Ingenious ruler design unites metric and imperial measurements

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/02/ingenious-ruler-design-unites.html

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I have to call attention to the fact that this is an abomination.

No, not the ruler. That’s kind of funny.

I refer instead to pronouncing schism as “shizum”. shudder

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That’s the imperial pronunciation.

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I noticed that too… shudder
Also the ruler. Fun / funny as, i don’t know, an art piece or desk decoration to mess with people?
Otherwise painful for anyone of any persuasion of units to actually use.

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WTF? The English inch measuring system of fractional powers of two makes sense, even if this guy doesn’t understand the logic behind it.

Perhaps he needs to study some maths.

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I think you are a day late posting this…

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Hint: Check date the video was uploaded.

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Mmm, kind of. It makes sense within itself, but is applicable nowhere else. To wit, 1 gallon= 236 cu inches while 1 liter= 1000 cubic centimeters= 1 kilo water. And they’re all base-10 instead of being all over the map. Quick, how many inches in a mile? How many meters in a kilometer? How many gallons in a cubic yard? How many liters in a cubic meter?

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They’re only complicated if you are bad at math.

Metric is founded on the flawed base-10 hegemony that pervades society. Why build your number system around the normative number of fingers, when you can build it around a superior number? Dozenalism forever!

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Base-60 has roots in Babylon. This is why seconds, minutes.

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You’re wrong here. Octal is the best base.

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who know that base-2 is the best base, and those who are wrong.

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Pfft. Maybe if you’re a d8.

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Octal is nice, but it lacks some features which base-12 has. From Wikipedia’s page on duodecimal*:

* Duodecimal is a morally inferior synonmyn for dozenal, because the word is still enslaved to decimalism.

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Chindogu AF.

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This reminds me of one of my favourite Star Wars jokes/observations.
We’re told that the Death Star’s vulnerable spot is “only two meters wide. It’s a small thermal exhaust port…”
Hang on - two meters? That’s funny, you’d expect the builders would use the imperial system…

My coat, I will get

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Mispronunciation? Why if this catches on it could lead to utter chaos!

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Bah. Inches and feet are useful, everyday measurements. Centimeters are too short and meters are too long, and you should just be using yards for meters anyway.

You forget imperial has a base ten measurement - 100 yards = 1 football field (American football, dammit).

1 gallon = 1 gallon. I don’t know/care how many cu inches are in a gallon and you don’t either. 1 mile = 1 mile, and if I want to know how a measurement in miles breaks down to INCHES(?!) believe me I’m getting out the calculator anyway.

Don’t even get me started on the patently obvious superiority of Fahrenheit over Celsius.

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  • Those who think I’m talking about base two
  • Those who think I’m talking about base ten
  • All the rest
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