Measuring Developer Quantity

[thronobulax]

Very sensible. Thank you.
I recall when Britain finally adopted the metric system (although a lucky few of us could already count up to ten). Recipes were being published using the accurate conversion from ounces to grams - 28.3495 etc, which must have terrified the novice cake-maker. Happily we now use a convention of 1oz = 25g in the UK. Cakes seem equally delicious. US recipes remain a mystery, but US inhabitants seem to manage perfectly well.

I have seen some real abominations in this regard when someone ignored the natural unit of measure to force something to be metric. My all time favorite was a seller peddling 1" stainless bolts that had marked them as "25.4mm bolt, stainless". This sort of thing is yet another example of widespread innumeracy in which people comfortably bang away on a calculator or computer without really understanding the arithmetic. (This was one of the many virtues of teaching slide rule use in ancient times - it helped the student visualize orders of magnitude and get the sense of the maths they were doing.) As I always say, there is a (sometimes non-integer) counting base in which I am 21 years old ...

 

[Petrochemist]

I have seen some real abominations in this regard when someone ignored the natural unit of measure to force something to be metric. My all time favorite was a seller peddling 1" stainless bolts that had marked them as "25.4mm bolt, stainless". This sort of thing is yet another example of widespread innumeracy in which people comfortably bang away on a calculator or computer without really understanding the arithmetic. (This was one of the many virtues of teaching slide rule use in ancient times - it helped the student visualize orders of magnitude and get the sense of the maths they were doing.) As I always say, there is a (sometimes non-integer) counting base in which I am 21 years old ...

I don't find that an extreme example at all since 1" is now defined as 25.4mm
There are many examples I've seen of estimated distances/weights etc being given as round numbers in the original units then to multiple decimal places in the converted units. Such as 'roughly 200m (656.168 ft)' when 'roughly 200m' is in fact 'roughly 650ft' Including extra significant figures implies more precision.

 

[David M]

Very sensible.
I recall when Britain finally adopted the metric system (although a few of us had already learned to count up to ten). Recipes were being published using the accurate conversion from ounces to grams - 28.3945

 

[thronobulax]

I don't find that an extreme example at all since 1" is now defined as 25.4mm

At least in the US, where a 1" measure is mandated, it is pretty much never understood to be 25.4mm. I realise that some of this is regional convention, but I've never heard a construction worker or auto mechanic refer to everything in metric - only when it makes natural sense.

Personally, I am agnostic to all this. I work comfortably in pretty much any system of measures and convert between them without issue. But I do think there are clearly places where one system is more "natural". In science, metric is perfect because that whole system is built around MKS. But carpenters here tend to like English measure because they do a lot of "finding the center" or "halving" things. Certainly, this is possible in metric, but 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and so forth lend themselves more naturally to this. It is entirely normal to see both in use, in say, machine shops and CNC machines, as one other example. After all, the measurement system only affects convenience, not the actual dimension.

I am put in mind of the famous quote by the mathematician, Leopold Kronecker, who said, "God made the integers, man made the rest."

P.S. I should also say that, when enjoying a fine English bitter at a pub, I much prefer your understanding of a "pint"

 

[David M]

25.4 has always been true. It’s a happy coincidence that it’s such a simple conversion.
When changing units, small details always change. Two inches is, for many everyday purposes, (gardening, cake baking?) very much like 50mm, so each group would converge on those measurements. A yard and a metre are more-or-less interchangeable for many other purposes, too.
A good recent example is the Stearman tank. Very nearly a half a litre but not quite. Handy for some, but irritating for others.

 

[Camerashy]

Yea I will try that. The reason for asking is that I am fed up with the numbers rubbing off the syringes I have despite the fact they are not cheap ones

Mark your most used lines with a sharp knife, for me it is 3ml and 5ml.