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| Thread: A Few Stupid Questions |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · «PREV |
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Binabik
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posted December 19, 2008 05:57 AM |
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Who cares? Except out of curiosity.
1) Am/PM - lol, at the digital generation - try reading the time from a distance on an analog clock that uses 24 hour time.
2) I'm American and I always wondered about that myself. I always thought it was a little weird since there are a bunch of American countries. But my guess is that it wasn't "Americans" who started using that term, but other countries. Also, you don't hear it very often, but I sometimes hear people from Central and S America refer to themselves as American.
Bottom line is, it's just a word. And like all words, the origin can be almost anything and change meaning over time.
3) All units of measure are arbitrary. Even making multiples of 10 is arbitrary. Why not use base 9 or base 37 as a multiplier?
As for games and books, especially fantasy, they use all kinds of units like leagues, cubits, rocks, etc. It's fitting to use old units in old settings. 20,000 Kilometers Under the Sea just doesn't have the same feel to it.
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but I find it amusing how Statesfolk (so as to not invoke Xerox's wrath by using the dreaded A-word) refer to the 24h version "military time".
It's called that just because the military is (almost) the only group who uses it.
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But since when does the Government listen to the people
Actually it's the other way around. The people don't listen to the government. Since the late 1800, the official US government stance has been "voluntary" conversion to the metric system. And nobody volunteered. Except most industry has been metric for the last 20-30 years.
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friendofgunnar
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posted December 19, 2008 07:44 AM |
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The system is even more FUBAR than you might imagine. In the english system 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups = 128 fluid ounces = 256 tablespoons = 768 teaspoons
but!
the tablespoons and teaspoons have been pegged to the metric system. 1 teaspoon = 5 ml (1 tablespoon = 15 ml)
the rest of the measurements have been pegged to the gallon.
thus:
1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups = 128 fluid ounces =/= 256 tablespoons = 768 teaspoons
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angelito
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posted December 19, 2008 12:46 PM |
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I don't find these things were important to adjust. I would rather prefer to see countries like England, Australia, New Zealand and some others stop driving on the left. This is something I never understood. I would like to know why England started their traffic system "left wise".
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antipaladin
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posted December 19, 2008 12:52 PM |
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i wonder why is the world made such a big fuss about christ that they made world calander before christs birth and after :/
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Hell_Wizard
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posted December 19, 2008 01:26 PM |
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Well, another one is about Celsius, Farengheit and Kelvin.
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TheDeath
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posted December 19, 2008 01:32 PM |
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I would like to know why England started their traffic system "left wise".
Hehe why wouldn't it? It's not like the "right wise" is a law of the universe either, so that's how they drive. Just because this one is more numerous doesn't mean it's better or more "right" (as in not wrong)
And yeah I agree with Binabik regarding the AM/PM 
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Asheera
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posted December 19, 2008 02:01 PM |
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Well, another one is about Celsius, Farengheit and Kelvin.
It's Fahrenheit, and yes I don't understand why they use that one. It's so confusing.
I mean, Celsius is much more convenient: at 0 the water freezes and at 100 the water boils.
But in Fahrenheit the water freezes at 32 and it boils at 212... what kind of numbers are those?
btw, here are some nice measurements tables for those interested.
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Hell_Wizard
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posted December 19, 2008 02:05 PM |
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I wonder which countries use farenheit. Kelvin is for high tempratures.
And another one:
Quarts, Kilograms, Litres and so on.
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TheDeath
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posted December 19, 2008 02:13 PM |
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I mean, Celsius is much more convenient: at 0 the water freezes and at 100 the water boils.
Celsius is for the average Joe, idiot-proof so anyone can remember
Not that Fahrenheit has any special purpose as far as I can see -- but Kelvin is the most scientific.
Kelvin isn't used just for high temperatures, it's for absolute temperatures. 0 Kelvin means absolutely no heat at all (kinda impossible if I remember correctly), which is around -273.150 Celsius I think.
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Card_Ximinez
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no
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posted December 19, 2008 03:46 PM |
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Quote:
Now here's a good one:
What god damned idea it is to daylight saving? It makes no sense! There's no use to it and it only messes up people's bio-clocks twice a year.
I agree...
1. I use both the AM/PM and the "military time", depneding on the situation.
2. I don't mind.
3. I agree with some people who have said that it sounds better in movies and books to say miles or yards instead of meters and stuff. But otherwise, it would be easier for everyone to use the same system.
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angelito
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posted December 19, 2008 04:49 PM |
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Quote:
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I would like to know why England started their traffic system "left wise".
Hehe why wouldn't it? It's not like the "right wise" is a law of the universe either, so that's how they drive. Just because this one is more numerous doesn't mean it's better or more "right" (as in not wrong)
Again an example for a typcial TheDeath answer...
 Why is a banana yellow?
Answer by TheDeath: Why is a cherry red?
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TheDeath
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posted December 19, 2008 04:52 PM |
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you ask: "Why do British drive left wise?"
they ask: "Why do the others drive right wise?"
