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Grex > Agora47 > #173: Why can't America do the "10" commandments? (not what you think) | |
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| 25 new of 93 responses total. |
slynne
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response 33 of 93:
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Nov 16 22:35 UTC 2003 |
FWIW, I havent seen a half liter bottle of pop in years.
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twenex
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response 34 of 93:
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Nov 16 22:40 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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rcurl
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response 35 of 93:
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Nov 16 23:12 UTC 2003 |
The rest of the world has no trouble discussing weather in Celsius. I
don't think the rationalization for using Fahrenheit is anything more
than that. I could take the opposite stance, and say it makes real sense
to use a scale where water freezes at zero and boils at 100, as these
are extremely important signature transitional experiences in our daily
lives. In fact - that strikes me as BETTER rationalization.
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twenex
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response 36 of 93:
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Nov 16 23:28 UTC 2003 |
I agree. (I'm feeling very agreeable this weekend!)
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willcome
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response 37 of 93:
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Nov 16 23:36 UTC 2003 |
32: that argument didn't jive when Orwell made it, and it's not going to jive
now. Celcius is fine for temperature; ask anyone but an American.
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janc
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response 38 of 93:
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Nov 17 01:41 UTC 2003 |
Of course, any scale will work. You can set freezing at 0.012 and boiling
at 0.021, and have a perfectly good temperature scale. The only reason that
has ever been set forth for why Celsuis is better is that having water
freeze and boil at 0 and 100 "makes more sense". That's true, but lame.
Fahrenheit nicely defines the temperatures where you have a right to complain
about the weather. If it's below zero, you can moan. If it's above 100, you
can moan. Just fine. Yeah, I've seen -20 and 120, but I'd prefer not to.
The only thing I really want to do with temperatures above 100F is set the
oven temperature. When I complain about the weather, I like being able to
say it's 100, not it's 38. Yes, I know it's nothing much compared to the
boiling point of water, but it's still too danged hot.
"I'm hot blooded, check it and see, got a fever of 39.4444". There's one
song that would never have been written.
Does this make Fahrenheit better. No. But it makes Fahrenheit very nice.
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mcnally
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response 39 of 93:
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Nov 17 01:51 UTC 2003 |
> "I'm hot blooded, check it and see, got a fever of 39.4444". There's
> one song that would never have been written.
I'm confused.. Up until this sentence I thought you were arguing in favor
of Fahrenheit.
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other
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response 40 of 93:
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Nov 17 02:27 UTC 2003 |
Jan, I have to say, I never pegged you as a fan of Loverboy...
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aruba
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response 41 of 93:
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Nov 17 03:30 UTC 2003 |
(I never pegged you as a fan of Foreigner, Eric. :))
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other
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response 42 of 93:
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Nov 17 03:41 UTC 2003 |
Alas! have I misattributed? See how much attention I pay to music?
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rcurl
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response 43 of 93:
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Nov 17 06:08 UTC 2003 |
Re #38: you realize, don't you, that the "standard" body temperature has
been set at 37 C, a nice round figure? That just converts to 98.6 F, a
really ridiculously over-precise figure.
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tpryan
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response 44 of 93:
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Nov 17 07:22 UTC 2003 |
The king was running a fever the day they set the Farenheight
scale.
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willcome
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response 45 of 93:
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Nov 17 07:30 UTC 2003 |
Lol.
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gull
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response 46 of 93:
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Nov 17 15:42 UTC 2003 |
I don't think inch-based tools are going away any time soon. There will
still be plenty of things around that need them for years.
Perversely, my Volvo appears to have a mix of metric and inch-based
fasteners. I assumed it was metric until I had to replace a seat belt
and found that the bolts that secured it were 5/8".
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twenex
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response 47 of 93:
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Nov 17 18:05 UTC 2003 |
Possibly the metric-marked parts are built to European standards, and the
inch-marked to US standards.
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rcurl
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response 48 of 93:
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Nov 17 18:45 UTC 2003 |
I like to tell the story of Skylab, which was built entirely to metric
measurements. I had a brief assignment to review some of the plans, and
noticed that many tubes were specified to be 2.54 centimeters in diameter.
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twenex
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response 49 of 93:
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Nov 17 18:55 UTC 2003 |
Heh. obviously, whatever measurement you choose, somehow you are going to get
parts which need decimals or fractions.
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gull
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response 50 of 93:
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Nov 17 19:38 UTC 2003 |
Re #47: Could be. But there isn't a single inch-based fastener on my VW.
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janc
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response 51 of 93:
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Nov 17 23:21 UTC 2003 |
The fact that body temperature is exactly 37C instead of 98.6F would be
more compelling if I thought it actually was a fact. I bet some
European measured a bunch of people, then rounded the average off to the
nearest degree Celsius, and that became the accepted value of body
temperature. There is no such thing as an "exact value of body
temperature", unless you want to decide which part of the body of which
person doing which activity you are talking about.
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bhoward
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response 52 of 93:
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Nov 18 00:18 UTC 2003 |
Though most things are metric here in Japan, it is still quite common
to use traditional measures in certain domains. The real estate world
still use jo and tsubo to measure area, architecture and other traditional
crafts commonly use the kanejaku system for measuring length.
Somehow, folks muddle through it all without stressing too much :-)
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rcurl
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response 53 of 93:
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Nov 18 00:26 UTC 2003 |
Re #51: that's what I implied in #43 ("...that the "standard" body
temperature has been set at 37 C, a nice round figure..."). Of course body
temperature is no exact value. The point, though, is that we use the
metric standard but translate it to Fahrenheit, which is rather stupid.
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bru
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response 54 of 93:
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Nov 18 04:15 UTC 2003 |
98.6 is as much an average as is 37celsius. My mothers normal temp was 96
degrees, if she hit 98, she had a fever.
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tsty
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response 55 of 93:
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Nov 18 05:43 UTC 2003 |
re #17 ... therefore, amke english teh official american language?????
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gelinas
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response 56 of 93:
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Nov 18 06:16 UTC 2003 |
(I'd thought those measurements were made in Farenheit, the Celsius scale not
yet having been invented.)
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rcurl
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response 57 of 93:
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Nov 18 07:12 UTC 2003 |
The normal body temperature value of 37 C was an *average* rounded to the
nearest degree, reported in a German study, since those making the
measurements knew that there is a range of normal temperatures. it is only
meant to be within two significant digits Celsius, not the three
Fahrenheit implied by writing 98.6. Doing the latter is an error in
implying the precision of the value.
(There is some historical confusion about all this:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/LenaWong.shtml)
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