US switching to metric system? - Page 21 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

RedDevil · 12-21-2015, 05:01 AM

The metric system cannot turn pi into an integer multiple either.
Boo on you, metric system!

P-hack · 12-21-2015, 06:15 AM

I'm a little confused here. Do you think I am opposed to the metric system, and it is because it lacks the magical powers Charlie was betting on?

RedDevil · 12-21-2015, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by P-hack

I'm a little confused here. Do you think I am opposed to the metric system, and it is because it lacks the magical powers Charlie was betting on?

Sorry, that was not my intention.
I bet Fat Charley was joking, I followed through on that.
Nothing about any system of measurement will change the fact that a year isn't an integer multiple of a day.

Now we're at it;
The reason I deem time-units like year and second not arbitrary is that we all use them.
They could have been different or based on another planet than Earth, but it so happens that we all use this one.

The yearly rotation of the earth around the sun is not a unit by itself; what we call a year is just an approximation, governed by the Gregorian calendar.

The light year is not a metric unit btw, nor is the light foot.
It is actually based on the Julian definition of year length.

P-hack · 12-21-2015, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedDevil

The light year is not a metric unit btw, nor is the light foot.
It is actually based on the Julian definition of year length.

blech, which is defined as EXACTLY 365.25 days, which is wrong.

" this Julian year does not correspond to years in the Julian calendar or any other calendar. Nor does it correspond to the many other ways of defining a year"

though, probably at this stage of development, at that scale, it doesn't matter. Let 'em have slightly easier calculations than light seconds...

Fat Charlie · 12-21-2015, 08:57 AM

Doh!

That would have been too good. Of course, now a day isn't even solidly 24 hours. What can we use now?

niky · 12-21-2015, 01:30 PM

Just wait. It'll eventually become 25 hours exactly.

jamesqf · 12-21-2015, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedDevil

The reason I deem time-units like year and second not arbitrary is that we all use them.

You do know that the same folks who brought you the metric system also wanted you to use a decimal timekeeping system, don't you? With 10-day weeks, 10-hour days, hours having 100 minutes, and so on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French...lican_Calendar Why aren't people who think the metric system is so great also pushing this?

Fat Charlie · 12-21-2015, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by niky

Just wait. It'll eventually become 25 hours exactly.

I'm sure they could redefine the second as being the time it takes a gram of water to fall one meter under specific temperature and pressure conditions, then build kiloseconds or whatnot to hit a desired calendar.

P-hack · 12-21-2015, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Why aren't people who think the metric system is so great also pushing this?

Because it is pretty well standardized and trivial, except the date format bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

to hit a desired calendar.

Lol, nope, the times they are a changin. Will always need a "leap" something to get the days and the years to more-or-less align.

Piwoslaw · 12-21-2015, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Ah, a new means of measurement, road stripes. Use them to calibrate your speedometer, with a stop watch, but then, time is not metric either, guess we need to change the clocks, or speed up or slow down the earth.

But the faster you go, the slower time flows for you. Ask Einstein.