Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New to PSUB (measurement units)

[jbarlow@bjservices.ca]

I concur 100%.  I don't know why it is such an issue.  If you want to call
a 36" OD pressure hull 914.4 mm then thats OK.  One of my favorite
fractions is 5/127.  My next favourite is 127/5




Jay.




                                                                                                                                                
                      David Buchner                                                                                                             
                      <buchner@wcta.net>                To:       personal_submersibles@psubs.org                                               
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                      owner-personal_submersible        Subject:  Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New to PSUB (measurement units)                           
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                      21/10/2003 11:44 AM                                                                                                       
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                      personal_submersibles                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                




Uh-oh, here comes the feet vs. meters topic again...

On Sunday, October 19, 2003, at 07:09 PM, NeophyteSG@aol.com wrote:
> Agreed.  From an engineering calculations standpoint, I prefer using
> metric though conceptually I have to convert it back to inches, feet,
> pounds (or more accurately "slugs").  The numbers and units just
> crunch easier in metric.  From a practical standpoint, sometimes you
> just don't have that option.

I used to be a big, gung-ho, advocate of forcing a big switch to SI.
You know: because it just "makes so much more sense" and is "more
scientific." Also because it was more "PC" as in "the rest of the
industrialized world has converted, why won't the US?" It just turned
out to be impractical for me, because here everything is still sold and
described in inches, feet, miles, etc.

I've had a new thought on this, which seems simple and obvious now but
hadn't occurred to me before. And that's that, for people who use math
and measurement all the time, a system of units constitutes almost a
language -- and expecting somebody to change their system just because
"everyone else is using this other one," is equivalent (in a sense) to
insisting that everybody should ditch the language they grew up with,
and switch to Esperanto.

Besides: I read a great line in a science fiction story, about being
distrustful of anybody designing anything important, who would get hung
up trying to divide by 12.