you are welcome to keep the moon and your inches but it was money that got them there not the unit of measure.
The Metric System
- Thread starter August West
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- #442
Wait until everyone finds out the Martians were there first.
Tenths of a mm beats 64ths of an inch every day
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- Thread starter
- #444
No bucks. No Buck Rogers.
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A micron is even smaller. One mm divided in 1000 parts, can't be more precise than that, period.
Easy, a micron is 39.37 microinches.Ever heard of micron? Now beat that kind of precision ...
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- #450
Easy, a micron is 39.37 microinches.
That was good.
Reminds of the Mitsubishi Pajero, had to be renamed for the Spanish market, there it is known as Montero.
A simple Google search will tell you why, I can't say it here ...
They also didn't introduce an automatic version of that car in Spain. Every single one was a "stick shifter".
Microinches is an actual measurement, but I did have to look it up.
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- #453
They handled a bit sloppily I was told.
First measurements on the moon were fifths of a second as measured by the Omega Speedmaster. Same watch that helped get the Apollo 13 astronauts back to earth
In aviation we go off of feet, gallons, and pounds. Altitude is measured in feet, fuel is measured in gallons (only as far as paying for it) and pounds.
Right after I got out of the Marines I was teaching people to fly, basically just as an excuse to fly. One of the people that I taught was a young man from India. After earning his private pilot certificate he come back to tell me that him and his new wife had joined the mile high club. I asked what altitude he was flying and he said 1000 feet. I about spit a coke all over the tarmac and told him he's lucky he didn't crash. I told him I'm sure he had a lot of fun be they didn't quite get there. I explained that a mile was 5,280 feet and he would need to try again. At first he was upset but then the thought of trying it again clicked into his head he left with a smile.
Right after I got out of the Marines I was teaching people to fly, basically just as an excuse to fly. One of the people that I taught was a young man from India. After earning his private pilot certificate he come back to tell me that him and his new wife had joined the mile high club. I asked what altitude he was flying and he said 1000 feet. I about spit a coke all over the tarmac and told him he's lucky he didn't crash. I told him I'm sure he had a lot of fun be they didn't quite get there. I explained that a mile was 5,280 feet and he would need to try again. At first he was upset but then the thought of trying it again clicked into his head he left with a smile.
Well, if that isn't a demonstration that the old fashioned standard system is flawed, then what is?
Seriously, that can kill people. I'm not joking.
Yup, you win this time!
Outside US, SI is generally used for everything except altitude, distance and speed.
- Altitude: 1000 ft happens to be reasonable vertical separation, which is somewhat easier to calculate with than the corresponding SI figure 300 m.
- Distance: There are two quantities that were never converted to decimal. Time and angle. Since we didn't switch to gradianss, it makes sense to keep nautical mile, which corresponds to 1 minute along meridian or equator, as it makes calculating distances from navigational maps somewhat easier. If the maps were marked in gradian coordinates, 1 gradian would be 100 km and kilometres would be used.
- Speed: Obviously based on the unit of distance in use.
Before second world war, aircraft built in continental Europe usually had instruments in metric units as well. Without prevalence of US-built planes after the war, we'd be probably using metric in Europe for everything too.
Ever heard of micron? Now beat that kind of precision ...
Planck Length, which is 1.6 x10-35 m across, is equivalent to around a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a cm across (a decimal point followed by thirty four zeroes and a one),
