'Pokémon Go' Is Forcing Americans to Learn the Metric System
288 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Blizzerd;50731277]
kg is far more useful in day to day use, even though the guy that invented the system thought gram was more useful for weighing.[/QUOTE]
What I mean is that other units are all prefix-free, but are defined with kilograms, thus making "kilogram" the baseunit. So a gram should theoretically be called a millikilogram. A baseunit shouldn't be prefixed.
[QUOTE=DrDevil;50731541]What I mean is that other units are all prefix-free, but are defined with kilograms, thus making "kilogram" the baseunit. So a gram should theoretically be called a millikilogram. A baseunit shouldn't be prefixed.[/QUOTE]
It's not naming
People are saying that the gram should have been 1000x what it is, and up the ladder everything goes
[editline]18th July 2016[/editline]
Megagrams
Gigagrams
Teragrams
Petagrams
[QUOTE=DrDevil;50731541]What I mean is that other units are all prefix-free, but are defined with kilograms, thus making "kilogram" the baseunit. So a gram should theoretically be called a millikilogram. A baseunit shouldn't be prefixed.[/QUOTE]
Yes, Originally the gram was the base unit, but as the need for increased accuracy became more important then the possibility of getting 1 gram accurate they shifted the base unit to a kilogram.
Its easier percentage wise (like... a thousand times easier) to get a kilogram accurate then a gram, and then say 'A gram is 1/1000 of a kilogram lol'.
It grew historically. The university that developed the measuring unit used it originally to measure chemicals etc thus gram was more useful for them then kilogram.
paraphrasing here but still.
[QUOTE=Blizzerd;50731277]that's how clean Celsius is... Kelvin is still better for science, but for every day applications... Celsius wins hands down from Kelvin and Fahrenheit.[/QUOTE]
I still argue that Fahrenheit is best for the weather report.
0°F = fucking cold outside
100°F = fucking hot outside
0°C = it might snow
100°C = mass extinction event
use whatever system you want, i'm not your mom, but celsius for weather never made sense to me for some reason
[QUOTE=lavacano;50732318]I still argue that Fahrenheit is best for the weather report.
0°F = fucking cold outside
100°F = fucking hot outside
0°C = it might snow
100°C = mass extinction event
use whatever system you want, i'm not your mom, but celsius for weather never made sense to me for some reason[/QUOTE]
The only advantage here is that there's more numbers and therefore more precision since nobody gives out a weather temperature with a decimal place for some reason. But matching something neatly to 0 and 100 only really makes sense if you're going to work with halves and quarters and such - that's why it's great to have distances and currencies and weight and such in powers of ten. But from my perspective, Fahrenheit's only pro is that there's more numbers in use. You could just use a decimal place to get that precision. Celsius' only pro is that it's based on Kelvin.
"It's going to be half as warm tomorrow", "Great! It was 100F today so it'll be 50F tomorrow!", "Fuck, what's half of 37.7C"
Another advantage would be if it let you easily infer the temperature out of something you experience. If you're able to step outside and go [I]"It's fucking cold out, must be around 0°F"[/I], then that's good. Seems to be what you're saying you can. But from what I can see, 0°F is really, [I]really[/I] fucking cold, and I don't know how I would distinguish 0°F from 10°F or even 20°F. Celsius allows you to go outside and go [I]"that puddle is ice, must be around 0°C"[/I], so that feels more precise to me in that regard?
[QUOTE=Sherow_Xx;50732595]The only advantage here is that there's more numbers and therefore more precision since nobody gives out a weather temperature with a decimal place for some reason. But matching something neatly to 0 and 100 only really makes sense if you're going to work with halves and quarters and such - that's why it's great to have distances and currencies and weight and such in powers of ten. But from my perspective, Fahrenheit's only pro is that there's more numbers in use. You could just use a decimal place to get that precision. Celsius' only pro is that it's based on Kelvin.
"It's going to be half as warm tomorrow", "Great! It was 100F today so it'll be 50F tomorrow!", "Fuck, what's half of 37.7C"[/QUOTE]
100F is bloody hot and 50F is pretty cold, not sure what you're getting at here.
[QUOTE=Sherow_Xx;50732595]The only advantage here is that there's more numbers and therefore more precision since nobody gives out a weather temperature with a decimal place for some reason. But matching something neatly to 0 and 100 only really makes sense if you're going to work with halves and quarters and such - that's why it's great to have distances and currencies and weight and such in powers of ten. But from my perspective, Fahrenheit's only pro is that there's more numbers in use. You could just use a decimal place to get that precision. Celsius' only pro is that it's based on Kelvin.
"It's going to be half as warm tomorrow", "Great! It was 100F today so it'll be 50F tomorrow!", "Fuck, what's half of 37.7C"[/QUOTE]
Honestly, Fahrenheit barely even has that, with calculators being as ubiquitous as pencils these days. I'm just arguing that a 0-100 scale of unusual but not uncommon extremes is the most reasonable scale for the weather, and Fahrenheit's already filling that space. You don't even need to know the actual freezing point is 32°F to know that if it's 25°F outside, it's pretty goddamn cold. 100? That's a scorcher. You already have a vague idea of how cold it is outside before you've even finished reading the number.
For people who are already used to Celsius weather temperatures, this is kind of a moot point. I'm thinking about what scales to teach kids here.
[editline]18th July 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Headhumpy;50732641]100F is bloody hot and 50F is pretty cold, not sure what you're getting at here.[/QUOTE]
Maybe this is just because I'm from Seattle, but 50° is a pretty comfortable temperature for me
usually i don't even need a coat
[QUOTE=Swilly;50716096]The people complaining about dates need to have their head checked.
ITS FUCKING DATES.
[editline]15th July 2016[/editline]
Its easier to guess if you need a coat or not. Its also better to use involving sea water[/QUOTE]
An american might not notice much, but if you're moving a lot between local and american international websites for instance, the dates are a massive PITA.
You often have to double and triple check stuff.
Most sensationalist headline I've ever seen. The game isn't forcing anyone to do anything. All players need to know is that the number is going up and when it hits the right number you get a goodie. And I can guarantee that no one is going to feel any urge to suddenly start learning the metric system just because one game mechanic calls for it.
[QUOTE=Trebgarta;50733959]Isnt there a different system for gram based
either called SI or something else
there were two systems IIRC
[editline]18th July 2016[/editline]
I would argue temperature is mostly learned through experiencing and experimanting rather than in classrooms. You look at the thermometer, it says 32 F or 0 C and you are freezing, and your 5 year old brain registers that. And so on.
I dont know, I rarely do math on Celsius. Just tell me a degree and a felling will spark in my brain telling me how cold or hot that would be.[/QUOTE]
You're thinking of CGS units: centimetre, gram, and second. Nowadays we use SI units, which include the MKS units of metre, kilogram, and second.
It's only really relevant when you're doing calculations and your constants need to be in the right units though. Not to mention converting between these units is piss easy because they only differ by a factor that is a power of 10.
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