Lbs -> Kg

[paperclips]

and so the serious discussion and the brain-trust behind it, stride on, down the winding road, towards a better tomorrow and the salvation of the cosmos.
it is indeed a true homage to man. the epic odyssey of man continuous.

proceed.

[Flying Steel]

That might not be true. There's alot of places in the world, including those that still use symbols to represent words, instead of an alphabet.

Countries where the metric system is official

Told you! You can plainly see by your own map that the US stands not alone, but with Burma (I think at least- geography is our greatest weakness, besides the greater influence of gravity upon us), Alaska and Antarctica. As well as the Moon (unpictured), since we were the first (and only) ones to land there and plant a flag, which according to Europe, makes a place automatically yours (unless another nation can capture the flag you planted there and bring it back to where they keep their own flag).

Also I couldn't help but notice you had no arguement against my highlighting of the metric system's ridiculous revolution around 10, while feet/inches are based around the more simply and cleanly divisible number 12. If this is an admittance of defeat on your part, then I humbly accept.

[divVerent]

The metric system is clearly better BESIDES that issue. To properly show the flaws of the imperial system:

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
220 yards = 1 furlong
8 furlongs = 1 mile
3 miles = 1 league

Look at all the weird conversion factors... 12, 3 are fine, but 220? It's not even divisible by 3. A third of a mile is 2 furlongs, 146 yards, 2 feet (as you see, here the complex stuff comes in). The metric system on the other hand elimiates the need for calculation for ANY conversion, as all you have to do is shift the comma or add zeros.

We could combine the advantage of both by using a 12-based number system. For this we need two more symbols, let's call them A (of value 10) and B (of value 11). We then get, for example:

5 * 5 = 21
170 / 3 = 64
190 / 3 = 70
350 / 6 = 6A

In this system, you can divide anything that ends with a zero by 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12. If you have two trailing zeros, you can divide by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 144. So you would get the advantages of the metric system - no conversions - AND the advantage of the imperial system - dividing by 3. Of course, you lose the ability to divide by five, just like you can't divide a yard by five. So what about an even higher base, like 60?

Fun fact: the ancient Sumerians and later the Babylonians used exactly a base 60 system... and we still use it for time.

BTW, in the decimal system, you have an easy representation for infinitely long decimal fractions, but this forum is too American to support it. Instead of 0.333333333333..., you'd write 0.3 and make a bar above the 3. However, it gets messy when dealing with 7ths, 13ths, 17ths, 19ths, etc.

[Flying Steel]

The metric system is clearly better BESIDES that issue. To properly show the flaws of the imperial system:

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
220 yards = 1 furlong
8 furlongs = 1 mile
3 miles = 1 league

Look at all the weird conversion factors... 12, 3 are fine, but 220? It's not even divisible by 3. A third of a mile is 2 furlongs, 146 yards, 2 feet (as you see, here the complex stuff comes in).

It doesn't matter though because people only use feet and inches anyway, everything else is just too long to guestimate with your arms and eyes, and only uber geeks go around with pocket measuring tape.

But, if you really want to be nitpicky about how big, big things are, then you can measure in "dozenfeet". Hmm, maybe we can make that a new naming convention by putting the word for "dozen" in another language in front of the suffix "feet", as the new name for inches. I pick french, so "douzainefeet".

And then for even larger and smaller numbers, we can use "dozen^2feet" for 144 feet and "douzaine^2feet" for 144ths of a foot, and so on.

And now that I think about it, maybe feet are too small, so lets base this system off of yards. Because like a man is 2 yards tall and such.

This improved system will be called the New Imperial System (except in the UK where it will be refered to as the American system, about which we will complain on the grounds that it is not what we call it). And then we will appear on internet forums and demand that metric system countries dump their arithmetically dumbass system and adopt ours, regardless of the massive restucturing and crazy conversion ratios when dealing with legacy machinery parts, entire road systems and real estate divisions.

