Imperial system fun

Originally posted by @wolfgang59
@ and * have been the "new" numerals for base 12 since the stone age.

I'm thinking waj and oma will be the new numerals.

Originally posted by @wajoma
I'm thinking waj and oma will be the new numerals.

12 Waj = 144 Oma

Originally posted by @sh76
FWIW, although Celsius makes (slightly) more sense scientifically, I like Fahrenheit much better for measuring temps. First, the fact that the degrees are smaller makes the temperature measurement more precise. More importantly, I happen to live in a climate where 0 F is just about the lowest temp we ever reach (I remember a temp as low as -7, but temps below ...[text shortened]... sources I've seen, Fahrenheit himself had similar thoughts in mind when he developed his scale.

Here in the southern part of the UK, it rarely falls much below about 0 Celsius! I also find it useful to be able to think 0-9 = cold, 10-19 = cool, 20-29 = warm, 30+ is definitely hot.

But Kazet's right, really; you adapt mentally to whatever scale is in use.

Originally posted by @kquinn909
If I jump out of a Casa or a Grand Caravan from 13.5 k doing a 120 knots into a 50 mph headwind w/a lb. of gold, a kilo of cocaine, a lb. of feathers and my ex wife who is 20 stones and my canopy has a 1.5 wing loading who/what hits the ground first at a 3 thousand ft. elevation? Remember. I'm going out the back of the Casa w/the relative wind and the Caravan into the relative wind.

An African or European swallow?

Originally posted by @suzianne
An African or European swallow?

I... I don't know.

Originally posted by @sh76
FWIW, although Celsius makes (slightly) more sense scientifically, I like Fahrenheit much better for measuring temps. First, the fact that the degrees are smaller makes the temperature measurement more precise. More importantly, I happen to live in a climate where 0 F is just about the lowest temp we ever reach (I remember a temp as low as -7, but temps below ...[text shortened]... sources I've seen, Fahrenheit himself had similar thoughts in mind when he developed his scale.

"First, the fact that the degrees are smaller makes the temperature measurement more precise"
that's what decimals are for.
you don't measure the length of a football field in inches, do you?

"More importantly, I happen to live in a climate where 0 F is just about the lowest temp we ever reach"
yes, 0 degrees should be tied to one place on earth. because all humans live there and you never have to communicate with a human being that lives somewhere where 0 degrees is NOT the coldest temperature or where 0 degrees will never happen.

"Having the 0-100 scale being right about the extremes of realistic air temperature is quite a logical way of doing things."
the logical way of doing things is to tie it to something that is universally true. Like, say, water (one of the most common substances on earth), freezing and boiling, not something that is true in your immediate vicinity and the rest of the people should just learn some formulas.


"Dealing with negative numbers as air temperatures is a little more clunky. "
what are you talking about, you deal with negative numbers as well. you don't have to just measure how cold it is outside.


"According to some sources I've seen, Fahrenheit himself had similar thoughts in mind when he developed his scale"
and according to others, he just took the coldest temperature HE could record and then measured HIS temperature. 100 degrees Fahrenheit used to be how hot is inside Fahrenheit rectum. A brilliantly scientific method.

Originally posted by @kazetnagorra
Both scales are completely arbitrary - when do you really need to know the freezing and boiling points of water? Remembering that negative temperatures correspond to freezing temperatures outside isn't significantly easier than remembering 32F.

This whole thread is silly. Ask a random American to draw a line of 4 inches and the average European to d ...[text shortened]... error. Ask any of them to do an elementary unit conversion and most likely they'll screw it up.

"Both scales are completely arbitrary - when do you really need to know the freezing and boiling points of water?"
you're missing the point. The celsius scale is not tied to the freezing and boiling points of water because you need to often use them. It is tied to them in order to easily calibrate a thermometer based on something common enough.

"Remembering that negative temperatures correspond to freezing temperatures outside isn't significantly easier than remembering 32F."
yes it is quite difficult to remember that values smaller than the freezing point of water are freezing temperature.

"Ask any of them to do an elementary unit conversion and most likely they'll screw it up."
yes, remembering inches, barleycorns, feet, furlongs, miles is just as logical and arbitrary as moving the decimal point left or right.

