Happy New Year

Light speed ≈ 300 000 Km/Sec. multiply that by the total time and you get the distance traveled.

D=Vt. distance equals velocity x time.

In recognizable units, light travels 186,282 miles in one second.

Yes, if you live in Liberia, Burma or the USA. I'm so proud.

It was good enough to get us to the moon.

"Yes, if you live in Liberia, Burma or the USA. I'm so proud."

I checked and found the following quote:

"The usage of the metric system varies around the world. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency's Factbook (2007), the International System of Units has been adopted as the official system of weights and measures by all nations in the world except for Burma, Liberia and the United States, while the NIST has identified the United States as the only industrialised country where the metric system is not the predominant system of units. However, reports published since 2007 hold this is no longer true of Liberia or Burma."

So guess what?

You're on your own matey.

Besides you already use many metric units like Volts, Amps, Watts, et cetera so why keep sticking to the use of such an outdated and obsolete system. Besides converting to the metric system may well save the occasional Mars surveying spacecraft, but we won't go into that because that would be being just plain nasty.

"Besides you already use many metric units like Volts, Amps, Watts, et cetera so why keep sticking to the use of such an outdated and obsolete system."

Is that a question? If so, here are a few answers.

It would be nearly impossible to re-layout our road systems which are currently built on the square mile (look at a map). Our land plots are in acres. Our buildings are built with dimensioned lumber and 4x8 sheetstock.

It is much easier to maintain what we have instead of translating miles, acres, yards, feet and inches to metric. Volumes and weights would be easier, but confusing, as well.

I use both, but there are many people who can only use one or the other, and seem to be intolerant of the measurement system that they do not understand.

"It is much easier to maintain what we have instead of translating miles, acres, yards, feet and inches to metric."

So basically you're saying that the US of A is incapable of doing what us pore Aussies managed to do along with every other non-French speaking country (French speaking countries nearly always already used the metric system) including Burma and Liberia (which is really an American outpost and a country set up by the USA around 1820) managed to do without major upset.

It's definitely food for thought.

"Volumes and weights would be easier, but confusing, as well."

Actually that's where the metric system wipes the floor with the imperial system because in the metric system you have a unit for mass (the gram or multiples of 10 thereof) and a separate unit for force (the Newton or multiples of 10 thereof) while the imperial system uses pounds to measure both which are two completely different things and you think the metric system would be confusing.

During my working life I have lived through a period when we used imperial measurements, a period of transition to metric and finally a period of metric units. The transition wasn't that difficult at all and once everybody realized how simple the metric system was to use and how easy it made designing things, especially in the field of control system engineering where you now had the same units for power, energy and force being used in the electrical and mechanical fields of the job.

So my suggestion to the only country in the world that still uses the outdated nonstandard myriad of confusing imperial system of units is to forget about the difficulties of converting and just get on with the job like everybody else already has.

After all, if you want to compete in an open world market then you are going to need to use the measurement standards that world market uses an I hate to tell you this but it's the metric system.

Anyway, the USA kicked off the whole idea of a measurement system based on multiples of 10 like our counting system when they started using dollars with 100 cents/pennies per dollar.

PS: Unfortunately I have to use both systems primarily because the USA insists on using imperial measurements, however, all my calculations are done using metric units and I just convert the answer.

This entire metric-imperial debate raises some questions.

1) When certain countries steal a design from the imperial measured US, do they then translate it into metrics?

2) If the need arises to hit someone in the head with a "2x4" in Metric land, what does someone use.

3) And lastly, here there is an expression used when the measurement is slightly off. It refers to a type of red hair. Is there any translation for this term?

Happy, healthy and prosperous new year to all. Bob.

G'day bob c,

In answer to your questions:

"When certain countries steal a design from the imperial measured US, do they then translate it into metrics?"

Buggered if I know I have never stolen a design nor intend to in the future.

"If the need arises to hit someone in the head with a "2x4" in Metric land, what does someone use."