What more do you want? A law of physics to say you should drive right wise?
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Cepheus
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posted December 19, 2008 05:03 PM |
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If we tried switching to the right side of the road tomorrow, the chances are our number of road accidents would just increase. As it is they're already getting higher and higher.
Don't fix what's not broken... unless you want more broken people 
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Shares
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posted December 19, 2008 06:40 PM |
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When some one asks me "why?", I ask both myself and this "some one" "Why not?"
I do agree thatr the metric system is simpler (1m=10dm=100cm=1000mm), even the units make sense one centimetre=1/100m. It's easier to remember, but I too can use both system even though it may take me several seconds to convert between them.
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Binabik
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posted December 19, 2008 10:10 PM |
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I would rather prefer to see countries like England, Australia, New Zealand and some others stop driving on the left.
In England the driver can't be on the left because that's where the passenger is.
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I mean, Celsius is much more convenient: at 0 the water freezes and at 100 the water boils.
But in Fahrenheit the water freezes at 32 and it boils at 212... what kind of numbers are those?
OMG!! OMG!! The water is bubbling and I can't find my thermometer. How will I ever know when it's time to throw in the pasta??? Ah, there it is, the thermometer. Now all I need is the barometer.....
Hey, numbers are just memorized anyway. The Fahrenheit scale is based on the temperature of hell. Below zero is colder than hell and above 100 is hotter than hell. I mean why should below -18 be colder than hell and above than 38 be hotter than hell?
Actually I know of one thing that's a pain in the butt with feet and inches. When I was a carpenter framing houses it sucked working with angles for things like roofs and stairs. That's especially true if you are working with angles in two planes like a hip roof or spiral staircase.
For a hip roof you take the horizontal distance in feet and inches, convert it to inches, and if the inches are fractional (which is likely) convert it to decimal. Then take the roof pitch which is in the form of 4/12, 5/12, etc and convert it to an angle. Do the trig to get the height. Since the angle is in two planes, take your original horizontal distance and multiply times SQRT 2 to get the horizontal distance of the hip. Now you have two sides of a right triangle and you can calculate the hypotenuse. Convert the hypotenuse back to feet, inches, and fractional inches. Now you know how long to cut your hip rafter. Then it's time to do a similar calculation for each jack rafter.
Handy dandy roof calculator that does most of it for you
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Asheera
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posted December 19, 2008 10:22 PM |
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You know, at least the Kelvin scale which is the most scientific one progresses like the Celsius one (only that it has a bias)
So... who and why had the idea to make Fahrenheit like it is now?
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TheDeath
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posted December 19, 2008 11:05 PM |
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Edited by TheDeath at 23:06, 19 Dec 2008.
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In England the driver can't be on the left because that's where the passenger is.
No but they drive on the left side of the road (from their perspective)
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Mamgaeater
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posted December 19, 2008 11:10 PM |
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You know, at least the Kelvin scale which is the most scientific one progresses like the Celsius one (only that it has a bias)
So... who and why had the idea to make Fahrenheit like it is now?
wikipedia to the rescue.
According to Fahrenheit himself in an article he wrote in 1724,[2] his scale is based on three reference points of temperature. The zero point is determined by placing the thermometer in a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride, a salt. This is a type of frigorific mixture. The mixture automatically stabilizes its temperature at 0 °F. He then put an alcohol or mercury thermometer into the mixture and let the liquid in the thermometer descend to its lowest point. The second point is the 32 degree found by putting the thermometer in still water as ice is just forming on the surface.[3] The third point, the 96 degree, was the level of the liquid in the thermometer when held in the mouth or under the armpit. Fahrenheit noted that, using this scale, mercury boils at around 600 degrees.
Later work by other scientists observed that water boils about 180 degrees higher than the freezing point and decided to redefine the degree slightly to make it exactly 180 degrees higher.[2] It is for this reason that normal body temperature is 98.6 on the revised scale (whereas it was 96 on Fahrenheit's original scale).[4]
According to a letter Fahrenheit wrote to his friend Herman Boerhaave,[5] his scale built on the work of Ole Rømer, whom he had met earlier. In Rømer’s scale, the two fixed reference points are that brine also freezes at 0 degrees and water boils at 60 degrees. He observed that, on this scale, water freezes at 7.5 degrees. Fahrenheit multiplied each value by four in order to eliminate the fractions and increase the granularity of the scale (resulting in 30 and 240 degrees). He then re-calibrated his scale between the freezing point of water and normal human body temperature (which he observed to be 96 degrees); he adjusted the scale so that the melting point of ice would be 32 degrees, so that 64 intervals would separate the two, allowing him to mark degree lines on his instruments by simply bisecting the interval six times (since 64 is 2 to the sixth power)
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baklava
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posted December 20, 2008 01:01 AM |
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"Let me tell you what the blues
is. When you ain't got no
money,
you got the blues."
Howlin Wolf
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