this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
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[–] ste_@lemmy.ml 79 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait until you discover what system they used for the Apollo missions

[–] shootwhatsmyname@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Internal calculations were are all done in metric, but converted to traditional US units because many of the astronauts were pilots and more used to them

[–] Vilian@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

imperial system is based on metric(on wikipedia) so they calculed on metric, converted to imperial, that is basically metric but worse

[–] Pipoca@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kinda sorta not really.

One problem with units is defining them precisely.

For example, a meter is ostensibly "one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along a great circle". That's not exactly precisely defined because the earth isn't a perfect sphere.

So currently, a meter is defined to be the distance light travels in a vacuum in 9192631770 / 299,792,458 hyperfine structure transitions of caesium-133.

Rather than doing the same sort of thing with updating the standard definition of a foot or pound, the US just piggybacked off the work precisely defining metric units and defined imperial in terms of metric.

So now a foot is officially the precise distance light travels in some number of hyperfine structure transitions of caesium-133, and the US government didn't need to do a thing.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

If only they made a meter equal a yard. I'm okay with a bigger yard.

[–] BloodSlut@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago
[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] lugal@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's not helpful. We all know what the apollo program was but where in the article does it talk about the system of measurement?

[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

LoL, @shootwhatsmyname sounded like they might want something to read while they were waiting. Have you found it yet, @lugal?

[–] lugal@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Sorry, I misread your comment. I didn't but someone else answered the comment

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

quick! the Imperial system is under attack. Only you can save it. Tell me, how many barleycorns in a chain?

[–] airportline@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Easy. 1 chain = 2376 barleycorn

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

thank God you were here. we couldn't have managed another decasecond without you

[–] Halosheep@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

A... WHAT SECOND?

[–] saltnotsugar@lemm.ee 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Someone once told me it was 20 degrees Celsius out. I didn’t know if it was snowing, blazing, or if he was moving at 50 furlongs a minute.

[–] zefiax@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is exactly how I feel when my American colleagues discuss the weather in Fahrenheit.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

0: Fuck, it's cold out there!

100: Fuck, it's hot out there!

If you go somewhere outside this range - leave.

[–] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fahrenheit is, surprisingly, somewhat intuitive in the very specific case of weather.

Not that it never goes beyond the extremes of the scale, but very broadly speaking, 0-100 F is your weather range, with 0F being cold as balls and 100F being hot as balls.

The balls scale of weather temperature is significantly less intuitive.

[–] DroneRights@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only in america, though. The rest of the world has a more diverse climate and it actually gets proper hot and cold here.

[–] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel like no matter where you go, most people would agree that 0F is really cold and 100F is really hot.

Again, not that it never goes beyond those, but it's a quick and effective scale.

[–] DroneRights@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

People's sense of temperature varies with climate. Canadians go to work in shorts at 10C, while australians think 10C is colder than Ymir's frozen armpits

[–] joneskind@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Celsius

  • 0° : freezing water
  • 100° : boiling water

Farenheit

  • 100° : I love you darling
  • 0° : We're all gonna die

Both

  • 50°C and 50°F : Not a good temperature for a bath
[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A propos the last one: the only temperature where fahrenheit and celsius are the same temperature at the same number of degrees is at -40°

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago

So in To Build A Fire when it's -70° it doesn't matter what it is, the sad hidden ending is the dog freezes too.

[–] TinyPizza@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago

It was the uncomfortably long soul patch. That's what he did and we deserved it.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can suck on my metric system lmao

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whatever helps make that number bigger so you feel better when measuring!

[–] bi_tux@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Except when brittish money

[–] theotherone@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] airportline@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What have we done to deserve this?

[–] Turun@feddit.de 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nothing, you don't need to do anything particularly good to deserve the metric system. It is given free of charge to all people!

[–] airportline@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

But I love having to add fractions with different denominators and getting it wrong!

[–] Andonno@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That's okay, youl still have time for that.

[–] joneskind@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is given free of charge to all people!

As a French dude knowing about another small petty French dude named Napoleon, I wouldn't say it was always given free of charge.

[–] Turun@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

Metric system (cavalry charge included)

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Kept breaking things by using us customary for the most part

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm just wondering what we did to deserve the inch becoming 25.4mm instead of just 25 XD

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

5cm ≈ 2 inches up to about a foot.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

We already are on the metric system.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

US Metric Association - Origin of the Metric System (https://usma.org/origin-of-the-metric-system)

National Institute of Standards and Technology - Metric Policy - https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/metric-policy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States

[–] coco@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Im stuck with in Canada.

So frustating that american carmake gone to metric

[–] ReverseDiarrhea@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sir, it’s called a speedometer not a speedoyard.

[–] coco@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago
[–] daq@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

You mean you're blessed with non idiotic units that are easy to convert and you don't have to get out a calculator every time you need to convert between random body parts, right?