42 replies to this topic

[Redezra]

Metric. It makes more sense for animals used to sets of ten.

 

The times I don't use it are usually mathematical... cause then we're using radians instead of gradians, mostly because of all the magic to do with sin and the unit circle. Also, Pi is better than Tau, no matter what you say.

 

I don't like imperial, it makes no sense, and it doesn't factor well when being dealt with mathematically. Being able to use prefixes like kilo, mega, giga, micro, nano, etc, across weights, distances, speeds, accelerations, hard disk sizes, tons of tnt equivalent, force, and so on gives a great sense of scale. There is no reason to use wildly different, and illogical, measuring systems for other things. We have ten fingers, our numbering system is decimal, and therefore, our measuring systems should be decimal too.

 

Oh, also, I don't know what an australian tablespoon is, but I always learnt it as three teaspoons. (~=15mL)

Edited by Redezra, 19 November 2014 - 06:25 PM.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I learned a teaspoon as 5 ml, a tablespoon as 15. I think those numbers are rounded for convenience, though.

 

Metric absolutely makes more sense. The problem for me is that I don't think in metric. If you tell me a distance in kilometers I have to convert it to miles before it has any real meaning for me. Ditto for centigrade, centimeters, meters, kilograms, etc. The only one that comes naturally to me is liquid volume — milliliters, liters, etc. — because I first learned it that way in school and because I use it regularly as a nurse. These things are deep-seated and difficult to unlearn, and frankly there's really no logical reason for me to bother. I know how to do conversions.

[*Anastasia]

Oh, also, I don't know what an australian tablespoon is, but I always learnt it as three teaspoons. (~=15mL)

To be fair, I learned about it on Wikipedia when comparing the size of Imperial and Metric teaspoons, where there was a note that in Australia, a tablespoon was 4 teaspoons. So it may just be full of shit.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

In 'Straya the toilets flow backwards. FACT.

[Redezra]

Oh, also, I don't know what an australian tablespoon is, but I always learnt it as three teaspoons. (~=15mL)

To be fair, I learned about it on Wikipedia when comparing the size of Imperial and Metric teaspoons, where there was a note that in Australia, a tablespoon was 4 teaspoons. So it may just be full of shit.

Could just be that my two cooking teachers were european though.

[Redezra]

Also, I just realised that responding at 12:00 is a bad idea, I said I don't like metric, and then proceeded to say how awesome metric was >.>;

 

I've corrected myself. Imperial is the odd system. Metric is the regimented and organized system

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

It's kind of strange that we didn't use a base ten system to start with, after all we have ten fingers. But a lot of measures became based on a dozen and went from there. Frankly I think we should switch to metric time.

[*Anastasia]

It's kind of strange that we didn't use a base ten system to start with, after all we have ten fingers. But a lot of measures became based on a dozen and went from there. Frankly I think we should switch to metric time.

It comes down to, as Learz and I said, divisions. It all derives in the end from the base-60 Babylonian Numerals. 60 can be factored so many ways, it's convenient for everyday use. Base-12 measurements and time is just a simplified version of that, maintaining most of the easy factorization.

Metric time and calendars were tried in France following the Revolution. There's a reason they're not used today, even though Metric still is: it's because the common people tend to prefer things that can be easily divided and estimated. It's my hypothesis—though only that—that Metric was only able to gain a foothold in measurement because at the time, most people with a stake in it were mathematicians and scientists, who preferred the base-10 system. I have a hard time believing the rest of the populace so readily adopted it.

Personally, I'm more amenable to going the other way: rather than using metric time, we should use dozenal numbers:

[Learz]

Anyway, I think my main beef with Learz' argument boils down to…

The Imperial system was designed by common, every day people. They needed fast, easy numbers that could be broken down, estimated. Halves, thirds, quarters. Bartering, marketplaces, etc. This is why the foot is so popular. It's a small unit that can be used for almost everything, and can be broken down easily into smaller units very quickly. You won't be completely accurate, but since when did a normal person need to know a measurement to the 16th of a foot?

As a common, everyday person, I want measurements that common, everyday people can use. I don't want to have to work things out with a calculator, or worry about percentages. As such, I feel the Imperial system is much friendlier and better-suited to everyday use, as you say yourself. There's a reason decimal time crashed and burned: it's just not practical, and I don't find Metric practical for other uses, either.

And you're correct, all measurement systems are going to be arbitrary: but rather than having a goal to making them less arbitrary, I feel the goal should be to make them more useful and more approachable. If mathematicians and scientists prefer Metric, be my guest, use it. But that shouldn't be any reason to force it on the rest of us.

 

I agree totally. I just wish I didn't

 

What we need is a third system....

[Redezra]

Scientists won because they made everything. Our technological world depends on scientific advancement, and it's a lot easier just taking their number system rather than convert it.

 

Plus, when metric is taught to you consistently, things like a metre make sense to you. A litre is a litre. What the fuck is a galleon? And so on. And because the scaling of the system is so regular, you can get grips on distances that you have not experienced. A kilometer is a thousand meters. Maybe your finger is one centimeter across, well a meter is a hundred fingers side by side, and a kilometer is a thousand hundred fingers long. Geostationary orbit is about 40 thousand kilometers away, so fourty thousand thousand hundred fingers away. Conversions like that make sense immediately.

 

With regards to time, it's hard. Time is, fundimentally, a representation of the rotation rate of earth. So my personal favourite is to convert time to an angular measure. Degrees is the most obvious in that case, but we could also do radians, or even gradians, which is metric. Best bit is that once time has been broken from the idea of "days", you don't need time zones. Everything can be based off Greenwich. Siderial, angular time. EarthTime.

[Von]

Being a french frog "French Canadian" I grew up 100% metric, maybe this is why the 10 based system makes more sense to me.

At work we use metric measurements.

playing golf  = Imperial

Scuba diving = Metric

Flying = Imperial

Temperature = Metric

Road signs = metric

Ask old people direction = Emperial..

 

Yes this is Canada and we are messed up 8-|

[Redezra]

I use metric while flying.... this is why I like russian flight simulators. Sukhoi planes and MiGs use metric. Just to fuck with the US.

[Haflinger]

What the fuck is a galleon?

A galleon is a sailing vessel, frequently used in the Spanish Armada in years past.

heh. I think you meant "gallon."

[Redezra]

Siiiilence

 

>.>

 

 

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

A litre is a liter, but a galleon is not a gallon.

[Haflinger]

Although I have to admit the idea of using a galleon as a measurement of volume does have a certain appeal to it.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

[Redezra]

Hmm...

 

I wonder, would it float?

[Scipio Africanus]

If some company started selling milk in galleons that would quickly be my preferred company to buy from. 

[Alyster]