The number of times I’ve heard someone say it’s 90 degrees in a movie or something and thought to myself “How the hell are those guys ALIVE?!?!…oh…that’s right…farenheit. Used by the country that produces the most movies but is yet about the only country on the entire planet to still use that goddamn irrational system…”
Sorry, but it sounds like you’re under the impression that NASA scientists and engineers do not the metric system.
All scientists and engineers do their work with metric units. It’s just easier that way, as all the units of length, mass, force, temperature, pressure, etc. relate to one another without the need for a myriad of conversion factors and even more constants.
…But upon writing this, I suspect you knew that and were just joking.
See, I live in New England, the only place in the world where Fahrenheit makes sense, In an average year, our maximum temperature for a day or two at the middle of summer is about 100 degrees F, which means that it is too hot to do anything other than lie in one place indoors in the shade and suffer, and our minimum temperature is about 0 degrees F, which means that it’s too cold to do anything other than lie in one place indoors buried under every blanket you have.
Our temperature range is about 0 to 100.
Further: as far as cooking goes, all of my cups hold 1 cup, my teaspoons hold 1 tsp, my tablespoons hold 1 Tbsp, my demitasse spoons hold 1/2 tsp, my pint glasses hold 1 pint. I don’t use measuring cups, because all my normal glassware, flatware, and dishware is calibrated to precisely the Imperial system — I measured them all once, and they are off by less than 2% in all cases.
My wife grew up during that brief period in American history when we were all supposed to switch over to metric system, so she thinks in metric, and can’t cook in my kitchen.
I may be the only person in the WORLD for whom the Imperial system works, but my entire body is built to it. If I bend my thumb, from the tip of my thumb to the knuckle is nearly exactly one inch. The tip of my middle finger to my elbow is nearly exactly 18 inches, 1.5 feet. My pace is nearly exactly 1 yard, which is three feet — and a pace is left foot, step to right foot, step to left foot again, which is literally three feet. Left-Right-Left.
Much of the Imperial system is based on twelves, which is a way more convenient number for estimating things than 10 — I can eyeball things and divide them in half, thirds, and quarters, and that’s how “twelve” works.
It’s TERRIBLE for engineering and anything where you’re basing everything on measurements and math and calculations.
It’s WONDERFUL for everyday estimating and just basically working stuff out as you go WITHOUT paper.
It’s why nuclear power is so attractive. 76,000,000 megajoules per kilogram vs 24 megajoules per kilogram for coal. It sounds way cooler than BTU’s per pound.
“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie1 of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.” Wild Thing by Josh Bazell.
Actually, the proper SI unit for energy is the joule, because it can be cleanly derived from and converted into other SI units as needed.
The calorie may be neat when heating up water, but use it for anything else and it buggers things up with ugly conversion factors.
Well, he worked a maximum of 15 hours a week (Hanna-Barbera wiki, less according to some sources), yet was still never home and was constantly work-stressed.
Good at pressing buttons and working with high-tech gadgetry.
So now you know what he did with the rest of his time.
The Imperial units are definitely more “poetic”, due to their being remnants of old times. Of course, their being remnants of old times also means we now have much more effective ways of measuring stuff.
Therefore, I propose that if you want to the use Imperial Units, you must do so while speaking in perfect iambic pentameter.
Thank thee, yet still our units eld we’ll keep
Naught new shall mar this night our well earn’d sleep
How else could stolid pigherders make seemly talk
About how far their wayward pigs did walk?
Well, in Flanders it’s not at all unusual to hear expressions like “I see squat for kilometers in circumference.” It may be metric but they manage to slip pi into the equation as well and to top it all off, use a linear measure to define an area.
OOOH! I forgot the best part of the metric system. HECTARES! 100 hectares per square kilometer. 259 hectares per square mile rather than 640 acres per square mile.
My part of the country is laid out in very square townships (mostly ignored in large empty areas) consisting of 36 square miles. That’s the killer for adapting the metric system right there.
I feel like the only reason we find the imperial system easier to learn is because we’ve grown used to how wacky it really is.
1 kilometer
=1,000 meters
=100,000 centimeters
=1,000,000 millimeters
=1,000,000,000 micrometers (it could literally go on ad infinitem in either direction, without having to come up with new conversion factors)
…whereas…
1 mile
=1,760 yards
=(1,760 x 3)=5,280 feet
=(5,280 x 12)=63,360 inches
Not true. If I remember correctly, nuclear reactors are measured in miles.
Ok, I do not remember correctly, it was just once, and we all know how did that end. Case proven, you win.
And stating weights in kilos instead of pounds makes you sound like a drug smuggler.
That, or a British… uhm… drug dealer.
But writing in the top of the paper “Using the imperial units” sounds much better then whit the metric one
It’s nice to see USAmericans clinging fondly to remnant memories of the British Empire.
The number of times I’ve heard someone say it’s 90 degrees in a movie or something and thought to myself “How the hell are those guys ALIVE?!?!…oh…that’s right…farenheit. Used by the country that produces the most movies but is yet about the only country on the entire planet to still use that goddamn irrational system…”
Well, we have NASA – and they invented outer space – so everyone else should convert to our superior system (so I ain’t gotta learn nothin’).
Sorry, but it sounds like you’re under the impression that NASA scientists and engineers do not the metric system.
All scientists and engineers do their work with metric units. It’s just easier that way, as all the units of length, mass, force, temperature, pressure, etc. relate to one another without the need for a myriad of conversion factors and even more constants.
…But upon writing this, I suspect you knew that and were just joking.
Ahem. All US engineers must know how to work in both metric and US units.
And we all know how that went.
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/mco990930.html
Thank you for proving my point for me Obtusity!
