Until we got Cesium and hydrogen maser frequency standards a second was defined as: 1/86,400 of the mean solar day 1 January 1900.Dang right you are!
Just petition your government to move away from that ridiculous French standard.
It's completely arbitrary that a meter is defined as the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Had they defined it as 1/100,00,000 or 1/1,000,000,000 it would have made more sense. You could just as well as defined a foot as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/983,571,056 s and stayed with the same system people had been using without confusion. Your stopwatch probably isn't that fast and it's a hard way to measure things.
Yes, that's the speed of light in m/s, but how do think the French decided what a second is? It's based on the rotational speed of the Earth. How narcissistic! Even worse, they stayed with the English units. Time isn't even a constant, it's all relative and some theorists think that time may not even exist.
They didn't even get grams right as it's based on water, whereas H2 or a proton would make more sense. Weight doesn't even make sense since it's based on the local gravitational field.
Metrication
- Thread starter Pierre
- Start date
erik.calco
Solar Badger
One thing I think we can agree on, life is little easier today for converting...
"OK, Google..."
I wrote a program in my HP calculator 25 years ago that converted decimal numbers to fractions. You'd give it an acceptable level of error, such as 0.001. At least we can tell, at a glance, that .2362 is less than 1/4", enough to pick the proper lug. In this case, you might get 1/4 from my program if your error level was 0.02 or higher.
"OK, Google..."
I wrote a program in my HP calculator 25 years ago that converted decimal numbers to fractions. You'd give it an acceptable level of error, such as 0.001. At least we can tell, at a glance, that .2362 is less than 1/4", enough to pick the proper lug. In this case, you might get 1/4 from my program if your error level was 0.02 or higher.
offgriddle
"FOREVER BEGINNING"
If we can't do fractions, we probably should not be near electricity.
The less we use our brains, the more we need "easy". Brain atrophy. What combats Alzheimers? Using our brains.
I find that converting fractions and hexidecimal is fun, just like people on FB like finding hidden things in pictures, a common share.
Fun and easy are both subjective.
I don't have the farcebook because it shrinks the brain while expanding the waisteline. I do agree that a steady regimen of challenges for both brain and body is beneficial
boondox
Chief Engineer, RedNeckTech Industries
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2020
- Messages
- 789
Yeah, well it is for distilled water at sea level. But you have to start somewhere.
I do like metric better for tasks like laying out chassis bolts. If you enjoy fractional math and consider that a good use of your time when trying to get a job done, have at it. Me I like being able to do it in my head and being sure of the answer.
erik.calco
Solar Badger
One thing computers and English have in common is powers of 2, derived from binary in computers. These denominators should look familiar to those who love fractional English as well as computer geeks who have their powers of 2 memorized:
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
You can multiple any of your English fractional measurements by a power of 2 to get an apples to apples comparison.
7/16 = 14/32 = 28/64
If you can multiply by 2, you're a pro at English fractions! Easy peasy. Do it a couple of times, and you'll breath fractions.
5/16 > 1/4 because 5/16 > 4/16.
3/8 > 5/16 because 6/16 > 5/16.
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
You can multiple any of your English fractional measurements by a power of 2 to get an apples to apples comparison.
7/16 = 14/32 = 28/64
If you can multiply by 2, you're a pro at English fractions! Easy peasy. Do it a couple of times, and you'll breath fractions.
5/16 > 1/4 because 5/16 > 4/16.
3/8 > 5/16 because 6/16 > 5/16.
offgriddle
"FOREVER BEGINNING"
Always feel free to ask. "Motherless", meaning that the private for profit labor collective that took over the public school monoply via the collective bargaining acts of the 1970's, has taken it upon themselves to relieve mom from her lowly home making & full time parenting role, so she get can get a "real job", as a slave to equality in the workplace and pay government and other daycare providers to raise her children. This cycle of ever expanding government size, cost and control over a proletariat is perpetuated via indoctrination in the public school lock up which presently raises over 92% of future US voters. See Marxism & the Labor Party.
Pierre
Somewhere down South
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2019
- Messages
- 1,145
Thanks for posting about the QEW - travelled along this Series 400 highway last year during our visit to Canada.Very interesting to read the history behind this very important roadway , but wow ? I have never seen so many trucks in my life on a road ! Burlington , what a wonderful town - would love to live there. Yes , the speed limit is 105kph as far as I can remember.
orangeminnie
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2020
- Messages
- 198
While in Frankfurt, we rode with a couple in their new Audi on the silky-smooth Autobahn, at 165kph (102mph). No speed limit signs. We were moving along with typical traffic. The DW/XYL and I were slinking down in our seats with fear.
Pierre
Somewhere down South
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2019
- Messages
- 1,145
and at that speed you have to pull over for a Porsche doing 200kph
erik.calco
Solar Badger
More fun at night in a vehicle where the headlight low beam angle doesn't adjust and there are no road lights. Or so they say. ?
Please keep in mind that union's tend to differ by country/region. Over here they are not company based but sector wide, so they do things like collective bargaining(it's a bit of a different system here, the employers also have some sort of union, but in the end it helps leveling the playing field so that's it not individual workers vs. massive companies).
It's basicly 2 110V phases smushed together.
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