# Things that don't make much sense, but are hard to change now. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 24, 2007, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942 "2007-07-24T10:47:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/41 "2007-07-24T20:56:26Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] Well, of course you know the rhyme that accompanies resistor colour codes, right? [/QUOTE] That would be “Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West - Get Started Now!” Whatever [else (NSFW)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor_color_code#Mnemonics) could you possibly be thinking of? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/42 "2007-07-24T21:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=oskar669] And this seems sane compared to the french system! 73 is soixante-treize (sixty thirteen) 95 quatre-vingt-quinze (three twenty fifteen) [/QUOTE] _Four_-twenties-fifteen. (More sensible, you must admit, if only marginally so). I’m told that in parts of Belgium and Switzerland, they use the eminently logical numbers _septante, huitante_ (or _octante_) and _nonante_ for seventy, eighty, and ninety, just like the other Romance languages. (Weirdly, a few dictionaries say that we do it in Quebec, too, but we completely don’t. We use exactly the same number system as France.) ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/43 "2007-07-24T21:16:49Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] Conventional current is not electron current [/QUOTE] But the only reason why there’s a distinction between “conventional current” and “electron current” in the first place is that someone got the direction of electrical flow wrong when assigning the “convention”. If we were starting from scratch today, with knowledge of electrons, there’s no way we’d pretend that electricity flowed in the opposite direction to the way the electrons flowed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/44 "2007-07-24T21:22:39Z")
> [@](#): > > ``` > * Screw threads. Rotate left to loosen, right to tighten. Except sometimes. (I remember some radio antennas that had an opposite-thread screw. And I believe that certain cars had left-hand thead on the wheel nuts (or some similar part) on one side and right-hand thread on the other side. > > ``` This does actually make sense. Almost everything is righty tighty, lefty loosey, because that’s the (arbitrary) standard. The exceptions to the standard occur for one of two reasons: First, some things are deliberately opposite of the standard, because there would be bad consequences for mixing them up with the more common things that use the standard. For instance, propane fittings have reversed threads, so that you can’t use a hose designed for water with propane. Second, some screwed things, due to their mechanical environment, would tend to loosen with use, if they were righty-tighty. This is often the case for wheels and related hardware of vehicles, which rotate forward much more often than backward. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/45 "2007-07-24T21:50:20Z")
AC Adaptors. Everything has one, they’ve all got different connectors on them, even when the voltage and current are the same. There’s almost no chance of reusing an old adaptor with a new device, but it’s pretty easy to hook up a WRONG one with a device and cause damage. Why didn’t they standardize on a few different size/voltage/current combinations with interlocks years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/46 "2007-07-24T22:03:39Z")
**Chronos** has it right. Look at the [this picture](http://www.silogic.com/MGB/124-2480_IMG.JPG) of a wire wheel. There’s only one nut, in the center, holding the wheel onto the hub. There are splines along the hub (like [this](http://www.britishwirewheel.com/adapters.htm)), but if those wear out, the act of driving the car would tend to unscrew the wheels on one side. They change the threads so the wheels would only come off if you drive backwards. (My MG has octagonal knock-offs, instead of the winged one in the first picture. In the back, with the spare tire, are a large skate key and a lead mallet.) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/47 "2007-07-24T22:36:14Z")
Me being the rational type, I don’t like the _name_ of the convention of “righty-righty, lefty-loosie”. Sure, most of the time we’re a bit above what we are trying to screw (heh,) but sometimes I have to think for a moment whether right means clockwise or counterclockwise, especially if I am under what I am trying to screw. Now we have to think of mnemonic for Clocky In, Counter out. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/48 "2007-07-24T22:43:14Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] But the only reason why there’s a distinction between “conventional current” and “electron current” in the first place is that someone got the direction of electrical flow wrong when assigning the “convention”. [/QUOTE] Nope; conventional current in linear circuits is assumed to be instantaneous; once the circuit is complete, “flow” of “current” occurs everywhere in the circuit subject only to the action of time-varying impedences. Electron current flow is much, much slower. The convention–both of them, actually–are arbitrary, so there’s no reason they have to be different in sign, but no pressing reason that they be the same, either. The only people who really care are the solid state physicists and engineers designing transistors. Everybody else might as well be driving in America and England with no route inbetween. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/49 "2007-07-24T22:54:05Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] I’m told that in parts of Belgium and Switzerland, they use the eminently logical numbers _septante, huitante_ (or _octante_) and _nonante_ for seventy, eighty, and ninety, just like the other Romance languages. [/quote] It’s worth noting that English also uses the equivalent of “quatre-vingt”, although I believe it is now an archaism. Consider, for example, Lincoln’s “four score and seven years ago” speech. > [@](#): > > (Weirdly, a few dictionaries say that we do it in Quebec, too, but we completely don’t. We use exactly the same number system as France.) Do you know which dictionaries that would be, so I won’t buy them? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/50 "2007-07-24T23:41:46Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Me being the rational type, I don’t like the _name_ of the convention of “righty-righty, lefty-loosie”. Sure, most of the time we’re a bit above what we are trying to screw (heh,) but sometimes I have to think for a moment whether right means clockwise or counterclockwise, especially if I am under what I am trying to screw. Now we have to think of mnemonic for Clocky In, Counter out. [/QUOTE] Turning your car’s steering wheel clockwise causes your car to turn right. ---
