On 10/23/2015 8:47 AM, Jack Hammer wrote:
On 10/23/2015 10:07 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 10/23/2015 05:16 AM, Jack Goff wrote:
Show me someone who thinks "english" is better than "metric" and I'll
show you an uneducated imbecile.

The metric system, unfortunately, lasted a lot longer than the First
French Republic.

----- volume

If I want to mix up a quart of 50:1 gas for a chainsaw, how many tsp of oil do
I add to a quart of gas?

Using the english system, most of us will need to grab a calculator.

32oz in a quart so 32/50 oz == 16/25
2T = 1oz
3t = 1T
so 6t = 1 oz

16/25 * 6 = 96/25 ~= 4t

The problem most folks have is that they don't *use* these units of measure.
When was the last time you *used* a measuring cup? Measured teaspoon? Etc.
Folks who bake use them constantly and, as such, have no problem remembering
the conversion factors.

You remember how many inches are in a foot, don't you? And feet in a yard?
Are these any LESS difficult to remember than 3t = 1T? Or 4qt = 1G?

Of course not! It's a question of familiarity.

Using the metric system, the problem is trivial and all but the dullest here
could do the math in their head and easily create a 1 litre batch.

Yet, all my european friends have to drag out a *scale* to bake a cake.
The idea of using calibrated *volumes* of ingredients AND TWEAKING THE RECIPES
ACCORDINGLY just seems too complex a concept for them to handle! Do I
*really* want to weigh my eggs and scale all the dry ingredients accordingly?
And, gently dispense them, one at a time, onto a scale until I have
exactly 250g of flour, 100g of sugar, 1.2g of baking powder, etc.
Sure seems a lot easier to just drag out some "calibrated volumes" and
quickly wash them, when done!

The english system is a ****ing mess. To measure volume we got teaspoons,
tablespoons, ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons. To convert between units,
most of us need an equivalency table and a calculator. Sheeeesh!

How many SECONDS will it take traveling at 10km/hour to travel 100km?

What time will it be 100 minutes from now? With that, are you any better
equipped to tell me what time it will be 1000 minutes from now?

What will the date be 100 days hence? KNOWING THAT, how easy will it be
to determine the date 1,000 days hence? Have you accounted for potential
leap years in the intervening period?

Aw, gee... time requires us to deal with all these unfortunate conversion
factors -- even the folks who embrace the metric system! Maybe we should
redefine a year to be 1000 days! With 10 months of 100 days, each. Think
of all the 60's, 24's, 30's, 31's, 28's/29's we could do away with!
Why ARBITRARILY tie this unit of time to our rotation around the sun?
How terribly inconvenient for all those school children who will now
have to deal with these weird "factors" in their calculations! Imagine
the distress little Johny must experience when he tries to figure out
how many more days until XMAS... or his birthday... or, when he'll
be able to get his driver's license!

And, all the folks in prison having to deal with those pesky conversions
as they tick off their days until release...

Metric volume is based on litres. Need to convert from millilitres to litres?
All but the dullest here can do it in their head.

How many pints in a quart? *Even* "the DULLEST here" can answer: 2.
How many quarts in a gallon? Again, even the moron in the back row knows
that's 4! Inches in a foot? Feet in a yard? Minutes in an hour?
Seconds in a minute? Hours in a day? Days in a year?

There are always inconvenient calculations in ANY measurement scheme.
And, what's with these pesky irrationals? Who the hell decided that
pi should be such a difficult value to remember? Why aren't the elements
in teh Periodic Table in alphabetical order??

Why not redefine the second to be the time light travels (in a vacuum)
1 meter? Or, a light second to be the distance (in meters) that
light travels in a billion seconds?

Then again, the europeans think a billion is what we call a trillion!
Should we also adopt that terminology?

What about driving on the left vs right? Surely there must be some
scientific, rational "best choice", there! And, should women really
bother to shave their armpits? If the europeans don't, why incur that
extra cost (for supplies) and risk (of cutting oneself)?!