US switching to metric system?

[P-hack]

fwiw, everybody should know how to sort out time and direction with the sun (and you ought to be able to pick out polaris, or whatever they use in OZ)

but that brings up the quagmire of metric degrees...

[P-hack]

oh gawd, looking up the southern cross, I stumbled on a persistent flat-earth ideology...

Have a laugh, or a cry, but we have bigger problems than metric vs not...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WkzE8LKMo0

[Fat Charlie]

Polaris is great. Using it with Kochab is better.

And if it comes to that, enough is broken that you should probably just quit.

[user removed]

Originally Posted by P-hack

fwiw, everybody should know how to sort out time and direction with the sun (and you ought to be able to pick out polaris, or whatever they use in OZ)

but that brings up the quagmire of metric degrees...

Degrees as in angles, or degrees as in temperature. If temperature -40 is the same.

Cold as h#$%^&*(!!!!!!!

regards
mech

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Degrees as

in the context of direction, we pretty well covered temperature (but worth noting there is a centigrade in angular measurements, and a lot of other crap).

[freebeard]

but worth noting there is a centigrade in angular measurements...

Citation needed. Arc-minutes and arc-seconds for sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_and_second_of_arc

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Citation needed.

here's a short list of 16 angular units.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle#Units

the grad is sometimes grade, "A kilometre was historically defined as a centi-grad of arc along a great circle of the Earth" so not a useful measurement for the majority of folks who don't have an earth sized protractor...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradian is the metric angle, i.e. centigrade, but the circle is divided by 400... I think I did one problem using gradians in my entire life.

[Xist]

Is a parsec distance or time? :P

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Xist

Is a parsec distance or time? :P

It is derived from the second as 1/3600 of a degree (not hour) so temperature

According to Wikipedia it is an astronomical distance; if you are one parsec away from earth, the angle between the lines of sight to the sun and the earths orbit would be one second.

It is useful as a tool for determining the distance of nearby stars as they seemingly move against a background of more distant stars, caused by the movement of the earth around the sun.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

Is a parsec distance or time? :P

It's distance, but... If the distance requires a particular speed under particular circumstances, it's a stand-in for that speed while telling about overall capabilities of the vehicle and the driver much better than a number on the speedometer can.

Like "How fast is it? It can jump four school buses!" "How much ground clearance? I made it across that stream!"

If your route involves getting around a cluster of black holes, a higher speed will allow you to cut it closer. So rather than claiming a meaningless top speed for your freighter, calmly stating the shortcut it's able to take is a brag- not on how fast it's able to go as a stunt but on the fact that the ship can be counted on to do it (and that as the man, you're willing to take that route).