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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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13th Sep 2017, 12:55 pm | #41 | |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
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Even more convenient that it's about 1ft/nS when thinking about signal delays in old money.
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13th Sep 2017, 1:12 pm | #42 | |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
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It's a bit of an inconsistency, really, in SI, calling the base unit a kilogram. Would have been better calling it something else. Suggestions? However, on the basis that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, the actual mass that the kilogram is defined to be, is fairly well chosen. (I'd have made the metre a bit smaller, personally, but that's just me.) |
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13th Sep 2017, 3:10 pm | #43 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
The other connection between the metre and the second is that a pendulum 1m. long takes -- as near as dn it is to swearing -- 1 second to swing from side to side. Possibly useful if you are ever stuck on a desert island and need to make yourself a set of measurement standards from scratch
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13th Sep 2017, 4:16 pm | #44 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
I like the variety of units used past and present, understating them explains many things, like why is the US gallon smaller than ours (to do with wine and beer gallons). My local hardware store still sells paraffin in gallons (or a half for the smaller, common 4 litre containers) with a conversion to litres pasted on the machine.
America went metric in 1868 by defining their yard as a certain fraction of a metre, saved making their own standard apparently. |
13th Sep 2017, 4:33 pm | #45 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
I recently met my son's father in law (FIL in common parlance) who's an architect in LA. In conversation, we mentioned metric measurements, and he had no idea of what were. They use feet and inches, pounds, etc, as we older folks used to.
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13th Sep 2017, 4:40 pm | #46 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Yes, the Americans still use imperial measurements to buy their sausages.
It's a cultural thing. A bit like speaking your own language. |
13th Sep 2017, 5:37 pm | #47 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Americans are gradually coming into line, though. Five years ago, American data books on magnetic materials gave figures in gauss and oersteds. Now, they're at least in teslas and amp-turns per metre.
While the conversion between gauss and tesla is easy (10,000 G = 1 T), oersteds to amp-turns per metre is not (1000/4π Oe = 1 A/m). Trouble is, I now have a feel for magnitudes of magnetising field strength in oersteds. It'll take a generation or two to let things settle... Last edited by kalee20; 13th Sep 2017 at 5:39 pm. Reason: clarification |
13th Sep 2017, 6:25 pm | #48 | |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
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Unfortunately, this would cause endless confusion with the “gram” and its SI unit symbol “g”. For example, if it was intended to specify a tracking force of 6 mG (milligiorgi) and MS word autocorrect changed this to 6 Mg (megagram) you would have specified a tracking force of 6 kg instead of 6 g. It’s probably best to stick to the kilogram after all. |
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13th Sep 2017, 6:33 pm | #49 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
I like that.
Don't have to have G for the giorgi, either - how about zeta (ζ)? No confusion then. |
13th Sep 2017, 8:00 pm | #50 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
We had enough trouble when the Siemens (mho) was brought in.
mS for milli Siemens is too easily confused with ms for milliseconds. It would also be much better id base units were capitalised and not derived units Ed |
13th Sep 2017, 10:57 pm | #51 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
It would indeed - probably a bit too late now. Instead, the capitalised units are the ones named after somebody. So the capitalised base units are amp (A), kelvin (K). Second is s (though I personally write sec so as never to confuse with siemens S); metre is m; then we move to two-lettered base units, kilogram is kg; candela is cd; and then to three letters, mole being mol. All the other SI units are derived units, usually a single capital letter when named after someone but occasionally two (e.g. Hz, Wb).
Siemens incidentally I have never used, nor mho (which there was a period when the abbreviation was upside-down capital omega). I prefer to write mA/V instead, as every conductance I've used is mutual conductance, of valve (occasionally transistor). And then, if load is in kilohms, multiply the two together to get gain (wow! That's brought just about right back to the OP's first post!). |
14th Sep 2017, 8:30 am | #52 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
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14th Sep 2017, 8:43 am | #53 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
As Joe Public, the BBC and uncle Tom Cobbley all call masses and weights in "Keeeloes"
I don't suppose it matters what the bit after the multiplier would have been :-( David
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14th Sep 2017, 8:52 am | #54 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
"Keelo" would solve the problem. It no longer sounds like a multiple.
What would the symbols for Kilo-Keelo and Milli-Keelo be? |
14th Sep 2017, 6:40 pm | #55 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Kilo-Keelo is a Meelo and a Milli-Keelo is just a lo.
Or did I get that wrong somewhere? I went crazy with some guys who liked centiBels....argh. |
14th Sep 2017, 8:55 pm | #56 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Just to go back in time a bit, there is also the unit beloved of old fashioned power engineers, the Daraf, a reciprocal Farad, named like the Mho. There was probably one for the Henry as well but I can't think of it at present.
Ed |
14th Sep 2017, 9:10 pm | #57 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Wow, Ed! I've just googled it... inverse capacitance or elastance, measured in darafs! Thanks!! Never used that, don't believe I knew about the term! (I have some across susceptance though, like conductance, measured in mhos ℧ until SI replaced them by siemens). No abbreviation given for the daraf, rather a shame... And nothing about reciprocal inductance (of course, turning H upside-down for reciprocal henry would hardly work anyway!)
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15th Sep 2017, 9:15 am | #58 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Reciprocal Henry sounds like someone from Viz comic.
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15th Sep 2017, 2:52 pm | #59 | |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
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15th Sep 2017, 5:45 pm | #60 |
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Re: An opportunity to be SMUG
Surely the International Unit for sausages is the "link" [two sausages] ??
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