American Chopper vs. The Metric System

[ClaudeJ1]

On 10/25/2011 at 10:58 AM, Islander said:

The original metre was based on an Earth dimension that is slightly variable, but the current metre is based on the speed of light, which is a constant.

The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of ¹⁄_{299 792 458} of a second.

Machinists in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Canada, and other countries using the metric system seem to have no problems doing precision work with it. There is no need to work with fractions. A centimetre is 1/100 of a metre. A millimetre is 1/1000 of a metre. A kilometre is 1000 metres. That seems pretty simple.

In Printed Circuit Board design, there is a constant conversion of Mils (1/1,000 inch) to Millimeters happening to bridge the two worlds. A real PITA. The USA need to convert since there's only us and some tiny country somewhere that hasn't. We revel in our arrogance and stupidity that way, I guess.   I'd rather move a decimal point around rather than use obsolete fractions based on a truly antiquated system of BASIC measurement. Don't even get me started on the construction industry.

 

Also, for our copy machines, the SI system of having incremental document sizes bases on the square root of two (1.141/1) proportions guarantees zero cropping regardless of magnification or reduction. A great idea from the French adapted everywhere but here.

[Woofers and Tweeters]

On 11/2/2016 at 8:01 AM, ClaudeJ1 said:

the square root of two (1.141/1)

Lysdexia? 

 

I do the same thing on a calculator by pushing .141 rather than .414.

[ClaudeJ1]

Sorry. Let me elaborate and clarify.

 

What I was referring to is ASPECT ratio. In order to keep THAT ratio and proportion across all document sizes, going up in size, the long dimension of the next smaller paper size down becomes the short dimension of the next one up and so on.

 

None of the American paper sizes can do this unless the ratios are the same across the board, which they are not.

 

The SI system provides a simple elegance that should have been adopted in the USA a long time ago. We are basically talking about a truly universal unit of LENGTH for gosh sakes. This makes life much easier across all professions and discipline.

 

The biggest problem is we have failed to grow up with an immediate perception of the metric system. Case and point:

 

Would you go out on a blind date with a girl who weighs 50 Kilograms, is 1.7 meters tall, with measurements of 90 60 90 centimeters without first consulting a calculator?

[Don Richard]

22 hours ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

Would you go out on a blind date with a girl who weighs 50 Kilograms, is 1.7 meters tall, with measurements of 90 60 90 centimeters without first consulting a calculator?

 

Picture?

[JJkizak]

Speed of light? I like that. I didn't know they changed to that base. They should say "Natural speed of light " because light actually stops in the Boise/Einstein concentrate.

You know the old saying---"just because it's better you don't have to like it."

JJK

[Woofers and Tweeters]

1 hour ago, Don Richard said:

On 11/5/2016 at 11:29 AM, ClaudeJ1 said:

Would you go out on a blind date with a girl who weighs 50 Kilograms, is 1.7 meters tall, with measurements of 90 60 90 centimeters without first consulting a calculator?

 

Picture?

And does she have money?