You use "50 x 100 mm piece of timber".

"And lastly, here there is an expression used when the measurement is slightly off. It refers to a type of red hair. Is there any translation for this term?"

Yes it's called a "smidgeon" or more often than not "close enough".

For example it was a hot, dry day and after working for 10 hours in the sweltering sun on a rather large open cut mine a Scientist, Mathematician and Engineer stood at the doorway 3 metres from where the barman had set up three cold beers with condensation trickling down the side like a cascade of diamonds. The barman said you can have the beers for free it you walk to the bar, but each step can only halve the distance you are from the bar. The scientist and mathematician struggle over this problem as they knew that no matter how many steps they took they would never reach the bar and be able to drink the ever so beckoning cold and refreshing beers.

Meanwhile the engineer takes four steps says "close enough for me" and drinks the three beers.

Good reply. "Smidgeon" was not exactly the phrase I was thinking of, but "close enough".

We were quick to adopt a decimal money system, so that should tell you something about our priorities in the States.

In the 1970s while I was working in semiconductors, we were measuring areas (die size, bond pad size) in mils and geometry widths and film thicknesses in microns and angstroms. I got to where I could convert between mils and millimeters very quickly. By the time I left that business in the 1990s, it had all become metric. I think globalization is a driver towards metric but, as the USA still dominates most markets, it still has a lot of inertia moving it along the established track. What measurement system does China use? (Not the same one is used to build the Great Wall, I assume) China, India, and Brazil seem likely to influence this game. But what do I know? It wasn't that long ago I would have said Japan was the main challenger.

One other question: Do they still teach Physics using ft-lbs for force in American universities? (Do they still teach Physics? Do they still teach?)

"What measurement system does China use?"

As far as I know and according to the websites I've looked at they use the metric system like every other country does officially with the sole exception of the USA. However, having said that I have had items that were manufactured in China that have a combination of both metric and imperial components, which is a real pain in the rectum because you need to carry both imperial and metric tools like sockets, Alain keys, et cetera.

At the moment much of the world needs to use a mixture of imperial and metric standard sizes which is primarily due to the USA still using imperial standards, but the sooner they convert to the metric system the better it will be for the entire world as there would no longer be the necessity to carry around a mixture of imperial and metric standard parts and tools.

It could also save the USA the occasional billion dollar or so spacecraft like the one that crashed into Mars because the programmers writing the navigation software were working in metric units while the people building the rocket motors were working in imperial units. Mistakes like that are definitely not good on one's report card especially when you need to get all your funding for research and to build new spacecraft from the US government.

I imagine China is still using imperial because it wants to sell to the American market. The American market uses metric when it wants to sell on the global market. Every lab I have worked in (all in the US) has used metric exclusively because of its simplicity.

Unless the isolationists get their way, we will go metric eventually because all the immigrants are bringing it with them.

"Every lab I have worked in (all in the US) has used metric exclusively because of its simplicity."

It's simplicity is the thing I love most about the metric system and once you get your head around the idea of the first letter of the unit's name is a multiplying factor like a lower case m which means multiply by a factor of 10^-3 while k means multiply by a factor of 10³ with the following letters describing the unit of measure.

It's especially useful for control system engineers because the units for electrical power and energy are the same as mechanical power and energy so it make calculating the size of an electric motor that is needed to move something a given distance, accelerate it up to a given speed or raise it up through a given height a doddle. The unit names also are simple with them starting with a capital letter if the unit is named after a person like N for Newtons the unit for force while those that aren't named after a person get lower case letters like m for metre the unit for distance. You can also see at a glance whether the units are measuring areas as they have a squared symbol after them like m² for square metres and for volume you have m³ for cubic metres.

There you have it, pretty much all you need to know about the metric system explained in two paragraphs. Try explaining the imperial system of measurements in two paragraphs and see how far you get.

Unless your path is not straight towards a destination, and your measurement desired is linear....

xxxx speed is missing after light.