Setting Standards in Measurement.
March 27, 2008
If you live in the United States, you are fairly aware of what the standard measuring system is. An inch, a yard, a foot….we know it backwards and forwards. How feet are in a mile? That’s easy, 5,280 feet are in a mile. Now if we divide that by three, we get 1760 yards in a mile.
A foot is actually a measurement of w hat it sounds like, except that when the system was set up hundreds of years ago, the average person had a much smaller foot, so the measurement is no longer true to it’s original state. A yard is approximately the average person’s regular walking step, approximately 3 feet. This also is no longer true, since people now have longer legs and take longer steps. An inch was the average person’s index finger tip to first knuckle, and that takes about 12 of those to go into a foot and approximately 36 to go into a yard. So a relative measurement is a good thing. I’m pretty sure that whoever built my house 30 some years ago used this rule to make measurements, since they probably had never heard of a tape measure. This isn’t the point.
The U.S. is the only country that uses this ridiculous way of measuring. Every other country uses something a hundred time easier called the metric system. Every ongoing measurement is simply multiplied by 10 (10 Millimeters in 1 centimeter, 10 centimeter in a decimeter, 10 decimeters to a meter, and so on and so forth) That’s way easier. It makes traveling in different countries very difficult if we don’t understand that system. If you ask directions in London They might say something like “12 Kilometers East, and 500 Meters North. Care for a spot of tea?” The American would say “what?” and continue forth and get lost and drive off a cliff somewhere in a culture shock induced rage. This also applies pretty much every other measurement we know, including temperature, liquid measurement, size, weight, and every thing else
So if you do travel to a foreign country, here’s a few simple formulas to remember Metric in standard:
| SYMBOL | WHEN YOU KNOW | MULTIPLY BY | TO FIND | SYMBOL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LENGTH | ||||
| in | inches | 25.4 | millimeters | mm |
| ft | feet | 0.305 | meters | m |
| yd | yards | 0.914 | meters | m |
| mi | miles | 1.61 | kilometers | km |
| AREA | ||||
| in2 | square inches | 645.2 | square millimeters | mm2 |
| ft2 | square feet | 0.093 | square meters | m2 |
| yd2 | square yard | 0.836 | square meters | m2 |
| ac | acres | 0.405 | hectares | ha |
| mi2 | square miles | 2.59 | square kilometers | km2 |
| VOLUME | ||||
| fl oz | fluid ounces | 29.57 | milliliters | mL |
| gal | gallons | 3.785 | liters | L |
| ft3 | cubic feet | 0.028 | cubic meters | m3 |
| yd3 | cubic yards | 0.765 | cubic meters | m3 |
| MASS | ||||
| oz | ounces | 28.35 | grams | g |
| lb | pounds | 0.454 | kilograms | kg |
| T | short tons (2000 lb) | 0.907 | megagrams (or “metric ton”) | Mg (or “t”) |
| TEMPERATURE | ||||
| oF | Fahrenheit | (F-32) x 5 / 9 or (F-32) / 1.8 |
Celsius | oC |
| ILLUMINATION | ||||
| fc | foot-candles | 10.76 | lux | lx |
| fl | foot-Lamberts | 3.426 | candela/m2 | cd/m2 |
| FORCE and PRESSURE or STRESS | ||||
| lbf | poundforce | 4.45 | newtons | N |
| lbf/in2 | poundforce per square inch | 6.89 | kilopascals | kPa |
| APPROXIMATE CONVERSIONS
FROM TO |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SYMBOL | WHEN YOU KNOW | MULTIPLY BY | TO FIND | SYMBOL |
| LENGTH | ||||
| mm | millimeters | 0.039 | inches | in |
| m | meters | 3.28 | feet | ft |
| m | meters | 1.09 | yards | yd |
| km | kilometers | 0.621 | miles | mi |
| AREA | ||||
| mm2 | millimeters | 0.0016 | square inches | in2 |
| m2 | square meters | 10.764 | square feet | ft2 |
| m2 | square meters | 1.195 | square yards | yd2 |
| ha | hectares | 2.47 | acres | ac |
| km2 | square kilometers | 0.386 | square miles | mi2 |
| VOLUME | ||||
| mL | milliliters | 0.034 | fluid ounces | fl oz |
| L | liters | 0.264 | gallons | gal |
| m3 | cubic meters | 35.314 | cubic feet | ft3 |
| m3 | cubic meters | 1.307 | cubic yards | yd3 |
| MASS | ||||
| g | grams | 0.035 | ounces | oz |
| kg | kilograms | 2.202 | pounds | lb |
| Mg (or “t”) | megagrams (or “metric ton”) |
1.103 | short tons (2000 lb) | T |
| TEMPERATURE | ||||
| oC | Celsius | 1.8C + 32 | Fahrenheit | oF |
| ILLUMINATION | ||||
| lx | lux | 0.0929 | foot-candles | fc |
| cd/m2 | candela/m2 | 0.2919 | foot-Lamberts | fl |
| FORCE and PRESSURE or STRESS | ||||
| N | newtons | 0.225 | poundforce | lbf |
| kPa | kilopascals | 0.145 | poundforce per square inch | lbf/in |
(Tables taken from: http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/metric_conversion_chart.html)
you gotta memorize it all.
An Explanation.
February 8, 2008
When someone signs on to the great website known as Youtube, one can’t help but spend several hours, gazing into a computer screen, drooling like a helpless moron. The problem with said drooling is that it can manage to make your time do do stuff, well….drooly. Most people think it has something to do with the fact that one video references another, so must check out another video that references something else. This can go on for hours, or even days if you have nothing better to do.
But here is a new theory, published only right here, instead of somewhere that’s actually important. Html coding is used to make a website better, right? Well that is what at play here. There is a secret code, embedded in each video, that has managed to create a fifth dimensional tear(for those of you that don’t know what the fifth dimension is, it’s time and space). This code was made by the CIA for brainwashing originally, but a geek hacker named Herman managed to crack the code. He then sold the code to three former-paypal employees, who in turn killed Herman.
The code is known by these three and the CIA only. Paypal was created by the CIA anyways. Youtube became an epidemic that has forced several hours of homework, cleaning time, work, and pretty much anything else used in time to become completely obsolete.
Soon, God will end up on Youtube. He’s already created a myspace account, as seen here:
Now you will watch youtube eternally until the end of time.