SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
US finally giving boot to official foot measurement
Change is afoot for the official measuring stick used to size up big places in America.
The reason? There are actually two different definitions of the 12-inch measurement known as a foot.
Some land surveyors use what's known as the U.S. survey foot. Others use the definition that's more accepted by the broader world: the international foot.
The difference between them is so tiny that you can't see it with the naked eye on a 12-inch ruler. But over big distances, it matters. So, to reduce the chance for errors and confusion, the federal government has announced it's finally giving the boot to the survey foot.
The international foot is the smaller one—adding about an eighth of an inch of difference when measuring a mile. That means the United States is 28.3 feet wider when measured using the international foot instead of the survey foot.
The change started in 1959, when the federal government mandated that everyone use the international foot but allowed surveyors to keep to the old U.S. survey foot for a while. That temporary reprieve has lasted 60 years, but it will finally end in 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced in October.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 15 2019, @10:00PM (9 children)
Back in seventh grade, here in the US, our science teacher at the start of the school year gave the class the chance to vote on what measurement system to use for the year in the class. Myself and one other person voted for metric, the rest for the traditional US units. The teacher gravely bowed to the will of the students.
Then he started putting up on the blackboard (we still had blackboards back then) lists of traditional units from the length, volume, mass categories. Not just feet, yards, and inches or ounces and pounds, but furlongs, rods, leagues, stones, hogsheads, bushels, drams, pennyweights, etc. There were over 80 in total. Our assignment: from each category (length, mass, etc), express each unit in terms of all the other units. So that we had to compute how many inches in a furlong, and in a league, etc; as well as how many leagues in an inch, and in a furlong, etc.
It took a long time. Have you ever calculated how many furlongs there are in a light-year? I have. So I got that going for me.
The next day the teacher kindly permitted the class to retake the vote. Metric won.
That was 40 years ago. We're still not using metric here in the US. We still use pennies, too. With freedom (what's left of it) comes some suboptimal decisions sometimes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 15 2019, @10:50PM (8 children)
> Our assignment: ...
If you took the time to read the story behind some of the more "unusual" units, it would be a good history lesson by itself. Guess your teacher didn't push you quite that far? I like units that scale by 4, 12 or 16, down with the tyranny of 10, just because most people have 10 fingers (I have a friend with 8).
(Score: 3, Touché) by driverless on Monday December 16 2019, @12:06AM (3 children)
The history behind the metric system OTOH is more rational, and can be expressed in a single sentence: The crazy units of the Ancien Régime are being dropped, from now on we're using metric, any objectors please form a line behind the guillotine over there.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kazzie on Monday December 16 2019, @04:48AM (2 children)
In that context, it's a little surprising that the young upstart US didn't adopt the metric system with open arms.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Monday December 16 2019, @06:26PM (1 child)
It's the pirates' fault. [sciencealert.com]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @10:06PM
Beat me to it!
(Score: 5, Funny) by MostCynical on Monday December 16 2019, @02:50AM
Need "-2 unfortunate" mod, for your friend.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @08:06AM
Really? You've got a friend? What's that like?
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday December 16 2019, @12:22PM
In rural china they use base 12 and count on knuckles. Much more sensible! And only requires 4 fingers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 16 2019, @04:16PM
Even people with fewer than ten fingers still learn arithmetic from childhood in base 10 and become fluent in it.
The "tyranny of 10" is really the lubrication of compatible standardized number systems so that it is easy for everyone to easily communicate and conduct commerce.
Customer: "I demand to buy 5 pounds of beef, but in base 12. Because I don't want to conform to societal norms."
Butcher: "see this sharp cleaver here? Please go away! Now! Don't ever come back!"
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.