Lincoln Chafee: The US should convert to metric units

[Angra Mainyu]

You mean, with training one can extend the ring finger without extending the little one, or that I can learn to play the piano?
If it's the former, maybe so, but even then, it wouldn't be easy, so it would still be a difficulty for most people if they want to count with their fingers extending them like that. But the variant I suggested avoids the matter, and needs no training.
If it's the latter, I'm not going to argue the point.

Training, as small magic people have shown, results in convincing ease of movement for those who practice the discipline. You considered playing the piano with your toes?

If it's the former, maybe so, but then there would still be a difficulty for most people - who probably wouldn't take the trouble of doing all the training.
And I've not seriously considered playing the piano with either my fingers or my toes.

Base two complicates counting? Really?

That's not what I meant. I meant extending their fingers like that would still be difficult for most people - most people do not train in the way you suggested.
That aside, I do think (speculatively) base two would complicate counting for most people, with respect to base ten. But that's a speculative hypothesis about human psychology, not the issue I was talking about.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Learn to play the piano.

I'm not particularly interested in learning how to play the piano, and I doubt I could even if I tried. But I'm not sure what your point is. Could you elaborate, please?
What I'm saying is that if you want to use your fingers to count, you don't need to extend the ring finger before the little one, and extending the little one without extending the ring finger is no problem. If that's different in the context of playing the piano, that's still not an issue when it comes to counting.

If you're going to count in binary on your fingers you have to do every finger independently. What the person who brought this up missed is that you don't need to extend them fully, you just need two unambiguous states.

I think his point about the piano is that you have to learn to use your various fingers to hit the keys. I think a much more relevant example is learning to type--a touch typist uses all their fingers independently although they generally are not fully extended while doing so.

 

[bilby]

Day is not part of the metric system, second is.

(Or maybe, the best system is whatever we happen to use for given purpose because learning new arbitrary way of doing things is a waste of resources.)

Yes, best system is metric.

I long for the eighty six point four kiloseconds when everyone wakes up to this simple fact.

The problem with the imperial measurement people is that you give them twenty five point four millimetres, and they take one point six one kilometres. They don't have twenty eight point three five grams of sense; no matter how much you try to four hundred and fifty three point six grams the idea into their brains.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

I'm not particularly interested in learning how to play the piano, and I doubt I could even if I tried. But I'm not sure what your point is. Could you elaborate, please?
What I'm saying is that if you want to use your fingers to count, you don't need to extend the ring finger before the little one, and extending the little one without extending the ring finger is no problem. If that's different in the context of playing the piano, that's still not an issue when it comes to counting.

If you're going to count in binary on your fingers you have to do every finger independently. What the person who brought this up missed is that you don't need to extend them fully, you just need two unambiguous states.

I think his point about the piano is that you have to learn to use your various fingers to hit the keys. I think a much more relevant example is learning to type--a touch typist uses all their fingers independently although they generally are not fully extended while doing so.

But you can just leave the ring finger aside - i.e., you use the rest of the fingers to count binary. You count independently, but simply ignore that one (yes, that means you can't count up to 1023 with your fingers, but up to 255).
As an alternative, you can do as you suggest, if a partial extension works well enough for most people.

In any case, it seems to me there is a psychologically significant difference between counting binary with your fingers and counting decimal: in decimal, the number of fingers you see just represent whatever objects you're trying to count. In binary, you need exponentiation if they want to convert to decimal to see how many objects there are. That may be considerably more difficult for most people. Granted, you might suggest no decimal at all - just binary. But I think most people, in practice, would have to convert in order to get a "feel" of the numbers - since they're already thinking in decimal.

If you could move past that hurdle, in the future, I guess they might start with binary from childhood (to avoid the tendency to think in decimal). An empirical question is whether people would learn binary just as easily or more easily than decimal.

 

[+or-1]

Of course the US should convert to the metric system but we won't.

 

[ImGod]

Today's metric resistance is just another manifestation of our conservative's anti-intellectualism. Metric units are the purview of scientists and other white jacketed geeks, who are responsible for the global warming hoax.

It's really of no consequence, one way or the other. While they are steadfast and resolute, the world does what it always does with those who can't recognise a better idea when they see it. The world moves on without them. View attachment 3350

I'm all for converting to the metric system, but I'm not sure I'd use 23.876 mm x 54.864 m vs .94 inch x 60 yard painters tape as an example of making things easier.

 

[Jayjay]

Today's metric resistance is just another manifestation of our conservative's anti-intellectualism. Metric units are the purview of scientists and other white jacketed geeks, who are responsible for the global warming hoax.

It's really of no consequence, one way or the other. While they are steadfast and resolute, the world does what it always does with those who can't recognise a better idea when they see it. The world moves on without them. View attachment 3350

I'm all for converting to the metric system, but I'm not sure I'd use 23.876 mm x 54.864 m vs .94 inch x 60 yard painters tape as an example of making things easier.

How about 24mm x 55m?