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kimmk commented on Swedish Campground (2004)   folklore.org/Swedish_Camp... · Posted by u/CharlesW
kimmk · 6 months ago
The same sign is used in Finland. I was puzzled why Apple computers used it but I thought it was just a coincidence...!
kimmk commented on The metre originated in the French Revolution   abc.net.au/news/science/2... · Posted by u/Tomte
AStonesThrow · 7 months ago
Well no...

Firstly, we can divide a cup by 2, 3, and 4 in the kitchen because those are common measuring-cup sizes. Nobody is prevented from using a fractional size: if I divide a cup by 5 then I have 1/5th of a cup, nothing more and nothing less.

While 1/4th of a cup is 2 oz, and 1/3rd of a cup is 16 teaspoons, 1/5th of a cup doesn't divide evenly into a smaller unit and that's why "we don't do it", but there is nothing to stop the chef from using 9 teaspoons. [Or he can instinctively go up to 45mL on his graduated measuring cup, which almost always has both systems on it!] Teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces, cups, quarts and gallons are all inter-related multiples, and once you internalize it, you can convert like a boss.

While I'm sure it's lovely that metric measures divide by 2 and 5, that's all they divide by, so in terms of divisors, you've lost 3, 4, 6, 8...

So if it really is about dividing things usefully without resorting to fractions, then using a system that is nothing but multiples of 10 is a handicap, when we've had systems with lovely 12s and 16s with many different options for dividing them up.

But the metric people can simply chop up the measures even more finely and claim victory. For example, currency: it was in multiples of 16 or 8 which allowed for limited permutations. Decimalization chopped it into pennies, and we find 100 gradations in every pound sterling. All that did is make base-10 math easier for bean counters, and confuse people on the streets with a mystifying array of coinage. [Mental math indicates that it must increase the volume of coins per average transaction, as well.]

If a basic customary unit of length is an inch, many people can put two fingers together and estimate that on the human scale. But who can estimate or eyeball a millimeter?

Oh, and, have you ever found a nice British recipe in metric, shopped at your American grocery store, and prepared that in your American kitchen with your Fahrenheit range? You will eventually want to tip it all in the rubbish bin. Adam Ragusea suggests as much: https://youtu.be/TE8xg3d8dBg?si=SD8wLxD6ib6InLX4

kimmk · 7 months ago
From an European view who has accustomed to imperial units, these discussions are so tiring. The metric vs imperial debates almost always come down to just personally preferring what you're familiar with. I've had the exact same feelings about imperial units as Americans express of metric. I really don't have a problem estimating what 10 cm or 1 kg or 1 kilometer or 2 degrees of Celsius difference in the weather is.

And the division issue is almost trivial in my view; you can just take 120 cm or 12 gram quantity. You don't magically lose the ability to divide things by other than 10 or 5 or 2 when using metric. Its not like decimal fractions disappear in imperial systems either. The metric system is there for making it easy to scale things between orders of magnitude and have sane conversions between units.

kimmk commented on Iron as an inexpensive storage medium for hydrogen   ethz.ch/en/news-and-event... · Posted by u/bornelsewhere
kimmk · a year ago
For seasonal grid-level storage, I wonder if simple compressed hydrogen storage (around 350 bar) is the most reasonable solution. AFAIK doesnt require any high-tech materials, avoids most embrittlement caused by LH2 and boil-off rates are reasonable.
kimmk commented on If English was written like Chinese (1999)   zompist.com/yingzi/yingzi... · Posted by u/watercooler_guy
jmclnx · 2 years ago
There was this by Mark Twain, but it never when anywhere

https://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/twain.htm

As for the article, I believe one of the reasons English and by extension the US ended up "owning" the computer revolution was it was a large language with a simple alphabet. It has less letters than many other large language and was easily coded into the tiny computers of the 40s and 50s.

kimmk · 2 years ago
Funnily enough, the spelling introduced there is quite legible for a Finnish speaker.
kimmk commented on Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025   cleantechnica.com/2024/01... · Posted by u/kieranmaine
Kon5ole · 2 years ago
It doesn't have to be batteries, hydrogen gas can be generated from solar at 80% efficiency, and storing hydrogen is way cheaper than batteries. Certainly way cheaper than nuclear.
kimmk · 2 years ago
Round-trip efficiency of hydrogen storage is at best around 40% though. But with abundant and cheap renewables, this might not be much of an issue.

u/kimmk

KarmaCake day263April 7, 2016View Original