Reading mode: Light Dark

To all Americans: about measure units

Go to last post
Seems to me that we Americans would glady accept the SI units of measurement..like we accepted the MG's, Austin's etc......the trick will be for you Brits to figure out how to get the SI units to leak oil...just like your cars...then we can understand it better and accept it easier

This is a joke
This is only a joke

If it was a real slam you would have been given instructions on where to go etc, etc.etc.....lol

You in ????

Don
 
Americans have a real problem with units we learned from our English for fathers. Our British brothers after two centuries of sulking over Nepolian, saw the light and moved to metric. The Colonies are still a little backward even though Napolean was a Republican (to start with).

NASA lost two Mars explorers a few years ago when the scientists were working with the engineers. Only in America do the scientist work is metric and the engineers in english units (yes thats that we call inches and feet and calories etc.) We don't us the term SI but rather ngs (newton gram second) Anyway the "units" we were passing back and forth to program the navigation were different. Result of this miscommunication $200M slammed into the Mars countryside.
toughluck said:
Could everyone PLEASE state whether they are using Imperial, or
Metric units in their posts? Just a moment ago, I've read a post
that stated temperature in 'degrees' - 24 to be exact. Now,
Americans already get shivers, and Europeans feel that's a quite
nice temperature, sure beats winter, anyway.
AFAIK, Phil Askey is British, and this site is (somewhat) British
as well. I'm not about to dwell into American vs. British spelling,
as that would be perceived as more of a flame bait than the above
question. Returning to the subject: since this site is based in UK,
we should either use SI measure units, or at least clearly state
that you are using the Imperial unit. Be wary that there are 400
million people using Imperial MS (and then some, in Liberia), but
the remaining 6,600,000,000 (six billion six hundred million)
people use SI units. Scientists in USA also use SI in their work,
taking some off the 400 million figure.
So, use SI. If not, state that you are using Imperial units, for
example: 24 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not saying you should convert
units, switching over to SI, or providing both figures.

So, to Americans: what is clear to you, may be unclear to the rest
of forum members here. Even your fellow Americans may wonder what
MS you have on your mind. Take that into consideration, please.
Click to expand...
--

Ken Eis - D100 and S45 Nikon 18-35, 28-105, 24-120VR, 70-300, 80-400VR, 500mm and 60mm macro
 
Weight is not a force. It's a state of a body (like temperature, for example).

Force is how much force (duh) you exert in pressure on the surface of any other body. Let's say the body is Earth. We had the "kG" unit back in the fifties (kilogram-force), which measured force of pressure a non-moving, non-accelerating body exerted upon Earth at the Equator, assuming Earth was stationary. That was until SI adopted Newtons as the official secondary measure of force (secondary meaning derived from primary SI units).

Oh, and scales do not measure weight. They don't even measure force. They measure pressure. That is why a person standing on a scale in a starting elevator would weigh less/more according to its acceleration. When the elevator would be moving with constant speed, the person would weight the same (until elevator started stopping).

That's the way that Russians used to train their cosmonauts in near gravityless environment - by means of descending a plane from a high altitude (constant acceleration) for two-three minutes.
DavidP said:
Mike Noren said:
DavidP said:
The thing is, you're supposed to talk about Newtons for weight in
the SI system. But people just talk about kg.
Click to expand...
Not quite, Newton measures force, kilogram measures mass:
http://www.techexpo.com/techdata/si-units.html
Click to expand...
--
http://www.outboundmusic.com
Your link to independent music!
Click to expand...
 
Fortunately, SI did think of magnitudes of their units, so we can safely use them. As in millimetres, or kilometres. Funnily enough, the 'kilogramme' is not used as a magnitude of a 'gramme' unit, but is the traditional name.

Oh, and talking about base (and all primary units, including radians and steradians), explain the unit "Volt."
As in: 3,3 V processors...
3,3 Ohm/A... Explain "Ohm..."
jack1000 said:
... and make it a site policy that we use not just SI units, but
only the 7 base units. (If you already know what these are, then
give yourself a science nerd pat of approval.) e.g. the dimensions
of a new sensor have to be given in metres ... :-P

(on an unrelated note, there is one good reason that I can think of
for using the Kelvin temperature scale on a site like this -- you
don't need to type a 'degrees' symbol.)

jack
Click to expand...
 
"Baby step???" I mean, if somebody posts "24 degrees," what should I think???
Is it 24 degrees Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin, or Rankin???
Or, perhaps it's 24 degrees Beaufort, or Richter scale???
Or maybe it's just ISO 200?
Ger Bee said:
......... I cannot understand why we need to baby step everybody,
we are all aware that this is an international forum so behoves us
all to understand the other guy, if we are interested.

