Happy Metric Day!

[Ingemar]

It's the tenth day of the tenth month...

...for those of you still in Mountain and Pacific time.

[livewire]

What is metric day?

[Mithrandir]

You didn't do it at 10:10:10. Shame on you.

[Ingemar]

It doesn't matter anymore, since it's the 11th.

[Espoir]

total dorks
hehehe

[mitsuki lover]

Actually it would have been geekier if he had posted it on
10/10 at 10:10:10 or even geekier still if it had been five years from now since then he could have posted on 10/10/10 at 10:10:10

[blkmage]

Canada and the rest of the world use the metric system.
So should you.

[Mithrandir]

In Soviet Russia, the metric system uses YOU!

[Mangafanatic]

*Stabs Metric Day with a yard stick.*

[Ingemar]

Canada and the rest of the world use the metric system.
So should you.

If the rest of the world jumped off a cliff--well, you get the idea.

[blkmage]

The Imperial system never did make sense to me. I mean, 12 inches in a feet? I remember being down in the States and seeing on the highway "3/4 miles" til some exit and going "how in bloody hell do you tell it's been 3/4 miles?"

Oh and physics. Wow, thrown in feet into a problem and it adds twice the stress. Acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 metres per second per second (m/s/s). Not so in feet. It's some crazy number like 32.2 feet per second per second (ft/s/s). Talk about crazy world.

Anyway, /me stabs English system with a metre stick.

[mitsuki lover]

I hate the metric system.We had to learn it when I was in Junior High.Needless to say that was the worse semester of math I ever had as I flunked every quarter
we had it.
METRIC SYSTEM BAD...TREES GOOD(to paraphrase Buffy)

[TurkishMonky]

i love the english system... it's so random (however, whoever inented the computer's metric was random too - 1024 b in a kb? must of been an american trying to use the metric system, but getting two feet mixed up in there somewhere.)

[Arnobius]

The good old metric system... where the units of measurement are too small or too large to use conveniently.

Not to mention the entirely useless units between the meter and the kilometer we were forced to memorize micro milli centi deci --- deka hecka hella kilo mega... almost none of them used.

At least with the English system you have units that are reasonable in measure if not in division

[Warrior4Christ]

deka, hecka, hella, and to a lesser extent, deci, are unheard of in the real world usage.

But metric system = GOOD.

(1024 was chosen because it was a power of 2 that was "a good approximation" to 1000.)

[Hephzibah]

I've gotta jump in here and say that the metric system is so much better than the imperial.
1) It is easy to calculate
2) It's in units of 10... you dont have to memorise all these different numbers
3) It's used in Australia, hence it must be good
<.<
>.>
how did that last one get in there?

[Sammy Boy]

Talame, I am sure our American friends would agree with us on no.3 of your points. LOL.

I have an Australian astronomer friend who now works in America. He spends part of his spare time trying to convince Americans to use the metric system instead. The world needs more people like him!

[TurkishMonky]

(1024 was chosen because it was a power of 2 that was "a good approximation" to 1000.)

i know, just joking around... it just strikes me as funny when usb drives advertize as 1 GB when the're really more like 1000 MB, but on the back it says (1 GB = 1000 MB, although their 1 MB is calculated as 1024 kb...)

anywho, i live close enough to canada to have their money mixed up with ours in my change, so metric is good too! (you can go so much faster when driving!!!!)

[mitsuki lover]

From my own expeirence I can testify that the metrics system was simply created to make the math lives of American Junior High students in the
'70s miserably worse than they were.

[Technomancer]

1 inch
1 foot = 12 inches
1 yard = 3 feet
1 rod, pole or perch = 5½ yards
1 chain = 4 poles
1 link = 1/100 chain
1 furlong = 10 chains
1 mile = 8 furlongs (I'm not sure if this is statue miles or nautical miles)
1 league = 3 miles

'Nuff said.

[Eriana]

*Stabs Metric Day with a yard stick.*

lol!
I'm not to good at knowing this sort of thing so please excuse the confusing posts. ^^;;;

[Arnobius]

Well just like you guys ignore the useless parts of the metric system, we ignore most of the ones you listed

Besides I can calculate roughly in my head.

And a foot is much more useful than a centimeter for understanding distances

6'7" (my height) is easier to visualize than 2.0066m

However, for some real confusing conversions, see http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_all.htm

where we can learn that 1 feet [international, U.S.] = 1.0940416 pie [Spanish]

[Eriana]

I'm 5'5" how tall would that make me in all exactness? ^^;;;

[Arnobius]

[quote="Eriana"]I'm 5'5" how tall would that make me in all exactness? ^^]
1.651 meters. Since a Meter is about 39.37 inches, we can see it's a bit too long as a reasonable measure

and at centimeters. you're 165.1cm (2.54 cm/inch)

So either way, measuring in feet and inches is easier to get a useful measurement

[Eriana]

Hmm. Interesting, thanks AnimeHeretic! I've always wanted to know that! ^_~*
Hey i don't mean to be weird and off topic but do you like Halo? ^^

[Arnobius]

Hmm. Interesting, thanks AnimeHeretic! I've always wanted to know that! ^_~*
Hey i don't mean to be weird and off topic but do you like Halo? ^^

I get the motion sickness from playing FPS, which is a pity since watching the game, it looks amazing.

[Hephzibah]

Besides I can calculate roughly in my head.

And a foot is much more useful than a centimeter for understanding distances

That is only because you have grown up with it. I can understand distances and speed only by looking at the kilometers or km/h.

The issue of growing up with a system of measurement aside, metric system is alot more logical and understandable (I had to use the imperial system when I was a kid as well as metric... metric is so much easier)

[Arnobius]

That is only because you have grown up with it. I can understand distances and speed only by looking at the kilometers or km/h.

The issue of growing up with a system of measurement aside, metric system is alot more logical and understandable (I had to use the imperial system when I was a kid as well as metric... metric is so much easier)

Actually I meant convert English to metric. I wouldn't be helpless in the rest of the world, I just prefer the English system.

And the metric system is a bit arbitrary: The English system evolved from previously established units that were standardised. The Metric system came out of nowhere, with arbitrarily sized units. Yes it is logically measured in units of 10, but few of them are convenient in size.

They tried to convert in the 1970's, but they couldn't answer the question: Why?

Because nobody has come up with a reasonable answer, metrics in the US failed.

[Technomancer]

Yes it is logically measured in units of 10, but few of them are convenient in size.

The metre was originally designated to be some fractional power of 10 of the distance from the pole to the equator, so there was actually a basis. Unfortunately, this turned out to be incorrect due to the imprecise surveying methods available at the time. That said, there is a real need for an international system of weights and measures, and metric provides this. Remember, at the time there were differences in the systems used in every region; the Imperial measures were just one of many.

[Mithrandir]

For a fun time, ask 10 different american physists what a "meter" represents.



You think I'm kidding. I used to work with a bunch of american born physicists and electrical engineers. They were fun in a I'm-smarter-than-you kinda way. The invited me to a LAN party once. ONLY once. heh.