Originally posted by @teinosuke
Here in the southern part of the UK, it rarely falls much below about 0 Celsius! I also find it useful to be able to think 0-9 = cold, 10-19 = cool, 20-29 = warm, 30+ is definitely hot.

But Kazet's right, really; you adapt mentally to whatever scale is in use.

"But Kazet's right, really; you adapt mentally to whatever scale is in use."
the point is not to adapt to whatever system is in place in your village of 100 people.
the point is to adapt to the most logical system used by the majority of the world.

Originally posted by @fabianfnas
Pizzas are best cut in sixths. Then you can share the pizza fairly with one or two friends.
Pizzas cut in eighths can only be shared with one or three friends, not with two.

If I had two friends, to avoid argument, I would sacrifice my waistline by taking half for myself and leaving the other two a quarter each. Or if I really liked my friends, I would give each of them 3 slices and I would have two. But the best solution would be cutting 16 slices, so that each of the 3 of us would start out with 5 slices each, the last going to the person who finishes first, if they desire it. Sort of like a free market system where resources are efficiently deployed, a natural reduction of waste as one person would easily consume slightly less that one third of a pizza, and with a bonus for the first finisher which helps keep people focussed on the non eating components of getting together in the first place...

Originally posted by @kmax87
If I had two friends, to avoid argument, I would sacrifice my waistline by taking half for myself and leaving the other two a quarter each. Or if I really liked my friends, I would give each of them 3 slices and I would have two. But the best solution would be cutting 16 slices, so that each of the 3 of us would start out with 5 slices each, the last going t ...[text shortened]... elps keep people focussed on the non eating components of getting together in the first place...

I wrote 'fairly', meaning that each one will have as large as the other.

Originally posted by @zahlanzi
"First, the fact that the degrees are smaller makes the temperature measurement more precise"
that's what decimals are for.
you don't measure the length of a football field in inches, do you?

"More importantly, I happen to live in a climate where 0 F is just about the lowest temp we ever reach"
yes, 0 degrees should be tied to one place on earth. b ...[text shortened]... rees Fahrenheit used to be how hot is inside Fahrenheit rectum. A brilliantly scientific method.

Weather reports don't use tenths of a degree when they report the weather. Seeing on weather.com that the temp is 86 F is slightly more precise than seeing that it's 30 C. Not a huge difference, but a small one.

Thermometer calibrations are no longer necessary in every day life. As such, even if there was once a good reason to use Celsius, it no longer applies.

You want to keep using Celsius, by all means, go ahead (it takes me - at most - about 3 seconds to convert standard air temps in my head, so I don't mind that both systems are used). But I prefer Fahrenheit, thank you.

I'll agree that conversion to metric for distance, area and volume quantities makes sense.

Originally posted by @sh76
Weather reports don't use tenths of a degree when they report the weather. Seeing on weather.com that the temp is 86 F is slightly more precise than seeing that it's 30 C. Not a huge difference, but a small one.

Thermometer calibrations are no longer necessary in every day life. As such, even if there was once a good reason to use Celsius, it no longer appl ...[text shortened]... u.

I'll agree that conversion to metric for distance, area and volume quantities makes sense.

"I'll agree that conversion to metric for distance, area and volume quantities makes sense."
that's the important one.

Originally posted by @fabianfnas
I wrote 'fairly', meaning that each one will have as large as the other.

Sure but life is not fair, so it's your duty to constantly affirm that! 😵

Originally posted by @fabianfnas
I wrote 'fairly', meaning that each one will have as large as the other.

Only problem with divisions of 3,6 and 12 are cutting it accurately. Especially with a big pizza cutting tool where it's much easier to get consistently equal sections by halving, quartering etc

With 3 initial cuts, you rotating 120° and are cutting to the centre. With 2,4,8,16 slices, you cut through the centre. That follow through makes all the difference.

Originally posted by @kmax87
Only problem with divisions of 3,6 and 12 are cutting it accurately. Especially with a big pizza cutting tool where it's much easier to get consistently equal sections by halving, quartering etc

With 3 initial cuts, you rotating 120° and are cutting to the centre. With 2,4,8,16 slices, you cut through the centre. That follow through makes all the difference.

Who said anything about 3 slices of pizza?
When you slice with divisions of 6, how do you slice it? Through the center? Yes, me to.

But if you like the binary system, please, just use it. I think slices in sixths tastes better!