I?m going for a pint of Guinness anyone want a translation?

Nine O?Clock, O?Flaherty?s and I?ll reveal all.
Click to expand...
 
DavidP said:
But weight is a force. That's why you weigh less on the moon.
Click to expand...
Didn't NASA navigate to the moon in Nautical miles?

Now that's a unit that really DOES make sense. In International terms, and in relation to standard units of time.

Hmmm.... Shall I start a movement to have it applied universaly, do you think?

And didn't NASA crash a spacecraft on to some unsuspecting planet, because, on that occasion, they forgot which units they were using. I think I've got this right.

Regards,
Baz
 
James C. Murray said:
Could someone explain A3 and A4 sizes of prints for me? Seems to be
yet another mysterious measurement.
Click to expand...
Not really.
(All measures are in mm)
A4 is 210x297. 210xsqrt(2)=297 (about).
A3 is 420x297. 297xsqrt(2)=420.
A0 (base sheet cut into 2 A1 sheets) is 840x1188.

A, B and C rows are very simple once you get the hang of it. The fantastic thing about them is that you have a constant aspect ratio, making enlarging/reducing extremely easy. If something prints well at A4, reduce it to A5, and you have exactly the same page layout. For me, it sure beats the primo, folio, quarto, octavo major, and primo, folio, quarto, and octavo minor, as well as hundreds of other systems that were in use across the centuries.

B is a bit larger format (base B0 being 1000x1410), and C format is used for envelopes that will house A and B sheets of the same row number. All very simple, really. Well, unless I have mixed up B and C, and C starts at 1000x1410, but I think it's unlikely.
 
KenEis said:
NASA lost two Mars explorers a few years ago when the scientists
were working with the engineers. Only in America do the scientist
work is metric and the engineers in english units (yes thats that
we call inches and feet and calories etc.)
Click to expand...
snip

Calories are METRIC Ken.

1 Calorie = The amount of heat rquired to raise 1 cubic centimetre of water by 1 degree Centigrade.

[ Cubic Centimetre: renamed Millilitre ]
[Centigrade: renamed Celsius]

It's NO WONDER we get confused.

Thanks for reminding me that it was Mars those spacecraft crashed into. See my "Moon" posting up-thread.

Regards,
Baz
 
Let’s end this incessant nonsense about which system is better. For 35 years I taught American kids about both systems. “Do you want to learn about non-related, archaic units based on no rhyme or reason or a system based on some logic.” . My students opted for the SI system. Not just metric cause, don’t forget, ther’s the CGS system based on grams , centimeters, seconds , dynes, ergs, etc.

When it comes to time the system is upward based. The second defined in terms of oscillations of the cesium atom Everything else based on the second. Never intended to upset circadian rhythms or the natural flow of time as witnessed by our trip around the sun.

What would you rather have... one horsepower equal to 550 ft-lbs per second or the watt equal to one joule per second. Pure economy. Pure beauty. That’s what this is all about.

And since this is a photography site.. how may are still measuring in foot-canclles???

GROW UP.

JayC
 
Baz,

You got it right about this and other things. The fact that Americans are using BTU's instead of calories may explain why they are suffering from such weight gains?

JayC
Barrie Davis said:
DavidP said:
But weight is a force. That's why you weigh less on the moon.
Click to expand...
Didn't NASA navigate to the moon in Nautical miles?

Now that's a unit that really DOES make sense. In International
terms, and in relation to standard units of time.

Hmmm.... Shall I start a movement to have it applied universaly, do
you think?

And didn't NASA crash a spacecraft on to some unsuspecting planet,
because, on that occasion, they forgot which units they were using.
I think I've got this right.

Regards,
Baz
Click to expand...
 
toughluck said:
Could everyone PLEASE state whether they are using Imperial, or
Metric units in their posts? Just a moment ago, I've read a post
that stated temperature in 'degrees' - 24 to be exact. Now,
Americans already get shivers, and Europeans feel that's a quite
nice temperature, sure beats winter, anyway.
AFAIK, Phil Askey is British, and this site is (somewhat) British
as well. I'm not about to dwell into American vs. British spelling,
as that would be perceived as more of a flame bait than the above
question. Returning to the subject: since this site is based in UK,
we should either use SI measure units, or at least clearly state
that you are using the Imperial unit. Be wary that there are 400
million people using Imperial MS (and then some, in Liberia), but
the remaining 6,600,000,000 (six billion six hundred million)
people use SI units. Scientists in USA also use SI in their work,
taking some off the 400 million figure.
So, use SI. If not, state that you are using Imperial units, for
example: 24 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not saying you should convert
units, switching over to SI, or providing both figures.

