Mriana, what do you find easier to calculate: 2 3/16—1 2/8, or 2.60—1.15?
Also, which do you find easier to work with; 1 cent , 10 cents = 1 dime, 10 dimes = 1 dollar, or the old english Pound Sterling system where 4 farthings = 1 penny, 12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = 1 pound
The metric system is a decimal system just like money, that is why the metric system is used in science; 1 millimeter, 10 millimeters = 1 centimeter, 10 centimeters = 1 decimeter, 10 decimeters = 1 meter, 10 meters = 1 decameter, 100 decameters = 1 kilometer.
Mriana, what do you find easier to calculate: 2 3/16—1 2/8, or 2.60—1.15?
Also, which do you find easier to work with; 1 cent , 10 cents = 1 dime, 10 dimes = 1 dollar, or the old english Pound Sterling system where 4 farthings = 1 penny, 12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = 1 pound
The metric system is a decimal system just like money, that is why the metric system is used in science; 1 millimeter, 10 millimeters = 1 centimeter, 10 centimeters = 1 decimeter, 10 decimeters = 1 meter, 10 meters = 1 decameter, 100 decameters = 1 kilometer.
When counting money, I group the coins in groups of ten for pennies or groups of $1 with dimes (10s) or quarters (4s). Nickels, I count by 10, counting the nickels two at a time. I’m a failure at keeping a check book though. I’d probably group the farthings in fours or something like that if I had to work such coins. Math, unless it was fractions, was not my forte, but science without the math, I did well. Don’t ask. I caught onto telling time when it was explained to me that 15 min was 1/4 of an hour.
Mriana, what do you find easier to calculate: 2 3/16—1 2/8, or 2.60—1.15?
Fractions have always been my speciality. In fact, I loved doing fractions in school, but not decimals.
Probably because fractions pose a challenge, where the decimal system is really boringly easy…..
p.s. I am not speaking of converting from one to the other. That is practically a nightmare.
Boringly easy? Really? I was always told I made things harder than they needed to be, but to be honest, fraction are not boring and really weren’t a challenge. Fractions did however, keep me entertained. BTW, I loved chemistry, which when you think about it, is very much like cooking.
As a U. S. citizen, I am glad we never converted. I never did understand it even when they tried to push it on us in elementary school.
Mriana - 22 August 2012 04:35 PM
I’m always going to sites that translates metrics into something I comprehend. I really don’t see how metrics is a better system, to be honest.
Change to a new system with the elimination of the old is not easy. But with the metric system, not only are measures within a class related by decimal, conversion to other types of units within it are conformed too.
For example, a deci-meter (one-tenth of a meter) in length is cubed to form a square, they define the quantity it holds in volume, a liter. [Mriana, a liter is the volume of a milk of a large milk carton cut in half to make a cube.]
Simple, 1 Liter = 1 decimeter cubed for conversion;
but 1 Gallon(s) = 277.4200497222 Cubic Inch(s)
And within each group, you must remember all the conversion units in each and every type in the imperial (original) way:
This is just for volumes (one type):
Must remember: Imperial: Metric:
1 gal = 8 pts
1 pt = 20 fl oz compared to Liter (always just one standard term for the whole type)
In all the metric ones, you may also have to memorize the prefixes as below, but each one usually has some memorable connection to common Indo-European languages. Deca-, for instance is the root that made the word, decade = 10 years; Deci- is the root that make up the word, decimate = to cut someone up (originally, in tenths); Centi- is the root of the word, cent = a penny or 1/100 of a dollar or century = 100 years (the ‘i’ ending makes it a fraction instead). Sorry about Milli though, it’s original meaning comes from the French, mille = 1000 rather than 1,000,000 = one million. I think you get the point.
The prefixes are standard to all measures so that a deca-X always means 10 X, a hecto-X means 100 X, kilo-X means 1000, mega-X means 1,000,000,000, giga-X means 1,000,000,000; In the opposite way, deci-X means 1/10, centi-X means 1/100, milli-X means 1/1000, and so on.
It is just exactly the way we use our number system using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0, ten digits.
I learned metric as a child. I was familiar with it even before going into nursing. I can convert back and forth…most of my coworkers can’t…they need a chart to follow. They used to check my calculations, but they just take my word for it now. Conversions are good to know when you are cooking….or mixing a drink! I can increase fractionally with ease.
Your favorite virtue? “An appreciation for irony.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22
I have a sister who agreed with this one. But then she went on about how she prefers to just take the laundry out as soon as the dryer is done and hang the clothes up to avoid the whole mess!
I learned metric as a child. I was familiar with it even before going into nursing. I can convert back and forth…most of my coworkers can’t…they need a chart to follow. They used to check my calculations, but they just take my word for it now. Conversions are good to know when you are cooking….or mixing a drink! I can increase fractionally with ease.
