[sdiy] Metric OT rant

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Colin 'n' all.

At 11:58 AM 8/11/02 +0100, Colin Fraser wrote:

>The problem with the adoption of the metric system as I see it, is that
>the decimal number system is wholly unnatural.

Yeah I was a bit pissed off with that myself. I always lament that they 
never used base 16. I find hex the most natural thing in the world and it 
encompasses fractional systems nicely. I remember once becoming excited 
when a place advertised a special on hex screws. I thought. "Ah at last 
someone's come to their senses." But alas they were referring to the 
hexagonal shape of the head which required an alan key. Still I thought it 
might be good value till I saw the price. 0FEh Dollars.

>In everyday life, how often do you deal with things in tens, compared
>with 2's and 4's, or halves and quarters, etc ?
>Just because we have 10 fingers doesn't mean we live in a universe where
>most things occur in multiples of 10.
>The imperial system is more natural, not just because the sub-divisions
>of units are more natural numbers, but because there are handy
>references in natural objects.

You mean referenced to God? At least the metric system is one system. 
Imperial tends to be a bunch of cobbled together standards which owe their 
origins to various religions of around 600 years ago. As you may recall, 
you could be burned at the stake for playing music in 4/4 time. The width 
of railway tracks owes it's origins as far back as Roman times. Where it 
was considered that the width of a pair of horses' asses' was about the 
right width. (You think I'm joking. I'm sure I have the story as text 
somewhere if you'd like me to post it.) Currency that had no direct 
relationship between denominations. In fact fledgling musical notation it 
self was pretty fucked up until Bach and his piano teacher mate discovered 
the idea of bending nature into equal temperament.

I have a little conversion program. It will convert just about anything to 
just about anything else. Assuming you're talking about the same natural 
property such as length or weight etc. Say something weights 16 pounds. Is 
that pounds troy? Pounds avoirdupois? Pounds liquid? pounds dead weight? 
METRIC POUNDS? There are at least 20 of them and that's before you get into 
pounds pressure velocity etc. In fact every time I'm trying to work out how 
many pounds something is I just cross my fingers and hope for the best 
because I don't have a clue what to convert to or from.

>The tip of my index finger to the first knuckle is an inch. My forearm
>is a foot long.

Are your feet about a foot long?

Funny really because my body is entirely in metric. Well that's my excuse 
anyway. "I've never been the same since we went decimal."

Most if not all of your problems, certainly the example you cited, are all 
due to conversion. What about if you were engineering a ship or something. 
And all the port holes had to be spaced 19 feet apart? Are you going to 
complain because you're having trouble converting that to chains? What 
about if your measurements were all in miles and you had to work back? Easy 
in metric. Fucked if I could do it in imperial.

Electronics it self is a natural phenomenon and we don't talking about 
3/16ths of a volt very often do we? I mean tell me if we do because then 
I'll know for sure I've accidently slipped into the wrong universe again. 
Bloody metric wormholes! I'm getting use to it but once I slipped into this 
alternate universe and met myself. Only I was the anti-Batz and I exploded. 
Or at least my brain did. I don't remember much about it but I was assured 
that was what happened the night before. But that's another story.

Sure we don't decimalize some things. 200 BPM is still way to fast. But BPM 
is a ratio. If you can fit 12 apples in a barrel and one of them is rotten, 
that's still a ratio of 11 to 1. Even if they're metric apples and the 
barrel is imperial. We have 12 musical tones not because it's divisible by 
the trinity 4 times but simply it was the most logical way to temper the 
scale so that each octave can be subdivided equally. And a host of other 
physically determined exceptions. But note that even the metre it self is 
devised from some natural equation. I forget what it is. Speed of light 
times the diameter of Napoleon's asshole or something? I'm sure someone 
will fill me in at great length here. (Err as long as that's a metric 
length of course.) But the thing is about the metric system is that it 
tries to standardize into one equal temperament. You only have to work in 
base 10. There are 22 yards to a chain. 3 feet in a yard. Buggered if I can 
remember how many chains in a mile. And after miles there's nothing because 
back when it was invented, if you travelled more than about 10 miles it was 
simply referred to as "A fuck of a long way." Or they'd say things like. 
"Arrr. That be a good 2 days walk from 'err me laddo. But you can get their 
faster if you run. By gum."

It's really got nothing to do with which is easier. It's got everything to 
do with what you were brought up with. I was brought up with both systems. 
I can use whatever's convenient at the time. Although I do get confused 
with some of the more obscure measurements. But at least I know that the 
metric system is all base 10. I don't have to remember how many metres are 
in a kilometre. It says it right there. There are 1000 of them. Tell me 
again how many chains are in a (US survey) ROD?

And speaking of the number 19. Why are they '19" racks'? Why didn't the 
assholes make it 20 inches and be done with it. And a single rack space 
-often referred to as a "U" - is 1&3/4 inches. Why? What dildo thought that 
one up. Thought they could save a bundle on that extra quarter of an inch 
or something? Actually to be fair, what we call a single rack U today is 
actually half a rack unit. The original basic rack height was twice that. 
But as electronics shrank, so did the rack unit. And now what we call a 
half-rack is actually some bastardized module that may or may not bolt 
together with another one to get a full rack's width. And interestingly, if 
you measure a Rack module made by the Japanese, you'll find that a single 
rack unit is exactly 44mm. And it goes up by multiples from there. As it 
turns out, 44mm is just 1/32nd off 1 & 3/4 inches. And the clearance is 
useful in allowing a bit of tolerance between modules. Not to mention the 
addition of little tiny rubber feet.

I have no problem with metric but for someone like my mother, who spent 
half her childhood trying to remember the relationship between a thrupenny 
bit and a a few gunnies, it's a big problem. I've given up questioning her 
when she tells me she got a bill for 20 million dollars the other day. 
"What? You still getting those red letters for the Mexican government in 
the post by mistake?"

But for us technically minded persons, this should just be another 
interesting challenge.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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