• FelixCress@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    From John Bazell “In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.”

    • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      I was in a situation similar to this one in real life: having to adjust the salt level in a pool.

      In metric:

      The pool is 8*4 m long and 2m deep on average, the current salt level is 2g/l and the salt comes in 20kg bags.

      How many bags of salts do I need to pour in the pool to adjust the salt level to at least 3g/l ?

      Answer:

      ! The pool contains 8m4m2m= 64m³ or 64000l of water, I need an extra 1g/l of salt per litres so 64000l*1g/l = 64000g or 64 kg. So with 4 bags I’ll have enough salt.

      In imperial:

      The pool is 20*10ft long and 5ft deep on average, the current salt level is 2000ppm and the salt comes in 40lbs bags.

      How many bags of salts do I need to pour in the pool to adjust the salt level to at least 3000ppm?

      Answer:

      ! I’m just gonna drive to the store with my truck to pick up 2 bags at the time and see if it’s enough, no way I’m doing the calculation.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        19 hours ago

        Home pools here are almost never saltwater.

        We simply add chlorine tabs until the pH is the correct color on the strips. Even if we knew it would be 62.4 lbs of salt, it’s not like you can buy a 62.4 lb bag of salt.

        But yeah, it is a lot harder to do applied math in the US, which is why science here went metric :)

        • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          9 hours ago

          It’s a shame because salt water pools are honestly so much better and I think overall it was cheaper for us as well.

          Instead of adding chlorine every week the salt system just keeps the chlorine level at the right minimal level all the time. So no chlorine smell in the pool and the pool was much cleaner.

    • stinky@redlemmy.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      1 day ago

      Poor silly creature. Your year has 12 months, each with a different number of days. Your hour has 60 minutes. Your day has 24 hours. If you are critical of inconvenient metrics then you are critical of your own measurement of time. We’re embarrassed for you. :)

      • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        23 hours ago
        1. There are 12 months but only 4 differend lenghts

        2. You use the same system, but i can convert pretty easy from km/h to m/s. Can you calculate from mph/h to ft/s.

        3. Atleast we can count to 24 and not get overhelmed at the 12

        4. Time is also funny metric because lenght of day and lenght if year changes slowly all the time

        5. In grand scale time is also relative measurement

        6. If metric is so bad why you guys use it when you need to precise

        • stinky@redlemmy.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          22 hours ago
          1. Correct. Good job!
          2. I don’t use the same system. Can you calculate “mph/h” (lol) to ft/s?
          3. Impressive! Good job!
          4. Time is not a funny metric. The way that we measure time does not change with the seasons.
          5. What grand scale?
          6. Who’s we?