• s (unregistered) in reply to Peter
    Peter:
    Actually, it should be in Kelvins, expressed in *binary*, printed out on a piece of paper, photocopied, photographed, scanned, and uploaded in a JPG.
    No, no, no, no. Fahrenheit printed, photocopied, photographed on wooden table. Kelvins in binary, encoded as 8-bit ASCII characters for best range and bit efficiency. Temp range of ^A^J - ^A&
  • s (unregistered) in reply to mikko
    mikko:
    Metric units are for dummies who have to count on their fingers, and who don't know that there are other number systems besides base ten.

    So, what base number system is the English units (say, length - inch, foot, yard, mile) system based on?

  • s (unregistered) in reply to Saemus Heaney
    Saemus Heaney:
    I'm also always six-foot-two, 188cm just doesn't sound right,

    Sorry, but this one (as opposed to Fahrenheit, which is still convertable, 0=fucking cold, 70=about ok) tells most of the metric people (including me) absolutely nothing. It's easy to visualise 1.5 or 2m of height, and get the values inbetween. Adding 35 inches to 5 feet is entirely hopeless.

  • Saemus Heaney (unregistered) in reply to poochner
    poochner:
    Harrow:
    But I can't recall what it was that Washington the man said in the early 20th centuary.

    -Harrow.

    "Help! Help! Let me out of this coffin!"
    Saemus Heaney:
    Quote Wikipedia: "In the United States the Fahrenheit system continues to be the accepted standard for non-scientific use.All other countries have adopted Celsius as the primary scale in use. Fahrenheit is sometimes used by older generations in English speaking countries, especially for measurement of higher temperatures."

    I've no doubt its in common use in many places around the globe, but the fantastically pro-american who posted his tripe would certainly be wrong in suggestings its the standard..

    You don't read very well. I assure you that within the United States, it is indeed the standard for non-scientific use, though many weather forecasts give both, and many thermometers (especially digital ones) can give results in either.

    And I might have made a mistake with my comment, I meant to say, "be wrong in suggesting its the standard world wide".

    I've been to the States, I've seen their Imperialness. It's easy enough to convert between, so it shouldn't be a big deal, but for people that know one and refuse to acknowledge the other its a pain explaining it to them.. This includes everyone, like talking to Americans and being told something is stupid because its confusing that a distance is in KM's, or living with my girlfriend with her frequent questions of, "How much is 50 miles?", "I hate these measurements, how am I supposed to know what a pound, foot, yard or furlong is equal to".

    As I said before, its not hard to learn approximations, even if they're not particularly accurate. For instance, I've quite often explained: A Yard is a metre A mile is just over 1.5km's An ounce is just under 30g There's 2.2 pounds to the kilo

    Thinking back, I've even been asked what a fifth is before seeing as so many American TV shows and movies coin the phrase "fifth of vodka".

    One thing I've never been able to do is even semi accurately handle Farenheit, its a god awful scale, possibly due to their being differing zero points.. At least 0 inches is exactly the same as 0 centimetres aye?

  • (cs) in reply to Jean Naimard
    Jean Naimard:
    Why didn’t you briefly switch it to cooling? The coils would have been heating-up, melting the ice, letting you bundle up inside and be cozy instead of freezing in the rain…
    I'm not aware that heat pumps work that way. I'll file it away for future research.

    I really didn't mean to focus attention on the ice-melting process. The point was that I built a deflector to prevent a recurrence of the problem--something which is far more relevant to the story that started this thread.

  • Shambo (unregistered) in reply to Saemus Heaney
    Saemus Heaney:
    poochner:
    Harrow:
    But I can't recall what it was that Washington the man said in the early 20th centuary.

    -Harrow.

    "Help! Help! Let me out of this coffin!"
    Saemus Heaney:
    Quote Wikipedia: "In the United States the Fahrenheit system continues to be the accepted standard for non-scientific use.All other countries have adopted Celsius as the primary scale in use. Fahrenheit is sometimes used by older generations in English speaking countries, especially for measurement of higher temperatures."

