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| Thread ID: 111986 | 2010-08-19 05:03:00 | I Was Reading You Upsidedown Land News And ------------ | SurferJoe46 (51) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1129412 | 2010-08-19 06:52:00 | Good lord, you learn something every day. Mea culpa. No need to do the chest beating. I forgive you without mental reservation of any kind. :) |
Snorkbox (15764) | ||
| 1129413 | 2010-08-19 07:02:00 | "The supersonic Concorde was built as an Anglo-French cooperative project. The French built their half (the rear?) of the plane in metric units, the British built their half in inches. They joined it somewhere along the middle and it flew successfully for many years. " www.science20.com |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 1129414 | 2010-08-19 07:24:00 | "The supersonic Concorde was built as an Anglo-French cooperative project. The French built their half (the rear?) of the plane in metric units, the British built their half in inches. They joined it somewhere along the middle and it flew successfully for many years. " www.science20.com Bah! The Transcontinental Railroad did the same thing but on a grander scale. Irish gandydancers (Royal and SAE measurements) started on the East side of the US and Chinese laborers (I don't know what standard they were on - but it prolly predated metric somehow) started on the West coast and they got withing a few quarks of perfect alignment. All this without lasers or GPS or even a sliderule. Did I say 'Bah!'? I'm beginning to sound more like Terry all the time. Going to bed now - play nice until I get back please. |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 1129415 | 2010-08-19 07:27:00 | At only 161 posts you pull this old thing back up? Hah! I hah on you! Shame. You MUST be able to get something more worthy. I don't understand... |
jareemon (5207) | ||
| 1129416 | 2010-08-19 09:13:00 | Metrics and Imperial don't mix too well, just ask NASA | Whenu (9358) | ||
| 1129417 | 2010-08-19 10:57:00 | Hmmm. If anybody thinks this is all too difficult, pity the pilots who need to figure out: While the passengers are boarding Time local time and UTC for all international / flights across time zones, Temperatures expressed in either Fahrenheit or Celcius (USA manufactured, think Fahrenheit, rest of the world, think Celcius). Runway Length expressed in Feet but Flight distance expressed in Nautical Miles Weight expressed as Metric (Kgs) or USA (Lbs) Fuel expressed as US Gallons, Imperial Gallons, or Litres That's before even starting the engines ... here's what they need to factor in after starting, and prior to take off: Airport altitude usually in meters Visibility usually in nautical miles Wind speed usually in knots (nautical miles per hour) Cloud ceiling usually in feet Meterological forecast - height usually in meters Aircraft takeoff speed either MPH (US) or Knots Keep in mind that while aircraft speed for a US manufactured aircraft is usually calibrated in MPH, the performance criteria is often expressed in knots, and that's only the start of it once you get into cruise control and Mach numbers and so on! Some of this has changed over the past decade or two since I was actively working out this stuff on a daily basis, but the confusion rests basically rests with the US refusal to adopt the metric standards of the rest of the world. As most commercial aircraft were sourced from the US, those followed US measurements, different even from Imperial measurements. Does anybody still wonder why airline pilots get paid what they are? The US Congress passed a resolution in the 70's that the USA would adopt metric standards within 10 years. (I'm not sure it passed into law) Yeah right. To turn a giant aeronautical component of their economy around was not (and is not) feasible. :devil |
WalOne (4202) | ||
| 1129418 | 2010-08-19 16:11:00 | They teach Metrics in schools here but the kids all revert to US values when they are out of class. I say 'US values' since we are a mish-mash of values and metering. Pharmaceuticals/medications are metered in Metric behind the counter but the values are all in US standards on the bottles or whatever. Gasoline is in gallons - oil in quarts as well as coolant and additives. The only time we actually see Metric on containers is when it's to the manufacturers advantage to downsize while leaving the cost the same. Metrics confuse the whole population and if the new quantity is Metric, nobody notices the smaller size - but that's not really 100% (NZ= the whole sheep) true. This little marketing trick was tried in bathroom tissue dimensions - but they got caught and the hate mail was outstanding. Results? The company returned to the normal size product and just raised the price a few cents. Refreshingly (NZ= Saturday night bath) the whole US monetary system IS Metric already. We get hamburger and hotdog buns (NZ= no equiv) in Metric (10s) and the hotdogs and hamburger patties in dozens (12s). Beer arrives in 6-packs or multiples thereof, but hangovers are still in the Richter Scale. |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
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