Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
When I use degrees, I measure them in: | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 95 comments | Search Discussion
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: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday March 15 2014, @07:21PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday March 15 2014, @07:21PM (#16908) Journal

    si units all seem to be water based

    Not all. The meter was originally defined as the length of the meridian from the north pole through Paris to the equator. Which is why the earth circumference is to a good approximation 40000 kilometers. And of course the second is also completely unrelated to water.

    However the kilogram was indeed originally defined as the weight of 1 liter of water.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 16 2014, @08:36PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday March 16 2014, @08:36PM (#17262) Journal

    Err ... I just notice that I made a quite embarrassing error: The meter was of course based on, not defined as the length of the meridian. Indeed, it was defined as the ten millionth part of that.

    Otherwise the earth circumference would be just four meters. ;-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

  • (Score: 1) by blackest_k on Saturday March 22 2014, @04:05PM

    by blackest_k (2045) on Saturday March 22 2014, @04:05PM (#19721)

    lucky coincidence that 1000 litres = 1000kg of water and that happens to be pretty close to being 1 cubic meter at room temperature.

    There's no real reason why they have to be so close, I guess gravity could be a part of it.

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday March 22 2014, @04:15PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday March 22 2014, @04:15PM (#19731) Journal

      No, as I wrote at the other post, it's not coincidence.

      First, that 1000 liters are a cubic meter is no coincidence because that's exactly how the liter is defined.
      Second, that a liter of water has the mass of 1 kilogram is no coincidence because that's how the kilogram was originally defined.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

      • (Score: 1) by blackest_k on Saturday March 22 2014, @06:21PM

        by blackest_k (2045) on Saturday March 22 2014, @06:21PM (#19767)

        yes your quite right i was thinking of it backwards the litre the kg are relatively arbitrary in that a kilogram and litre of water would be a bit bigger if the meter was.

        but apart from the meter seems that water gets used for part of the definition a lot.