    I've no doubt its in common use in many places around the globe, but the fantastically pro-american who posted his tripe would certainly be wrong in suggestings its the standard..

    You don't read very well. I assure you that within the United States, it is indeed the standard for non-scientific use, though many weather forecasts give both, and many thermometers (especially digital ones) can give results in either.

    And I might have made a mistake with my comment, I meant to say, "be wrong in suggesting its the standard world wide".

    I've been to the States, I've seen their Imperialness. It's easy enough to convert between, so it shouldn't be a big deal, but for people that know one and refuse to acknowledge the other its a pain explaining it to them.. This includes everyone, like talking to Americans and being told something is stupid because its confusing that a distance is in KM's, or living with my girlfriend with her frequent questions of, "How much is 50 miles?", "I hate these measurements, how am I supposed to know what a pound, foot, yard or furlong is equal to".

    As I said before, its not hard to learn approximations, even if they're not particularly accurate. For instance, I've quite often explained: A Yard is a metre A mile is just over 1.5km's An ounce is just under 30g There's 2.2 pounds to the kilo

    Thinking back, I've even been asked what a fifth is before seeing as so many American TV shows and movies coin the phrase "fifth of vodka".

    One thing I've never been able to do is even semi accurately handle Farenheit, its a god awful scale, possibly due to their being differing zero points.. At least 0 inches is exactly the same as 0 centimetres aye?

    And having traveled outside the US on many occasions, coupled with higher learning science I can say that in my opinion the metric system just makes more sense then the imperial system. It is so much easier to use and understand. A base 10 system is intuitive even. Without having been raised here in the US it would be pretty difficult to understand the Fahrenheit scale. It already is difficult knowing how many yards are in a mile let alone the confusing as hell volume measurement.

    IMHO, the metric system is better and the US should have stuck to it's guns when it tried to switch in the 80s.

  • Saemus Heaney (unregistered) in reply to s
    s:
    mikko:
    Metric units are for dummies who have to count on their fingers, and who don't know that there are other number systems besides base ten.

    So, what base number system is the English units (say, length - inch, foot, yard, mile) system based on?

    Well said :P

    s:
    Saemus Heaney:
    I'm also always six-foot-two, 188cm just doesn't sound right,

    Sorry, but this one (as opposed to Fahrenheit, which is still convertable, 0=fucking cold, 70=about ok) tells most of the metric people (including me) absolutely nothing. It's easy to visualise 1.5 or 2m of height, and get the values inbetween. Adding 35 inches to 5 feet is entirely hopeless.

    That's not my point though, apart from the height of a person, or the fact a basketball ring is 10ft high, I can't measure in feet at all.. As you say, I can semi-accurately visualise what a 21x29m room looks like, asking the same thing in feet?? No chance.

    But when measuring people, even in a metric only country (like Australia), its awfully common to hear heights measured in feet. My mum is five-eleven, I'm six-two, my dads six-foot and the tallest man in the world is eight-something.

    It's nothing to do with the fact I can look at a person and estimate they're 5"3' ( I can't ), but I've always found it almost customary to present your height in feet.

  • Northerner (unregistered) in reply to s
    s:
    mikko:
    Metric units are for dummies who have to count on their fingers, and who don't know that there are other number systems besides base ten.

    So, what base number system is the English units (say, length - inch, foot, yard, mile) system based on?

    We don't have to tell you. The President said that it doesn't apply to us.

    Besides, do what we say or we'll bomb you flat. We know better than you, and anyone who disagrees with us is a cheese eating surrender monkey.

    </sarcasm>

    CAPTCHA: sanitarium (>.<)

  • Random832 (unregistered) in reply to moo
    moo:
    -0.001 (approx) Celcius is the freezing point of water. 99.974 (approx) C is the boiling point of water. Explain the arbitrary points used in Fahrenheit please.

