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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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 Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Newbie wrote: |
Would you like a list of all the great things given to us by the . . . Ottoman . . . Empire[]?
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I'd like this please.  |
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maximmm
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
Back to the original topic;
As a Canadian I think that Canada's so-called conversion to the metric
system has been a huge waste of time and money.
There are economic as well as social factors that influence the current state of affairs, but there are some serious drawbacks to the metric system.
Since most of Canadian lumber and building materials is sold to the US, it is
still produced using Imperial measurements. Plywood is still made in 4' x 8'
sheets, 2 x 4 lumber is still the same as it always has been. Although they may call them metric sizes, the reality is that they are still the same.
Land may be measured in hectares, but the original land surveys were done in miles, sections and acres. This is simply not going to change.
Commercial sales still use pounds, even if the scale is in kg., people just
convert it to pounds. Don't believe me? I do it every day at work as does everyone around here.
People still talk about mpg and mph and any metric values are quickly converted because the metric values remain meaningless to most.
I'm not sure whose brainwave it was to con Canada into this garbage, I suppose it was Mr. Trudeau. who wanted Canada to forge closer ties with
Europe. (but I digress)
There are things that the metric system simply does not do very well.
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/03/metric%20system%20doesn%27t%20measure%20up.html
Metric system isn't practical
While the metric units' association with physical constants makes them accurate, it makes them less practical for common use. The units of cups and tablespoons developed naturally because these objects were right there in the kitchen. The gram, on the other hand, was not developed with cooking and baking in mind, so it is much smaller than it needs to be. For the same reason, the foot and the ounce are also much more user-friendly than their metric counterparts.
Also, because they have a base of ten, metric units cannot be divided into as many even fractions as imperial units. A meter can only be evenly divided into 2 or 5, while a foot can be divided into 2, 3, 4, or 6.
So if you ever have to measure a third of a meter, good luck.
For further reading/ edutainment:
http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/14082/the-metric-system-is-stupid/ |
All excellent points. Still, I insist that brown colour is much, much better than orange. What? You disagree. Well, I beg to differ!!
Now, if we can find people who would contend that colour blue is superior to all, while others would claim that purple is the best colour in the whole wide world, then we'll have a real debate! |
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andrewchon
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Location: Back in Oz. Living in ISIS Aust.
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| Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:52 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Newbie wrote: |
Would you like a list of all the great things given to us by the . . . Ottoman . . . Empire[]?
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I'd like this please. |
Coffee. Check Mate.  |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:40 am Post subject: |
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The Ottoman Empire did a lot to spread Islam across the Middle East...
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In the Ottoman imperial system, even though there existed an hegemonic power of Muslim control over the non-Muslim populations, non-Muslim communities had been granted state recognition and protection in the Islamic tradition.[133]
Until the second half of the 15th century the empire had a Christian majority, under the rule of a Muslim minority.[102] In the late 19th century, the non-Muslim population of the empire began to fall considerably, not only due to secession, but also because of migratory movements.[133] The proportion of Muslims amounted to 60% in the 1820s, gradually increasing to 69% in the 1870s and then to 76% in the 1890s.[133] By 1914, only 19.1% of the empire's population was non-Muslim, mostly made up of Christian Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, and some Jews.[133] |
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In the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the Muslim dhimmi system, Christians were guaranteed limited freedoms (such as the right to worship), but were treated as second-class citizens. Christians and Jews were not considered equals to Muslims: testimony against Muslims by Christians and Jews was inadmissible in courts of law.[citation needed] They were forbidden to carry weapons or ride atop horses, their houses could not overlook those of Muslims, and their religious practices would have to defer to those of Muslims, in addition to various other legal limitations.[138]
In the system commonly known as devşirme, a certain number of Christian boys, mainly from the Balkans and Anatolia, were periodically conscripted before they reached adolescence and were brought up as Muslims.[139] |
...which is a bad contribution in my opinion. (That's probably their greatest (as in biggest) contribution to the world: converting scores of people to Islam.)
| Quote: |
| With about 1.57 billion followers or 23% of earth's population,[11][12][13] Islam is the second-largest religion and one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20] |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:13 am Post subject: |
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Really embarassing that a commonwealthers education is so shabby/ second rate that they think that any one cares about there opinion on anything. Why do Canadians care about this. Oh thats right they rank as a zero in all areas . that is zero in any scale.
this topic invariabilly comes up when they have exhausted the war of 1812, and other boring meaningless topics, and just when you think that it can not get more boring or trite they bring this one up. God a never ending drone of tedium.
get over it.