See, I live in New England, the only place in the world where Fahrenheit makes sense, In an average year, our maximum temperature for a day or two at the middle of summer is about 100 degrees F, which means that it is too hot to do anything other than lie in one place indoors in the shade and suffer, and our minimum temperature is about 0 degrees F, which means that it’s too cold to do anything other than lie in one place indoors buried under every blanket you have.
Our temperature range is about 0 to 100.
Further: as far as cooking goes, all of my cups hold 1 cup, my teaspoons hold 1 tsp, my tablespoons hold 1 Tbsp, my demitasse spoons hold 1/2 tsp, my pint glasses hold 1 pint. I don’t use measuring cups, because all my normal glassware, flatware, and dishware is calibrated to precisely the Imperial system — I measured them all once, and they are off by less than 2% in all cases.
My wife grew up during that brief period in American history when we were all supposed to switch over to metric system, so she thinks in metric, and can’t cook in my kitchen.
I may be the only person in the WORLD for whom the Imperial system works, but my entire body is built to it. If I bend my thumb, from the tip of my thumb to the knuckle is nearly exactly one inch. The tip of my middle finger to my elbow is nearly exactly 18 inches, 1.5 feet. My pace is nearly exactly 1 yard, which is three feet — and a pace is left foot, step to right foot, step to left foot again, which is literally three feet. Left-Right-Left.
Much of the Imperial system is based on twelves, which is a way more convenient number for estimating things than 10 — I can eyeball things and divide them in half, thirds, and quarters, and that’s how “twelve” works.
It’s TERRIBLE for engineering and anything where you’re basing everything on measurements and math and calculations.
It’s WONDERFUL for everyday estimating and just basically working stuff out as you go WITHOUT paper.
… I just confirmed the superiority of the Imperial system for discussing how many miles one’s pigs done walked off to, didn’t I?
Your annual temperature swing is only 0-100F, and the only endpoint activity is indoor sedentation? Sounds like a boring place to live.
Not ALL of us living on Mercury, you know.
You were clearly engineered by the secret cabal aiming to keep the US using a measurement system that makes no sense to the rest of the world.
Jokes aside, talking recipes with my parents is a NIGHTMARE because they still weigh everything in ounces.
It’s why nuclear power is so attractive. 76,000,000 megajoules per kilogram vs 24 megajoules per kilogram for coal. It sounds way cooler than BTU’s per pound.
And BTUs have to be one of the most ridiculous units, given that Brits don’t use them.
Binford Thermal Units.
Or if you know the SI prefixes, terrajoules/kilogram. Save zeroes.
Last panel explains why Americans don’t want to convert to metric.
But I like measuring speed in furlongs per fortnight.
As everyone knows, the speed of light is 1.803e+12 fur/for
“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie1 of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.” Wild Thing by Josh Bazell.
The answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘How much oil you got?’
Actually, the proper SI unit for energy is the joule, because it can be cleanly derived from and converted into other SI units as needed.
The calorie may be neat when heating up water, but use it for anything else and it buggers things up with ugly conversion factors.
Somehow, “I can see for kilometers and kilometers” doesn’t have the same ring to it. So I blame The Who for our reluctance to give up on miles.
…Then again, they were a British band.
Also, am I the only one who’s noticed that the evil mastermind always sits behind George Jetson’s desk?
Well, he worked a maximum of 15 hours a week (Hanna-Barbera wiki, less according to some sources), yet was still never home and was constantly work-stressed.
Good at pressing buttons and working with high-tech gadgetry.
So now you know what he did with the rest of his time.
The Imperial units are definitely more “poetic”, due to their being remnants of old times. Of course, their being remnants of old times also means we now have much more effective ways of measuring stuff.
Therefore, I propose that if you want to the use Imperial Units, you must do so while speaking in perfect iambic pentameter.
That’s the second time today I’ve seen a reference to iambic pentameter in the comments of a web comic.
I thought the point was trying to avoid using meters, unadorned, kilo-, or penta-?
Thank thee, yet still our units eld we’ll keep
Naught new shall mar this night our well earn’d sleep
How else could stolid pigherders make seemly talk
About how far their wayward pigs did walk?
Well, in Flanders it’s not at all unusual to hear expressions like “I see squat for kilometers in circumference.” It may be metric but they manage to slip pi into the equation as well and to top it all off, use a linear measure to define an area.
OOOH! I forgot the best part of the metric system. HECTARES! 100 hectares per square kilometer. 259 hectares per square mile rather than 640 acres per square mile.
My part of the country is laid out in very square townships (mostly ignored in large empty areas) consisting of 36 square miles. That’s the killer for adapting the metric system right there.
I feel like the only reason we find the imperial system easier to learn is because we’ve grown used to how wacky it really is.
1 kilometer
=1,000 meters
=100,000 centimeters
=1,000,000 millimeters
=1,000,000,000 micrometers (it could literally go on ad infinitem in either direction, without having to come up with new conversion factors)
…whereas…
1 mile
=1,760 yards
=(1,760 x 3)=5,280 feet
=(5,280 x 12)=63,360 inches
To be fair, it’s more regular than that.
1 mile = 8 furlongs
1 furlong = 10 chains
1 chain = 4 rods (or poles)
1 rod = 5.5 yards
1 yard = 2 cubits (as Ian pointed out)
See? Intuitive.
The reason USAans don’t like metric is too many syllables.
Kilometers :: miles -> clicks
Kilograms :: pounds -> keys
Clicks are also speed, so, to say nothing of metric time, miles per 1 hour :: kilometers per 3600 seconds.
I think everyone is missing the big picture here,
that guy’s pigs went on a joy ride in a tractor!