    You made a factual error, which I have fixed for you. The only genuine exact fixed point is the triple point of water at 0.01 C. The rest of the scale is defined based on one degree being the same as one kelvin, and the size of that unit is based on an archaic and inaccurate measurement of the melting and boiling points of water at an arbitrary pressure (one intended to approximate the average pressure at, as is often the case with these things, Paris, France.)

  • (cs) in reply to s
    s:
    Adding 35 inches to 5 feet is entirely hopeless.
    I'm all in favor of going metric with everything else (our United States currency system already is metric). But still... adding 35 inches to 5 feet is simplicity itself. 35 inches is one inch less than the 36 inches that make up the standard yardstick used in elementary schools throughout the US. A yard is three feet. Can you add three feet to five feet and then adjust slightly for the missing inch?
  • (cs) in reply to s
    s:
    Saemus Heaney:
    I'm also always six-foot-two, 188cm just doesn't sound right,

    Sorry, but this one (as opposed to Fahrenheit, which is still convertable, 0=fucking cold, 70=about ok) tells most of the metric people (including me) absolutely nothing. It's easy to visualise 1.5 or 2m of height, and get the values inbetween. Adding 35 inches to 5 feet is entirely hopeless.

    Oh quite easy to add 35 inches to 5 feet. Take 35 inches, divide by 12 (or divide by 6 and halve it if you don't know your 12 times tables well enough). That equals roughly 2.9. The whole number left over you add to 5 feet (to get 7 feet), and you take the 9, multipy it by 12 and divide by 10 (for inches, because it's not in a base ten counting system) and round, and you get 7'11".

    You know... it actually seemed a lot easier in my head when I was thinking about it. Actually typing it out and sketching it on paper made it a lot more complicated.

    Bugger this, I'll stick with the Canuck system I grew up on. Although to be honest, I measure myself in feet and inches and pounds as well, but don't ask me what 70F is or how far a mile is.

    -- Seejay

  • Bill Butthead (unregistered) in reply to Richard
    Richard:
    Hold an umbrella and a blow dryer???? Sound like you were close to being published in the Darwin awards!

    I am glad I at least caught this reply before I posted that thought - see, it was RAINING, and the dork is outside (presumably) with an electronic device. The addition of the lightening rod (aka umbrella) was the icing on the cake for me. All I could hope for is that he left out the part where he decided to wear his golf spikes, and ren-fest chain mail armor, while standing on a steel plated patio.

    but, alas... he's probably already died by this time.

  • (cs) in reply to Bill Butthead
    Bill Butthead:
    The addition of the lightening rod (aka umbrella) was the icing on the cake for me.
    Right, good call. Never use an umbrella in the rain.

    It's much too late to set this one right, so have fun with it. Think of it as an early Christmas present.

  • (cs) in reply to Saemus Heaney
    Saemus Heaney:
    As I said before, its not hard to learn approximations, even if they're not particularly accurate. For instance, I've quite often explained: A Yard is a metre A mile is just over 1.5km's An ounce is just under 30g There's 2.2 pounds to the kilo

    Thinking back, I've even been asked what a fifth is before seeing as so many American TV shows and movies coin the phrase "fifth of vodka".

    One thing I've never been able to do is even semi accurately handle Farenheit, its a god awful scale, possibly due to their being differing zero points.. At least 0 inches is exactly the same as 0 centimetres aye?

    The equation for conversion is F = (9/5)C + 32 or C = (5/9)(F - 32).

    So, the way to handle it is to round aggressively. 9 ~= 10. So, about every decade of Fahrenheit is 5 degrees Celsius. Also, 32 is pretty damn close to 30 if you're just trying to ballpark it.

    So, Celsius to Fahrenheit: Multiply by 2 and add 30.

    Fahrenheit to Celcius: Subtract 30, divide in half.

    70 F = (70 - 30)/2 C = 20 C. (By the real formula it comes out as 21.1 C == 70 F.)

    This works pretty well over the range of buckinghamshire cold to buckinghamshire hot weather.

  • (cs) in reply to Saemus Heaney
    Saemus Heaney:
    That's not my point though, apart from the height of a person, or the fact a basketball ring is 10ft high, I can't measure in feet at all.. As you say, I can semi-accurately visualise what a 21x29m room looks like, asking the same thing in feet?? No chance.

