Metric vs Imperial poll

[Fanie]

nd even more...

length: metre (m)

The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum
during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

[Originally, the metre was chosen to approximate the distance
between the north pole and the equator divided by ten million, such
that a unit that is roughly the size of a step can also help to
visualize large distances on the surface of the earth easily.]

mass: kilogram (kg)

The kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the mass of the
international prototype of the kilogram.

[No independent lab experiment is known yet that provides a more
stable reference for mass than the regular comparison with a lump of
platinum-iridium alloy kept in a safe at the BIPM in Paris.]

[Originally, the kilogram was chosen to approximate the mass of one
litre (1/1000 m³) of water. This choice, combined with the second,
also led to very convenient numbers for the Earth's gravity (about
10 m/s²) and atmospheric pressure (about 100 kPa).]

time: second (s)

The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation
corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of
the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.

[In other words: if you want to know how long a second is, buy an
atomic clock that uses caesium, such as the classic Agilent/HP 5071A.]

[Originally, the SI second was chosen to approximate the length of
the astronomical second (1 day divided by 60 × 60 × 24) around 1820.]

electric current: ampere (A)

The ampere is that constant current which, if maintained in two
straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible
circular cross-section, and placed 1 m apart in vacuum, would
produce between these conductors a force equal to 2 × 10^-7 newton
per metre of length.

[In other words, the ampere is defined by setting the magnetic
permeability of free space to 4π × 10^-7 H/m. This way,
electromagnetic equations concerning spheres contain 4Ï€, those
concerning coils contain 2Ï€ and those dealing with straight wires
lack π entirely.]

thermodynamic temperature: kelvin (K)

The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, is the fraction
1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of
water.

[The celsius temperature scale divides the temperature interval of
liquid water into 100 steps. The kelvin has the same size as the
degree celsius, but its origin is moved to the lowest possible
temperature (0 K = -273.15 °C) to simplify gas calculations and
avoid negative numbers. The triple point of water at 0.01 °C is a
more well-defined reference temperature than its melting temperature
at some arbitrarily chosen pressure.]

amount of substance: mole (mol)

1. The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as
many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of
carbon 12.

2. When the mole is used, the elementary entities must be specified
and may be atoms, molecules, ions, electrons, other particles, or
specified groups of such particles.

[No technique is known yet to accurately count the number of
molecules in a macroscopic amount of matter, therefore the current
definition of the mole is no better than the definition of the
kilogram.]

luminous intensity: candela (cd)

The candela is the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a
source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 10^12
hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683
watt per steradian.

[This is a psychophysical unit for describing how bright an average
human eye perceives some electromagnetic radiation in the optical
frequency bands. As such, it differs very much from the purely
physical nature of the other units. The definition of the SI base
unit for luminous intensity provides merely a calibration value that
replaces an older one based on a reference candle. It has to be used
together with sensitivity models of an average human eye that have
been standardized by CIE. Many other physiological units are in use,
such as the "phon" for perceived loudness and the "bark" for
perceived audio frequency in acoustics, but none of these have made
it into the SI, possibly because it is much more difficult to reach
a consensus in audiology.

[Fanie]

Fanie, how many liters of beer can you drink before you get tipsy?

You would know when you know the metric system

[Fanie]

I read here

Although the introduction of
the metric system is clearly slowest in the US, compared to any other
developed country, it is widely used today in the US in selected
areas.

Bloody hell, I didn't know the US had slow and fast areas. Which area are you from

[ancient kayaker]

Chuckle! Fanie wasn't drunk, he just mixed up m and km. Easy to do. I hardly ever mix up a yard and a mile. Mind you, if that's the kind of the liters he buys his wine in ...

I seem to have stirred the (pint) pot up!

[murdomack]

Fanie at 9:09

That's the thing about the metric system, it does not take a lot of thinking. You just believe what they tell you and move the decimal points along.

This can be a dangerous way to work and your post above proves the point.

