Do you say "Turn right in 5,604 feet?"

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Proving once again that peer pressure works on the weak-minded!

I hate the impire, but I LOLed.

Originally Posted by seifrob

(once I needed a liter in volume having no bottle. I took cardboard, cut squares 10x10 cm and built a cube, put microtene bag in, having exactly one liter of water. I have no idea what would I do should I provide a gallon.

You simply form a cube exactly 6.1357924396619589761115289875159 inches on a side (how decimal translates into sixteenths of an inch, I don't know), or weigh out exactly 8.345404487293294 lbs of water. Easy!

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by seifrob

The practicality of metric system lies, I believe, in the fact it is a system. Maybe not as intuitive for everyday life, but ideally suited for science. There are no funny constants to incorporate when you do unit conversion. How many BTU is equivalent to rise a concrete block to some height? You need to convert fathoms and pounds and whatever else to get answer that is simple in metric system.
No wonder science textbooks are in SI, even in the USA.

(once I needed a liter in volume having no bottle. I took cardboard, cut squares 10x10 cm and built a cube, put microtene bag in, having exactly one liter of water. I have no idea what would I do should I provide a gallon.

That's just one way. Put a jar on the scales, reset it, pour water in until it shows 1 kilogram - done, one liter.

Want a gallon instead? Do the same with a bigger jar and pour until you hit 3.78541178 kilogram. Or 4.54609188 if you want an Imperial serving.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

When the French devised the meter, they did not use some pedantic local unit or the distance from Paris to whatever. They took the one thing that unites us all - the planet we live on.

Yes and all that you need to measure a meter is travel to the north pole,


Set course for Paris, travel in exactly a straight line with some kind of amphibious craft or something because, you know, land, ocean, and ice. Good luck!

Travel straight through Paris straight to the equator. There is a nice marker there, right?

Then divide by a million.

No problem!

Originally Posted by Xist

231 square inches per gallon.

Originally Posted by seifrob

I have no idea what would I do should I provide a gallon.

I already told you!

Most people needing to measure a gallon would purchase a bottle of water.

6.1357924396619589761115289875159 inches is:
6 2.1726790345913436177844638002544/16ths! Easy!

Actually, it is easy. What resolution is your printer? If it is 600 DPI then you create a square 3,681 pixels each side.

Is 1/600th of an inch accurate enough? That is probably more precise than I can cut.

You know, I have watched videos and read articles about computers and electronics made by people belonging to the Monarchy, presumably intended for other subjects of The Queen.

I have never heard the metric equivalent of DPI, but I have heard them randomly throw out feet, pounds, and miles.

Modern "Star Trek' shows are supposed to use metric, but I remember in "Phantasms," Season seven, episode six of NextGen, Doctor Crusher says:

Yes, in a very particular way. They appear to be extracting our cellular peptides. It's roughly analogous to the way terran leeches consume haemoglobin. If they're not removed soon, our bodies are going to lose all their cellular cohesion. We'll collapse into nothing but a few pounds of chemicals.

I honestly do not think that I have watched this since it first aired twenty-five years ago.

How in the world did I remember this specific reference from a quarter of a century ago?! How come I did not remember to make up a session with a fun client on Tuesday or the Tuesday before that?!

It is not that impressive. I thought it was the other female lead character, Counselor Troi, and I thought she said you would collapse into a pile a foot high, not into a few pounds of chemicals.

Plot hole? Why wouldn't your puddle weigh the same amount?

[RedDevil]

You don't need to go to the north pole all the way. Just far enough to measure by how much the position of the stars shifts. The French knew that too, obviously.

They had to assume the earth isn't flat though. And that the stars are indeed so far away that it does not influence the measurement. But then they let scientists do the hard work.

[seifrob]

How much water weighs a pound, incidently. A pint?, a quarter?

[redpoint5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-oNxdKf3g

[Xist]

Eh. He lost me when he said "My last car was a little on the dark side."

It seemed like he said "Ship" every other time.

I had not realized they replaced Peter Mayhew with a mere mortal.

"A pint's a pound, the world around."

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Eh. He lost me when he said "My last car was a little on the dark side."

It seemed like he said "Ship" every other time.

I had not realized they replaced Peter Mayhew with a mere mortal.

"A pint's a pound, the world around."

Yeah, but no imperial entanglements.

A pint is 1.04375 pounds the world around. Imperial sucks.

[Daschicken]

I was always under the impression that there is 5280 feet in a mile, google confirms my suspicion. Am I missing something here?

[RedDevil]

Metric units are scalable to appropriate sub- or supersizes.

A millimeter is still a useful unit. A millipede is vermin