I agree that cups are useful! The only time I find Imperial useful is
reading US recipes that use cups. Other than that Imperial is brain
damaged! And I say that having grown up in the UK to a family which used
Imperial all the time in my youth.
I used to go to the sweet shop and ask for a quarter of a pound of
American hard gums!
I recently watched a US home improvements show and couldn't fathom how
anybody could make sense of 1/16th of an inch. I couldn't tell you how
many yards to a mile but meters to a KM is simple.
On 2020-07-21 9:46 PM, Pew, Curtis G wrote:
On Jul 20, 2020, at 10:22 PM, Jackson, Rob <rwjack...@firsthorizon.com> wrote:
American standard--Imperial units; they're rubbish. Abject garbage. SI is not a fad, despite its
origins. No fan of the "French;" no fan of "Trump;" no fan of anything political.
But SI, revised a couple times or three, is a beautiful system of units in which one may compute
physics. If you disagree, then I assert you have a challenge understanding many things about physics.
I'm talking about mechanics and fluid dynamics. I'm too stupid for E&M, although the same
equivalency attempts apply there.
For science and engineering I totally agree: you should never use anything but
SI units. They have precise definitions, and being decimal-based make
calculations easier. Not to mention being used world-wide.
For everyday life, though, I think American/Imperial units (and any other
traditional systems that may survive elsewhere) have their advantages. They
evolved because people found them useful. For example, when I’m cooking I could
say 250 milliliters or one cup (they’re close enough for the precision I need)
but one cup is simpler. Or if my pedometer says I’ve walked 2000 steps I know
I’ve gone about a mile. (“Mile” comes from “mille passuum” = “a thousand of
steps”; my pedometer counts left and right as separate steps but for the Romans
you had to move both before they counted it.)
P.S. Apparently Imperial units have been redefined as relative to SI. Imagine
that.
Yep. For precision definitions, always use SI.
I think it’s cool that SI units are now defined by specifying exact values for
physical constants.
P.P.S. This reminds me of many conversations with my father. He absolutely
couldn't stand this type of thing, i.e. SI being obviously superior. I don't
get it. It is what it is.
As a disclaimer, I'm not a complete bigot. I say miles and yards; but I have
this nasty habit of converting them to meters in my mind every time I say them.
The one thing I cannot get used to in every-day life is Celsius degrees. I
think in Fahrenheit degrees. Oddly enough, since they're exactly the same
thing, I find it easier to talk in Kelvins rather than Celsius degrees. Maybe
I just like starting at zero. :) I couldn't tell you what absolute zero in
Fahrenheit is; I guess I never cared.
This supports my point about the convenience of traditional units. Fahrenheit
is more granular than Celsius, so you can be a bit more precise without having
to go to decimals.
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