Edwards air show B-1 speed record attempt

Oh, crap! The table uses that French system with the km/hour I can never make
sense of!

-- Charlie Springer

"Regnirps" wrote in message
...
Oh, crap! The table uses that French system with the km/hour I can never
make
sense of!

-- Charlie Springer

I think you mean that nearly universal system with the km/hour. Try:

http://www.teaching-english-in-japan...ion/kilometers

or, if you don't wish to learn anything, just want to convert:

http://www.escapeartist.com/Miles_Ki...Converter.html

Cheers.

"PosterBoy" Wrote:

"Regnirps" wrote in message
Oh, crap! The table uses that French system with the km/hour I can never
make
sense of!

-- Charlie Springer

I think you mean that nearly universal system with the km/hour. Try: anip

My 1952 Unabridged Dictionairy calls it "The French System" as it was for the
previous 100 years, and as a physicist I find it convenient for mental
calculations, but for every day hunam scale use it sucks. It was
developed for scientific ellites. I'm sure you know that the units larger than
one use Latin prefixes and those smaller use Greek, something easily noticed by
a classically educated scientist of the 1880's. But for Mr. Goodwrench today?
An 8 mm bolt in grade 8.8 comes in three standard thread pitches and you say
"point seven oh" or "8mm with one point two five mm pitch" instead of "one
quarter twenty four". Fooey. Have you ever tried to shout French measurements
to someone in a noisy constructiuon environment? You can wind up with a doorway
three inches high.

It was officialy adopted by the US more than a hundred years ago. Do you think
it hasn't caught on because people are stuborn or because it has usability
problems (like similar sounding names for various units)? Would you try to make
everybody drive cars they don't like for 150 years? A km is what, the distance
from pole to equator divided by 15,000? What's a nautical mile?

-- Charlie Springer

"Regnirps" wrote in message
...
"PosterBoy" Wrote:

"Regnirps" wrote in message
Oh, crap! The table uses that French system with the km/hour I can
never
make
sense of!

-- Charlie Springer

I think you mean that nearly universal system with the km/hour. Try:
anip

You have misquoted me. Please correct.

Thanks, and..

Cheers.

On 21 Oct 2003 04:26:44 GMT, (Regnirps) wrote:


Have you ever tried to shout French measurements
to someone in a noisy constructiuon environment?

Yes, and metric was the lingua franca of measurement when I last worked on
building sites here in the UK 15-16 years ago.

You can wind up with a doorway
three inches high.


One doesn't when the term of measurement is always expressed in
millimetres, no decimal points, no fractions and a lot more convenient and
accurate for general construction use than feet and inches, the nearest mil
being approximately 1/25th of an inch.


greg
--
$ReplyAddress =~ s#\@.*$##; # Delete everything after the '@'
The Following is a true story.....
Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Regnirps wrote:


My 1952 Unabridged Dictionairy calls it "The French System" as it was for the
previous 100 years,


1952 ... a great up-to-date source ;-). Anyway, it's called "Système
Internationale" or SI. So its _name_ is indeed French.

and as a physicist I find it convenient for mental
calculations, but for every day hunam scale use it sucks.


No, it doesn't ... I've used it all my life.



It was developed for scientific ellites.


Not at all. It was developed to have a common system of measurement
all over Europe at a time when almost every country (and sometimes
village!) had its own pound, mile, etc.

I'm sure you know that the units larger than
one use Latin prefixes and those smaller use Greek,


vice versa

something easily noticed by
a classically educated scientist of the 1880's. But for Mr. Goodwrench today?
An 8 mm bolt in grade 8.8 comes in three standard thread pitches and you say
"point seven oh" or "8mm with one point two five mm pitch" instead of "one
quarter twenty four". Fooey. Have you ever tried to shout French measurements
to someone in a noisy constructiuon environment? You can wind up with a doorway
three inches high.


Not any easier than with U.S. or Imperial units. BTW, a few years
there was this unfortuante incident involving a multi-million $ NASA
space probe and incompetent usage of U.S. units of distance ;-) ...



