Convenience of the metric system

[K_V_B]

Originally Posted by Benz

So the use of the nautical mile for navigating is an admission of the unsuitability of the kilo-meter for such use.

But the acceptance of the suitability of the nautical mile does imply that relating a unit of measurement to the size of the earth is not such a silly notion as you like to make it out to be.
anyway, it's pretty much moot nowadays, as all navigation is now done in meters, and then converted to whatever the user wants it to be displayed in.

No matter that the metrical people officially adopted it--it does not really fit into the proposed scheme of "everything the same". And as long as we're using nautical miles to navigate, does it not make sense to have depths in a unit that is compatible, like fathoms and feet?

In what way are fathoms and feet more compatible with nautical miles then meters?

Also, you cannot use Gradians, or Gons, or Radians, or any other such foolishness for plotting celestial fixes. Not without a whole lot of extra conversions and loss of accuracy resulting in having to split gons because there is no natural reciprocal.

Oh. You can. You just have to start with an ephemeris in the right units.

There is a good, logical reason circles are divided into 360 degrees: has nothing to do with English kings or sentiment. You who claim to be so 'Scientific' ought to scientifically search it out and be instructed.

And that good, logical reason is?

The T in UTM stands for 'Transverse'. What is your point? Mine is that the grid is only useful over smaller and smaller areas the further from the equator you go, losing accuracy fast with each er, kilo-meter you go. Deg/min/sec continue to operate smoothly.

So you know that the T stands for Transverse, but obviously don't know what it means, or you'd know that the deformation increases as you go away from the central meridian of your UTM zone, not as you get away from the equator. Anyway, the amount of distortion remains under 1/1000 within each zone. For the purposes the UTM system was designed for this is sufficient. Being able to easily calculate distance and bearing if you have two coordinate pairs, without needing complex formula, makes a lot of sense to me.

I have stated before I have no use for the statute mile--everyone should go to a 6,000 foot nautical mile. Be easier to change to than kilo-meters, if anyone was going to change.

So you'd have a nautical mile that is completely arbitrary set to a particular length. And this is more useful because?

And if one was going to change, changing to what the rest of the world uses makes sense. Just like the French are now even learning English, because that is what the world uses...

[skipmac]

Went to college in the USA where metric is not exactly popular. However it's quite the opposite when you get into engineering. Even in the USA metric is used almost exclusively and I can assure you that working with metric when doing complex calculations is much, much easier.

Occasionally we would get a problem on an exam to work in imperial units, I guess just to see if we could do it. Almost universally the students would convert the problem to metric to solve then convert the final answer back to imperial to fill in the blank on the exam.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Went to college in the USA where metric is not exactly popular. However it's quite the opposite when you get into engineering. Even in the USA metric is used almost exclusively and I can assure you that working with metric when doing complex calculations is much, much easier.

Occasionally we would get a problem on an exam to work in imperial units, I guess just to see if we could do it. Almost universally the students would convert the problem to metric to solve then convert the final answer back to imperial to fill in the blank on the exam.

+2.54...

[nimblemotors]

Originally Posted by Wotname

8 below what?

That would be 8 below 'really fricking cold', sounds like an 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

+2.54...

or is it +2.23? Oh damn - that's pounds to kilograms

hmmm - +3.3 - no that's feet to meters (approximate)

+3,7854... no that's liters to gallons US

Wait, wait I've got it - 4.54... Oh hell, that's liters to imperial gallons

1.2? not that's US galllons to Imperial Gallons

how about +10 (lbs)? No wait - that's pounds of water to Gallons Imperial

I'm lost.................................

[avb3]

Originally Posted by carstenb

or is it +2.23? Oh damn - that's pounds to kilograms

hmmm - +3.3 - no that's feet to meters (approximate)

+3,7854... no that's liters to gallons US

Wait, wait I've got it - 4.54... Oh hell, that's liters to imperial gallons

1.2? not that's US galllons to Imperial Gallons

how about +10 (lbs)? No wait - that's pounds of water to Gallons Imperial

I'm lost.................................

As a person who lives in both systems (Canada and the US) try converting Miles per Gallon (Imperial) to Kilometers/100 Liters.

Now do it for US Gallons.

Drives you friggin' nuts trying to figure out if a vehicle is getting good mileage or not. Seriously... people in Canada, even those who took the metric system from kindergarten to this day talk in miles per gallon, even though gasoline is sold by the liter.

Go figure.

[Charlie]

a metric six pack is 42 beers according to Bob and Doug McKenzie. sounds like a good reason to convert.

On a more serious note. Del Marrey explained this one to me. In the imperial system thread pitch is explained by threads per inch. so if you need to move something a specific distance in a machine you can choose a bolt with a 20 thread per inch pattern whether it is a 1/4 or q1/2" bolt. You cant do this in metrics because the thread pitch is designed on the distance of the threads.

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by K_V_B

Said the guy with the horse when asked why he didn't get a car...

I know plenty of places where a car would be absolutely useless to you, and a horse would be perfect.

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by Factor

I think he means 8 below zero which is 32 below when water freezes, I think. But I never understood Farenheit. O Farenheit is when ice and salt water get cold, or something.

Minus 15 F last night or 26 below C. That's colder than 15 witches boobies in Myanmar or 26 of those in OZ.
Ski areas are getting snow and that's a good thing!

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

My only problem with the metric system is it needs something between a meter and a Cm. If you say to me something is 2 ft long I get it. If you say 60cm... My brain has to convert it... If it made sense that things must be described in multiples of ten... well then wouldnt it make sense to only build things in exact multiples of ten?
How about time? should we break it into tens?
How about the naturally occurring number Pi? We'd better round that down to 3.000..
:>)

There is a unit between Meter and cm its Decimeter. 1 Decimeter = 10 centimeter, just its not used very often as people tend to forget about it. there are also 2 more units between meter and kilometer, again not used very often.

P

[Blue Stocking]

What happens to distance when we go to "warp speed". Met. or Imp. ?

[Canibul]

and nobody has even dared approach the subject of iambic pentameter.

[avb3]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

Minus 15 F last night or 26 below C. That's colder than 15 witches boobies in Myanmar or 26 of those in OZ.
Ski areas are getting snow and that's a good thing!

But, how is the elk season going is the real question.

[Coops]

Honestly, you give somebody an inch and they take a kilometre.

Coops.

[Andrew B.]

What's the speed of dark ?

If a lightyear = approx. 6 trillion miles, a darkyear = ?