Which two lines of Latitude are 1 metre apart? I know that every minute of Latitude is 1 Nautical Mile, or 1852 mtrs. This means that a metre is 5.3995680345572354211663066954644e-4 minutes of Latitude. A second of Latitude is 30.86666666666666666666667 metres so that one does not fit either. Maybe the Metric world is 100 degrees from pole to equator Maybe there is a Metric degree

Moving on, a cube with sides of 1/10th km would be a very big litre, in fact it would be 1,000,000,000 litres, I think.

That's the beauty of the Imperial system, you have to think first.

[ancient kayaker]

From a nautical perspective, a better base unit would have been the nautical mile. A slight tweak of the fathom would make 1000 of those to a nm, and a 1/1000 f unit would be about 1.8 mm. The entire thing was arbitrary after all, why not choose something useful?

Why do we still have 60 seconds to the minute and so forth, couldn't that have been decimalized while they were about it? Do people have problems computing times because it isn't decimalized?

[murdomack]

Fanie at 09:24

"Distance pole to equator (Earth): 10 000 km = 10 Mm", my convertor says it is 10000.8 km.

Everyone knows it's a lot simpler to step out distances in yards, well at least the Imperialists do

Originally Posted by ancient kayaker

Chuckle! Fanie wasn't drunk, he just mixed up m and km. Easy to do. !

I have to contradict you here Terry. When you are used with the metric system, as I am, it is as impossible to mix up a meter and a kilometer as it is for you to mix up a inch and a mile.
BTW, not Fanie mixed it up, but the (US americans?) who produced the article on wiki!

[Fanie]

I'm so sorry, I really have to apologise I only realised now that the facts that I posted is common knowledge and this thread is not really about who's right and who's wrong, it's there soly for argument's sake.

Lets face it. The statement that the inches system had no small measurements is not true. Again, as Murdomack indicated you had to think, and now that I think about it the inches system actually caters for a whole lot of different levels of society.

If you wanted to work more accurate than inces you would switch to the Angstrom. Most of you building boats and did a good job fitted parts with angstrom accuracy. Just to explain, this is when you saw the handle off your toothbrush to save weight and you can measure it on the boat's draft, ok.

If this however is a bit out of your league - and not everyone can be a boat builder - some have to fiddle on stock markets and trade gold bars - and if you heard of the fist moon landing then the Armstrong is your measure.

Again if this is over your head and find the above a bit confusing then Arm Strong like in serious muscles is something any one can grasp (I hope). Understandably you need strong arms to slap together a couple of planks you single handedly sawed out of a few trees one afternoon and you can sail off into the sunset happily ever after the same day.

No I know no one can argue with that. We cannot all be experts in everything although that is another debatable point. Some of us have to talk crap too you know

[Fanie]

but the (US americans?) who produced the article on wiki!

Have faith, they are coming around. I bet they are going to turn around afterwards and say yeah but remember it was us writing that article in the first place

[murdomack]

Really, I like the Metric system, but I love the Imperial more

Let's see, You can sing in metre, but you can dance with your feet

[Fanie]

Distance pole to equator (Earth): 10 000 km = 10 Mm", my convertor says it is 10000.8 km.

Have you taken into acount the polar caps are melting so the distance pole to equator has been shortened. 10 000 km it is I suggest you switch your calculator from imperial mode to metric mode to calculate

[Fanie]

Let's see, You can sing in metre, but you can dance with your feet

I'm trying to inch my way out of this one !

Originally Posted by Fanie

I'm trying to inch my way out of this one !

How do I fathom out what you meant here?
.......do´nt pound me for my ignorance yeah?

[murdomack]

Originally Posted by Fanie

Have you taken into acount the polar caps are melting so the distance pole to equator has been shortened. 10 000 km it is I suggest you switch your calculator from imperial mode to metric mode to calculate

Hey, this is interesting. The original minite of arc of latitude mile, which when you think about it is not a distance but a projection of an angle, is now called the sea mile according to the attached Wiki file. It varies quite a bit from the poles and the equator as the world is not a perfect sphere. What the Metric whizzes have done is they have hi-jacked the term "international nautical mile" and taken a nearest round figure to the mean size and ended up with 1852 mtr.

Why did they do this when this metric nautical mile X 90 X 60 = 10000.8 km? 800 mtrs off target in 5400 nautical miles, I hope the Trident missiles are not on this system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile