Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by LaminatorX on Monday February 24 2014, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the How-many-slugs-to-the-stone? dept.

AnonTechie writes:

"I have the following requests to members of this new forum:

1) Please use SI Units wherever possible. Alternative comparative units such as swimming pools, size of Florida, cars, libraries of congress, etc are also welcome ...

2) Please cover tech/science related stories from around the world. Please do not make this a US only website !!

Cheers and best wishes,

AnonTechie"

[ED Note: We as a community welcome submissions from around the world, as befits our international userbase. The Editorial team in particular is looking closely at including voices from outside the U.S. as we continue to grow. As for the units question in particular, stories will certainly arrive with a variety of units depending on the origin of the submission. We encourage, though do not require, submitters to include conversions where appropriate for clarity out of courtesy to your fellow readers. Though we try to use a light touch when making edits to story submissions, Editors may add these from time to time as well, should clarity demand and time permit.

Soylentils, does the current ad-hoc approach meet your needs, or do you favor a more formal approach from your news discussion site?]

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @12:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @12:32AM (#5398)

    I cannot fathom why you'd want to forgo furlongs and leagues when we've been happily using them for scores of ages with nary a dram of trouble. Now get off my two-foot lawn!

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Funny=5, Total=5
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by davester666 on Monday February 24 2014, @04:14AM

    by davester666 (155) on Monday February 24 2014, @04:14AM (#5523)

    Sorry, the standard unit of distances here on Earth are "football fields", which everybody knows is 100 yards long, like God intended.

    And for amounts of data, it's "Libraries of Congress", or 'loc' for short.

    • (Score: 1) by Appalbarry on Monday February 24 2014, @05:12AM

      by Appalbarry (66) on Monday February 24 2014, @05:12AM (#5564) Journal

      Ahem. It's a 110 yards of course.... [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 1) by davester666 on Monday February 24 2014, @06:07AM

        by davester666 (155) on Monday February 24 2014, @06:07AM (#5596)

        Don't bring those heathen Canucks into it. The only sports they really know are curling and hockey.

      • (Score: 2) by dilbert on Monday February 24 2014, @02:30PM

        by dilbert (444) on Monday February 24 2014, @02:30PM (#5818)
        If you count the end-zones, it's 120 yards (american football)
    • (Score: 2, Funny) by greenfruitsalad on Monday February 24 2014, @09:41AM

      by greenfruitsalad (342) on Monday February 24 2014, @09:41AM (#5701)

      are we talking about football (like God intended) or american football?

      • (Score: 1) by davester666 on Monday February 24 2014, @06:52PM

        by davester666 (155) on Monday February 24 2014, @06:52PM (#6053)

        Just leave, and you can take your pitch with you!

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Nuke on Monday February 24 2014, @08:23PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:23PM (#6132)
      Wrote :-

      'the standard unit of distances here on Earth are "football fields"'

      No, that's an area. The length units, in the UK at least, are the length of a London bus, the length of electric cable used in the average house, the distance from London to Manchester, the circumference of the Earth, and the distance to the Moon and back, depending on context. These larger units are deliberately not integer multiples of smaller ones because that would be confusing. They are also separate from height units, which are Nelson's Column, Eiffel Tower etc.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by mhajicek on Monday February 24 2014, @05:04AM

    by mhajicek (51) on Monday February 24 2014, @05:04AM (#5553)

    Even the Brits will have a pint now and then. I'll only start worrying when they have a hogshead.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Niggle on Monday February 24 2014, @09:18AM

      by Niggle (477) on Monday February 24 2014, @09:18AM (#5694)

      Our pints are 25% larger than the US ones, as are gallons. So using non-SI units is quite likely to cause confusion even for those of us that still use some vestiges of imperial measurements.
      Probably the only imperial units still used by the majority of the population in the UK are pints (almost exclusively for beer and milk) and miles. Weirdly, we buy petrol by the litre, but always quote fuel efficiency in miles per gallon.
      I'm old enough to think of people's heights in feet and inches, but a lot of people I know use metres and centimetres. And even I think of weights in kilos rather than stones and pounds.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by jalopezp on Monday February 24 2014, @11:27AM

        by jalopezp (2996) on Monday February 24 2014, @11:27AM (#5745)

        I ruined a batch of homebrew after moving to London because of the difference between british and american pints. Idiotically, the british have bigger pints but smaller ounces than the americans. Nowadays when cooking and brewing, I insist on converting everything to metric, and if possible from volume to weight. As for standard use, I find people are familiar enough with kilos and centimetres for it not to be a problem.

        As far as beer is concerned, recall Orwell's 1984: 'A 'alf litre ain't enough. It don't satisfy. And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price.' I agree with this statement very much. Nevertheless, a pint of beer is too close to a half litre (568mL) to make much of a difference. I would prefer to see barmen pull my beer into a 666mL glass. One day.

        • (Score: 1) by Nuke on Monday February 24 2014, @08:09PM

          by Nuke (3162) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:09PM (#6121)
          Wrote :-

          As far as beer is concerned, recall Orwell's 1984: "A 'alf litre ain't enough.... And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running." Nevertheless, a pint of beer is too close to a half litre (568mL) to make much of a difference.

          I read 1984 before I was familiar with the conversion (when it was still future in fact) and for years I assumed half a litre was about 0.6 pints because of it. Now, I am now puzzled by the guys' problem - the difference between half a litre and a pint is only 13%.

          The reason people have stuck with pints for beer is that it goes with the Olde Worlde atmosphere of most UK pubs.

      • (Score: 1) by mojo chan on Monday February 24 2014, @01:32PM

        by mojo chan (266) on Monday February 24 2014, @01:32PM (#5785)

        We really are in a muddle here. Most people seem to use stones for a person's weight, but most of the ones under 40 can't tell you how many pounds in a stone for comparison to Americans. We use miles for long distances on roads but signs for pedestrians usually use metres. MPG is a really bad unit for measuring fuel efficiency, we should switch to litres/100km.

        Some people have newer metric gas meters, a far fewer still have the old Imperial measure ones. Heating and cooling equipment is still rated in BTUs, tires still inflated to a given PSI. Schools have not been teaching Imperial units for decades though - I certainly never learned them.

        --
        const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday February 24 2014, @11:45PM

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday February 24 2014, @11:45PM (#6285) Homepage
          > MPG is a really bad unit for measuring fuel efficiency, we should switch to litres/100km.

          Absolutely not. As mpg increases efficiency increases. As l/110km increases, efficiency decreases - that's completely the wrong relation.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 1) by isostatic on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:26AM

            by isostatic (365) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:26AM (#6337) Journal

            Litres per 100000 metres is an arbitrary number to try to get a human readable value for cars. It's terrible. I'd rather ml/km

            However the idea is "I need to drive 420km, my car uses 3l/100km, I therefore need 12.6 litres of fuel, which at £1.40 per litres costs £17.64

            The higher the l/100km value, the more it costs to drive. Makes more since than an arbitrary lefty "higher mpg is higher efficiency"

            The mpg is "I've just put 10 gallons (45 litres) in my tank. When will I need to fill up again"

            I find gallons/mile harder to wrap my head around than mpg but that's because I was brought up on mpg. And feet and inches for height. And miles for road length. And metres for middle lengths like building heights, shelf sizes, cupboard dimensions etc,. I use kg for weight of everything except people (stones and pounds). litres for volume aside from beer, unless said beer is in Germany at Oktoberfest and served by a buxom wench in litre glasses.

            The uk is a crazy country with units, but at least we got rid of Fahrenheit

      • (Score: 1) by Wakaranai on Monday February 24 2014, @04:00PM

        by Wakaranai (486) on Monday February 24 2014, @04:00PM (#5902)

        >...are pints (almost exclusively for beer and milk)...

        A pint of beer and milk?! Eew.

        Maybe either a posset or a pint...
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posset [wikipedia.org]
        http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/01/31/milk-beer-bil k/ [japanprobe.com]

      • (Score: 1) by cykros on Monday February 24 2014, @08:30PM

        by cykros (989) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:30PM (#6141)

        So much for "A Pint's a Pound the whole world 'round".

        It's been my understanding that the 20oz "pints" (be they in the UK or American craft beer stores) are more like a baker's dozen than an actual discrepancy in what an actual pint is. Sure, a pint is 16 fl. oz, and a dozen is 12, but go to a bar and ask for a pint, and you get 20oz, just like you get 13 items when you ask a baker for a dozen.

        Am I living a lie on this one?

        • (Score: 1) by xorsyst on Tuesday February 25 2014, @10:10AM

          by xorsyst (1372) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @10:10AM (#6523)

          Yes - 20oz is the standard for pints outside the US.

    • (Score: 1) by rufty on Monday February 24 2014, @12:39PM

      by rufty (381) on Monday February 24 2014, @12:39PM (#5760)
      Well, it can get messy when the Brits start drinking by the yard [wikipedia.org].