Unit systems

[Strange-quark]

This is the important question: which unit system is the best? Which one do you use most often? Which one do you think is most fascinating? Which one do you detest?

Also added are some special units people tend to disagree on. Feel free to add to comments your other (un)favourites!

This is my first poll sorry if I did something awfully wrong o:  

[Elonat]

The first depends a lot on the problem.

[Strange-quark]

18 minutes ago, Elonat said:

The first depends a lot on the problem.

It sure does  I wouldn't use natural units every day (why I checked SI as well) but I still think it's by far the coolest }:)

When c != 1 I always tend to get confused  

[R_1]

American and I prefer Metric/SI. Here's my problem with imperial.

 

[Homer]

Metric all the way.

[Kitteη χ]

Imperial units for everyday life because that's what I'm used to and what I'm surrounded by. SI for everything else.

 

Parsecs are dumb, just use light years.

 

What is a barn?

 

Radians are great.

[Elonat]

Honestly, I think metric is best for my everyday life, because it's the system I'm used to and can best make estimates in, but imperial units could be the best in someone else's everyday life for the same reason. Metric is more international, but as long as you write the units down, we all have calculators and can google conversion factors, right?

On that note, I HATE when people don't mention/write down what units they use.

[R_1]

30 minutes ago, Kraken X said:

What is a barn?

1 barn =1.076 × 10-27 square foot

 

LMAO.

[daveb]

3 hours ago, R_1 said:

Here's my problem with imperial.

Interesting chart. Although most of those aren't used everyday or are only used for for specific applications and are well understood by people in those fields.

 

As an American I obviously am used to inches, feet, miles, pounds, etc., use them a lot in my careers and in everyday life and therefore find those easiest to use for most purposes. I can readily visual what they mean. I'm sure if I were raised with metric I'd feel the same about the metric system. I see it as being akin to language. The one/s you were raised in come most "naturally", and it's hard to really become fluent in one you weren't raised in.

 

(one thing I like about imperial units is all of the variety of terms; good for puns and word play)  

[Salmiakki]

Lol. I have no idea what any of these words mean. 

[R_1]

10 minutes ago, daveb said:

As an American I obviously am used to inches, feet, miles, pounds, etc.,

I'm used to those as well, but I cannot support those units. To convert miles to inches, I must go mile -> 5280 feet -> 12 inches. Add in another variable or dimension to work with, and it's just a mess.

[Dreamer23]

So I voted SI and yes to parsecs -> If we ever get visited by aliens, don't let me talk to them - they won't understand any of the units I'm talking about!

I totally stand by no to barns (weird arbitrary unit; just use 10^x m^2 rather than odd kilobarns or picobarns or whatnot), as well as no to radians. (turns are way neater!)

[R_1]

SI being most voted? Americans, tell me that there's progress!

[Strange-quark]

1 hour ago, Dreamer23 said:

picobarns

Femtobarns usually  Arbitrary? Yes. Fun? Also yes. Conventional? Yes, in certain circles. 

 

5 hours ago, Kraken X said:

 just use light years.

My thougths exactly. Preferdably with c=1  

[Skycaptain]

Being a Brit I flit between Metric and Imperial simply because some products are sold or used in different units 

For example we buy fuel in litres, but measure economy in MPG. Soft drinks sold by the bottle are metric, but draught are imperial. Raw timber is by the foot, but stuff made from timber is metric. 

[J. van Deijck]

I'm strangely fond of these: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/glossary/glossary1.cfm?gid=369

 

But I would also add one more to the list.

[OmegaTheMetamorphicDreamer]

Trying to make sense of all of these terms turns my brain into spaghetti...

[kstitch]

I've always worked in science and so metric, despite being American. It's great when I travel because I can convert very quickly now between imperial and metric. You missed an important one though. Washing machines. 

 

[daveb]

I heard tumors are often measured in terms of fruit (size of a grape, size of an apple, and such), at least when doctors are talking to laypeople/patients.

[Missing]

5 hours ago, daveb said:

I heard tumors are often measured in terms of fruit (size of a grape, size of an apple, and such), at least when doctors are talking to laypeople/patients.

I was about to say, this sounds very imprecise. I was picturing doctors arguing over the standard size of a grape.

[daveb]

14 minutes ago, Mackenzie Holiday said:

I was about to say, this sounds very imprecise. I was picturing doctors arguing over the standard size of a grape.

Well, I expect when it's doctor to doctor they are more precise and probably use metric measurements or something. The fruit size kind of comparison is to help laypersons get a better idea, something they can picture in their minds. Same with the washing machine idea. It's easier to picture something tangible like that if you aren't someone who has a lot of training and/or experience in things most of us don't experience regularly, like tumors and sinkholes. It's not meant to be exact by any means, but just to give people a sort of rough idea compared to known things in relative terms.  

[Missing]

@daveb, I got you. I just couldn't help but laugh at myself for trying to figure out the logistics of using fruit sizes before I got to the end of your sentence and saw that they just use it for laypeople.

[daveb]

Here's an example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK65847/figure/CDR0000257530__268/

and the accompanying chart:

[Strange-quark]

On 10/12/2019 at 11:34 AM, Jelle van der Lee said:

I'm strangely fond of these: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/glossary/glossary1.cfm?gid=369

 

But I would also add one more to the list.

Ooh yes I forgot all about radiology *slams forehead*... too absorbed in my cosmology bubble *chuckles* as it seems.

Aaaand what would that be?

[HonoraryJedi]

I am not familiar with barns, gaussian or plancks units. I know what parsecs are, but I am not in the field which uses them so I can't really make a god call if they're useful or not. SI all the way. And radians. Radians are great.

[matt_lock]

Radians are good for math, because they work well with stuff like exp(iθ) . As such, they are better for calculations than degrees etc. (also, working with degrees is probably better than radians when floating point math comes into play. My computer thinks sin(pi/6) = 0.4999...994, not 0.5 )

 

SI is best for comparing stuff, unit conversions, general use etc. . Multiplying and dividing by 1000 is much better than 5280, 12, stones, pounds, etc. . 

 

However, it can be unwieldy when the measurements tend to be done in other types of units. For some means of measuring stellar distance, measuring them in parsecs is best. When working with atoms, it can be easier to just set proton mass as 1 and proton charge as 1 than working with multiple of 1.6*10^-27 . Weeks, days etc. are easier to work with than kiloseconds etc. (although varying month years and leap years are frustrating when programming). Light years are apparently more popular to work with than metres for astronomical distances (although arguably, given that a light second is/was a fundamental unit, a light year is no further from SI than a year is). A nautical mile is based on earth's circumference (1 nautical mile is a circle from pole to pole divided by (360*60) ), and is thus around as sensible a unit as a kilometre when at sea.

 

So if you're working within a specific domain where natural units make the calculations easier, or maybe when the units were supplied as non-SI units, work with them as opposed to SI. Two caveats.

1) Show SI units in brackets next to used measurements if publishing to a source outside the domain, unless everyone outside the domain is comfortable with said units (e.g. light years, days, not feet, furlongs etc. ) .

2) the only circumstance where feet, cubits, palms etc. are sensible for measurements is where you're literally using bodyparts as measurements (and yes, I have at times measured stuff in cubits)

[iff]

@Strange-quark

 

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