Once A Week

"benjrblant" (benjblant) 01/17/2019 at 15:33 • Filed to: None

3

40

At least once a week, I regularly exclaim “this would not be a problem if we’d already adopted the metric system.” It makes me feel extra fuzzy inside if this occurs before Wednesdays.

That’s all.

E90M3 > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:38

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Could be worse. At the chemical plant I used to work at, we used 4 different unit of pressure on one process screen. Bar, PSI, inWater, mmWater. 

facw > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:39

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Metric is generally good. I prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius, but if we switched everything else, it seems like it would be an improvement.  

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:40

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10mm

10mm

10mm

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > E90M3 01/17/2019 at 15:40

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Sounds like a recipe for disaster

For Sweden > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:42

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My arbitrary way of counting is better than your arbitrary way of counting

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:43

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I used to work for a company that claimed they were a “metric” company. All that really meant is the drawings were converted from inches to millimeters.

So we’d have things labeled as a 25.4 mm bolt instead of a 1 inch bolt. 

benjrblant > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/17/2019 at 15:43

5

That’s... probably the most backwards thing I’ve heard today.

benjrblant > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/17/2019 at 15:44

0

(=

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benjrblant > For Sweden 01/17/2019 at 15:44

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if you’re making an arbitrary way of counting, at least have it arbitrarily make sense.

Chuckles > facw 01/17/2019 at 15:45

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Fahrenheit is the superior temperature scale. I understand that Celsius is useful because you know water freezes at 0 and boils at 100, but Fahrenheit is more helpful for living life. 0-100 F covers the full range of "really cold" to "too hot." Sure there are extremes outside of that range, but would you rather describe the weather using -17 to 37 C? 

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:48

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It was (and is...I assume they haven’t changed) stupid

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Chuckles 01/17/2019 at 15:50

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Ironically, the metric system is based on the number 10... or 100... or whatever you want to call it. So I think there’s a sort of “natural” desire to having relative temperature address in the same way: 0 low, 100 high. Ug, ug, simple brain. Like, “Man, it’s 30 degrees out!” doesn’t make me think it’s hot. Though I am biased Yank.

Nothing > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 15:51

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I don’t want to start filling my car with liters! My 0-60 times would vastly improve, though.

facw > Chuckles 01/17/2019 at 15:56

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Yep, every time I state that opinion online people say well “I live where it’s -40" or “I live where it’s 119", but only a few people do, and as you say, even then , it still works better than Celsius. I also think that group of 10 in Fahrenheit (at least between 0-100) has a relatively distinct feel (obviously things are continuous, so they can’t be truly distinct), which make discussing rough temperatures easier (10ºC covers too broad a range to serve the same purpose).

And while not exactly a benefit, Fahrenheit isn’t broken in the same way some other non-SI measurements are. It’s expressed as decimals so no silly fractions, and we use a whole unit across the entire scale, so there’s none of that nonsense we do with length, weight, volume, etc.

For the lab, it’s just as good (and maybe better) to use Kelvin, but most general use of temperature is for weather, climate control, and cooking, and Fahrenheit works better for the first two, and isn’t any worse for the last one.

Chuckles > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/17/2019 at 15:57

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The hardest part would be switching and trying to reprogram your brain. The problem with Celsius is that they chose to base it on a 0-100 scale that only matters if you're talking about water. That's not useful for talking about the weather. Fahrenheit is a nice 0-100 scale where 0 is the coldest night of the year and 100 is the hottest day of the year. Obviously that's not true everywhere, but it works fine here in PA. 

Svend > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 16:00

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In the U.K. we use both imperial* and metric.

*not U.S. imperial which is different again from imperial used elsewhere.

Changing everything from imperial to metric such as road signs will cost massive amounts of money and while many are happy to go on using imperial it allows others to happily work in metric. For large contracts that require multiple companies in multiple countries, metric is the default used. 

facw > E90M3 01/17/2019 at 16:00

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Why not toss in Pascals, Torrs and Atmospheres just for fun?

E90M3 > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/17/2019 at 16:06

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Kinda, but they were all relating to different aspects of the process.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 16:12

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Mass and weight in English units are terrible. A slug is a mass and p ounds force is weight ? Kilogram is a mass, not a weight, a pound is weight and mass? What the fuck do I have to multiply my weight by 32.2 ft/s/s to figure out how much I weigh or divide by 32.2 to get my mass then I would be a mid weight slug? Slugs are not sexy and neither am I when I weigh a whole bunch.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > E90M3 01/17/2019 at 16:13

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meh that’s pretty easy to understand english units for mass and weight on the other hand....

benjrblant > Chuckles 01/17/2019 at 16:20

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I think that in the end, they’re all arbitrary numbers that we have become accustomed to understanding as a temperature. However, Fahrenheit doesn’t really relate to anything. it’s pretty random. Celsius makes more sense, especially from a scientific perspective. freezing, boiling, etc, and a calorie is the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius .

so unlike Fahrenheit , Celsius is at least part of a holistic system of measure that makes exchanging units much easier to understand.

