We Went to the Moon on Feet and Inches

"John Wilcock" wrote in message ...
On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 04:55:17 +0200 (CEST), Anonymous via the Cypherpunks
Tonga Remailer wrote:
Now lay out a bunch of those French metrics. You will note that the series
runs 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24, and 25mm!!!! Each size is separated by only 1/25th of an inch, too
small to be positively labeled by inspection. This means not only does the
spaceman have to carry a box of tools which weights three times a much, but
he is doomed to spend three times longer on his spacewalks doing the trial
and error thing getting a wrench to fit a bolt.

Not at all. While all the sizes exist, not all are in common use.
The typical series used here on earth runs 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, ...
I imagine the same applies in space.

John.

If one always works in MKS units, life becomes very easy when doing
any sort of calculation because you do not have to worry that units in
one equation are inconsistent with those of another. I mean, wtf is a
BTU equivalent to? Just use Joules and life is easy. And hp for
power? Huh? What is that in real units like watts? In MKS units, I
can do most calculations in my head just by remembering a few basic
units like 1 amp is 1.6E19 charges/sec. Try doing any calculations in
your head using english system, no way.

In article ,
(Parallax) writes:
"John Wilcock" wrote in message ...
On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 04:55:17 +0200 (CEST), Anonymous via the Cypherpunks
Tonga Remailer wrote:
Now lay out a bunch of those French metrics. You will note that the series
runs 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24, and 25mm!!!! Each size is separated by only 1/25th of an inch, too
small to be positively labeled by inspection. This means not only does the
spaceman have to carry a box of tools which weights three times a much, but
he is doomed to spend three times longer on his spacewalks doing the trial
and error thing getting a wrench to fit a bolt.

Not at all. While all the sizes exist, not all are in common use.
The typical series used here on earth runs 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, ...
I imagine the same applies in space.

If one always works in MKS units, life becomes very easy when doing
any sort of calculation because you do not have to worry that units in
one equation are inconsistent with those of another. I mean, wtf is a
BTU equivalent to? Just use Joules and life is easy. And hp for
power? Huh? What is that in real units like watts? In MKS units, I
can do most calculations in my head just by remembering a few basic
units like 1 amp is 1.6E19 charges/sec. Try doing any calculations in
your head using english system, no way.

You make it sound like there's a problem. It's no different than any
other units conversion, even withing SI (Especially since Gravity as
the Earth's Surface stubbornly refuses to be 10 m/s^2,)

1 BTU = 1054 Jouses. = 1000 will do for back of the envelope stuff.
1 hp = ~750 KW. It's nto difficult. The real problem comes when
you're dealing with oddballs like hte Pferdestarke - the German
"metricated" horsepower, which equals 0.986 HP.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

October 10, 2004

Peter Stickney wrote:

1 BTU = 1054 Jouses. = 1000 will do for back of the envelope stuff.
1 hp = ~750 KW. It's nto difficult. The real problem comes when

you use a keyboard for your calculations, without checking a reference first.

http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net/elements.htm#units

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net

In article ,
Thomas Lee Elifritz writes:
October 10, 2004

Peter Stickney wrote:

1 BTU = 1054 Jouses. = 1000 will do for back of the envelope stuff.
1 hp = ~750 KW. It's nto difficult. The real problem comes when

you use a keyboard for your calculations, without checking a reference first.

No, I use the Standard Issue Human 2-kilo (4+ lb) Meat Computer, with
extensive RNA Memory add-ons. For something as simple and often used
as the above relationships, I don't have to pick up a reference.
The HP conversion should have read ~.750 KW. As you can see, I didn't
spend enough tie proofreading what the Labrador typed.

But, if it'll make you happy, 1 BTU = 1054.34 Joules,
1 HP (SAE) = 745.7 W (Yeah, I kinda tossed in the extra K.)

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

October 10, 2004

Peter Stickney wrote:

The HP conversion should have read ~.750 KW. As you can see, I didn't
spend enough tie proofreading what the Labrador typed.

And, you haven't checked your references : kilo : k.

But, if it'll make you happy, 1 BTU = 1054.34 Joules,
1 HP (SAE) = 745.7 W (Yeah, I kinda tossed in the extra K.)

One might think it should be K, since kilo is a positive power of 10, but it's not,
it's k. K is Kelvin.

But my meat still grokked your drift, and so fortunately, my spaceship narrowly
avoided crashing into Mars.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net