metric made easy

[jonnythan]

Dude.

To go to metric, you just double it and add 30.

 

[hdtran]

One more comment re: metric. The metric system has been legal in the US since 1866 (maybe 1864, I'm not quite sure), and since 1893, inches, lbs, etc. have been defined against meters. Legally, the machine inch (as opposed to the surveyor inch, but let's not go there) is *EXACTLY* 0.0254 meter.

The US gallon is exactly 231 inch^3, so it converts to exactly to 3.785 411 784 L.

If you want to know more about the history of measurements and the metric system in the US, check out http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/200/202/SP 447.pdf

 

[simbrooks]

The US gallon is exactly 231 inch^3, so it converts to exactly to 3.785 411 784 L.

Weird they made it that, its 6.136 in cube, not very handy....

UK Gallon is 4.546L i believe, but i could be off by fraction of a decimal, still not a great size, but why 231 cuin?

 

[hdtran]

Weird they made it that, its 6.136 in cube, not very handy....

UK Gallon is 4.546L i believe, but i could be off by fraction of a decimal, still not a great size, but why 231 cuin?

The Imperial gallon (UK) is about 20% larger than the US gallon. The US gallon is based on a 'wine' gallon. There used to be different "dry" and "fluid" volume measures too.

The 231 cu. in. comes from a cylindrical measure, rounded to an exact number, before the invention (and adoption) of metric units.

The meter started out as 1/10 000 000 of the distance from the North pole to the equator passing through Paris. The French surveyors tasked with making that measurement missed by a fairly significant fraction (not to mention that the Earth isn't spherical). Then, it became defined as the distance between two marks on a metal bar in a vault, then, based on the wavelength of light. The most recent redefinition of the meter is based on the speed of light in a vacuum (also presumably in zero g), and the definition of time, which is so many counts of an atomic oscillation.

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
I stand by the 1 cm square and the one meter high water column.
..snip..

Instead of standing you'd be better off sitting and waiting for evaporation.

 

[Mako Mark]

was I hav ing a brain fart??

I was wasnt I???

ok one liter would be ten meters high..

:silly:


Did anyone notice my intentional mistake????

 

[liberato]

...I was wasnt I???...

No, it is just that unless you have metric consciousness a cm is much smaller than you imagine. You were visualizing a much thicker column of water than in fact, that's all.

 

[SeanQ]

was I hav ing a brain fart??

I was wasnt I???

ok one liter would be ten meters high..

:silly:


Did anyone notice my intentional mistake????

No, but, I noticed an international mistake. Litre is spelt with an "re", not an "er".

 

[Azza]

How about making it easy this time

A kilolitre = 1000 litres
A hectolitre = 100 litres
A decalitre = 10 litres
A litre = the basic unit of volume
A decilitre = 1/10 litre
A centilitre = 1/100 litre
A millilitre = 1/1000 litre

A kilometre = 1000 metres
A hectometre = 100 metres
A decametre = 10 metres = 33 feet = 1 atmosphere (rounded)
A metre = the basic unit of length
A decimetre = 1/10 metre
A centimetre = 1/100 metre
A millimetre = 1/1000 metre

 

[jonnythan]

No one got my "double it and add 30" joke