ThomasPowers Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 You use a speed drive for the UB! I remember when digital scientific calculators were a big thing and I had a Physics TA who said he didn't care what units you used as long as you used them correctly and coherently---till he got the first set of homework done in parsecs per nanofortnight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 It's worth pointing out that most civil engineering drawings and projects in the US are done in decimal feet. I worked for a site utilities contractor for one summer and had lots of fun asking the guys if we were "still working ten inches to the foot"! Working as an estimator, I've noticed that a lot of people assume that multiplication and division are harder with fractions. However, there are a great many situations where that's actually not true. I suspect it's because people *think* it's more accurate to have an answer that rounds off at the second, third, or fourth decimal place. I had a physics professor who loved to write a couple of questions in each exam that could be solved entirely in your head so long as you did the operations with the fractions intact. "Simplifying" to decimal equivalents only made the problem harder to enter into your calculator, and didn't allow you to end up with the perfectly correct answer. He put the less-accurate calculated decimal equivalent as an option to trap the unsuspecting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I now see why every time someone has a survey done on adjoining property to ours, we loose a couple of feet. Our survey was done in 1980 using the chain & rod system and the surveyors located corner stones put in place in the early 1800s. Now everything is done using GPS and who knows what measurement system. Ain't technology grand. (end of rant) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Slag Weird meter things from 1671 that I did not mention earlier. In 1671 Jean Picard measured the length of a "seconds pendulum" (a pendulum with a half-period of one second) at the Paris observatory. He found the value of 440.5 lines of the Toise of Châtelet which had been recently renewed. He proposed a universal toise (French: Toise universelle) which was twice the length of the seconds pendulum. However, it was soon discovered that the length of a seconds pendulum varies from place to place: French astronomer Jean Richer had measured the 0.3% difference in length between Cayenne (in French Guiana) and Paris. Jean Richer and Giovanni Domenico Cassini measured the parallax of Mars between Paris and Cayenne in French Guiana when Mars was at its closest to Earth in 1672. They arrived at a figure for the solar parallax of 9-1/2 inches, equivalent to an Earth–Sun distance of about 22000 Earth radii. They were also the first astronomers to have access to an accurate and reliable value for the radius of Earth, which had been measured by their colleague Jean Picard in 1669 as 3269 thousand toises. Picard's geodetic observations had been confined to the determination of the magnitude of the Earth considered as a sphere, but the discovery made by Jean Richer turned the attention of mathematicians to its deviation from a spherical form. In addition to its significance for cartography, the determination of the Figure of the Earth became a problem of the highest importance in astronomy, inasmuch as the diameter of the Earth was the unit to which all celestial distances had to be referred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 And then there were the Welsh Measurements.....beloved of the dread leek belt masters of LLap Goch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I was just reading about fractals and coastline measurements. The smaller the unit used the greater the final distance when measuring highly irregular shaped things. Doesn't really pertain but interesting. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 pnut, I've read about that too, it's incredible how the pursuit of precision can lead to situations where the numbers start to dramatically jump. There are examples in advanced particle physics where observation actually changes the properties. It's my laymen understanding that it's only possible to accurately measure any two out of three related properties, before the third property becomes impossible to quantify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 By simply observing you influence the outcome of entangled atoms. Its mostly above my head but I'm familiar on a rudimentary level with what you're talking about happening on the quantum level. Like I said though it's well above my pay grade. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I like to watch Quantum entanglement and it even seems to happen at the macro level in twins oooooo I want to see a quantum physics thread break off from here : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Zounds !!, Schades of Schroedinger's cat! SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Shimanek Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 The cat is dead; or is it? My 1972 Clausing lathe only threads in imperial measurements so..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Steve, many manufactures offered gear changes that allowed metric threading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 5 hours ago, pnut said: By simply observing you influence the outcome of entangled atoms. This should read , " By simply observing you influence the outcome of entangled particles." I was at work and rushing to post the response while I had a moment. In another reality Mr shiminek your clausing lathe threads in metric and yet another reality you don't have a clausing you own an Atlas and yet another I'm not posting this ..... Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I regularly encounter a similar phenomenon with clients when it comes time to make a decision that costs money. There's lots of entanglement, we can measure what they want, and what it costs, but as soon as those figures emerge, their budget disappears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 5 hours ago, SLAG said: Zounds !!, Schades of Schroedinger's cat! SLAG. Compadre Slag, Uh, shouldn't that be, Zounds of Schroedinger's cat? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Frosty, San, You are correct. SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Shimanek Posted July 10, 2019 Share Posted July 10, 2019 Unfortunately, in this universe, Clausing Model 1500s afaik do not have interchangeable gears; in the alternate reality, the old Atlas i sold many years ago could probably be refitted to make metric threads. But in that alternate reality, would I want to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuEulear Posted July 10, 2019 Share Posted July 10, 2019 When i was in 1st grade i learned metric and it was super easy i never forgot it but i was sad we failed to convert. It is not awkward at all when you specify lumber or distance in metric or even steel. Yes converting is difacult but if we did it in the 80’s it would have been easier. I have allways found it funny when an american says “ no i use miles and pounds i an a American” . Diddent we fight a rather brutal war against king George to have the right to our own country yet here we are the only nation on earth still using the british imperial system. hilarious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Shimanek Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 I remember in grade school in the early 70s they taught the metric system; I learned to use metric distances in the Army, and had to have both metric and standard in my toolboxes, but i still drink my coffee by the quart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 Mr. Shimanek, Please do tell me that one thousand milliliters of Java tastes quite as good as one pint of coffee. There is no comparison. The metric folks are missing out, I say. Sincerity, SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 1 hour ago, SLAG said: The metric folks are missing out, I say. You can say that again Slag Meister, Metric folk completely Decimaul a cup of coffee. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 oh Frosty I bet you would love a hot 500 ml of coffee in the morning, Cup is not a metric measurement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 Do I need to get out the paint brushes for you Steve? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 would you please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 Metrics Deci MAUL a cup. Maul as in mangle. Not Decimal a cup. If I said something like that I'd probably get a ticket for Litering. This getting old sucks, I can't drink more than a pot of coffee anymore. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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