Metric vs Imperial poll

[masrapido]

Originally Posted by murdomack

That's what I do except I take it to Cu. mtrs and get the answer in tonnes, but my point is, I need a calculator or have to do a multiplication with a pencil, etc. With Imperial it is all done with mental arithmetic.

For quick calculations the Imperial system is a lot simpler.

24/16 X 3/12 is simple?

Being reasonable is one thing, but being wrong is a difficult concept to grasp, isn't it?

"imperial" system (what an irony to have it so stuck in a "republic"...) is fractional system and unles you are trained in it, it is NOT simpler for quick maths. That is why the world had gone into metric system some century and a bit ago. Except in some distant and mentally isolated countries of the fourth world, where people still live in stone age, and measure the distance with thumbs and feet...How high-tech is that.

[wardd]

let me try to explain this to the unenlightened

take the inch which is broken down into fractions such as 1/64, 1/32/, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 etc

take 1/16 v 1/8 1/16 is smaller than 1/8 even though 16 is greater than 8

the inch system is a real thinking man system not something left to young children or the faint of heart, and to add fractions is a real mans feat prone to error by those of lessor abilities

so to those that have mastered the inch, you are the few, the proud, the brave

[gunship]

one inch is just 2,543 centimeters, nothing complicated there

however, one centimeter is 0,3937007874015748031496062992126 inches or 1/2,54th of an inch.

what is easier, dividing by 2,54 or 0,3937007874015748031496062992126?

metric system for the win

[wardd]

sure if your into safe and simple

but we're into boats whats simple about them?

[murdomack]

Originally Posted by masrapido

24/16 X 3/12 is simple?

Being reasonable is one thing, but being wrong is a difficult concept to grasp, isn't it?

"imperial" system (what an irony to have it so stuck in a "republic"...) is fractional system and unles you are trained in it, it is NOT simpler for quick maths. That is why the world had gone into metric system some century and a bit ago. Except in some distant and mentally isolated countries of the fourth world, where people still live in stone age, and measure the distance with thumbs and feet...How high-tech is that.

It is so simple the biggest dunce in our school, honest it wasn't me, could do it in his head and ride a unicycle at the same time. Switch the denominators and you get 24/12=2 times 3/16 which is 3/8 or .375 if you wanted decimals.

There is no right or wrong about it. Most people have had the misfortune to have not been trained in the Imperial system and believe it is outdated.

I have worked with both Imperial and Metric for 45 years a lot of that time in supervisory and inspection roles. From my own experience and what I have seen of other peoples work, I believe that the former is the best.

[gunship]

i have no problem in measurement with inches for lenght instead of centimeters, but how many cubic inch is there on a gallon? how many cubic feet goes per pound? how many sqare inch is there per square mile?

also, how many inches is YOUR foot? no need to answer, but its not exactly twelve, is it?

[murdomack]

Hi Gunship,

For someone taught Imperial Measures at school, your questions will not be any problem. Just to keep it confusing. our gallon was different from the US Gallon. All we had to remember was that one of our gallons of water weighed 10 lbs and a cubic foot of water weighed 62.5 lbs. This told us that gallons divided by 6.25 equals cu.ft. Multiply by 12*12*12 for cu. ins.
For pounds per cu. ft. of any substance it is 62.5 * Spec Gravity.
1 mile = 1760 yards = 5280 ft = 63,360 ins, so 1sq. mile = 63,360 * 63,360 sq. inches.
We would have worked that out on our slide rule or with logarithms before the silicon chip came along. Either that or a very long division with a pencil or a bit of chalk.
Square roots with a chalk, I can still do it as well, you never forget as it was drummed into your head.

The Imperial guys in the US will carry the lbs/US Gal conversion figure in their brain so they will get a different answer to me. I would have to look it up as I was not taught it, it's 8. something, but it does the same thing.

[wardd]

i have 10 toes, does that mean i have metric feet?

[gunship]

well, on the other hand all i have to do put metric unit in to calculation, and out comes metric unit. and since pretty much all science is based on metric nowsays, such units as amps, joule and other stuff is also metric units. i understand that if you were schooled with the imperial system its easy, but i can easily apply all kinds of science to common measurements, and solve it all whith one simple formula. after that i can convert it between Giga/Mega/Kilo/Base unit/deci/centi/milli/micro/nano etc. for a conventiently long number, which can also be aproximated by 10^ for example -2 for centi.

Originally Posted by murdomack

I have worked with both Imperial and Metric for 45 years a lot of that time in supervisory and inspection roles. From my own experience and what I have seen of other peoples work, I believe that the former is the best.

If you have done so, I´m impressed about your statement. In my 42 years in business I have not met a single person going back to imperial once trained in metric. And not one either, calling imperial superior.

[Luckless]

Originally Posted by wardd

i have 10 toes, does that mean i have metric feet?

Nope, unless you hold up a finger for 0.

Toes/fingers are base 11.

You hold up nothing for your zero, then you have digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and "A", aka 10. If you and a friend stand side by side you can count, with your friend being the left hand digit,...

But if you want to get into more complex math, then you can represent far more digits. All fingers down for 0, all but right pinky down for 1, all but right ring finger down for 2, all but right ring and pinky down for 3, etc, etc, counting your primary digits in binary on your fingers, this gets you to base 1024,... ish? I'm tired and not nearly bored enough to scribble things out to be sure just what base that comes out to.

[wardd]

i thought metric was base 10 and 0 is a digit though a place holder, so 10 toes 10 digits = metric feet

[Luckless]

metric is done in base Ten (little note, all numbers are base "10", base two is base 10, as 10 in base two is 2,...)

However base ten, decimal, has 10 digits, 0 through 9, as base two has two digits, 0 and 1.

Most humans have 10 fingers, representing digits 1 through '10', but it would be written as A in standard notation. No fingers up would be your 0, giving you 11 digits to work with.

[wardd]

so i cut one toe off, no problem

[Mikey]

I am amazed that this discussion is still on. Shouldn’t it be enough to point out that 95.5% of the world is on metric and that America is in the company of sophisticated countries like Burma and Liberia. Only…

4.5% of the world thinks that milk must be kept at less than 100degrees, 95.5% thinks – Wow, Americans must have strong stomachs to take that without having to spend the rest of the day in the toilet

4.5% of the world thinks that 100 degrees is a hot day, 95.5% thinks that water boils then

Not to mention what happened the Ninth of November

Shall we standardise?

Mikey