    But when measuring people, even in a metric only country (like Australia), its awfully common to hear heights measured in feet. My mum is five-eleven, I'm six-two, my dads six-foot and the tallest man in the world is eight-something.

    It's nothing to do with the fact I can look at a person and estimate they're 5"3' ( I can't ), but I've always found it almost customary to present your height in feet.

    In English speaking countries, possibly. I doubt you'll find (m)any other countries where that is customary.

    And I assure you that it is quite possible to find it perfectly natural to express your height in centimeters or meters :)

  • Bill Butthead (unregistered) in reply to Saemus Heaney
    Saemus Heaney:
    Thank god fruit&veg isn't sold pound/pound, as that would just be too confusing :P

    The real WTF here, is that a Scotsman is a vegetarian.

  • Bill Butthead (unregistered) in reply to FredSaw
    FredSaw:
    Bill Butthead:
    The addition of the lightening rod (aka umbrella) was the icing on the cake for me.
    Right, good call. Never use an umbrella in the rain.

    It's much too late to set this one right, so have fun with it. Think of it as an early Christmas present.

    Aww, I'm sure you'll provide more gifts than this one before XMAS. ("xmas": which, should offend at least some portion of people from all walks of life)

    But, you're right, a properly EARTHED umbrella in the rain, great idea. (for Americans, earthed = grounded)

    Ok, I'm off to repair a lift in a flat complex. Some comedian has converted the floor numbers into cuneiform again. (for Americans, flat = apartment; lift = elevator)

    Cherrio, have a biscuit, and think pure thoughts. (for Americans, biscuit = cookie)

  • Zombie_Hunter (unregistered) in reply to poochner
    poochner:
    Harrow:
    But I can't recall what it was that Washington the man said in the early 20th centuary.

    -Harrow.

    "Help! Help! Let me out of this coffin!"
    No, I believe he said "Braaainssssss....."
  • Mr Squid (unregistered) in reply to anon

    [quote user="anon"][quote user="Look at me! I'm on the internets!"][quote user="FreakBurrito"]

    IIRC, the idea to annex Canada came after the British started the war by pressing American sailors. And, as soon as we found out they put gravy on their Freedom Fries, we turned around and went home. [/quote]

    That is not correct. The Royal Navy had stopped boarding US ships before the US government declared war, not that it had happened often in the first place. The primary reason for the war was to annex British North America. The sailor issue was mostly just an excuse to start fighting.

  • (cs) in reply to phaedrus
    phaedrus:
    Saemus Heaney:
    As I said before, its not hard to learn approximations, even if they're not particularly accurate. For instance, I've quite often explained: A Yard is a metre A mile is just over 1.5km's An ounce is just under 30g There's 2.2 pounds to the kilo

    Thinking back, I've even been asked what a fifth is before seeing as so many American TV shows and movies coin the phrase "fifth of vodka".

    One thing I've never been able to do is even semi accurately handle Farenheit, its a god awful scale, possibly due to their being differing zero points.. At least 0 inches is exactly the same as 0 centimetres aye?

    The equation for conversion is F = (9/5)C + 32 or C = (5/9)(F - 32).

    So, the way to handle it is to round aggressively. 9 ~= 10. So, about every decade of Fahrenheit is 5 degrees Celsius. Also, 32 is pretty damn close to 30 if you're just trying to ballpark it.

    So, Celsius to Fahrenheit: Multiply by 2 and add 30.

    Fahrenheit to Celcius: Subtract 30, divide in half.

    70 F = (70 - 30)/2 C = 20 C. (By the real formula it comes out as 21.1 C == 70 F.)

    This works pretty well over the range of buckinghamshire cold to buckinghamshire hot weather.

    Damn, you beat me to it, including the buckinghamshire reference! I'll just add something for those concerned about how accurate this is. For 10°C or 50°F, both the real and simplified formulas yield the same value. For every 5°C you move in either direction, the simplified formula is off by 1°F.

