7 ms·
A U.S. survey foot is expressed as a fraction — 1200/3937 meters — while an international foot is expressed as a decimal, exactly 0.3048 meters. A decimal is a
by ISL 4y ago
A U.S. survey foot is expressed as a fraction — 1200/3937 meters — while an international foot is expressed as a decimal, exactly 0.3048 meters.
A decimal is an alternative notation for a fraction.
- tomrod 4y agoOnly for rational numbers. Decimal -> fraction is a surjection. Irractional numbers, notionally representable as decimals, are uncountably infinite, and do not map 1:1 to fractions.
- mbg721 4y agoIt is literally a ratio of integers, therefore rational.
- tomrod 4y agoCorrect, rational numbers are those numbers that can be represented as a ratio of integers (excluding zero as denominator). Our points agree.
- mitthrowaway2 4y agoIt is rational: 391/1250
- tomrod 4y agoThis particular value is, certainly.
- mitthrowaway2 4y ago(Note: this was a mistyping of 381/1250)
- throwthere 4y agoI think you’re technically equating non terminating to irrational but the looser point seems fair to me— it’s hard to codify precise decimals.
- tomrod 4y agoClose. Many non-terminating can be mapped to fractions (e.g. 0.88888... = 8/9), which is equivalent to rational, but non-terminating and non-repeating are irrational (e.g. π or e).
- throwthere 4y agoI guess I’m just making the point all nonterninating are hard to codify in non mathematical fonts formatting etc. For instance using that 0.88888 example, that decimal very much does not precisely equal 8/9. you’d either have to keep writing 8s into infinity or hope everybody who copies/Padres your writing has a way to preserve the indicator of repeating digits.
- blueflow 4y agoThey are still not the same value.
- mbg721 4y agoWho has the kind of money to quibble over that fifth decimal place? Oh yeah, national governments.
- Arnt 4y agoAssuming the question is serious: Owners of land near the US west coast. Not near the east coast. US property is measured from a line of reference points near the east coast, so if you use the wrong foot there, your property boundaries will be less than 1mm wrong, and you and your neighbour are unlikely to notice. But near the west coast you may be building your house/fence/whatever 0.5m into your neighbour's land.
- mbg721 4y agoI wasn't serious, but this is good information. I assume some of that is a holdover from mineral or oil rights being life-and-death.
- Arnt 4y agoNo, it's about cities, and it's as old as street networks. Suppose your neighbour has a 30×30m corner plot and you build a five-story building 50cm onto your neighbour's plot. The street isn't going to move, so you've just reduced the size of his possible six-story building by about 2%, and 2% of the value of a six-story downtown building is worth a lawsuit.
- wbl 4y agoIt's the result of how the US handed out land to settlers using survey to hand out square blocks largely sight unseen. However California has grants from the Spanish crown at the root of many of its property deed chains, so the mess will be different.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]