X-Virus-Scanned: clean according to Sophos on Logan.com Return-Path: Received: from mail.theofficenet.com ([65.166.240.5] verified) by logan.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.3c5) with SMTP id 921846 for flyrotary@lancaironline.net; Sun, 01 May 2005 23:38:02 -0400 Received-SPF: none receiver=logan.com; client-ip=65.166.240.5; envelope-from=jackoford@theofficenet.com Received: (qmail 21613 invoked from network); 2 May 2005 03:22:57 -0000 Received: from dpc691941229.direcpc.com (HELO toshibauser) (69.19.41.229) by mail.theofficenet.com with SMTP; 2 May 2005 03:22:57 -0000 Message-ID: <002b01c54ec8$3bed99a0$0700a8c0@toshibauser> From: "Jack Ford" To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" References: Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Units of measure - say what? Date: Sun, 1 May 2005 20:37:08 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Burn that first zero, Bob. (Damn that decimal) ;-) Jack Ford ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob White" To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2005 1:14 PM Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Units of measure - say what? > Well dang it Al, why didn't you say you were just being stubborn an not > accepting a commonly used unit of measure as valid? I don't think the > argument holds water though. :) I don't have a Handbook of Chemistry > and Physics handy, but I did dig out my 12th edition CRC Standard > Mathematical Tables which tells me I can convert an ounce (fluid) to > 1.080469 cubic inches. > > The International General Conference on Weights and Measures deals is > the standards of metric units, so why should it be there? Looking at > the history of units, I can't see anything special about fluid ounces > to object too. All of them have a checkered histroy and the design of > all the common units were developed from everyday usage (and finally > standardized). Interestingly, Jefferson almost got the US on a decimal > system of units (not Metric), but it didn't quite get implemented. I > would reccomend "Measuring America" by Andro Linklater for anyone > interested in how we got to where we are and why we aren't metric (yet). > > Bob W. (Radical Conformist, at least today.) > > > On Sun, 1 May 2005 08:30:04 -0700 > "Al Gietzen" wrote: > >> I know Al, >> >> But it was LOTS of fun. >> >> Jack >> >> >> >> Ah, yes; but I think it may have been at I my expense; although I was >> confused about who was disagreeing with who, or who was mixing weights >> and >> volumes. But it was my fault for bringing up this technicality, and I >> guess >> somewhere in there I got caught cross-wise with it. >> >> >> >> But now that my anniversary celebrations are over, and my headache is >> almost >> gone; allow me to digress. The culprit is this *fluid* oz; which, >> dang-it, >> is a slang unit. Just like "dang-it" is not in the dictionary; the fluid >> oz >> is not in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, or in the official >> listings >> of the International General Conference on Weights and Measures. Ounces >> and >> pounds are units of weight, and teaspoons and pints and quarts are units >> of >> volume. >> >> >> >> You see, somewhere is the distant past; some of our ancestors were >> measuring >> other fluids with a measure calibrated in ounces of water at 59F, and >> calling it a certain number of ounces of that fluid. When their error >> was >> pointed out; they were like - "er, ah; OK, we'll call it a 'fluid' ounce >> then", and it has been commonly used as a measure of 'volume' ever since >> for >> recipes in the kitchen - and in measuring 2-cycle oil. >> >> >> >> But as long as we agree that a quart is always 0.94645 liters, and that a >> pint is not always a pound, we can get along quite well. >> >> >> >> Now if we could get rid of this strange and ambiguous 'British' system of >> units this confusion would all go away. Did you know that in 1960, at the >> Eleventh General Conference on Weights and Measures, 36 countries, >> including >> the United States, officially sanctioned and agreed to adopt the >> 'International System of units' (known as Systeme International d'Inites, >> designated SI in all languages) based on the metric system? Even the >> National Bureau of Standards officially adopted it. Unfortunately, in >> this >> country the effort to convert failed due to the immense mental inertia; >> and, >> of course the billions of dollars invested in tooling. >> >> >> >> So now we are stuck with building our airplanes in inches and feet, while >> we >> build our engines millimeters and centimeters; and measuring 2-cycle oil >> in >> FLUID oz. >> >> >> >> Al (maybe I'll go back and lie down now) >> >> > > > -- > http://www.bob-white.com > N93BD - Rotary Powered BD-4 (real soon) > >>> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/ >>> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html > >