I hear this in my bar about once a month when a Canadian gets into his second beer. No one really understands what they are going on about. perhaps an attempt to bore people to death. Geez
Anyway happy seal clubbing and bless your igloo. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 10:24 am Post subject: |
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| jvalmer wrote: |
| some waygug-in wrote: |
| People still talk about mpg and mph and any metric values are quickly converted because the metric values remain meaningless to most. |
How old are you? Because you do sound old. All my friends I grew up with are mostly metric.
I'm much more comfortable using metric. One exception is when talking about someone's weight or height. Probably because hockey players stats still use lbs and ft/in.
However, I was surprised that my younger relatives (10-ish years younger than I) were all metric, and wondered why hockey still did a lot of their measures the American way. |
While metric measurements may be taught and used in schools and perhaps some grocery stores a lot of things are just re-converted back
to imperial. Everything being shipped by transport/courier or other means is still measured in lbs. feet, inches, etc.
Gas is sold in liters, but nobody talks about liters/kilometer.
My age is 51, but it is no different for younger folks. They have to convert metric back to imperial just like me.
They still buy and sell 2x4's and 4x8 sheets of materials.
It's a farce to claim that Canada has gone metric, it really hasn't except for temperature and a few other things. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| rollo wrote: |
Really embarassing that a commonwealthers education is so shabby/ second rate that they think that any one cares about there opinion on anything. Why do Canadians care about this. Oh thats right they rank as a zero in all areas . that is zero in any scale.
this topic invariabilly comes up when they have exhausted the war of 1812, and other boring meaningless topics, and just when you think that it can not get more boring or trite they bring this one up. God a never ending drone of tedium.
get over it.
I hear this in my bar about once a month when a Canadian gets into his second beer. No one really understands what they are going on about. perhaps an attempt to bore people to death. Geez
Anyway happy seal clubbing and bless your igloo. |
I guess my hopes of being nominated most entertaining poster of they year are all shot now.
Shuckins, I was really counting on that too.  |
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CA-NA-DA-ABC
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| I'm from the richest and most influential country to ever exist. The world's most powerful economy. We use Fahrenheit. Get with the program and learn Fahrenheit (in addition to your precious Celsius) if you want to be truly global. |
Typical  |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:20 am Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
Gas is sold in liters, but nobody talks about liters/kilometer.
My age is 51, but it is no different for younger folks. They have to convert metric back to imperial just like me. |
I do, they do have both gallons/miles and l/km on the sticker for new cars you know. I always look at the metric one.
Your age explains it all. All my math was taught using metric and I started school in '83. I use mostly metric, and most people my age do. They try convert when talking to older people like you. I'm much more comfortable in liters and kilometers. To me a mile is 1.6 km. And a gallon is like 3.8 liters. But I hate using gallons and miles because it just does't compute for me. I have to convert to metric. Unless it's a persons height, or weight (strange I know).
The young (under 30-ish) is mostly metric. I'm 36 and I'm mostly comfortable using metric. |
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GF
Joined: 26 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 5:28 am Post subject: |
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| jvalmer wrote: |
| some waygug-in wrote: |
Gas is sold in liters, but nobody talks about liters/kilometer.
My age is 51, but it is no different for younger folks. They have to convert metric back to imperial just like me. |
I do, they do have both gallons/miles and l/km on the sticker for new cars you know. I always look at the metric one.
Your age explains it all. All my math was taught using metric and I started school in '83. I use mostly metric, and most people my age do. They try convert when talking to older people like you. I'm much more comfortable in liters and kilometers. To me a mile is 1.6 km. And a gallon is like 3.8 liters. But I hate using gallons and miles because it just does't compute for me. I have to convert to metric. Unless it's a persons height, or weight (strange I know).
