The James Webb Space Telescope Gets Chilled to 400 Degrees Below Zero to Prepare For Freezing Space - Polidicks

kiloton is the worst unit ever from a usability stand point "lets take a metric prefix, then slap it in front of a imperial measurement, then use it all to measure somewhat unquantifiable values"

I prefer to measure my weight in troy.

I thought this was the thread about the James Webb telescope, instead I got a Imperial vs. Metric argument

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[QUOTE=patq911;38090456]I saved this in a txt file a while ago. It's not my words, but I think it's something that's never brought up. "Celsius is not superior, freezing and boiling points of water are incredibly arbitrary things to base a measurement system on. I agree that a zeroed measurement system like Kelvin is best for scientific pursuits, but for human useability Fahrenheit is truly king. The big draw for it is that the 0-100 range in Fahrenheit range is a good measure of weather in most sane parts of the world (for instance Arizona gets down to about 35 in the winter, but sometimes down to the teens, and gets to about 115 in the summer). And for what feels hot and cold, it matches test grading, 70-79 is average, above that is warmer, below that is cooler."[/QUOTE] Fahrenheit is dumb. The 0-100 range is absolute BS, I have 0 problems saying that it's 20 below outside right now. Not to mention the temperature frequently goes outside the bounds 0-100 bounds, so you get temperatures 100+, so that's 3 digits you have to worry about, and in some places (ie Any Northern country) you also get those temperatures below 0. Celsius is magic. 0 is freezing point, 100 is boiling. It's simple.

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;38095071]Fahrenheit is dumb. The 0-100 range is absolute BS, I have 0 problems saying that it's 20 below outside right now. Not to mention the temperature frequently goes outside the bounds 0-100 bounds, so you get temperatures 100+, so that's 3 digits you have to worry about, and in some places (ie Any Northern country) you also get those temperatures below 0. Celsius is magic. 0 is freezing point, 100 is boiling. It's simple.[/QUOTE] But people can't live at 100C. And who cares about 3 numbers? It's not like it's going to get to 200F anytime soon. F is better for me to use, I like it more, it offers a reasonable scale that is easy to use. Check out the middle paragraph. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farenheit#Usage[/url]

[QUOTE=patq911;38095396]But people can't live at 100C. And who cares about 3 numbers? It's not like it's going to get to 200F anytime soon. F is better for me to use, I like it more, it offers a reasonable scale that is easy to use. Check out the middle paragraph. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farenheit#Usage[/url][/QUOTE] That paragraph? It has a [citation needed] and a [whom?] tag. It's not a valid source. Celsius is based on scientific knowledge. Fahrenheit is based on how low he could make the thermometer go with brine. It's better to have a system based on constants, then on some idiotic arbitrary measurements.

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;38095658]That paragraph? It has a [citation needed] and a [whom?] tag. It's not a valid source. Celsius is based on scientific knowledge. Fahrenheit is based on how low he could make the thermometer go with brine. It's better to have a system based on constants, then on some idiotic arbitrary measurements.[/QUOTE] As someone stated above, he has purposes in weather. Other than that it isn't really useful, but for weather it makes since. A larger scale so it is a bit easier to get a good idea of exactly what it feels out. It also helps with weather data since it is more rare to drop in the negatives and have to deal with negative values.

[QUOTE=Squad;38095727]As someone stated above, he has purposes in weather. Other than that it isn't really useful, but for weather it makes since. A larger scale so it is a bit easier to get a good idea of exactly what it feels out. It also helps with weather data since it is more rare to drop in the negatives and have to deal with negative values.[/QUOTE] I really doubt that you can feel the difference. One degree in F is 5/9 of a degree in C, and I can't tell the difference between 21 and 22 degrees. When you also factor in how most thermometers are off by 3 or 4 degrees, and how weather forecasts are localized by city/town, not by exact position, its stupid to be that "accurate". If you ~really~ want to be that accurate, we have decimals too.

