Metric/imperial

What was the first satellite? The first man in space?

Nick

Reply to
Nick Mueller
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I've always been partial to the 8" Howitzer, although I admit they're a bit hard to get back in the holster. :-)

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

The hell it can't. I'm living proof! :-)

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

So? Listen, comrade, lets talk about the first man in space that did something useful. Lets talk about a satellite that did something more than beep. They were first because to them it was more important to be first than to accomplish a mission. Had they been using Imperial, perhaps they'd have done it all. They, instead, were slowed down by metrics. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! :-)

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

I'm ex-Navy, so I'm a bit partial to the 16" guns like we had on the Jersey...

Although I wouldn't want to have to pay for the ammo, I would really like to have a single shot 30mm rifle to add to my collection... I remember seeing them on belts being loaded into the F-14s and the size of that round is impressive...

Reply to
Grumman-581

This explains why they took some old useless rocks (weighted in pounds) from the moon. :-))) No, seriously, what went wrong with that mars-mission? Did it have to do with pounds too? And didn't someone post last year when the NASA proudly announced "Now even the moon is metric [but not the US of A]".

Nick

Reply to
Nick Mueller

pounds) from

Linguistic Groan !!! No, they were WEIGHED in pounds

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

That reminds me of a local guy I used to know, he had a Saurer gun tractor, like a 6 ton Porsche IRS, IFS, rear engined diesel, 4WD. He was looking for a gun to tow to shows and another local had IIRC a 32mm anti aircraft cannon for sale as his wife was fed up with it being on the drive, I had seen the gun before as it was difficult to miss. The guy in question called the maker regarding its' weight and it was really too heavy but at the end of the conversation he was asked if he wanted ammo for it, it seems the gun had not been decommisioned and was still on the active list although in private ownership.

Reply to
David Billington

Nope - most publications are now using hectares

Houses are likely to be

This is the result of real estate agents being semi-illiterate. I once talked with and ex-farmer who had just been expropriated (got $250,000 for a farmed out goat pasture worth $60,000), he was studying for a realtors licence and was having problems with some of the big words like "and" & "the"

It's like they can't quite decide which

That's cause a lot of us "old foggys" are somewhat familiar with both systems. Junior on the other hand thinks a yard needs to be mowed. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

Naturally, they are trying to make it easy for the viewers.

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Notice the weight in kg (pounds).

One doesn't normally speak Greek on the ABC network. Just when Greeks do. Translations to the common speaking form is always done world wide.

Martin

Mart> >>

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Nick - are you speaking of the first to live or the first.

The Soviet system killed - yes they knew what they were doing - many, many before they protected their hero. Research by the Soviets wasn't nice or kind. Listening to some of the unknown heroes was almost to much for my dad to do. But it was part of his job to help White Sands listen and learn themselves.

And just who was the only one to get to the moon. And to return to boot!

Martin

Mart>> rigger wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Y'all know? I've been watching this thread for a while and it all seems very much a tempest in a teapot.

Stop and think of it for a while. How did you learn how many meters made a kilometer? If you're honest you'll admit it was because you were taught it in school and don't go rabbeting on about it being intuitive because "kilo" means a thousand either because you learned about measuring long before you even had an inkling of how to speak Greek,

How does the other camp know how many feet in a mile, 'cause they were taught that in school.

Once you learned the answer it became intuitive, at least to you.

How do you use the system? Well, if you are trying to figure out how big you need to make that wire from the battery to the watchamacallit you look at a chart and read off the line that says "12 VDC, 10 Amps,

24 M." The chart tells you that for a maximum of 10% voltage drop you want a 2mm wire so you troop down to the electric store and buy some 2 mm wire.

What's the other guy do? Well he looks in the chart and finds out that what he wants is a #12 wire so he goes down 'tha store 'n says gimme some #12 wire.

I live in Thailand where they use metric, imperial and local measurements and nobody seems to be confused. Rice, for example, is sold by the liter, kilo and metric ton and also by local measurements, the cup, basket and wagon load. No one who buys and sells rice seems to be confused at all.

I could go on; cloth sold by the meter or foot, land or floor space measured by square wah, time by 06:00. 07:00... or one hour after dawn, two hours after dawn, but the point is that the people understand.

It appears to me that the metric system wold appeal more to those who are a bit mathematically challenged -- just move the decimal point, but as to which is better, there isn't really difference.

Bruce in Bangkok (brucepaigeatgmaildotcom)

Reply to
Bruce

Wow! Beautiful ship! Being from the west, I've been aboard the Missouri a couple times, the last time just before she was moved to Hawaii. Almost brings tears to one's eyes. I don't recall the names of the other two, but those ships had to be the prettiest ever made.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Damn!

Foiled again!

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

I was up there within the last year and the signs that I saw advertising land was in acres...

I know a realtor over on rec.scuba from around your area... John Francis... Over in Stratford...

Reply to
Grumman-581

And for pound? Or liquids? In the metrical system it is just the base unit and a factor. ... Terra, Giga, Mega, kilo, milli, micro, nano, pico, femto ... But too much for a language that even confused billion ... LOL!

Just have to know the naming of the factors. No matter what unit. m, kg, V, A, ... oh, except s. :-)

Chart? I would calculate that. The only thing to be looked up is the specific resistance of Cu. Electrical wire isn't spec'ed by the diameter, but by the cross-section. So this is making things even simpler.

That's the argument that is coming up from time to time. The imperial system requires more intelligence. But for intelligent people, intelligent and simple systems are more attractive. :-P

Nick

Reply to
Nick Mueller

The USA just had a better special effects setup :)

Reply to
Mike

Sevenhundred Elves wrote: [snip]

Which is very true; using fractional measure can be a pain. But suppose we had standardised on fractional measure, instead of decimal. It's straight binary fractions! Just right for this digital age. To say nothing of the ease of making a half or quarter-scale model of something.

Reply to
David R Brooks

The signs are produced by realtors - need I say more? Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

But was that Moon Pounds or Earth Pounds?? Heck of a big difference jk

Reply to
jk

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