Imperial vs Metric

[Bodone]

If you’re doing Knots, then what about AU’s?

 

[Just4Fun]

A cable is 1/10 mm

Was that a typo or was auto-correct being over-zealous?

 

[JoshD]

If you’re doing Knots, then what about AU’s?

AU, as in Astronomical Units? 93M statute (ie, regular) miles is about 82M nm, so at 6kn my boat will take .... a long time to do 1AU

 

[JoshD]

Was that a typo or was auto-correct being over-zealous?

Fixed!

 

[Terry - Somerset]

We are part of a globally integrated technologically advanced community, yet have been unable to create a common language for scientific, technical and objective measurement.

• sailors do things differently mixing metric (1000 fathoms) with imperial (6ft)
• nautical miles are different to land miles
• but I think a nautical foot is the same as a land foot
• a US gallon is different to a UK gallon (6.66 vs 8 pints)
• most of the world uses litres anyway
• fortunately ton and tonne are spelt differently (but sound the same)
• but a US ton is 907kg, a UK ton is 1016kg. A tonne is 1000kg

It is somewhat surprising that international collaborations ever work - most do but there have been some spectacular and costly foul ups.

 

[bourbon]

Like smashing a space probe into a planet?

 

[Mead Camans]

I'd just like to jump in here with a little metric fact that I love, which is that a metre is defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 of a second.

 

[Droogs]

even building 2 halves of a rocket on different continents and then only finding out 1 was metric the other imperial when one bit wouldn't fit inside the other bit- oops (that one was genuinely my wife's cousin)

 

[JoshD]

I'd just like to jump in here with a little metric fact that I love, which is that a metre is defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 of a second.

So the speed of light is pretty nearly 1 foot/nanosecond, pretty handy to know

 

[J-G]

Since the figure quoted is close to 30% of a nanosecond for nearly 3-1/3 feet it's much closer to 10 feet per nanosecond.

 

[billw]

At least the world agrees about times and dates. Although it’s currently 10 January 2564 in Thailand, so maybe not.

 

[Droogs]

at least they agree it is January unlike the Russians

 

[Deadeye]

AU, as in Astronomical Units? 93M statute (ie, regular) miles is about 82M nm, so at 6kn my boat will take .... a long time to do 1AU

Well, if we're having Astronomical Units we're going to have to put the Siriometer in place as well.

And the Slug for mass (just under 15Kg)

And for people picky about angles, what about the Furman (about 1/65,000th of a degree0

And the Barn-megaparsec for volumes (about 1.5ml)

 

[stuckinthemud]

I speak bilingual, but the system of 12 works in shops/stalls where half, quarter and third were important , I always used to buy 1/4 of sweets, even a ten year old could calculate the price of a fraction of goods priced by the pound in weight, ten is easy to divide by ten, but try quartering it.

 

[Droogs]

@Deadeye You just made that last one up. There are no such thing as amish space farmers

@stuckinthemud that was the beauty of the old £ - 240 is a very special number

 

[billw]

ten is easy to divide by ten, but try quartering it.

Ok here's my go - it's 2.5

 

[stuckinthemud]

Ok, so pear drops are £3.60 a pound, how much is 1/8?

 

[stuckinthemud]

Now, ccalculate .125 of £3.6

 

[stuckinthemud]

Actually, that should be £3.60/2.5/.125 (I think)

 

[Droogs]

is that an 1/8 of a pear drop or an 1/8 of a lb or £