Definition of kilogram, amp, and kelvin set to change forever

[jonnydot]

https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathemati...change-forever

[mklotz]

One is forced to wonder if they will be redefining the DRS (Dumb Redneck System) units so commonly used on TV news and documentaries...

Length: 747 wingspans
Area: football fields
Volume: Olympic swimming pools
Mass: elephants
Electrical Power: volts

[Jon]

One is forced to wonder if they will be redefining the DRS (Dumb Redneck System) units so commonly used on TV news and documentaries...

Length: 747 wingspans
Area: football fields
Volume: Olympic swimming pools
Mass: elephants
Electrical Power: volts

Couldn't resist!

[neilbourjaily@gmail.com]

Speaking of dumb redneck measurements, The fresh fruit packing biz learned me to estimate area pretty quickly: mile(1760yds) X mile =640acres, 1/2(880yds) x mile=320, 1/2 x 1/2=160, 1/2x1/4(440yds)=80, 1/4x1/4=40, 1/8(220yds)x1/4=20, 1/8x1/8=10, 1/16(100yds)x1/8=5, 1/16x1/16=2.5, 1/16x1/32(55yds)=1.25. Thus a redneck's football field is a touch more than an acre.

[Frank S]

They are wrong about the speed of light remaining constant in a vacuum light is effected by gravitational fields for one I think it was Feynman who lectured on the principals of light speed with varying time lapses
To quote Richard Feynman "...there is also an amplitude for light to go faster (or slower) than the conventional speed of light. You found out in the last lecture that light doesn't go only in straight lines; now, you find out that it doesn't go only at the speed of light! It may surprise you that there is an amplitude for a photon to go at speeds faster or slower than the conventional speed, c."
What this means to the redneck in me is that no matter who well defined some may think their unit of measurement is there will always be someone who will come along later or has previously debunked your absolutes.

[nhengineer]

https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathemati...change-forever

I tried to concentrate on the article in the link provided but I continually distracted myself by wondering how many times dose this make it that the metric system has been 'realigned' while the Imperial system has remained unchanged since its standardization by the Anglo-Saxons in 1824. Yup, I know the metric yahoos out there will all start clamoring about the lack of relativity of the Imperial system based on the length of the king's aroused sex organ but it is as relevant, if not more so, than the origins of the metric system which was originally based on the length of one minute of arc of a great circle of the Earth (now called a nautical mile, 1852 meters) in 1670. Problem I have with that 'standard' is how was Frenchman Gabriel Mouton able to measure that arc? At least the length of the King's erection was a physical thing that actually had a measurable length.

What say you metric yahoos out there?

Which side are you on, Jon?

[Jon]

Which side are you on, Jon?

The side of the pirates! How Pirates Stole the Metric System from America

[mklotz]

Speaking of dumb redneck measurements, The fresh fruit packing biz learned me to estimate area pretty quickly: mile(1760yds) X mile =640acres, 1/2(880yds) x mile=320, 1/2 x 1/2=160, 1/2x1/4(440yds)=80, 1/4x1/4=40, 1/8(220yds)x1/4=20, 1/8x1/8=10, 1/16(100yds)x1/8=5, 1/16x1/16=2.5, 1/16x1/32(55yds)=1.25. Thus a redneck's football field is a touch more than an acre.

Kinda big "touch"...

(American) football field = 360 x 160 ft = 57,600 ft^2
Acre = 660 x 66 ft = 43,560 ft^2 = 75% of a football field

For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with ACS (American Customary Units)...

The definition of an acre is a classic example of the nonsense that went into defining ACS. An acre is the amount of land a man can plow in a day. This became standardized to be an area a furlong in length by a chain wide. A furlong is an eighth of a mile (5280 / 8 ft) or ten chains (10 * 66 ft). Thus an acre is ten square chains.

The chain itself is a little bundle of awkwardness. Used in surveying, it became necessary to divide the chain into smaller units. So the chain was divided into 100 links. 66 links might have made a modicum of sense but no, we now have a link that's 0.66 ft = 7.92 in long!

[nhengineer]

They are wrong about the speed of light remaining constant in a vacuum light is effected by gravitational fields for one I think it was Feynman who lectured on the principals of light speed with varying time lapses
To quote Richard Feynman "...there is also an amplitude for light to go faster (or slower) than the conventional speed of light. You found out in the last lecture that light doesn't go only in straight lines; now, you find out that it doesn't go only at the speed of light! It may surprise you that there is an amplitude for a photon to go at speeds faster or slower than the conventional speed, c."
What this means to the redneck in me is that no matter who well defined some may think their unit of measurement is there will always be someone who will come along later or has previously debunked your absolutes.

Frank S, you are obviously a clear thinker so please respond to my question regarding the speed of light that I have been asking every person of similar awareness as you for the last sixty years. That would be, the speed of light relative to what exactly? Nothing in the universe is stationary; therefore, the speed of light must be relative to the body emitting it. If that body is moving at, say 3,000 cubits per second relative to the nearest body of mass (which itself is also moving by the way), then the speed of the photons being emitted must be equal to their speed relative to the body emitting them added to the speed of the emitting body but only if the emitting body is moving in the opposite direction as the body of reference. I could carry that out quite a bit further but I save that of another time.

I used cubits as a unit of measure because it is defined as from 17-1/2" to 20-6/10" which is accurate enough for me.

[Scotsman Hosie]

So, they've went and applied more than a little dab of science, to the suddenly atavistic constants we've grown to love, but rarely pay attention to.