British Imperial (aka US Customary) System

[strawbuk]

God I'm bored - give me the bloody patch or a large whiskey (that would be two thirds of gill = 0.141748 litres)

Though I could probably go a firkin (=40.8233 litre) of beer.

[Oznoyng]

ORIGINAL: dacharls

Just my 2 centimeters (cent as in 1/100 and meter as in how long the light travels in 1/299792458 sekund).

The metric system is almost as arbitrary and stupid as the English system. I mean, if you want 10's in everything, shouldn't a meter be more like "how long the light travels in 1/1000000000 of a second"? I guarentee you it took some spineless, arrogant, dwarf Frenchman (I know, I am being repetitive) to come up with a measure like that:

He just measured his height and said "Ha! I shall measure the length of my body and make it the standard for all the world!" He measured something else and declared, "Aha! My pecker is precisely 100th the length of my body! I shall make it too a standard measure! I shall call it a Centimeter!"

So the whole dang system was founded by some French dwarf - and the rest of the world bought it!

[RUPD3658]

We have converted to the Metric system in the US (Remember School House Rock " a meter is a little more than a yard").

The problem is that only criminals and drug dealers use it (ie. a kilo of coke or a 9MM pistol).

I know it is screwed up but at least we don't measure our gun rounds by weight. What the hell is a 6lb round and why praytell would anyone use that as a system of measure? Should my .40 cal pistol be called a 1 ouncer?

This must have been thought up by the same person who decided the sizing system for women's clothes. Very little usefulness.

[fbastos]

The metric system is almost as arbitrary and stupid as the English system. I mean, if you want 10's in everything, shouldn't a meter be more like "how long the light travels in 1/1000000000 of a second"? I guarentee you it took some spineless, arrogant, dwarf Frenchman (I know, I am being repetitive) to come up with a measure like that:

Originally, one meter = 1/10000 of the distance from equator to the Poles, through the meridian that passes through Greenwich (0 degrees).

F.

[Belce]

Actually the metric system makes a lot of sense and is very much in tune with the world around us.

1 gram of water is a mililitre, it takes 1 calorie to raise the temperture of that much water 1 degree C. 1 litre of water weighs a kilogram. If you know how many gallons of water you have say, 5.345 gallons, how much does it weigh?

And yes I know that the US variation of the Imperial system has smaller volume mesaures for pint, quart and gallon.

[tsimmonds]

If you know how many gallons of water you have say, 5.345 gallons, how much does it weigh?

Since there are 8 pints in a gallon, and a pint is 16 fl.oz., and 16 fl.oz. of water weighs 1 pound, a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds.

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: fbastos

Folks,

While we wait for the patch, what about a good healthy discussion? Point being: don't you think it's backwards that while 95% of the World now uses the metric system, the US stands alone using pounds, inches, gallons, etc...?

Flame away!! [:D]

F.

Nope, as long as NASA engineers remember the difference, I could care less. [;)] However, I'd would push the launch button before I'd watch football go metric.

[caslug]

4th and centimeters...

Sounds little woosy versus 4TH AND INCHES!!!

[Xargun]

Just kinda funny that everyone who uses the metric system uses degrees C which is not metric - I believe its based on the F scale (or F based on C).. But either way its wrong.. The true metric temperature is in degrees K... Or at least all those teachers and physicists tried to tell me.... But then I usually slept through physics class - only had it at like 8 AM - way too early for serious thought processes to be attempted.... 2 PM is a much better time for such nonsense...

Xargun

[fbastos]

In principle 0 degrees C = temperature that water freezes at sea level; 100 degrees C = temperature that water boils at sea level.

The fahrenheit scale is completely odd; it was initially based on the temperatures that ammonia freezes and boils, but then Mr. Fahrenheit changed it so that the human body temperature would be 100F, but that left the scaling odd, so he changed it once again on a way that didn't make ammonia to freeze at 0 and body temperature 100 or the ammonia boiling point (whatever it is) to be anything simple.

At least that's what I remember from my high school times.

F.