Holy crap, you simply cannot answer a question, can you?
I will repeat it, in case you somehow missed it the first time:
I would like you to give me one (1) example where a change to a different measurement system was required to cope with the disastrous loss of precision in a computer program caused by the metric system.
I provided multiple, click the links, but this is bigger then measurement systems.
This is freshmen year computer science intro to computers level, and has been for decades, it is not something that is obscure.
http://www.lce.hut.fi/teaching/S-114.1100/lect_1.pdf
I repeat, the fact that 1.0 is NOT EQUAL to 10*0.1 is intro to computers level information and ignoring the math behind it, and multiple examples in a post you just ignored won’t change that fact.
So, the answer is “no,” then?
This thread is not about the imprecision of floating-point math. It’s about the metric system. You made an unsubstantiated claim early on, and have failed to support it in any subsequent post.
Sorry, you lose.
You may want to look at what forum you are in.
But how about showing me examples of doctors losing a patient because they were waiting for a stork. That is how absurd this is.
0.1 = 3602879701896397/36028797018963968
for computers 0.1 ~=0.1000000000000000055511151231257827021181583404541015625
Can you not understand the implications of
.1 + .1 + .1 not being equal to .3
Those are all basic examples on the tutorial page for one of the easiest to learn languages in popular use today.
And rounding doesn’t fix it.
Please provide a cite where I am wrong on this, because your claims that the limitations of dividing by 10 and equality is DIRECTLY related to a decimal system of measurement.
Thousands of new programmers get bit by this, here is the first hit from a simple google search as an example.
I think you are trying to win an argument outside of Great Debates because it is not hard to understand the problem when:
1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm != 1 cm.
Are you seriously claiming the fact that due to this representation error that 10 millimeters won’t be counted as equal to 1 centimeter is not a problem?
1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm + 1mm = 10mm
The units you are working in are mm, not cm.
And, your example is bad - what you meant to say is .1cm + .1cm +… != 1cm
But, of course, this example has nothing to do with the metric system. .1in + .1in +… != 1in either.
OK, so you are really arguing that 10mm doesn’t equal 1cm???
Or are you saying .1cm isn’t equal to 1mm?
But my US tape measures and rulers seem to have 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 markings, and I am pretty sure my metric tape measure has 10 markings per centimeter.
But I can see how it would be frustrating going to the hardware store looking for a 0.625 nut, only but leaving after they try to sell you one that was 5/8ths. I am also pretty sure that by the 12" my rules and tape measure mark the foot, and not decimal inches. But maybe we use different brands?
Or are you using what you think is a debate tactic that I have said division is the problem?
s/Or are you using what you think is a debate tactic that ignores I have said division is the problem?
I would say ‘It’s going to be in the low 20s/mid 20s/high 20s/low teens/high teens etc’.
I think you’re over thinking the difficulty of communication.
Well I grew up with F and have been converted to C, through the gradual change that has happened in the UK. There really is NO DIFFERENCE in which system you use. When you know it, you know it. There’s nothing superior about either system, except I know I need to scrape the car windows at 0ºC and be careful on the roads on my bike, which IS genuinely useful to know.
Exactly. I grew up with Fahrenheit but now use Celsius. Back then I knew that 70F was the threshold for a pleasant (for England) day. Now I know that is 21C. Likewise 25C+ is warm, and 30C+ is hot. The mistake is in thinking that you have to convert everything back into another measurement system. You don’t. You just come to get a feel for the new system. I don’t know anybody who still converts prices into shillings and pence either.
I do sometimes… Just as a mental exercise and to shock myself with how much prices for small things have gone up since decimalisation 47 years ago. 12/6 for a loaf of bread???
Over here, people don’t really say “in the 20s”, “in the 30s”, let alone “lower 20s”. If they wanted to express the same idea on TV, I guess they would say something like “temperatures will be between 20 and 25 degrees”
Watch out, someone will be along in a minute to tell us metric is inefficient with language.
FTR, we’d say ‘low 20s’ in the UK.
Well, maybe. I guess it’s cultural.
In fact, I can’t even think of a proper way to translate “low 20s” in French.
“Most of us” live close enough. 80% of the world, that is.
Here we don’t even have that holdout. Baby’s weight are given in kilos and that’s what everyone uses when talking about it too.
I don’t know the numbers. In the US, only 9 states have an average elevation below 500 feet which is roughly a 1 degree Celsius difference in boiling point. There are certainly states though with high average elevation that still cluster along the coasts, so I really don’t have an answer. I can’t imagine that 80 percent of the US population is hugging the coasts, but I suppose it’s possible. At least 1/4 of our states have no land below 500 feet.
Half of the US population lives in counties directly abutting the shoreline. This includes the Great Lakes, though, so factor that in. Then all the counties that are at lower elevation but not directly on the coast…people really like living on coasts and the bigger (hence lower) rivers.
Hopefully beowulff and rat avatar have gone out into the playground to fight it out.
Yes, of course 12, 16, 60 etc have more whole number sub-multiples, but the metric system is a darn sight easier for kids to learn, especially since we count in tens. Maybe it would be different if we all had six fingers on each hand…?
Conceptually, yes.
But do you know any country that has switched **from ** metric to imperial?
If all the traffic is one way except for that budding third world country in the north Atlantic about 75W, what does that tell you?
Am an Aussie born at a time when the country was exclusively imperial.
Was in primary school when the currency went metric and nobody thinks that guineas, pounds, crowns, half crowns, shillings, sixpences, thripennies, tupennies, pennies, hapennies and farthings was superior.
I now think in metric with one exception, human height. And that’s only to crosscheck how much of a beanpole 196cm and how much of a munchkin 150cm is.
The metric system has four key advantages over the “customary” system. The least significant of these, but for some reason the most often cited, is that it’s based on powers of ten.
The next advantage is that it’s used by the vast majority of the world. This isn’t an inherent advantage, since after all there was a time before all of them switched, but it’s still a real one.
Much more important is that the metric system is what’s called a coherent system of units. What this means is that, for instance, the metric unit of power is equal to the metric unit of mass times the square of the metric unit for length divided by the cube of the metric unit of time. By contrast, the customary unit for power is not one foot-pound per second, but 550 foot-pounds per second.
And finally, the customary system isn’t even standardized, which defeats the whole point of a system of units. That image someone linked of all of the different international inches is an excellent illustration of this. Not only do people all over the world use units called “kilogram” and “meter” and so on, but everyone who uses those units means the same thing by them. You never have to stop to ask “Which inch?”, or “What kind of gallon?”, or the like.