Units of Measurement

[psikeyhackr]

Google says it's name was officially changed (worldwide) from Centigrade to Celsius way back in 1948.

I think I noticed the change some time in the 80s and thought, "What stupid useless crap is this?"

Centigrade made some degree of sense. 100 units of whatever temperature is from freezing to boiling H2O. Who gives a damn about some bloke with a Celly name.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Excuse me, but if the name of the inventor isn't the norm, why then is it Fahrenheit and not Fahrengrade?
Speaking about useless crap, Anyway, Fahrenheit never made any sense. His scale is based on a mixture of water, ice and ammonium chloride. How bizarre is that?

 

[psikeyhackr]

Excuse me, but if the name of the inventor isn't the norm, why then is it Fahrenheit and not Fahrengrade?
Speaking about useless crap, Anyway, Fahrenheit never made any sense. His scale is based on a mixture of water, ice and ammonium chloride. How bizarre is that?

180° from freezing to boiling with 0 below freezing. It's stupid but it gas always been the same stupid.

 

[Parson]

I just finished reading a S.F. book where they did distances in miles and believe it or no, I found it to be off putting. (Me, a person who has never been a place for long where it metric! [Canada for a week.]) In 1966 I had a high school chemistry teacher who said "The U.S. will be on the metric system in 5 years. A prophet, he was not.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Pointless fact of the day: -40 is the same in F or C.

 

[Danny McG]

I just finished reading a S.F. book where they did distances in miles and believe it or no, I found it to be off putting. (Me, a person who has never been a place for long where it metric! [Canada for a week.]) In 1966 I had a high school chemistry teacher who said "The U.S. will be on the metric system in 5 years. A prophet, he was not.

I remember the same thing being said in the media while series one of Star Trek TOS was being originally shown, Kirk and his merry men often used miles and feet.
Fans were like "No, it's set in the future so the USA is bound to be metric!"

 

[Ursa major]

300°K when rounded.

Watt's What's that º doing in there...?!

A litre of water is a kilogram - how simple is that.

At least, in the US, a pint of water (16 fluid ounces) weighs a pound (16 ounces)...

...whereas there are 20 fluid ounces in a UK pint... so if a pint of something cost a pound sterling, each fluid ounce of it would, in old money, cost a shilling....

 

[Parson]

@Ursa major --- I believe that there's an echo going on here. (2 identical posts.)

 

[Ursa major]

There was a duplicate, but I've now removed it.

 

[Danny McG]

I think I noticed the change some time in the 80s and thought, "What stupid useless crap is this?"

Centigrade made some degree of sense. 100 units of whatever temperature is from freezing to boiling H2O. Who gives a damn about some bloke with a Celly name.

Post in thread 'What's the weather like where you are?' https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/42010/post-2681859

 

[KiraAnn]

I never understood the basis for Fahrenheit nor why the US adopted it so early. Of course, if one wants to be truly scientific, we should all be using the Kelvin scale.

For distance, miles or kilometers is fine, although from my time in the Navy, a nautical mile makes a lot of sense. That's one minute of longitude at the equator. The circumference of Earth is thus 21,600 nautical miles exactly. In practice, though, I have simply become too accustomed to statute miles, to the point I can reasonably estimate a distance by look.

 

[AllanR]

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Unit

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Unit

smbc-comics.com

 

[Ursa major]

That's one minute of longitude at the equator.

There must be a limited number of ships** that sail along the equator (or any meridian, and that's without considering that the Earth is oblate), so this relationship must have limited relevance (other than providing the definition of the nautical mile.)


** - For vehicles in the air, a minute of longitude along the equator would be longer than a minute of longitude on the surface... and let's not start on the distance a geostationary satellite must travel for each minute of longitude....

 

[Pyan]

The same idea was behind the basis for the metre - one ten-millionth of the distance between the Equator and the North Pole.

 

[Ursa major]

Let's not forget all those French imperial measurements based on only skeletal information...


...i.e. the various bone-aparts....

 

[Pyan]

Let's not forget all those French imperial measurements based on only skeletal information...


...i.e. the various bone-aparts....

 

[Parson]

** - For vehicles in the air, a minute of longitude along the equator would be longer than a minute of longitude on the surface... and let's not start on the distance a geostationary satellite must travel for each minute of longitude....

I suggest that only on Chrons would this even be considered.

and then:

Let's not forget all those French imperial measurements based on only skeletal information...


...i.e. the various bone-aparts....

 

[farntfar]

For vehicles in the air, a minute of longitude along the equator would be longer than a minute of longitude on the surface... and let's not start on the distance a geostationary satellite must travel for each minute of longitude....

And don't forget that those satellites are also experiencing time dilation, as discussed already in various other threads. So if you wanted their velocity in knots, it's one hell of a calculation.

 

[Parson]

And don't forget that those satellites are also experiencing time dilation, as discussed already in various other threads. So if you wanted their velocity in knots, it's one hell of a calculation.

And then there's an even more Chrons post. Well done @farntfar, well done indeed.

 

[Ursa major]

it's one hell of a calculation

It's certainly a knotty one....