Posted Tue Aug 21, 2012, 2:59pm Subject: Why use the Metric System?
Lots of people still want to convert everything to ounces, or fluid oz, or tablespoons or cups... "how many tablespoons? How many oz of water?"
A fluid oz and an ounce are not the same thing by a long shot...
The metric system is so much more convenient. First is the use of a decimal system for scaling. 1kg = 1000g, 1 liter = 1000ml = 1 cubic cc. 1 cc = 1/millionth of a cubic meter.
There's no "3 teaspoons make a tablespoon", "64 fluid oz for a half-gallon", "16 cups equals 1 gallon", "1/8th of a teaspoon"
Small scale volumetric measurements are done in tablespoons, bigger ones in gallons. Ounces for small weights, 16oz make a lb and lb are used for bigger meausurements (unless you're talking REALLY big, when 2000 lb makes a ton! - really, who makes this crap up?)....
Simple - everything shifts scale by moving the decimal point in the metric system.
But, there's a 98.5% reason to use the metric system for coffee.
Coffee is 98.5% water.
Water is the basis for volumetric, dimensional, and mass measurements in the metric system.
(1 kg is the mass of 1 liter of water at it's maximum density (standard pressure and 4°C), and 1 liter is 1/1000th of one cubic meter)
Coincidence? I think not... ;^D
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Le café doit être noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, et doux comme l'amour.
"There is no right answer with coffee. There is only the elixir in your cup at the moment you partake."
"...I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;..." - Lord Kelvin RECIPES thread => http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/585708
Posted Tue Aug 21, 2012, 3:19pm Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
Those durn commies have been trying to get us to convert from good ol' US oz, lbs, pecks, bushels, etc. over to their Godless metric system ever since 1975 when Gerald Ford signed the US Metric Conversion Act into law and Reagan followed up in 1988 with the Omnibus Trade Act of 1988.
I'm all for going back to shekels, minas, and talents.
Know any good gram to shekel conversion programs?
Note: the above is intended as humor, and is not to be taken seriously. Except for the part about the metric system being codified as US Law - that part is real, but apparently the message didn't make it out very well. All commercial use is supposed to be metric, but you'll still see "1 lb (454 grams)" on packages instead of things being sold in 250, 500, and kilogram packages.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,684 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Tue Aug 21, 2012, 5:00pm Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
HEY, THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO FUSS WITH ALL THAT METREEEEK STUSS AND YA AIN'T GONNA DRAG ME THERE! Nope ain't goona happen! They have been tryin to force me there all my life and it only confuses things withh them grams and meters (you use a meter to measure how much power you have used in your house, it ain't a way to measure how far something is!) An all them other ferrin names!! Nope NOT ME!
In real life, my name is Wayne P.
Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
Posted Tue Aug 21, 2012, 5:09pm Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
calblacksmith Said:
HEY, THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO FUSS WITH ALL THAT METREEEEK STUSS AND YA AIN'T GONNA DRAG ME THERE! Nope ain't goona happen! They have been tryin to force me there all my life and it only confuses things withh them grams and meters (you use a meter to measure how much power you have used in your house, it ain't a way to measure how far something is!) An all them other ferrin names!! Nope NOT ME!
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
Posted Wed Aug 22, 2012, 5:21am Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the WAR ROOM!"
...ages since I've seen that movie.
And, I expected comments, but the sheckel reference - that's just golden! ROFLOL
Don't get me started about "knots". Similar to the metric system (where the meter was roughly derived from the dimensions of the earth), a ship travelling one "knot" will traverse one minute of latitude along a line of longitude in one hour (travelling along a line of longitude means heading north or south). 60 seconds/minute, 60 minutes/degree of latitude, but 180 degrees of latitude when travelling from pole to pole...
I suppose we are lucky they didn't decide to change time, splitting a day (currently 86,400 seconds) into some division of base 10. I could imagine one chron=.864 seconds, one day = 100 Kc (that's KiloChron).... (ow... my head hurts!)
LOL
I still reference temperature in Fahrenheit. I know the metric system well, any time I work with temperature outside of coffee (which isn't often) I do use deg C, but people just don't seem to relate in the states. (Working with my European colleagues, of course we talk in deg C).
