Date:         Tue, 31 Jan 2006 22:44:36 -0600
Reply-To:     Jeff Palmer <icecoldvw@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Palmer <icecoldvw@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Metric this, metric that
In-Reply-To:  <3e9baba99abaac1ebf442764ca5ac595@knology.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

How is 70 degrees Fahrenheit more user friendly or more 'appropriate' than
20 degrees Celsius?  I'm a big fan of tradition, but how can it get simpler
than things that are based on/divisible by ten/100/1000 etc.  Measuring
weather is just as arbitrary as measuring anything else.  And where I live,
-40 is seen often enough regardless of which system you use.

Ok guys quit baiting me!  You know i can't resist!

Jeff


>From: Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
>Reply-To: Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Metric this, metric that
>Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:57:41 -0600
>
>John,
>
>You saved me the trouble of sending what I just wrote, almost exactly
>what you wrote.
>
>Jim
>
>On Jan 31, 2006, at 10:33 AM, John Bange wrote:
>
>>>Non-intuitive?  Water freezes at 0, boils at 100.  How is that not
>>>intuitive??
>>>
>>>Not so much non-intuitive as under-descriptive. Freezing and boiling
>>>of
>>water are really only convenient marking points for scientists and
>>engineers. The freezing and boiling point of water at sea level are, in
>>fact, utterly arbitrary marking points! Why not the boiling point of
>>alcohol? Or the freezing point of mercury? When most people talk
>>temperature, they're talking weather. In that regard, the Fahrenheit
>>scale
>>has a more appropriate scaling. Most human-habitable areas experience
>>temperatures that range inside 0-100F for the most part. Centigrade,
>>though,
>>is optimized for science, which marks the same temperature range as
>>-17 to
>>37C. This results in a rather overly-coarse degree of resolution,
>>forcing
>>the use of an awkward decimal place for certain applications. The
>>metric
>>system is indeed very logical and rational, but it lacks the same
>>degree of
>>seat-of-the-pants convenience the older systems. The fact that we have
>>calculators now has obscured for many people the fact that (10 fingers
>>notwithstanding) we can't easily do decimal math in our heads. Our
>>brains
>>are MUCH better at estimating halves, thirds, quarters, etc. The
>>original
>>French metric system is very much a product of the "Age of
>>Enlightenment",
>>with science and rationality being emphasized over tradition. This
>>resulted
>>in a quite a bit of reasonably useful traditional baby being thrown
>>out with
>>the bathwater. The metric system is great, but there are several places
>>where, for reasons of internal consistency based on scientific
>>convenience,
>>it fails to achieve the same degree of conventional utility as the
>>system it
>>replaced.
>>
>>--
>>John Bange
>>'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
>>

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