[time-nuts] Ultra low phase noise floor measurement system for RF devices.

[Magnus Danielson]

From: Dr Bruce Griffiths <bruce.griffiths at xtra.co.nz>
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Ultra low phase noise floor measurement system for RF devices.
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:24:39 +1200
Message-ID: <460EFBC7.6090409 at xtra.co.nz>

> SAIDJACK at aol.com wrote:
> > Hi Magnus,
> >  
> >  
> > BTW: here in the US they also like to measure things in fractions, and body  
> > part lengths for some unexplainable reason... Reasons I do hear are that SI  
> > is too "difficult" for the average Joe to comprehend, and replacing road signs  
> > costs too much.
> >  
> > Gotta get my 5/32 Fluid Ounce, 3-7/16 Inch Latte now :)

Say, that wouldn't be an ISO cup of coffie, now would it?
(yeah, they *DO* have a standard for that)

Oh, is that SI Inch or US Metric act Inch? There is about 2 ppm of difference
you know (we are time-nuts after all, right?). It was actually C E Johansson
that tricked the world into beleiving the Inch was 25.4 mm and when they found
out the US motor industry was running of Johanssons version of the Inch and
refused to change. A US survey feet runs of the US Metric act Inch. And through
which of the Inces do your 5/32 Fluid Ounces derive from?
Interestingly enough, it was the british wine-salesmen that to the best of our
knowledge (or at least Don Knuths best knowledge) where the first to use binary
numbers.

> Said
> 
> Since the average person in the rest of the world copes with the metric 
> system without any difficulty, the first reason would appear to be based 
> on a tacit assumption that average US citizen is less intelligent/less 
> well educated than the average citizen of every other country. This 
> seems a somewhat arrogant/paternalistic assumption unless the US in 
> someway selects for low IQ and/or the US education system is 
> significantly less effective than the educaton systems of every other 
> country.

Interestingly enought, the US public understands metric a whole lot better than
the imperial units according to surveys. USMA has alot of info. NIST too.

> The second reason is somewhat spurious, other countries have converted 
> from the imperial to the metric system without major difficulty or 
> expense. It wasn't even necessary to change all road signs overnight.

The EC countries are converging on this point, GB included!

I still wonder when Denmark will acknowledge UTC as their legal time. Their
current law (113 years of age and counting) indirectly (15 degrees longitude
and average sun time) says GMT + 1h. Not that it is part of SI, but a common
reference system of time should be.

Ah well.

Cheers,
Magnus