Impress your friends by using correct units and abbreviations

[wattmatters]

Bananas are made in thirds.

but come in hands

 

[rin67630]

Over here liquor and wine is now sold in 750ml (not 75cl) bottles (~25.4 oz), which is conveniently close to "a fifth" or 1/5 U.S. gallon (25.6 oz), which was the standard size before they realized they could swindle us out of ~0.2 oz of spirits by simply relabeling the bottle in metric and charging the same price.

I think the motivation was less to swindle a couple of % but mere to have a packaging that can be exported.
Nobody will ever buy something by the gallon outside of North America.

 

[rin67630]

Most U.S. folks haven't the slightest clue how much volume a centiliter is.

...and the rest of the world just runs metric and understand each other perfectly and can do business without need for conversions.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

...and the rest of the world just runs metric and understand each other perfectly and can do business without need for conversions.

I don’t even know what that means.
If I buy a liter or a quart it is what it is.

I don’t do conversions to see what it cost in euros, yen, or AUD. It’s unnecessary.

 

[rin67630]

I don’t even know what that means.
If I buy a liter or a quart it is what it is.

I don’t do conversions to see what it cost in euros, yen, or AUD. It’s unnecessary.

You never have been in an export business, I see.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

You never have been in an export business, I see.

Nope.
I don’t find it difficult to think, either. So I don’t believe there’d be any handicap.

 

[justgary]

I think the motivation was less to swindle a couple of % but mere to have a packaging that can be exported.
Nobody will ever buy something by the gallon outside of North America.

I don't see any reason a fifth of liquor couldn't be labeled as 756 ml for export. Many companies have changed to slightly smaller packaging rather than increase prices.

Nope.
I don’t find it difficult to think, either. So I don’t believe there’d be any handicap.

I agree. I routinely have to convert units to and from metric, so it doesn't really bother me at all.

 

[A.Justice]

The dozenal system uses base 12, I don't think it caught on because of the "digit incompatibility" though.

-Quick video-

-Much better video-

I'm 30 and live in the US. I was taught SAE and told that everything here would use it, but for most of my adult life, products from overseas have become more and more prevalent. I pretty much only use metric. I came across an 11/64 bolt head at work a while back, and started to question reality, whoever decided that the 50 other fractions we use just didn't cut it should be shot. I don't have anything that fit it, meanwhile, my basic metric set has everything I've ever run across.

Try and put these in order in your head.
5/16″
1/2″
11/64"
9/16″
1-7/16"
5/8″
11/16″
3/4″
3/8″
11/32"
7/16
13/16″
1″
1-1/4″
7/8″
1-1/2"

Now these

M5
M3
M7
M9
M8
M2
M4

You get the point. My vote goes to dumping SAE for metric.

 

[Hedges]

"There are only 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Try and put these in order in your head.
5/16″
1/2″
11/64"
9/16″
1-7/16"
5/8″
11/16″
3/4″
3/8″
11/32"
7/16
13/16″
1″
1-1/4″
7/8″
1-1/2"

Easy enough. You get second nature on that stuff turning wrenches and measuring window trim and casing. And 060, or 125 thou is easy, too. Fractions of things
At least stuff comes by the pound or ounce. Those 2.2 kilo packagings are confusing

 

[asel]

Yeah, as an engineer the mis-use of abbreviations and multipliers does grate somewhat (I even find it in supposedly "professional" equipment documentation!), although usually it's interpretable.

India opening a 100mW solar farm - Yeah, I get that, I have one on my calculator.
A 10KW heater - OK although I'm not sure what Kelvin-Watts are useful for.

Then along come the power-bank makers and specify capacity in mAh 'coz it gives a nice big number. Someone then asks "how big should a 33,000MAh power bank be?" - The size of a large building perhaps.

☻♥

Usually spdt is single pole double throw and dpdt is double pole double throw

 

[asel]

spdt and dpdt

 

[rin67630]

Then along come the power-bank makers and specify capacity in mAh 'coz it gives a nice big number. Someone then asks "how big should a 33,000MAh power bank be?" - The size of a large building perhaps.

1 500 000 000 Amperes by 20hours discharge?
You probably would need busbars with the diameter of a submarine.

 

[rin67630]

but I like how the lack of a space holds information together on one line if it would otherwise be split up by a carriage break, so I tend to let that one slide.

Unbreakable spaces exist.

 

[Rednecktek]

In all seriousness though, for proper terminology:

I have a 3Kw 24v inverter
It has 1800w of panels attached to it
I have 400w of panels on a parallel SCC
The batterie banks hold 5.7Kwh each (currently 1 bank, will be adding in the future)

What size system do I have?

 

[Warpspeed]

I have a 3Kw 24v inverter
It has 1800w of panels attached to it
I have 400w of panels on a parallel SCC
The batterie banks hold 5.7Kwh each (currently 1 bank, will be adding in the future)

What size system do I have?

I would say about three feet fifteen inches.

 

[wattmatters]

What size system do I have?

African or European?

 

[crossy]

Our uni "Machines" lecturer Mr Longley (always "Longy" after a blackboard error during his introductory speech) always insisted that we use the Yard, Ton, Fortnight (YTF) system if we got our dimensional analysis wrong.

He was a brilliant man and is sadly missed by all his ex students

 

[Rednecktek]

Fortnight is a unit of time, what does it have to do with dimensional analysis?

American Ton or Long (Metric) ton?

 

[Rednecktek]

African or European?

Semi-Canukistani?