The metric system on the other hand elimiates the need for calculation for ANY conversion, as all you have to do is shift the comma or add zeros.

We could combine the advantage of both by using a 12-based number system. For this we need two more symbols, let's call them A (of value 10) and B (of value 11). We then get, for example:

5 * 5 = 21
170 / 3 = 64
190 / 3 = 70
350 / 6 = 6A

In this system, you can divide anything that ends with a zero by 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12. If you have two trailing zeros, you can divide by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 144. So you would get the advantages of the metric system - no conversions - AND the advantage of the imperial system - dividing by 3.

That's pretty good, but I think it is just too much of a jump relative to the system I proposed above.

Of course, you lose the ability to divide by five, just like you can't divide a yard by five.

Three and four are both smaller than five, thus more basic and important.

BTW, in the decimal system, you have an easy representation for infinitely long decimal fractions, but this forum is too American to support it. Instead of 0.333333333333..., you'd write 0.3 and make a bar above the 3. However, it gets messy when dealing with 7ths, 13ths, 17ths, 19ths, etc.

And, if you added Strike-Out as well, then combined with Underline and the "|" and "/" we'd have good Ogham support. Unfortunately almost everyone here is German, so they'd probably demand better Runic support as a consequence.

[divVerent]

"And, if you added Strike-Out as well, then combined with Underline and the "|" and "/" we'd have good Ogham support. Unfortunately almost everyone here is German, so they'd probably demand better Runic support as a consequence."

There is no better example of typical American ignorance.

1. It's not ME who made up this overline convention, it is a standard mathematical notation. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_decimal

2. The only German thing this forum "needs" to support is the letters ÄÖÜäöüß and the € sign, and that - as you see - already works. Nobody here uses the Runic alphabet.

[Flying Steel]

"And, if you added Strike-Out as well, then combined with Underline and the "|" and "/" we'd have good Ogham support. Unfortunately almost everyone here is German, so they'd probably demand better Runic support as a consequence."

There is no better example of typical American ignorance.

1. It's not ME who made up this overline convention, it is a standard mathematical notation. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_decimal

Hmm, it is almost as if this overline convention was created to replace our fractions system, a "phase two" if you will, to follow on the heels of the metric system's planned domination. Still, its lack of irrational number support makes it of questionable usefulness, especially when we already have underlining and estimation.

Nobody here uses the Runic alphabet.

Neither do we use the Ogham alphabet and yet that doesn't make it anyless important.

[tundramagi]

Can german be written in the runic alphabet? I thought that was a nordic thing of the norse, svvedish, svedka vodka, and such of that naturem.

[Flying Steel]

Can german be written in the runic alphabet? I thought that was a nordic thing of the norse, svvedish, svedka vodka, and such of that naturem.

Bah, you might be right. English originally used Runic before it switched to the Latin alphabet, but English is closer to the languages you mention than it is to German. However I thought the lead theory of Runic's origin was that it was derived from the Greek alphabet, so if it had traveled over land, it would have had to pass over the region to get to Scandinavia and thereabouts.


Anyway, putting the jokes aside for a moment, here's a serious question- How much work would it be to move Nexuiz over to Meters instead of these crazy "Quake Units"? So if I imported a character model that was 2 units tall, in Nexuiz it would be 2 Meters tall?

I for one try to do the majority of my modeling to scale in Meters, so I was thinking it might be more functional if there was no conversion ratio.

[[-z-]]

How much work would it be to move Nexuiz over to Meters instead of these crazy "Quake Units"? So if I imported a character model that was 2 units tall, in Nexuiz it would be 2 Meters tall?

Because you can't figure out a conversion we should change the way the engine handles units. LOL


Don't quake units = inches? This might very from engine to engine, I'm not sure.

[Taiyo.uk]

Game units in quake are the same as those in DOOM - eight quake units = one foot. One quake unit = one and a half inches.