So, to Americans: what is clear to you, may be unclear to the rest
of forum members here. Even your fellow Americans may wonder what
MS you have on your mind. Take that into consideration, please.
Click to expand...
--Can We Get Back To Photography....Me Brain Hurts Now...I Hate Maths..
MrScary (DennisR)
Swansea, Wales. UK

http://www.pbase.com/dennisr
http://community.webshots.com/user/mrscarecrow
http://digiden.photoshare.co.nz
 
Barrie Davis said:
Thanks for reminding me that it was Mars those spacecraft crashed
into. See my "Moon" posting up-thread.

Regards,
Baz
Click to expand...
--
Just remembered..........

Tomorrow, Christmas Day, the Brit's first mission to Mars is due to make a soft landing on the surface.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.......... (please)

Regards,
Baz
 
About 10 years ago a 767 was fuelled up in Toronto in litres, taken by a pilot as gallons.

Ithad to make an emergency landing on empty fuel tanks somewhere in Alberta on the way to Vancouver.The pilot who made a mistake also saved the people and the aircraft, landing on a small un-used air-strip that he knew from his early days.
He broke the nose landing gear but that is all that happened.

And , to tie it to a photography forum, pictures of the accident were all over Canadian newspapers
Rgds
 
The mistake was made by a member of the ground crew who used the wrong measuring stick for the aircraft - new aircraft in the Air Canada fleet.

The landing was in Gimli, Manitoba

It was the co-pilot who used to fly gliders off the strip

The mistake was not so much a change in units as a lack of training for a new aircraft.

--
Vernon
PBase supporter
 
I remember reading in the European version of Newsweek about a swimmer who won the 91.4 meter butterfly...my old event, but I never heard it called that. Back when I swam it was the 100 yard butterfly. I'm sure a lot of European swimmers were scratching their heads and trying to figure out why Americans were swimming such an odd distance.

In the early 70s I took a sauna with the Kinks. Somewhere around here I've got the photos...Ray Davies jumped on the scale in the locker room to check his weight and he and his cousin Dave tried to figure out Ray's weight in "stone." I'd never heard of stones, but that is the way Brits measure their weight. I hope that when Britain goes metric they will have a metric version of stone. It's 14 pounds, right?

James Mason
Alaska
--
'He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond
the pale of any acceptable human conduct.'
  • Apocalypse Now
 
If there was a tick (') on the end, that is feet. " is short for inches. I'd assume 20x30", not 20x30', which is HUGE. 20"x30" is a somewhat standard size in photodeveloping here in the US.

BTW: frankly, as long as the US is such a dominent economic, technilogical, etc. force in the world, there is no real need for us to change our measurement of common things as everyone who wants to do business on a large scale in the US will need to comply to our way of thinking. The average American just don't need to know what exactly a kilogram or kilometer is, equates a meter to basically a yard, and a liter to basically a quart. Metric is just an oddity to the most part here, except for the millimeter. The mm is only acceptable as there is no similar sized unit and dealing with fractions of inches is not really that fun.

I remember when the US Government agencies like the FBI mandated that they were going to buy things like photographic paper only in metric sizes (like an average American knows what 'A4' is). The 'weird' sizes were more expensive and more difficult to obtain because nobody else would ever buy those 'non-standard' sizes (where would I buy a frame to fit them). They finally dropped that policy and things went back to normal (good ole 8"x10"). There is just no way the pound and the mile will be replaced by anything in the US anytime soon.

-rdd
Yoav Nir said:
Just a couple of days ago there was a guy posting that you couldn't
tell the difference in resolution between the Nikon D2H and a Canon
1Ds, unless you were printing really huge prints. For his 20x30's
there was no difference at all.

I still don't know what he meant by 20x30's, but I assume
centimeters. By some of the reactions he got, some people thought
he meant either inches, or else that the apostrophe signified feet.
Now I'm sure you could tell the difference in resoultion with a 600
sq. ft. image (6x9 meters).

I think we should stick to whatever's standard. Inches are used
for sensor sizes, mm for focal lengths, only print size are
ambiguous.

4x6 must be inches, unless you're talking passport photos.
10x15, 10x18 or 20x30 are more ambiguous and should be stated
explicitly.

Just my 2 centidollars
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top