Saturday, April 22, 2006
Metric Schmetric
Dear Blog:
I really feel sorry for people who live in a country where the metric system is used. Oh, sure, it seems to make sense, because it's based on units of ten, but it's completely out of whack with reality.
For instance, I'm comfortable at a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the same as 20 degrees Celcius. Now, if the temperature were to go up by 1 degree Fahrenheit, to 69 degrees, I'd still be pretty comfortable, but if the temperature increases 1 degree Celcius, to 21 Celsius, that would make it 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit!
OK, so 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit wouldn't be so bad either. Maybe that's not such a good example.
Let me try that again:
Let's say that I commute 20 miles to work. Then my company relocates, and moves 5 miles farther away. Now, an additional 5 miles at a driving speed of 60 miles per hour, which is the same as a mile a minute, I can easily understand that I need to leave 5 minutes earlier in order to get to work on time. No sweat!
Now, let's look at the same thing using the metric system. Before the company relocates, I would live 32.186 kilometers from work. That, alone, is distressing. After the relocation, I'd have to travel an additional 8.046 kilometers for a total traveling distance of 40.233 kilometers. Still assuming that I'm using the metric system, I'd know that I drive at an average speed of 96 kilometers per hour (which sounds pretty fast to me, quite frankly). After learning I'd have to travel an additional 8.046 kilometers at 96 kilometers per hour, I would need to grab a calculator to figure out that I'd be traveling at 1.6 kilometers a minute and that I'd need to leave 5 minutes earlier in order to get to work on time.
So much for the simplicity of base 10 mathematics!
In addition to that, I don't know about you, but 40.233 kilometers sounds pretty far to me. If I lived in a country using the metric system, I just might consider looking for a new job, because I wouldn't want to travel that far.
Talk to you tomorrow (or in approximately 10 metric hours).
- Bernie ¶ 1:01 PM
Dear Blog:I really feel sorry for people who live in a country where the metric system is used. Oh, sure, it seems to make sense, because it's based on units of ten, but it's completely out of whack with reality.
For instance, I'm comfortable at a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the same as 20 degrees Celcius. Now, if the temperature were to go up by 1 degree Fahrenheit, to 69 degrees, I'd still be pretty comfortable, but if the temperature increases 1 degree Celcius, to 21 Celsius, that would make it 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit!
OK, so 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit wouldn't be so bad either. Maybe that's not such a good example.
Let me try that again:
Let's say that I commute 20 miles to work. Then my company relocates, and moves 5 miles farther away. Now, an additional 5 miles at a driving speed of 60 miles per hour, which is the same as a mile a minute, I can easily understand that I need to leave 5 minutes earlier in order to get to work on time. No sweat!
Now, let's look at the same thing using the metric system. Before the company relocates, I would live 32.186 kilometers from work. That, alone, is distressing. After the relocation, I'd have to travel an additional 8.046 kilometers for a total traveling distance of 40.233 kilometers. Still assuming that I'm using the metric system, I'd know that I drive at an average speed of 96 kilometers per hour (which sounds pretty fast to me, quite frankly). After learning I'd have to travel an additional 8.046 kilometers at 96 kilometers per hour, I would need to grab a calculator to figure out that I'd be traveling at 1.6 kilometers a minute and that I'd need to leave 5 minutes earlier in order to get to work on time.
So much for the simplicity of base 10 mathematics!
In addition to that, I don't know about you, but 40.233 kilometers sounds pretty far to me. If I lived in a country using the metric system, I just might consider looking for a new job, because I wouldn't want to travel that far.
Talk to you tomorrow (or in approximately 10 metric hours).
- Bernie ¶ 1:01 PM