  • Lazarus666 (unregistered)

    Nice one, though at the end I sort of hoped GRG would cut the tree down with his Bic pencil.

  • (cs) in reply to Mr Squid
    Mr Squid:
    anon:

    IIRC, the idea to annex Canada came after the British started the war by pressing American sailors. And, as soon as we found out they put gravy on their Freedom Fries, we turned around and went home.

    That is not correct. The Royal Navy had stopped boarding US ships before the US government declared war, not that it had happened often in the first place. The primary reason for the war was to annex British North America. The sailor issue was mostly just an excuse to start fighting.

    Basically correct. The whole thing was largely to do with Jimbo Madison having a protracted hissy fit. Luckily for him, his wife wore the trousers.

    Or pants.

    Whatever. Inside leg measured in Imperial inches at the time, as I recall.

  • (cs) in reply to IDK
    IDK:
    Also, the majority of the world uses metrics.

    Also, Alex's site is based in the US, which doesn't.

    Come on, people. Why is it you have to make such a big deal about nothing? The point to be made was that there was a big temperature differential; it makes no difference what units were used to express that differential.

  • (cs) in reply to KenW
    KenW:
    IDK:
    Also, the majority of the world uses metrics.

    Also, Alex's site is based in the US, which doesn't.

    Come on, people. Why is it you have to make such a big deal about nothing? The point to be made was that there was a big temperature differential; it makes no difference what units were used to express that differential.

    It's part of this site's culture - nitpicking and one-upmanship with The Real WTF (tm) to the point that we've all lost sight of what the story was.

    just to toss some more (petr|gas)ol(|ine) on the fire, TRWTF is that the metric system does NOT include an alternative clock or calendar, that there isn't an alternate angle measurement (like we have celsius and kelvin, we should have "metric degrees" to go with radians. maybe 100 in a quarter to make 400 in a circle, or maybe 100 in a circle altogether), and that the whole thing is actually based on Napoleon's height in the first place. (ok, that last one was a lie. I needed three things.)

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    I prefer SI units, but let's not pretend that any system of measurement other than Plank units (a.k.a. God units) isn't highly arbitrary.

    For the most part, the imperial system is based on units that have many convenient small factors, which make mentally subdividing measurements convenient. For instance, the yard is approximately half a man's height or arm span, and is divisible by 2,3,4,6,9,12, and 18 into an integral number of inches. The difference in temperature between freezing and boiling water is evenly divisible by 2,3,4,5,6,9,10,12,15,18, etc. SI units are only conveniently sub-divisible by products of powers of 2 and 5.

    Ideally the world would have standardized a temperature scale zeroed at absolute zero (and hopefully the triple point of water at 1000, or something based on blackbody radiation and the emission spectra of hydrogen). Supposing the second is too entrenched to change, the speed of light in a vacuum of 1e+10 distance units per second would be nice. Angles in radians or angular mils would be nice.

  • Dube (unregistered)

    why fix that? don't bite the hand that feeds you! they probably have a contract with the local hardware provider ;)

  • JD (unregistered)

    I hereby award this "discussion" (and I use the term loosely) 'Snarkiest Thread Ever'.

    Now all of you - shut up and go do something useful with your time!

  • Confused (unregistered) in reply to phaedrus
    phaedrus:
    Saemus Heaney:
    As I said before, its not hard to learn approximations, even if they're not particularly accurate. For instance, I've quite often explained: A Yard is a metre A mile is just over 1.5km's An ounce is just under 30g There's 2.2 pounds to the kilo

    Thinking back, I've even been asked what a fifth is before seeing as so many American TV shows and movies coin the phrase "fifth of vodka".

    One thing I've never been able to do is even semi accurately handle Farenheit, its a god awful scale, possibly due to their being differing zero points.. At least 0 inches is exactly the same as 0 centimetres aye?

    The equation for conversion is F = (9/5)C + 32 or C = (5/9)(F - 32).

