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

Chuck Harris cfharris at erols.com
Sun Apr 1 18:43:29 UTC 2007


Bob Paddock wrote:
> On Sunday 01 April 2007 11:30, Chuck Harris wrote:
> 
>> Metric vs. English has nothing to do with making things easier, but
>> rather has everything to do with which arbitrary constants you prefer.
> 
> Here is a question that has nagged me for years, but first
> the background:
> 
> When I was in school getting my degree, I had a Physics
> teacher that gave all of  his lectures in the Metric System.
> The book covered nothing but the Metric System.
> All of the tests he gave where in the *English* system!

A standard trick.  They want you to learn the algebra of conversions.
The biggest problem I had is I was taking courses in Physics,
Engineering, and Astronomy at the same time.  It was a whole lot
of fun switching between mks, cgs, English, and astronomical units
in the same day.

> Conversions where never mentioned, *anyplace*.
> Everyone failed the first test.
> [This kind of #)$*#$* in schools,
>  is the kind of thing that makes be believe
>  in Home Schooling.]
> 
> The one good thing to come out of that (?), is everyone in class learned
> to  paying attention to the 'Units'.
> 
> In the English System the unit of Weight is the Pound.
> The unit of Mass is the Slug.
> In the Metric System the unit of Weight is the Newton.
> The unit of Mass is the (Kilo)Gram.
> 
> So why does this box of cereal (first thing at hand with label)
> say "10 Oz (284g)".  All of these dual unit labels
> are comparing weight vs mass.  Why?

Because the folks that write the laws are barely up to the
task.  They have no educational basis for understanding that
mass and weight are not the same thing.... because standing flat
footed on Earth, they are.

> I'm sure virtually all Americans think the Gram is a
> unit of weight.

I doubt that, but for all intents and purposes here on Earth,
a gram is a unit of weight.

Of course, it begs the question of why 1 Newton != 1Kg.

(1Newton = 0.1020Kg at Earth gravity)

-Chuck Harris

I love metric...

A piezes is 10E3 Newtons/sq meter
A piezes is also 1 sthenes/sq meter
A poises is 10E-1 newton-seconds/sq meter

A steres is 1 cubic meter
A stokes is 10E-4 sq meters/second

It's only simple if you stay out of the margins.




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