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;38095923]I really doubt that you can feel the difference. One degree in F is 5/9 of a degree in C, and I can't tell the difference between 21 and 22 degrees. When you also factor in how most thermometers are off by 3 or 4 degrees, and how weather forecasts are localized by city/town, not by exact position, its stupid to be that "accurate". If you ~really~ want to be that accurate, we have decimals too.[/QUOTE] I don't mean that we actually FEEL the difference. But having 0-100 is just nice, if you weren't born in a country that uses it, of course it doesn't make sense for you to try to figure it out and understand why we like it. It works for us for weather. To Americans using Celsius for outside temperature doesn't make any sense. It is all just what you are born with using and what you are accustomed to. The only thing that is a bit challenging is mixing feet, yards and miles with centimeters, meters and kilometers. It makes projects hard to integrate and for everyone to understand what is going on. You also lose the benefits of the easy conversion factors. But for temperature outside? Really, Celsius and Fahrenheit just comes down to what you are used to using. Using Fahrenheit for outside temperature doesn't create Earth shattering consequences nor does it give us problems when trying to figure out if we should put a jacket on or not.

[QUOTE=Glorbo;38090479]40 is "my body is inside an oven now"[/QUOTE] 40 is STRAYA CUNT

[QUOTE=Squad;38095991]I don't mean that we actually FEEL the difference. But having 0-100 is just nice, if you weren't born in a country that uses it, of course it doesn't make sense for you to try to figure it out and understand why we like it. It works for us for weather. To Americans using Celsius for outside temperature doesn't make any sense. It is all just what you are born with using and what you are accustomed to. The only thing that is a bit challenging is mixing feet, yards and miles with centimeters, meters and kilometers. It makes projects hard to integrate and for everyone to understand what is going on. You also lose the benefits of the easy conversion factors. But for temperature outside? Really, Celsius and Fahrenheit just comes down to what you are used to using. Using Fahrenheit for outside temperature doesn't create Earth shattering consequences nor does it give us problems when trying to figure out if we should put a jacket on or not.[/QUOTE] So to sum up your post, people used to Fahrenheit prefer it to Celsius, and people used to Celsius prefer it to Fahrenheit. I don't think anybody was claiming to the contrary, just that Fahrenheit (as a system of measurement) is basically nonsense.

[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;38096085]So to sum up your post, people used to Fahrenheit prefer it to Celsius, and people used to Celsius prefer it to Fahrenheit. I don't think anybody was claiming to the contrary, just that Fahrenheit (as a system of measurement) is basically nonsense.[/QUOTE] Nonsense to you. Sense to Americans and the other handful of places using it. In science it makes no sense to use.

[QUOTE=Squad;38096099]Nonsense to you. Sense to Americans and the other handful of places using it. In science it makes no sense to use.[/QUOTE] What you are using makes no sense, most of the world is on the other system. It would be logical to make the switch to metric so we don't have more problems happening. Famous incidents include Air Canada Flight 143, where they filled up the plane with litres of fuel, instead of gallons, and the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, where a key part of software was not converted from imperial to metric.

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;38096214]What you are using makes no sense, most of the world is on the other system. It would be logical to make the switch to metric so we don't have more problems happening. Famous incidents include Air Canada Flight 143, where they filled up the plane with litres of fuel, instead of gallons, and the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, where a key part of software was not converted from imperial to metric.[/QUOTE] As I indicated in my previous post... Using feet, yards and miles over meters and kilometers is stupid... But you know, when they were fueling up Canada Flight 142 the fact that the temperature was in Fahrenheit or Celsius didn't cause that misconception. When the Mars climate Orbiter smashed into the surface? Again wasn't because they thought it was 40 Fahrenheit on Mars. I agree that imperial units cause issues with metric units, but the entire premise of my post was that when it comes to FORECAST TEMPERATURES it doesn't matter if a country uses Fahrenheit or Celsius.

I quite like the American temperature scale, at least for everday weather. Anything below 0 is oh shit what are you doing outside. Anything above 100 is also oh shit what are you doing outside. 50 is a nice midpoint, you should probably be wearing a jacket but it's not super cold yet. A difference of 5 isn't a massive deal unless you're already in the extremes. In Britain a difference of 5 in the temperature is easily noticeable. We'd have to undergo an unimaginable massive change to switch over from feet, yards, ect though. That's why we haven't yet and probably won't for a long while. There's no point. We're comfortable with it, it works. The only problem is that people complain about having to convert measurements.

[QUOTE=Squad;38096261]As I indicated in my previous post... Using feet, yards and miles over meters and kilometers is stupid... But you know, when they were fueling up Canada Flight 142 the fact that the temperature was in Fahrenheit or Celsius didn't cause that misconception. When the Mars climate Orbiter smashed into the surface? Again wasn't because they thought it was 40 Fahrenheit on Mars. I agree that imperial units cause issues with metric units, but the entire premise of my post was that when it comes to FORECAST TEMPERATURES it doesn't matter if a country uses Fahrenheit or Celsius.[/QUOTE] The problem is that everyone uses forecast temperatures as their base for use of temperatures in other places. It shouldn't be there at all.