    So, the way to handle it is to round aggressively. 9 ~= 10. So, about every decade of Fahrenheit is 5 degrees Celsius. Also, 32 is pretty damn close to 30 if you're just trying to ballpark it.

    So, Celsius to Fahrenheit: Multiply by 2 and add 30.

    Fahrenheit to Celcius: Subtract 30, divide in half.

    70 F = (70 - 30)/2 C = 20 C. (By the real formula it comes out as 21.1 C == 70 F.)

    This works pretty well over the range of buckinghamshire cold to buckinghamshire hot weather.

    It's actually pretty easy to convert F to C accurately in your head.

    First, take away 32 so that you'll get F degrees above freezing. Next, divide it by two to get C-ish degrees. Then, add 1/10th of that number again. You have now essentially multiplied by .55, which is very close to 5/9.

    Example: You have 70F. Lose 32 from that to get 38. Half of that is 19. Another tenth is 1.9, which is almost 2, Add them and you get 21C.

  • USA All the Way (unregistered) in reply to standgale

    Large amounts of Americans didn't have to figure anything out. Funny how this is an American website and we use American Units. I'd be willing to bet if this were a German website or French or Spanish it would be written in the appropriate language weird how that works out is it not?

  • Tephlon (unregistered) in reply to grg
    grg:
    >1) The man can't seem to hold a job for very long.

    34 years, three employers. 11.333 yrs/job average.

    Can you say child labor?

  • Nasete (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    I prefer SI units, but let's not pretend that any system of measurement other than Plank units (a.k.a. God units) isn't highly arbitrary.

    For the most part, the imperial system is based on units that have many convenient small factors, which make mentally subdividing measurements convenient. For instance, the yard is approximately half a man's height or arm span, and is divisible by 2,3,4,6,9,12, and 18 into an integral number of inches. The difference in temperature between freezing and boiling water is evenly divisible by 2,3,4,5,6,9,10,12,15,18, etc. SI units are only conveniently sub-divisible by products of powers of 2 and 5.

    Ideally the world would have standardized a temperature scale zeroed at absolute zero (and hopefully the triple point of water at 1000, or something based on blackbody radiation and the emission spectra of hydrogen). Supposing the second is too entrenched to change, the speed of light in a vacuum of 1e+10 distance units per second would be nice. Angles in radians or angular mils would be nice.

    You really made my day! Sure we ALL need to reach a better system without so arbitrary points. Every system is a product from the state os the Science where and when it born. New systems born for a reason and with constraints (probably allways and any system). The better your instruments, the finest your system. The better your knowledge, the least arbitrary...

    I must confess i agree with the simplicity of the Imperial system for the small units used in comerce; that way you don't ever need measure instruments or calculators. I am from a SI country and we had that kind of units coming from back in the middle age.

    But now and not for trolling, just learning.

    Would please someone tellme how capacity measures work on Imperial system? My head hurts so fucking hard when I hear about "fluid ounces". What the hell is that? Mass, volume? what about density? I just need to know because i love beer "pints". It's just the appropriate measure to calm thirst.

  • Paolo G (unregistered) in reply to Random832
    Random832:
    just to toss some more (petr|gas)ol(|ine) on the fire, TRWTF is that the metric system does NOT include an alternative clock or calendar, that there isn't an alternate angle measurement (like we have celsius and kelvin, we should have "metric degrees" to go with radians. maybe 100 in a quarter to make 400 in a circle, or maybe 100 in a circle altogether)

    True, but such units exist, even if they are not used (or are little used). See:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grad_%28angle%29

  • Djn (unregistered) in reply to USA All the Way
    USA All the Way:
    Large amounts of Americans didn't have to figure anything out. Funny how this is an American website and we use American Units. I'd be willing to bet if this were a German website or French or Spanish it would be written in the appropriate language weird how that works out is it not?

    Like so many english-lanugage websites, this is in practice an international site. Since (the world - the US) = a lot of people that don't use american units, your point is really quite weak.

  • scotty (unregistered)

    would be even funnier if you could enter the secure server room from the venting

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