Thread: Going Metric
View Single Post
  #5   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 09-09-2003, 18:42
DanL DanL is offline
Crusty Mentor
FRC #0097
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Rookie Year: 2001
Location: Somerville, MA
Posts: 682
DanL is just really niceDanL is just really niceDanL is just really niceDanL is just really niceDanL is just really nice
Send a message via AIM to DanL
http://www.metricsucks.com/metric_land.html

(just to stir up controversy)


Seriously though, the site does bring up advantages of the imperial system that I never realized before, one of the best examples being the description of the Fahrenheit scale and how easy it was to create a thermometer back then:
Quote:
And for thermometers, it seems that is precisely what Fahrenheit was
up to. Fahrenheit was playing around and playing around and finally
set ice water at 32, and body temperature at 96, so that there were
64 divisions between the two. That way, no matter where you are in
the world, you can re-generate his thermometer. You stick the
thermometer in ice water, and mark it there. Then you stick it
under your tounge, and mark it there. Then you get a string, and
fold it in half 6 times, and you have the 64 divisions between 32
and 96!
Note: Body temperature was corrected to 98.6 after Fahrenheit had died
__________________
Dan L
Team 97 Mentor
Software Engineer, Vecna Technologies

Last edited by DanL : 09-09-2003 at 18:46.
Reply With Quote