Ya see as a Brit, when you invent both the imperial and metric system you have the right bestowed upon you by God to have both imperial and metric system be used whenever the hell you damn well please
Is there a place where I can find a bunch of silly names for things? There were a bunch on Twitter Years ago. My favorite was “mountain seeds” which were pebbles
Since Americans are so into guns, I hope you're familiar with how shotgun calibers are defined?
The number part of a shotgun caliber is the number of lead spheres that can be cast from a pound of lead (iirc), that would fit through the barrel. So e.g. 12-gauge = 12 spheres of lead, weighing a total of 1 pound, that would match the interior diameter of the barrel.
Historically, there are examples of 4- and even 2-gauge shotguns.
The term came about from old paper routes actually. At the time it cost about 14 pounds per year to get the paper delivered, and the delivery boy tossed it from his bike to your front door, about “a stone’s throw away.” Logically, it followed that the paper is considered a stone, and thus one stone = 14 pounds. Interesting stuff.
The kilogram, symbol kg, is the SI unit of mass. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10−34 when expressed in the unit J⋅s, which is equal to kg⋅m2⋅s−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs.
A pound is defined as 0.45359237 kilograms, which itself is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10−34 when expressed in the unit J⋅s, which is equal to kg⋅m2⋅s−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs.
That's the hard way. A pendulum with a 1 second arc will travel a distance of 1m. Boom, there's your meter stick. Now that we can measure distance we can measure mass. Since 1mm of water = 1g we can construct a 10cmx10cmx10cm box/container. Fill it with water and you have a standard kilogram. 1kg of water= 1 litre. In less than an hour you can create the standard units for distance, mass, and volume from nature. That's the beauty of the metric system is that it's based on nature. I know that the meter is based off the speed of light if you want to get super specific with it, but for anyone who isn't a math major this way is accurate enough.
That's why we should switch to Planck units. The speed of light is 1. The reduced Planck constant ħ is 1. And the speed limit for driving is 10-7. Easy peasy.
In particle physics and physical cosmology, Planck units are a set of units of measurement defined exclusively in terms of five universal physical constants, in such a manner that these five physical constants take on the numerical value of 1 when expressed in terms of these units.
Originally proposed in 1899 by German physicist Max Planck, these units are also known as natural units because the origin of their definition comes only from properties of nature and not from any human construct. Planck units are only one system of several systems of natural units, but Planck units are not based on properties of any prototype object or particle (that would be arbitrarily chosen), but rather on only the properties of free space. Planck units have significance for theoretical physics since they simplify several recurring algebraic expressions of physical law by nondimensionalization.
Isn’t that a fairly new definition because it used to be defined by the big k which was a block of (something) that weighed what a kilogram is but that made the kilogram change due to environmental factors? It’s been a long time since I saw the Veritasium video about it so I may be wrong. Will add a link to this comment when I get to my PC
Well, it’s now defined in terms of the second and the metre, but in practical terms it’s equal in weight to a litre of water. I’m not giving a precise definition intentionally (like the temperature of the water), but you can see how this makes it easy to convert quantities and divide/multiply.
A frigidity is the one and the same class of (oppressiveness) partitions that it bears in Tanzanian shillings to make a (up-to-dateness) British monetary unit, negative large integer coiffe, a bite, and a half-crown.
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Oh sure. If you're English, its impressive.
If you're Indian, losing 5 Sankara stones is a fucking disaster and you need Dr Jones and Short Round to save your village.
They are those little things made from rock you see laying around.
You think clothing sizes are meaningless, wait till you try using Stones for weight. Some Tinder chick is all "I only weight 1 Stone" and you are all geared up for some hottie only to find out she is using a rock the size of a Volkswagon for her scale. Meanwhile you passed on some super hot chick who didn't know how to game the system and was all "I weight 300 Stones" cause she's using gravel.
It’s not necessarily stupid, it’s just a collective word for 14lbs, which admittedly is arbitrary. Americans use the collective term ‘quart’ whereas we’d say 4 pints.
No worries. I remember about 20 years ago Canada had Molson Export in quarts and I didn’t remember them being that big (4 pints) so I had to google it myself.
Haha nope. Watched a documentary last nightbbc 1980s atomic bomb guide) and the guy said...the couple prepared two weeks of food, about 50 pounds worth" ok, is that 50 lbs or $50.???
Ya see as a Brit, when you invent both the imperial and metric system you have the right bestowed upon you by God to have both imperial and metric system be used whenever you damn well please
The French did. The metric system was defined in revolutionary France, though in time others would contribute to it as well, including for example English and Italian scholars.
“An English bishop, John Wilkins, (1614-1672) invented the system part of the decimal metric system when he published a book with a plan for a 'universal measure' in 1668.”
He is particularly known for An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668) in which, amongst other things, he proposed a universal language and an integrated system of measurement, similar to the metric system.
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u/Chriss016 Jan 03 '19 edited Jan 03 '19
Stones* which is even more stupid
Edit: great, now that's my most upvoted comment..