I've thought of just using it like percentage of boiling, and describing it as such seems to help.
A human's average normal body temperature 37% of boiling, a mild fever at 38%, serious fever at 39%, and go to the hospital at 40%, near death at 41%.
Coffee should be brewed at 90-95% of boiling. AeroPress instructions recommend using a brew water temperature of 80% of boiling. We consume coffee and tea around approximately 50% of boiling.
Water freezes at 0% of boiling, and water has maximum density at 4% of boiling. It boils at... 100% of boiling.
A comfy temperature is 20%-25% of boiling. It starts getting hot outside at 30% of boiling, and FRIGGIN' hot at 40% of boiling.
If the dewpoint is 15% of boiling or lower, it's generally really comfortable outside. If dewpoint gets above 20% of boiling, it starts getting sticky outside.
People can tolerate holding or touching a "hot" object at the threshold of dropping it around 50-55% of boiling. They can maybe touch >55% to about 58% boiling object for maybe 6-8 seconds before the urge to stop is overwhelming. maybe 2 seconds at 60-62% boiling.
substitute °C for "% boiling" and you have Centigrade or Celsius.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Le café doit être noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, et doux comme l'amour.
"There is no right answer with coffee. There is only the elixir in your cup at the moment you partake."
"...I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;..." - Lord Kelvin RECIPES thread => http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/585708
NobbyR Senior Member Joined: 10 Jul 2011 Posts: 1,613 Location: Germany Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Poccino Opus One, Ariete Grinder: Eureka Mignon Istantaneo,... Vac Pot: N/A Drip: Melitta Linea Unica de Luxe Roaster: N/A
Posted Wed Aug 22, 2012, 5:53am Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
And don't forget, in the good old days of the British Empire 12 Pence used to be a Shilling, and 20 Shilling used to be 1 Pound Sterling, but 2 Shillings make 1 Florin, 2 Shilling and 6 Pence a Half Crown, 5 Shilling a Crown, and 4 Crown a Sovereign. 1 Pound and 1 Shilling, however, are 1 Guinea, which is 21 Shilling, and 20 Shilling equal 60 Groat, which converts to 240 Pence or 960 Farthing.
It's really easy when you come to think of it, isn't it? LOL
But seriously, being European the metric system feels perfectly natural to me.
Vincent: But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is? Jules: What? Vincent: It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but it's just...it's just, there it's a little different. Jules: Example? Vincent: All right. Well, you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don't mean just like in no paper cup; I'm talking about a glass of beer. And in Paris, you can buy a beer at McDonald's. And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese? Vincent: Nah, man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is. Jules: What do they call it? Vincent: They call it a "Royale with Cheese." (Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction, 1994)
*** "This drink of the Satan is so delicious that it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels." (Pope Clement VIII on coffee)
Posted Wed Aug 22, 2012, 6:51am Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
aaah - the half crown - very nostalgic - lovely heavy coin - my childhood pocket money if I was well behaved ;o)
However, although we buy petrol (gas) in litres, we still use miles with mph speed limits, and sell draught beer in pints.
Most everything else here is metric, although being over a certain age, when it comes to the weather/environment etc. farenheit immediately means more to me than celsius. I know that 115f in the middle of Death Valley is hot. 46c doesn't seem the same.
Metric system rules in all practical aspects though, and has the advantage of being universal, unlike the old systems where Imperial (UK) and US measures although called the same thing were different - quite considerably in some cases.
In measuring or weighing I'd now be hard put to use anything other than metric.
Posted Wed Aug 22, 2012, 8:03am Subject: Re: Why use the Metric System?
And then there is the "stone" as a measurement of weight. Best referenced in a song called "Whole Lotta Rosie" by Australian rock band AC/DC, lead singer Bon Scott said it best about his "slightly" overweight girlfriend/one-night-stand named Rosie:
"But you give it all you got Weighing in at nineteen stone"
A stone is 14 pounds. 19 x 14 = 266
Now that's a whole lotta rosie for sure. Scott must have downed a few YARDS of ale before that encounter ...
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
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