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I don’t really mind that we’re not on the metric system. I just wish our measurements were consistent as they increase. E.g. foot, kilofoot, etc. instead of foo

I don’t really mind that we’re not on the metric system. I just wish our measurements were consistent as they increase. E.g. foot, kilofoot, etc. instead of foot, yards, miles.

thechao 7y ago
And base-2, rather than the computer-unfriendly base-10. Aaaaactually ... with a bit of squinting the U. S. customary volume system(s) define a complete set of base-2 nouns (which could be used as prefixes): tbspn oz jill gill cup pint quart half gallon peck kenning bushel rundlet barrel hogshead butt tun Where each item below the next item is exactly 2x the previous one. It turns out there's also some base-3 stuff (for measuring simplicity), like the teaspoon, etc. I've always imagined we could redefine a few things to make a "completely rational" U.S. customary measure. That'd be: 1 in == 2.5 centimeters (as Thomas Jefferson wanted) 256 in^3 == 1 gallon (water at 32° F) 1 in is a bit awkwardly small. A cup-inch is ~1.3ft. A pint-inch is exactly .8125m. Luckily, a 'tun-tun-inch' (65536in) is 1.0343 miles, so we could define a a 'tun-tun-inch' to be a mile, etc., etc.
- madcaptenor 7y ago
  That gives you a gallon of exactly 4 liters (256 * 2.5^3 = 4000 mL). Alternatively, a quart is now just another name for a liter.
- ranger207 7y ago
  Fractional lengths in the US are commonly in base-2, ie, 1/2", 1/4", 1/8", 1/16", etc. Still annoying to remember that the next socket up from 1/2" is 9/16".
  - 1-6 7y ago
    Just use Highly Composite Numbers... Babylon used base-60 and we still tell the time with it today. Base-12 is good too. It's divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,12. Base-10 is only 1,2,5,10 which is less usable for fractions.
- Taniwha 7y ago
  At this point one has to point out that US gallons (and pints and cups and flu ounces) are different from the gallons/pints/cups/flu ounces used everywhere else on the planet (for reasons that mostly have to do with English kings trying to get around the parliament's limits on taxation they made some gallons smaller, the US standardised on one of the smaller ones) - fortunately most of the rest of us have stopped using those units so we don't care as much, but we do have to have to be careful with, for example, US recipes. When visiting Starbucks I'm often tempted to ask the person behind the register "Venti? that's Italian for 20 right? 20 what?" they invariably will say "20 fluid ounces" .... of course the correct comeback is "I'm pretty sure they use the metric system in Italy, it must be litres, or maybe mililitres" - usually they will choose "litres"
- anticensor 7y ago
  Added binary teaspoon and dessert spoon, also renaming a few units: tspn dspn tbspn oz jill gill cup bottle quart half gallon peck jimmyjohn bushel rundlet barrel hogshead butt tun
Yhippa 7y ago
IDK, if you're going to be non-standard might as well go all the way.
alkonaut 7y ago
What you want is metric, so 10 inches to a foot and so on. Switching makes of units isn’t so bad so long as the multipliers are 10,100,1000 Next you want your units to make sense across dimensions. You want your volume units to ALL be based on your length units. A cubic foot is ok. It then contains 1000 cubic inches. There are no quarts, gallons, pints (unless they are names for decimal quantities of cubic units).

I don’t really mind that we’re not on the metric system. I just wish our measurements were consistent as they increase. E.g. foot, kilofoot, etc. instead of foot, yards, miles.

thechao 7y ago

And base-2, rather than the computer-unfriendly base-10. Aaaaactually ... with a bit of squinting the U. S. customary volume system(s) define a complete set of base-2 nouns (which could be used as prefixes): tbspn oz jill gill cup pint quart half gallon peck kenning bushel rundlet barrel hogshead butt tun Where each item below the next item is exactly 2x the previous one. It turns out there's also some base-3 stuff (for measuring simplicity), like the teaspoon, etc. I've always imagined we could redefine a few things to make a "completely rational" U.S. customary measure. That'd be: 1 in == 2.5 centimeters (as Thomas Jefferson wanted) 256 in^3 == 1 gallon (water at 32° F) 1 in is a bit awkwardly small. A cup-inch is ~1.3ft. A pint-inch is exactly .8125m. Luckily, a 'tun-tun-inch' (65536in) is 1.0343 miles, so we could define a a 'tun-tun-inch' to be a mile, etc., etc.

madcaptenor 7y ago
That gives you a gallon of exactly 4 liters (256 * 2.5^3 = 4000 mL). Alternatively, a quart is now just another name for a liter.
ranger207 7y ago
Fractional lengths in the US are commonly in base-2, ie, 1/2", 1/4", 1/8", 1/16", etc. Still annoying to remember that the next socket up from 1/2" is 9/16".
- 1-6 7y ago
  Just use Highly Composite Numbers... Babylon used base-60 and we still tell the time with it today. Base-12 is good too. It's divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,12. Base-10 is only 1,2,5,10 which is less usable for fractions.
Taniwha 7y ago
At this point one has to point out that US gallons (and pints and cups and flu ounces) are different from the gallons/pints/cups/flu ounces used everywhere else on the planet (for reasons that mostly have to do with English kings trying to get around the parliament's limits on taxation they made some gallons smaller, the US standardised on one of the smaller ones) - fortunately most of the rest of us have stopped using those units so we don't care as much, but we do have to have to be careful with, for example, US recipes. When visiting Starbucks I'm often tempted to ask the person behind the register "Venti? that's Italian for 20 right? 20 what?" they invariably will say "20 fluid ounces" .... of course the correct comeback is "I'm pretty sure they use the metric system in Italy, it must be litres, or maybe mililitres" - usually they will choose "litres"
anticensor 7y ago
Added binary teaspoon and dessert spoon, also renaming a few units: tspn dspn tbspn oz jill gill cup bottle quart half gallon peck jimmyjohn bushel rundlet barrel hogshead butt tun

Yhippa 7y ago

IDK, if you're going to be non-standard might as well go all the way.

alkonaut 7y ago

What you want is metric, so 10 inches to a foot and so on. Switching makes of units isn’t so bad so long as the multipliers are 10,100,1000 Next you want your units to make sense across dimensions. You want your volume units to ALL be based on your length units. A cubic foot is ok. It then contains 1000 cubic inches. There are no quarts, gallons, pints (unless they are names for decimal quantities of cubic units).