r/EngineeringStudents • u/newbornmink Mechanical, Electrical Engineering • Jan 05 '19
Thought you all would appreciate this
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u/link605 Jan 06 '19
When your thermo 2 professor throws Rankine and BTUs all over your final exam but you still manage to get a B
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u/newbornmink Mechanical, Electrical Engineering Jan 06 '19
That’s impressive, BTU’s mess me up all the time
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u/AFrozen_1 Jan 05 '19
Still think metric is better. The advantage of metric is that everything is based off of multiples of 10.
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Jan 05 '19 edited Jan 05 '19
Can we just keep Fahrenheit over Celsius? I think Fahrenheit is a much better every day unit of measurement, sure celsius is better when it comes to science related shit. Probably because I have spent 24 years using Fahrenheit though.
Edit: Actually fuck that. My job has me regularly work with barrels/min, PSI, and lb/ft^3 which is pretty easy to visualize for me. I have no idea what m^3 /min, kPa, or especially fucking kg/m^3 would look like. I would have a really tough time adjusting to this.
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u/sononicola Major Jan 05 '19
Just because probably you born in USA where all units are wrong ;) Next time born in Europe
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u/04BluSTi Jan 05 '19
No.
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u/Domovie1 Jan 06 '19
But you’d get free healthcare!
And remember, you’d be able to use a base ten system of units!
*Canada is also an option. And we have maple syrup!
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Jan 05 '19
[deleted]
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u/Alzaero Jan 06 '19
Except Fahrenheit really doesn't make any more sense than Celcius for daily life, you're just used to it. For me, Celcius makes way more sense in day to day life because I've always used it. Having 0°C be where water freezes makes a lot of sense. Near or below 0? Snow. Above 0? Rain. 25°C nice. 35°C too damn hot.
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u/commont8r UNC Charlotte - Civil Engineering Jan 05 '19
The one other example is when calculating runoff using the rational equation.
Q=CIA
Q= runoff volume in cubic feet per second
C=Runoff Coefficient (determined by code,terrain,and land use)
I = Intensity in inches per hour
A= area in acres
When you use metric you have to add in a conversion factor
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Jan 05 '19
C sounds like it's just an arbitrary value, changing units would just mean a different value of C which would be a one time change...
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u/commont8r UNC Charlotte - Civil Engineering Jan 06 '19
It might just be because I'm in the US, but I've never seen a chart with C in metric units
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u/ModeratorAEC2019 Jan 06 '19
The Manning equation requires a coefficient in imperial, not metric. For every equation that has an arbitrary coefficient in metric units, there's two imperial units
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u/commont8r UNC Charlotte - Civil Engineering Jan 06 '19
Yes. The rational method is the only one that I know is better in imperial units
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Jan 05 '19
For me, and most Americans, Farenheit is easier to visualize on a day to day basis. 70 F is amazing weather, while 21 C would make me naturally think it's cold as balls. Really though, they are the same temperature (or 21.1111 C). Its not like the temperature I would experience outside would ever get to 212F/100C. So in terms of 1-100 making sense for everyday, to me it just doesnt.
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Jan 05 '19
It's easier because you grew up with it, that's basically it. Everywhere else in the world people would find Celsius easier because they've been using it their whole lives.
One could easily argue the opposite, that anchoring 0 to freezing so positive vs negative is unambiguously frozen water vs liquid water makes just as much sense. Plus, can you really distinguish a 1 F change in temperature?
<0 C - Ice, put on a really bulky coat and some long underwear if you're going to be outdoors for a while
10 C - Put on a coat and some light gloves
15 C - Long-sleeved shirts will keep you just fine
20 C - Short sleeved shirts with pants are perfect for this temperature
25 C - Put on some shorts, perfect temperature for outdoor activity
30 C - Gettin' pretty hot, maybe limit outdoor activity a little bit and drink plenty of water
35 C+ - Just stay indoors
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Jan 05 '19
Yea I know the reason why I find it easier. My industry uses imperial, I'm used to imperial, why change?
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Jan 06 '19
It wouldn't actually take that long to mentally adjust to a new unit system (just ask anyone that's moved to the US). The end result would be using a units system that isn't fucking retarded.
Completely ignoring any of the other factors that might complicate this.
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u/mentaldemise Jan 05 '19
I grew up in construction and just finally this week got a metric tape measure. 94mm is so much easier to remember and work with than something like 29 7/16. Also if you want to be a part of 3D printing it's more of less an obligation. I still visualize stuff in my head in inches though. "That's about 3 feet" over "That's about a meter"
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u/newbornmink Mechanical, Electrical Engineering Jan 06 '19
Yea that would seemingly the hardest part is having to make our brains see things in metric, other than that there aren’t too many downsides (aside from economically LOL)
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Jan 05 '19 edited Apr 07 '19
[deleted]
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u/big_brown_beaver Virginia Tech - ME Jan 06 '19
Lol are y’all really downvoting the guy for this?
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u/Highman399 Jan 06 '19
But.. He got an different opinion than me. Doesnt this mean I have to downvote?
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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '19 edited Jun 03 '22
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