**Author:** ![Aioua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Aioua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aioua)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/51 "2007-07-25T00:08:03Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] […] Now we have to think of mnemonic for Clocky In, Counter out. [/QUOTE] Well, at the begining of the day you **clock in** , and and the end of the day you **count out.** (The till that is) Okay so it’s lame. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/52 "2007-07-25T00:25:40Z")
The Month/day/year convention for expressing dates of Americans, when lots of the rest of us use the day/month/year convention. Local bias of course, but my convention seems to me to be more rational - there is a logical progression from smaller units to bigger ones. The difference is obvious when one sees dates like 7/28/07 (apart from the slightly vertiginous sensation of wondering what the 28th month is at first glance), but dates like 6/3/07 are inherently ambiguous and require a search for context which defeats the whole time-saving point of the abbreviated expression. I have seen some people use a convention where they do day/month in Roman numerals/year (6/III/07 is now obviously disambiguated), but it hasn’t caught on. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/53 "2007-07-25T00:39:57Z")
[QUOTE=Noel Prosequi] The Month/day/year convention for expressing dates of Americans, when lots of the rest of us use the day/month/year convention. Local bias of course, but my convention seems to me to be more rational - there is a logical progression from smaller units to bigger ones. [/QUOTE] That one is better than the American convention, sure, but year/month/day is the best one. Going from largest to smallest units, it mimics the hour/minute/second convention that we all use for time. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/54 "2007-07-25T02:40:45Z")
And there’s only one convention that starts with the year. There are two that don’t start with the year: M/D/Y and D/M/Y, leading to ambiguities like 01/03/02. (Speaking of which, why is anyone at all still using a two-digit year?) ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/55 "2007-07-25T03:38:56Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] (Speaking of which, why is anyone at all still using a two-digit year?) [/QUOTE] Given that a century is longer than most people live, a two digit year is both compact and unambiguous for almost any daily date purpose. It’s rare that someone talking about a _historical_ date uses a two-digit year, it’s just the sort of day-to-day stuff that we abbreviate. Sure those whiny computers that get their digital knickers in a knot over it, but even that’s pretty much a thing of the past. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/56 "2007-07-25T03:38:58Z")
The whole 12 months a (solar) year with varying numbers of days per month (28, 29, 30, 31?), and different days of the week per date over the years. Why not 13 months of 28 days each? A week could stay 7 days, now every date will always be the same day of the week every year. In tribute to the Simpsons, the 13th month would be called “Smarch”. Yes, that makes only 364 days. The 365th day is “New Year’s Day”, which is _its own day_ between December 28th and January 1st, and not part of any month nor any day of the week, and is a holiday (but counted as the first day of the year for year counts: 28-Dec-2007 is followed by NYD-2008, or numerically 00/00/2008, and then 01-Jan-2008). For Leap Years, the day after New Year’s Day could be Leap Year Day (LYD-2008, or 00/01/2008 or 01-00-2008), also a holiday, followed by January 1st, which is, as always, a Monday. Christmas Day would become December 22nd, a Friday – so no more having Christmas falling on a Wednesday. Independence Day in the US would get moved to July 5th so as to always be a Friday, or to July 1st to always be a Monday. Thanksgiving (US) is “the fourth Thursday of November”, so it would always be November 25th. For financial statements that report “in quarters”, each quarter is exactly 13 weeks, ignoring New Year’s Day and any Leap Year’s Day. Come on, who’s with me? ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/57 "2007-07-25T12:18:51Z")
[QUOTE=fishbicycle] So, my comments were somewhat premature, no? I had thought that because NPR was doing it, that everyone else was going to do it as well, but I was wrong. Hang onto your radio! [/QUOTE] Thank you for your response. This was much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/58 "2007-07-25T12:23:53Z")
[QUOTE=Aioua] Well, at the begining of the day you **clock in** , and and the end of the day you **count out.** (The till that is) [/QUOTE] The till–brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/59 "2007-07-25T12:36:08Z")
[QUOTE=oskar669] Time oddities again. In austria “quarter five”(viertel Fünf) means “quarter past four” “three-quarter five”(dreiviertel Fünf) means “A quarter to five” It’s driving me nuts to this day (I am austrian) And the way we count. If you learned german, you know it. It’s all backwards 53 is “Three and fifty” 125 is “one hundred five and twenty”(Einhundertfünfundzwanzig) And this seems sane compared to the french system! 73 is soixante-treize (sixty thirteen) 95 quatre-vingt-quinze (three twenty fifteen) [/QUOTE] But at least you don’t have to cope with the English system of weights and measures still in use in the US. 12 inches make 1 foot, 3 feet make 1 yard, 5280 feet or 1760 yards make a mile, 4 pints make a quart, 4 quarts make a gallon, 4 pecks make a bushel, an acre is 4840 square yards, and none of this is based on any measuring unit that makes any kind of sense, all of it quite is quite arbitrary. We should have gone metric along with the rest of the world a long time ago. My car gets 15,120 furlongs to the hogshead. Do the math. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942/60 "2007-07-25T12:42:04Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] Christmas Day would become December 22nd, a Friday – so no more having Christmas falling on a Wednesday. Independence Day in the US would get moved to July 5th so as to always be a Friday, or to July 1st to always be a Monday. Thanksgiving (US) is “the fourth Thursday of November”, so it would always be November 25th. [/QUOTE] I like your plan, but I’d adjust by having Independence Day stay on the 4th – it’s the 4th for a _reason_, first off, but more importantly, the holiday would always be a four-day weekend. We need more four-day weekends, not fewer. Leap Year Day should also be a holiday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-dont-make-much-sense-but-are-hard-to-change-now/412942.md?page=4)