It was officialy adopted by the US more than a hundred years ago. Do you think
it hasn't caught on because people are stuborn


Yes. People can be unbelievably stubborn when it comes to giving up
old habits even if newer alternatives would be an improvement.

or because it has usability
problems (like similar sounding names for various units)?


Huh?? "Meter" isn't any more similar to "gram" than, say, "foot" is to
"ounce". If you refer to the common prefixes, this is the big
_advantage_. If you know that a kilometer is 1000 meters, you
immediately know that a kilogram is 1000 grams, a kilovolt is 1000
volts, etc. No need to memorize all the factors to convert inches -
feet - miles, ounces - pounds, and whatever.

Would you try to make
everybody drive cars they don't like for 150 years? A km is what, the distance
from pole to equator divided by 15,000?


Roughly the circumference of the earth divided by 40,000. I don't know
the origin of the (statute) mile, but I'm sure you'll tell me that its
defintion is _way_ more intuitive ;-).

What's a nautical mile?


1852 meters ;-).

Andreas

"Andreas Parsch" wrote in message
...
Not any easier than with U.S. or Imperial units. BTW, a few years
there was this unfortuante incident involving a multi-million $ NASA
space probe and incompetent usage of U.S. units of distance ;-) ...

Naw, it was because some idiot provided some of the terms in
metric instead of proper units.

Huh?? "Meter" isn't any more similar to "gram" than, say, "foot" is to
"ounce". If you refer to the common prefixes, this is the big
_advantage_. If you know that a kilometer is 1000 meters, you
immediately know that a kilogram is 1000 grams, a kilovolt is 1000
volts, etc. No need to memorize all the factors to convert inches -
feet - miles, ounces - pounds, and whatever.

But nobody weighs things in "grams", it's always "kilograms".
Nor do the measure things in "meters" (as was stated concerning
building a house) they measure in "milimeters".

John Keeney wrote:

"Andreas Parsch" wrote in message
...

Not any easier than with U.S. or Imperial units. BTW, a few years
there was this unfortuante incident involving a multi-million $ NASA
space probe and incompetent usage of U.S. units of distance ;-) ...


Naw, it was because some idiot provided some of the terms in
metric instead of proper units.


It wouldn't have happened if they had used proper (i.e. _metric_ ;-) )
units consistently.


Huh?? "Meter" isn't any more similar to "gram" than, say, "foot" is to
"ounce". If you refer to the common prefixes, this is the big
_advantage_. If you know that a kilometer is 1000 meters, you
immediately know that a kilogram is 1000 grams, a kilovolt is 1000
volts, etc. No need to memorize all the factors to convert inches -
feet - miles, ounces - pounds, and whatever.


But nobody weighs things in "grams", it's always "kilograms".


Nonsense. It depends - of course - on the size of the items.


Nor do the measure things in "meters" (as was stated concerning
building a house) they measure in "milimeters".


And so what? The OP said metric units had "usability
problems (like similar sounding names for various units)". Neither
"meter" nor "millimeter" sound similar to other non-distance metric units.

Andreas

From: Andreas Parsch a
the size of the items.

snip

And so what? The OP said metric units had "usability
problems (like similar sounding names for various units)". Neither
"meter" nor "millimeter" sound similar to other non-distance metric units.

Andreas

Milliliter and millimeter perhaps?

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

Andreas Parsch wrote in
:

It wouldn't have happened if they had used proper (i.e. _metric_
;-) ) units consistently.

If things were undocumented, as they were in that case, not so.

One set of programmers could have a routine using mks units, and
another could feed it data in cgs units.

The real problem with metric is that they didn't pick the units right.
They should have made a smaller meter. If a meter were what we call a
decimeter now, than a liter would be a cubic meter and a liter of water
would mass a gram, and there would be less need for all this mucking
about with cgs and mks units; everything would be mgs.

--
Jim Battista
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.