Metric vs Imperial poll

[capt vimes]

and thats the _historical_ reason why at the end of the 18th century on proposal from the 'Académie des sciences' the metric system got implemented - initially only in france!

at that time europe was nothing but a patchwerk of small earldoms, every each had their own scales and measurementsystems - even their own currency - very often with the same names but differnet lengths and weights behind them... can you imagine how this was compromising economy and scientific exchange?

it took europe (england excluded) until the end of the 19th century to fully agree on the metric system.. in the meantime countrys were adopting their own systems to the metric... a foot became 30 cm for instance, a pound 500 g...

and what was the reason for all this confusion?
everywhere clever people thought of standards and named them with all their creativity... a lot of clever people came up with different standards which were good for the local market since everybody there knew what they were dealing with... 50 km away in the next country everything was different..
luckily only 2 standards survived and nowadays with the world coming closer together by the hour and global business, science and cooperation is becoming imperative we should realy standarise systems worldwide...

and if the outcome would be something completely new - as the gramm and the meter has been in the 18th century - it's fine for me...

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by hoytedow

I believe the Fahrenheit thermometer was based upon the imperialist dairy industry, where 0d F is the freezing point of milk and 100d F is the normal body temp of a cow ...

“The normal core body temperature of a healthy, resting cow is stated on average to be 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit” according to an Internet source, so you might be correct.

However, I always figured big F took the human body temperature as 100 deg but just picked a feverish individual. I read someplace he used a salt-water mix to set the zero degree point. So he was trying to get a zero to 100 scale - he was trying to be metric, just a little before his time! he was the giant upon whose shoulders folk like Celcius stood later, in order to see further.

My! We do range far and wide on this forum don't we!

[hoytedow]

Terry, considering the age in which Fahrenheit lived, a 1.5d discrepancy probably wasn't inexcusable. I wouldn't be surprised if the freezing point of milk isn't exactly 0d, either.

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by hoytedow

... I wouldn't be surprised if the freezing point of milk isn't exactly 0d, either.

I'd be very surprised if that were so; milk freezes very close to the freezing point of water inmy experience. The zero F point is closer to the freezing point of concentrated brine.

[hoytedow]

You are right; I somehow mixed up old memories. Now I don't know how Fahrenheit settled on 0d F unless frozen brine is or was used in dairy processing. My bad. WAIT! Homemade ice cream, that's it!

[ancient kayaker]

Silly old Fahrenheit, wasting his time putting out ideas on temperature measurement when he could have been getting rich selling frosties!

[hoytedow]

........

[Jenny Giles]

Biased poll!
What's wrong with Reamur?

[ancient kayaker]

Nothing at all, though I would have thought an Oz bloke would have put the alcohol to better use ...