The young (under 30-ish) is mostly metric. I'm 36 and I'm mostly comfortable using metric. |
Canadian, 26. I use Imperial not just for a person's height and weight but for the size and weight of mostly everything. For large distances I use kilometers. I am more comfortable using acres than hectares, cups and spoons than milliliters, and a couple other things. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:24 am Post subject: |
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| GF wrote: |
| jvalmer wrote: |
| some waygug-in wrote: |
Gas is sold in liters, but nobody talks about liters/kilometer.
My age is 51, but it is no different for younger folks. They have to convert metric back to imperial just like me. |
I do, they do have both gallons/miles and l/km on the sticker for new cars you know. I always look at the metric one.
Your age explains it all. All my math was taught using metric and I started school in '83. I use mostly metric, and most people my age do. They try convert when talking to older people like you. I'm much more comfortable in liters and kilometers. To me a mile is 1.6 km. And a gallon is like 3.8 liters. But I hate using gallons and miles because it just does't compute for me. I have to convert to metric. Unless it's a persons height, or weight (strange I know).
The young (under 30-ish) is mostly metric. I'm 36 and I'm mostly comfortable using metric. |
Canadian, 26. I use Imperial not just for a person's height and weight but for the size and weight of mostly everything. For large distances I use kilometers. I am more comfortable using acres than hectares, cups and spoons than milliliters, and a couple other things. |
Interesting, and this is the first time I've heard of the term acre. I guess it's a measure of area similar to hectare, but I rarely use hectares, more sq meters.
Anyways, I majored in Engineering and all the calculations are done in metric, and switched over to imperial for the US market. But Imperial measures mean almost nothing to me. |
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CA-NA-DA-ABC
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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| jvalmer wrote: |
| GF wrote: |
| jvalmer wrote: |
| some waygug-in wrote: |
Gas is sold in liters, but nobody talks about liters/kilometer.
My age is 51, but it is no different for younger folks. They have to convert metric back to imperial just like me. |
I do, they do have both gallons/miles and l/km on the sticker for new cars you know. I always look at the metric one.
Your age explains it all. All my math was taught using metric and I started school in '83. I use mostly metric, and most people my age do. They try convert when talking to older people like you. I'm much more comfortable in liters and kilometers. To me a mile is 1.6 km. And a gallon is like 3.8 liters. But I hate using gallons and miles because it just does't compute for me. I have to convert to metric. Unless it's a persons height, or weight (strange I know).
The young (under 30-ish) is mostly metric. I'm 36 and I'm mostly comfortable using metric. |
Canadian, 26. I use Imperial not just for a person's height and weight but for the size and weight of mostly everything. For large distances I use kilometers. I am more comfortable using acres than hectares, cups and spoons than milliliters, and a couple other things. |
Interesting, and this is the first time I've heard of the term acre. I guess it's a measure of area similar to hectare, but I rarely use hectares, more sq meters.
Anyways, I majored in Engineering and all the calculations are done in metric, and switched over to imperial for the US market. But Imperial measures mean almost nothing to me. |
For school and scholarly puposes, yes, metric is used. For everyday informal situations the vast majority of Canadians still use imperial. Foot-long subs, 3 acre farm, 4000 sq. ft home, 5feet 10 inches tall, 190 pounds, etc. etc. I'm not saying I agree with it (in fact I'm as anti-imperial as one can get) but that's the reality. |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Imperial units completely fall apart once you stop talking about your height, the weather or the horsepower of your car and have to start doing some real calculations. As a student of physics, I absolutely loathed the time we spent working with Imperial units, which I'm pretty sure they don't even bother with in universities anymore these days. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| CA-NA-DA-ABC wrote: |
| For school and scholarly puposes, yes, metric is used. For everyday informal situations the vast majority of Canadians still use imperial. Foot-long subs, 3 acre farm, 4000 sq. ft home, 5feet 10 inches tall, 190 pounds, etc. etc. I'm not saying I agree with it (in fact I'm as anti-imperial as one can get) but that's the reality. |
It's a mixture, because when you talk about speed and buying gas it's km/h and liters. Also, buying milk comes in liters, pop is in ml, and I always like at the metric measures for the weights of groceries. Well, at least in Alberta almost everything will have the metric measures right beside the imperial, and I rarely look at the imperial numbers. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Fluid ounces too were a complete mystery to me growing up - just a weird fl. oz notation you'd see here and there and quickly ignored. It wasn't until my 20s that I learned how big 12, 16 and 20 ounce drinks were. |
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