Metric vs. other measurement systems - chart

[Frank S]

Nah,since when does a male know what a washing machine looks like����

Only when we have to work on them when they stop doing what they are supposed to do

[MeJasonT]

We are looking for a mattress for our spare room, its 1 and a half washing machine by 3 and a half washing machine. Or 0.1375 Sq ropes + a scroat
perhaps even a nano doubloon in cost
Im really liking this new measurement system, its making math really easy to understand
E=mc^2 to bucket loads of washing machines, why didn’t they say that at school it would have made loads more sense.
I mean I get the Empire State building is 59 London busses long
That’s like 5th avenue – I have seen 50 busses on one street in NYC, I totally get it.

[MeJasonT]

Call me Cindy but i do on occasion visit the washing machine, I know it has one function that cleans my cloths - fast coloureds cleans everything fek knows what the other things do. Must be ME-2 functions.

[MeJasonT]

Bruce
The euro-nation made standard sized bananas law, they had to be straight as well.
you think we are crazy wanting to leave.

It came from one of Yunkers flippent remarks to take the p**s i think, but was he - im not sure he was ever sober to be honest.

[FEM2008]

I was taught that awkward system in grade school. I soon purged it from my memory bank. There's a much simpler way to find roots using Newton's method.

Consider this iterative equation...

x2 = (x1 + N / x1) / 2

where:

N = number whose root is to be found
x1 = initial estimate of root
x2 = improved estimate of root

We make a guess of the root, x1, plug it into this equation and get an improved estimate, x2. If this estimate isn't good enough for out purposes, we set x1 = x2 and repeat the process to get an even better estimate. This iterative procedure is repeated until x2 squared is close enough to N to satisfy our requirements.

@mklotz . BTW. I brought this up recently and my son informed me this is Babylonian method, not Newtonian. I looked ut up. This method is also known as Heron's method. His detailed deccription goes back to 60 AD.

[mklotz]

@mklotz . BTW. I brought this up recently and my son informed me this is Babylonian method, not Newtonian. I looked ut up. This method is also known as Heron's method. His detailed deccription goes back to 60 AD.

The derivation of Newton's method is generally done by using the definition of a derivative. Since Newton (and Leibniz) developed calculus the method probably came to be known by Newton's name.

The Babylonians and Heron had nothing like calculus so it's not clear how they stumbled upon the iteration. My guess was by trying various numerical methods or by numerically extending something that works without iteration for perfect squares.

Example:

Let 'n' be the square root of 'N'. Then N/n = n and (n + N/n) = 2 * n so:

n = (n + N/n) / 2

It's not a huge intellectual leap to think that, if n is close to the square root, then the result of the above calculation should produce a number closer to the true root, iow an iterator...

n2 = (n1 + N/n1) / 2

[Toolmaker51]

Ancient civilizations may not have had higher mathematics; so stumbling across an accurate solution is very possible...
At the same time, some at least had tremendous grasp of concepts, functions and proofs to recognize calculations that work correctly.
Over time, lots of supposed calculations have been proven incorrect.

Later yes, but my favorite is still Eratosthenes; calculating diameter of earth within ~100 to 800 miles, practically from his own backyard! That to me is monumental beyond calculation alone, with science, observation, reasoning, mathematics working in concert. Likely, any deviation mostly due to the limited accuracy of instruments.
And one more thing; he wasn't first but KNEW earth was spherical.

[MeJasonT]

I have solution to this argument over our measurement system which i have practiced with great success for many years. If i have to measure somthing and its closer to the inch scale than the metric then i use imperial otherwise i use metric, this theory also extends to CAD drawings and those on fag packets. A famous quote from Sir Isaac Newton " It is a better man who uses the inch than one who can only measure in mm" Or at least he would have said by now if he was still with us - god rest his soul.

[MeJasonT]

holy crap, the worlds round - when were you going to tell me. Next you will say Pluto isnt a planet.

In the famous song title by Jellybean - im just visiting this planet

I missed the Apollo bus coming back from the moon so i had to wait for the next one, nobody said it ws the last bloody bus.

[mklotz]

Ancient civilizations may not have had higher mathematics; so stumbling across an accurate solution is very possible...
At the same time, some at least had tremendous grasp of concepts, functions and proofs to recognize calculations that work correctly.
Over time, lots of supposed calculations have been proven incorrect.

Later yes, but my favorite is still Eratosthenes; calculating diameter of earth within ~100 to 800 miles, practically from his own backyard! That to me is monumental beyond calculation alone, with science, observation, reasoning, mathematics working in concert. Likely, any deviation mostly due to the limited accuracy of instruments.
And one more thing; he wasn't first but KNEW earth was spherical.

My ancient Greek math hero is Archimedes. He provided some of the first ingenious methods for calculating, as opposed to measuring, an accurate value of pi.

His geometric work was genius and he knew it was as the inscription on his tomb proves.

Archimedes' tomb had a carving of his favorite mathematical diagram, which was a sphere inside a cylinder of the same height and diameter. Archimedes had proved that the volume and surface area of the sphere would be two thirds that of the cylinder. In 75 BC, 137 years after his death, the Roman orator Cicero visited the tomb in Syracuse which had become overgrown with scrub. Cicero had the tomb cleaned and was able to see the carving and read some of the verses that had been added as an inscription.

Eratosthenes was indeed another genius deriving a way to measure his planet which he knew to be a sphere. Actually, most Greek intellectuals knew that; they reasoned that the phases of the moon were caused by the earth's shadow and the only form that could always cast a circularly curved shadow was a sphere. Good thing the Catholic church wasn't around then or they would all have been burned at the stake.