Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 8

Author Topic: The Measurement Thread  (Read 15012 times)

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #30 on: May 02, 2011, 06:40:36 am »

The hogshead. One, because it makes you wonder if they actually used the head of a hog at some point to derive it.

Second, because it's the only volume measurement I know of that changes dependant on what is being measured. For wine, it's 63 gallons, for beer it's 54 gallons.

Thirdly, because it's mostly used to measure booze. Seems a very dwarfy unit.
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

scriver

  • Bay Watcher
  • City streets ain't got much pity
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #31 on: May 02, 2011, 06:48:19 am »

Eh, the school systems already teach dual measurement systems pretty much completely, especially any sort of science class. It doesn't change the fact that redoing every sign in the country is kinda pointless and wasteful.
Gotta start somewhere. As I said, there's no need to change all at once, especially if you're already taught both.

Yeah, that's what we do. Granted we could do a better job ob being equal about it but I'm not gonna deal with the public educational system problems in this thread.
Good to know. I'd gotten the impression that you was only taught Imperial.
Logged
Love, scriver~

ed boy

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #32 on: May 02, 2011, 08:52:13 am »

I must say, I've always disliked the electronvolt.

The span and the cubit, however, are pretty good units.
Logged

olemars

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #33 on: May 02, 2011, 09:06:43 am »

Slugs per dry bushel.
Logged

Armok

  • Bay Watcher
  • God of Blood
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #34 on: May 02, 2011, 10:35:00 am »

Bits, as an unit of evidence. Which is incidentally also a good thing to measure.
Logged
So says Armok, God of blood.
Sszsszssoo...
Sszsszssaaayysss...
III...

TherosPherae

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #35 on: May 02, 2011, 10:41:59 am »

Favorite non-real measurements: The Urist & the Arbitrary Unit (don't ask how I use this one.)
Favorite real measurement: Probably watts, just for the lame jokes that I get to say in the middle of physics lecture. They're even funnier because the professor is a huge stickler for units. "I'm sorry, but that's 64 whats?" "Yes."
I once had a teacher that, if someone forgot the units, started to talk about cubic crowbars.
I once had a teacher that would, in every situation where someone would forget to mention the units in their solution, imply that the units were "baby elephants." Regardless of what we may or may not have been studying, and/or the presence of fractions in said number. She would've make a very good Dwarf Fortress player.

Gosh, that first sentence looks like butchered grammar. Oh well.
Logged
Quote from: Aqizzar
Being vengeance and the night could only be improved by being the ballpunching vengeful night.
Quote from: Cthulhu
Gotham's mysteriously high mental illness rate isn't so mysterious when you find out Batman thinks subduing a guy means spiking his head into the pavement like a football.

ILikePie

  • Bay Watcher
  • Call me Ron
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #36 on: May 02, 2011, 12:35:55 pm »

I like smoots. 1 smoot = 1.7018 meters or 67 inches.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2011, 12:37:49 pm by ILikePie »
Logged

Ampersand

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #37 on: May 02, 2011, 02:01:11 pm »

attoparsecs per microfortnight.

Very nearly 1 inch per second.
Logged
!!&!!

Darvi

  • Bay Watcher
  • <Cript> Darvi is my wifi.
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #38 on: May 02, 2011, 02:03:45 pm »

Planck time. And I like to measure the time until school's over :V
Logged

Starver

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #39 on: May 02, 2011, 02:45:15 pm »

Kelvin. I mean, how hard is it to see the logic in a temperature system where zero is, well... zero?

Then my option of the Delisle scale where 0°K equals approximately 560°De would not impress you, I imagine?  (+560°De)

:)

Other than that, I'm torn between the Thaum, the Helen or the Smoot as my favourite units.

As for measuring, I'm quite happy to consistently remain as very nearly zero Warhols on the fame-o-meter.
Logged

Leafsnail

  • Bay Watcher
  • A single snail can make a world go extinct.
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #40 on: May 02, 2011, 04:18:49 pm »

"Pascals".  Newtons per square centimetre.  Not sure why.

There's also this.  I hear British people still have a problem with metrics.
Maybe the older generation, but with a few exceptions (miles on motorways, pints for drinks in bars) most people have adapted.

I must say, I've always disliked the electronvolt.
It's wonderfully misleading.  For instance, the LHC ramped up to 7 tera-electron volts (or 7,000,000,000,000 electron volts) last year.  Must be huge, right?

Well, in the more usual energy measurement of joules, it's 1122 microjoules (0.000001122J).  In other words, pathetically low.
Logged

Virex

  • Bay Watcher
  • Subjects interest attracted. Annalyses pending...
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #41 on: May 02, 2011, 05:40:42 pm »

Mind you that's 7 terra-electron volt per particle.

Kelvin. I mean, how hard is it to see the logic in a temperature system where zero is, well... zero?

Then my option of the Delisle scale where 0°K equals approximately 560°De would not impress you, I imagine?  (+560°De)

No, but I'm sure he would accept the Rankine without a hitch :P
« Last Edit: May 02, 2011, 05:42:35 pm by Virex »
Logged

Dr. D

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #42 on: May 02, 2011, 05:58:21 pm »

I think if I ever have to take a non-physics class again and it starts making me angry, I will start using really weird units, such as using solar masses to describe the yield of a chemical reaction or electron volts for energy changes in them.
Logged
Bombengranadenelementplitzplotzdonnerwettersappermentnochmal!

Leafsnail

  • Bay Watcher
  • A single snail can make a world go extinct.
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #43 on: May 02, 2011, 06:02:22 pm »

Mind you that's 7 terra-electron volt per particle.
Well, yeah, obviously in the context of particle collisions it's HUGE.  But TeV are still pretty small, and it sounds less impressive when measured in joules :P.
Logged

Dr. D

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Measurement Thread
« Reply #44 on: May 02, 2011, 06:03:35 pm »

What about foot-pounds?
Logged
Bombengranadenelementplitzplotzdonnerwettersappermentnochmal!
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 8