Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2010 19:30:14 GMT -5
I learn something new every day, and today, it's "smoot".
While poking around the Tennessee Valley using Google Earth Digital Globe, I decided to measure the distance between two certain points. The distance was too small to use miles (.07), so I figured I'd switch to another unit of measure when I noticed the term "smoot". Smoot? What the heck is that? Google provides an interesting answer. Look it up. I am 1.07427 smoots tall (give or take an ear).
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Jay
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Post by Jay on Feb 23, 2010 13:29:53 GMT -5
"The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay on the Harvard Bridge (between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts), and was used by his fraternity brothers to measure the length of the bridge." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot |
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Post by LimitedRecourse on Feb 23, 2010 16:43:11 GMT -5
The point smoot?
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joedog
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Post by joedog on Feb 23, 2010 17:29:08 GMT -5
(from the wiki link above)
"The markings have become well-accepted by the public, to the degree that during the bridge renovations that occurred in the 1980s, the Cambridge Police department requested that the markings be maintained, since they had become useful for identifying the location of accidents on the bridge.[9] The renovators went one better, by scoring the concrete surface of the sidewalk on the bridge at 5 foot 7 inch intervals, instead of the conventional six feet.[10]"
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Jay
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Post by Jay on Feb 24, 2010 8:49:22 GMT -5
Silly people!  |
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Post by gridbug on Feb 24, 2010 9:13:14 GMT -5
It's no sillier than a "foot"
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Jay
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Post by Jay on Feb 24, 2010 10:03:11 GMT -5
Sure it is! We already have a non-sensical form of measurement. We don't need another! |
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Post by Justin Thyme on Feb 24, 2010 10:17:26 GMT -5
All units of measurement are arbitrary. As long as it is standard it works fine. A cubit is the length of a man's forearm. Once it was standardized at 18 inches it was fine as a unit of measurement and the fact that it was based on the length of a forearm made it easy to estimate lengths of things. The same is true about the foot and even the smoot. The meter, while being a scientific standard of measure, is more nonsensical for everyday use than the foot, cubit or smoot because there is nothing ever handy to use for estimation.
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Jay
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Post by Jay on Feb 24, 2010 10:37:00 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2010 11:07:19 GMT -5
> The meter ... is more nonsensical ... because there is nothing ever handy to use for estimation.
Maybe. When a person about six feet tall stretches the arms out from the sides like forming a cross, it's about one meter from the nose to the farthest fingertip. It's about a meter from the bellybutton to the floor.
It's just that we aren't accustomed to speaking in meters, uh, because we don't use meters. (How's that for circular logic?)
Jay's map shows the problem. I do wish the U.S.would switch to metric completely NOW and just get it over with to be in line with the rest of the world. I mean really! 23,858,295 North Koreans can't be wrong, eh?
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Post by Justin Thyme on Feb 24, 2010 11:38:47 GMT -5
Yoda, how would the metric system be of an advantage to a carpenter?
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Post by gridbug on Feb 24, 2010 12:09:46 GMT -5
Just use your handy dandy yardstick!
Tis a shame Americans are too hard headed to switch over to the metric system. Life would be so much simpler.
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Post by Warkitty on Feb 24, 2010 12:12:38 GMT -5
No, it wouldn't be any simpler. You'd not get more money, you'd not have cheaper gas, people would still be crappy to each other.... Not much would change really except states having to spend money on new speed limit signs.
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Post by gridbug on Feb 24, 2010 12:14:36 GMT -5
Of course AI meant easier for ME. I'd get fewer funny looks for estimating in meters and liters New Speed Limit Signs = JOBS!  |
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Post by daworm on Feb 24, 2010 14:56:48 GMT -5
I'm not Yoda, but have you ever tried dividing 2' 2 5/8" into thirds? And don't get me started with 2"x4"s really being 1 1/2" x 3 1/2"...
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Post by Justin Thyme on Feb 24, 2010 15:22:17 GMT -5
I'm not Yoda, but have you ever tried dividing 2' 2 5/8" into thirds? And don't get me started with 2"x4"s really being 1 1/2" x 3 1/2"... A carpenter would be looking at 2' 2 5/8" as 26 5/8" or 67.6275. I don't see how metric would make dividing that by thirds any easier. However, most of the time a carpenter will be dividing by ½. Fractions work much better for that than decimals. |
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Jay
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Post by Jay on Feb 24, 2010 15:58:23 GMT -5
It'd all end up being the same. Carpenters in all the other countries of the world who use the metric system do their jobs without a problem. A carpenter would be looking at 2' 2 5/8" as 26 5/8" or 67.6275. 26 & 5/8ths would be 26.625  |
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joedog
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Post by joedog on Feb 24, 2010 16:28:40 GMT -5
It'd all end up being the same. Carpenters in all the other countries of the world who use the metric system do their jobs without a problem. A carpenter would be looking at 2' 2 5/8" as 26 5/8" or 67.6275. 26 & 5/8ths would be 26.625 Give it time. More than half of them here use it now |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2010 18:32:21 GMT -5
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Post by LimitedRecourse on Feb 24, 2010 18:47:51 GMT -5
You (or they) might starve, first.
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ScarlettP
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Post by ScarlettP on Feb 25, 2010 7:46:28 GMT -5
Burma!
Why did you say "Burma"?
I panicked.
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Post by gridbug on Feb 25, 2010 7:58:49 GMT -5
Huh? You mean like Myranmar?
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Post by daworm on Feb 25, 2010 9:15:18 GMT -5
Most people, carpenters included, have trouble with mixed fractions. Try adding 26 7/8" to 14 9/16". Yes, I know you can do it, and most people can, but in metric its easier.
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Post by gridbug on Feb 25, 2010 10:17:56 GMT -5
I'd lay odds your typical carpenter when faced with mixed fractions would squint and guess. You can tell the better carpenters because it fits anyway.
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Jay
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Post by Jay on Feb 25, 2010 13:03:03 GMT -5
Measure twice, cut once! |
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joedog
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Post by joedog on Feb 25, 2010 16:32:28 GMT -5
just makes it easier to form the one world gov't thats been prophetized if we all went to it.
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Post by mandrake on Feb 25, 2010 16:33:19 GMT -5
My Dad always told me the best carpenters knew how to hide their mistakes
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joedog
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Post by joedog on Feb 25, 2010 17:11:47 GMT -5
My Dad always told me the best carpenters knew how to hide their mistakes No, they let the painters hide it for them. |
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TNBear
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Post by TNBear on Feb 25, 2010 20:36:26 GMT -5
25.4 millimeters per inch, 3.28 feet per meter. I convert back and forth all day at my job.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2010 21:21:48 GMT -5
> 25.4 millimeters per inch
I came up with a little handy-dandy rule when converting millimeters to inches. "Double, double, divide by 100".
Example: 9mm
double 18
double 36
divide by hundred .36
Example: 10mm
double 20
double 40
divide by hundred .40
Handy for comparing pistol calibers.
It's not 100% accurate, but close enough. (2 * 2 * 2.54 = 10.16)
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