For Sweden > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 16:21

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Base 10 makes no since. It’s only divisible by 2 and 5.

DipodomysDeserti > facw 01/17/2019 at 16:22

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Kelvin or GTFO. Absolute zero master race.

benjrblant > For Sweden 01/17/2019 at 16:23

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and 1.

facw > DipodomysDeserti 01/17/2019 at 16:23

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You want to be hard core about it, then sure. I just don’t want any Celsius people trying to claim they are better.

For Sweden > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 16:24

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-_-

Cé hé sin > Chuckles 01/17/2019 at 16:28

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Yes. It just seems logical that very cold temperatures should be minus.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 16:29

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We should change it while the government is closed. 

Chariotoflove > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 16:50

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Metric at work, Imperial at home. My mind switches automatically.

vicali > Chuckles 01/17/2019 at 16:50

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Y e s, yes I would.

Why is your 0 F at -17C? Why not say make 0 at the freezing point so if you are describing weather you can say -1 is icy and +1 is melting?

TheRealBicycleBuck > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 17:06

1

Feet and inches are pretty handy when it comes to measurement, primarily because we can count to 12 on one hand and those are easily divisible by 2, 3, and 4.

That makes fractional conversions a lot easier. Incidentally, this is the same thing that trips up kids trying to learn their measurements because they are never taught how to do this.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 17:18

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So I’m not the only one that has these moments! My students think I’m odd when I mention something about consumers are “ dumb” and the unit we use “sucks” or is the wrong unit all together.

benjrblant > TheRealBicycleBuck 01/17/2019 at 18:43

2

Woah! Never seen this before.

I still stand by metric tho.

benjrblant > DipodomysDeserti 01/17/2019 at 18:44

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Since kelvin is the same scale as C, just 273 units off, i support this.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > facw 01/17/2019 at 22:07

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It does not work better than Celsius, you just say that because it’s the system you’re comfortable using. Normal temperature ranges are -30°C to +30°C. -50 to +50 pretty thoroughly covers the extremes as well, although there are always outliers . But 100 units of “normal” temperatures around the world . Frost hits around 0. Positive is warm, negative isn’t. Water freezing is a very relevant temperature. Water boiling is also super relevant, conveniently separated from freezing by the same amount of units as extreme weather.

20°C is more comfortable an indoor temperature than 21°C, and uses slightly less energy as well.

-20°F to 85°F is a stupid range. So is -60 to 120 if you want to factor in extremes. And note I rounded to the nearest 5 because that’s what normal people do, no one is ever going to run a scale from -18 to 38 (and notice that again, I actually know how to round off numbers properly...).

You’ll also find its super easy to say “ it’s about [nearest multiple of five” , and cover a slightly more precise range than “it’s in the [multiple of ten ]s ”.

Fahrenheit just looks like someone made a thermometer with a range that didn’t reflect any practical field , marked the bottom and top , and then divided the distance between them into equal, arbitrary divisions that are irrelevant to anything today after standardization , just like most of the imperial units. You just managed to be taught that it’s a normal system by people who only used it because they learned it the same way you did, and who happens to  have an ingrained distrust of anything outside their perception of “normal”.

Urambo Tauro > benjrblant 01/17/2019 at 23:20

0

Best of both worlds would be a base-12 verision of Metric, instead of base-10. Not that it’ll ever happen, but that would be ideal.

ateamfan42 > facw 01/18/2019 at 11:58

1

“I live where it’s -40"

Fun fact: If they do in fact live where it is -40, it doesn’t matter if they use Fahrenheit or Celsius.

ateamfan42 > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/18/2019 at 12:02

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While agree with everything you said, the fact that just about everyone uses kilograms for “weight” is pretty screwed up too.  Why the hell we can’t just label (metric) things in newtons is beyond me.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ateamfan42 01/18/2019 at 12:05

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We use mass units so there is not cheating on the diet when on Mars at 0.376 g’s.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > benjrblant 01/26/2019 at 13:26

0

I think lb-ft rolls off the tongue better than N-m, but as long as the numbers are solid I guess it doesn’t really matter.

I think the biggest bitch is when I watch something like Top Gear and have to explain to literally anyone else in the room how long/heavy something is if it’s in metres or kg.