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;38096300]The problem is that everyone uses forecast temperatures as their base for use of temperatures in other places. It shouldn't be there at all.[/QUOTE] Well everyone is a pretty broad term. When it comes to weather I absolutely love using Fahrenheit. In my lab? I use Celsius for recording data and Kelvin for calculations.

The usage of Imperial in the US shouldn't even be an argument of sensibility. The simple fact of the matter is that a full conversion of measurements in the United States from Imperial to Metric would cost a metric-fuck-ton of money. Every road sign, for example, would have to be changed. Products that only list Imperial would have to have design changes. Many products are made to contain a certain Imperial volume. Those volumes in Metric are generally not very well rounded measures. Hypothetically, if America made the investment it would be pointless. That is, every American is accustomed to the Imperial system. I can visualize a mile, I can't visualize a kilometer. While we are taught Metric in school, it's still difficult for many of us to visualize any Metric measure. Simply put, a switch to Metric in the U.S. would simply be inconvenient.

You wouldnt have to change road signs. The brits use miles on their roads if I'm not mistaken. All you have to do is change the measurements in the next publication of everything.

[QUOTE=acds;38092887]I'm going to take this one step further and say fuck Celsius too. Kelvin master race.[/QUOTE] Celsius and kelving are of the same units, just offset by 273.15

[QUOTE=OvB;38096605]You wouldnt have to change road signs. The brits use miles on their roads if I'm not mistaken. All you have to do is change the measurements in the next publication of everything.[/QUOTE] That was actually the plan in the UK, after a certain date all road signs that were replaced for any reason had to be in imperial and metric, then after another period of time (so people got accustomed to the better system) they dropped the imperial measurement from new signs. If the US had done something similar back in the 70s when they declared the US a metric country, even allowing 20 years between the switchovers, they'd be on metric by now.

[QUOTE=Squad;38096394]Well everyone is a pretty broad term. When it comes to weather I absolutely love using Fahrenheit. In my lab? I use Celsius for recording data and Kelvin for calculations.[/QUOTE] Unless you see [b]Δ[/b]T appear in your calculations. Then you're like, "awwwww yeah! Don't even have to convert!"

I remember reading how some people wanted to get rid of the JWST program a year or two back, that would have been shitty if they got enough support. I can't wait to see what this telescope discovers. The Hubble saw a galaxy 13.2 BILLION light years away, and the JWST is one HUNDRED times more powerful. I can't wait til it launches.

[QUOTE=Saxon;38090022]FYI since some of you don't seem to know, we are taught both in school with proper conversions[/QUOTE] A lot of schools barely even teach you the basic metric measurements. Let alone thoroughly teaching conversions, if they bother teaching them at all.

Waste of tax dollars.

[QUOTE=trotskygrad;38089592]30 is hot 20 is nice 10 is cold 0 is ice[/QUOTE] I'll adjust that for Australia- 40 is hot 30 is nice 20 is fucking freezing Anything below is completely foreign.

Holy ass, mirrors 7 times larger than hubble? If the hubble brings back photos like this [t]http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/hubble/hubble20th_lg.jpg[/t] it's hard to imagine what sort of stuff this telescope will show

[QUOTE=hypno-toad;38097872][t]http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/hubble/hubble20th_lg.jpg[/t] it's hard to imagine what sort of stuff this telescope will show[/QUOTE] Holy shit, its Gordon freeman and his crowbar up top, head humper at bottom left!

[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;38096853]That was actually the plan in the UK, after a certain date all road signs that were replaced for any reason had to be in imperial and metric, then after another period of time (so people got accustomed to the better system) they dropped the imperial measurement from new signs. If the US had done something similar back in the 70s when they declared the US a metric country, even allowing 20 years between the switchovers, they'd be on metric by now.[/QUOTE] And it's not like we would have to increase funding to replace all the signs. They change signs all the time. There are people whose job it is to just drive around in a pickup full of road signs and replace old ones. [editline]19th October 2012[/editline] Though I think it would be easier to just keep them all in miles because that's what Americans are use to, and then you don't have to change the actual [i]location[/i] of the sign so you don't end up with stupid stuff like "Next exit 1.60 kilometers"