - I believe its based on the F scale (or F based on C).. But either way its wrong.. The true metric temperature is in degrees K... Or at least all those teachers and physicists tried to tell me.... But then I usually slept through physics class - only had it at like 8 AM - way too early for serious thought processes to be attempted.... 2 PM is a much better time for such nonsense...

Xargun

(in reply to Belce)
Post #: 29
RE: British Imperial (aka US Customary) System - 10/14/2004 11:51:51 PM   
fbastos


Posts: 827
Joined: 8/7/2004
Status: offline 		In principle 0 degrees C = temperature that water freezes at sea level; 100 degrees C = temperature that water boils at sea level.

The fahrenheit scale is completely odd; it was initially based on the temperatures that ammonia freezes and boils, but then Mr. Fahrenheit changed it so that the human body temperature would be 100F, but that left the scaling odd, so he changed it once again on a way that didn't make ammonia to freeze at 0 and body temperature 100 or the ammonia boiling point (whatever it is) to be anything simple.

At least that's what I remember from my high school times.

F.

(in reply to Xargun)
Post #: 30
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