I’m like Asanta. I use plastic beakers marked in ml. for all my kitchen measuring tasks and automatically convert. On the other side, I use standard measuring spoons and convert to metric if needed. Although my friends don’t know it, they are healthier because of the precision with which I measure, and I’m sure it’s the case with Asanta, GdB’s comment notwithstanding.
As a U. S. citizen, I am glad we never converted. I never did understand it even when they tried to push it on us in elementary school.
Mriana - 22 August 2012 04:35 PM
I’m always going to sites that translates metrics into something I comprehend. I really don’t see how metrics is a better system, to be honest.
Change to a new system with the elimination of the old is not easy. But with the metric system, not only are measures within a class related by decimal, conversion to other types of units within it are conformed too.
For example, a deci-meter (one-tenth of a meter) in length is cubed to form a square, they define the quantity it holds in volume, a liter. [Mriana, a liter is the volume of a milk of a large milk carton cut in half to make a cube.]
Simple, 1 Liter = 1 decimeter cubed for conversion;
but 1 Gallon(s) = 277.4200497222 Cubic Inch(s)
And within each group, you must remember all the conversion units in each and every type in the imperial (original) way:
This is just for volumes (one type):
Must remember: Imperial: Metric:
1 gal = 8 pts
1 pt = 20 fl oz compared to Liter (always just one standard term for the whole type)
In all the metric ones, you may also have to memorize the prefixes as below, but each one usually has some memorable connection to common Indo-European languages. Deca-, for instance is the root that made the word, decade = 10 years; Deci- is the root that make up the word, decimate = to cut someone up (originally, in tenths); Centi- is the root of the word, cent = a penny or 1/100 of a dollar or century = 100 years (the ‘i’ ending makes it a fraction instead). Sorry about Milli though, it’s original meaning comes from the French, mille = 1000 rather than 1,000,000 = one million. I think you get the point.
The prefixes are standard to all measures so that a deca-X always means 10 X, a hecto-X means 100 X, kilo-X means 1000, mega-X means 1,000,000,000, giga-X means 1,000,000,000; In the opposite way, deci-X means 1/10, centi-X means 1/100, milli-X means 1/1000, and so on.
It is just exactly the way we use our number system using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0, ten digits.
I never did comprehend that. I found the Imperial system much easier and could always, with the use of fractions, figure out which was bigger. I can change decimals into fractions very easily, but never got the right answer when it came to writing it into the metrics system. I never did see it as being exactly the way we use the number system either, but then again, I have do have a form of “number dyslexia”. I forget the actual name of it, but they figured out my issue with math in college and said it wasn’t something they realized/recognized in the 70s and 80s. I got my college degree a little later. I graduated high school in 84 and college in 98. So I never did get much help with my math issues until I was in my late 30s and it wasn’t enough to recover completely what I missed out on in my early learning years. The only way the college noticed it was that there was a problem with how I wrote the order of numbers and confusing what, for example, is, say a 7 for you, turns into a 1 for me. I can look at a number, like say 3785 and come with something like 8138 or something weird when I look away and write it down or you can tell me said numbers and somehow they get jumped in my brain. So what the college did for me was teach me tricks to make fewer mistakes, but I didn’t actually learn the things I missed in earlier education. I wish I knew how to explain it better, but I had to teach myself and I’m still learning, using the tools the college gave me, to learn these things. Consequently, while I made As in general chemistry, Biomedical Science, and Psychology (without stats), I made a solid (sadly) D in College math. I worked just as hard, if not harder to get that D as I did my As, thus I was rather proud that I didn’t have to take it a third time in order to get my degree. Same with stats. They gave me a personal tutor even just so I could pass the course. I took the course twice and busted my butt just to make a D. :( Don’t ask how I managed to pass chemistry with an A, but not math. It was and is, rather embarrassing that I can do science as long as I don’t have to do the math, but can’t do the math, as well as others. Ironically, I do well, better then the average, on IQ tests, except on spatial and numerical areas of the test. Given that, and much like my younger son with “classic dyslexia”, they say it causes difficulties in getting an accurate IQ. Given my that my older son, without dyslexia, tests close to 140, they suspect that without these difficulties, my younger son and I would test almost as high, if not as high, esp given the other areas we do exceptionally well with.
We’re not dummies, which I thought I was when it came to math for the longest time, my younger son and I just have issues with how our brains see things. He got the help he needed much sooner than I did though, because they’ve recognized his form of dyslexia for many years.
Give me time to digest what you said and it will probably sink in eventually.
Stupid question… What if you have 1 1/2 liters? That’s not a full liter, so wouldn’t that be represented by a decimal, just as 1 pint 2 oz is recognized? What would that look like? 1 pint 2 oz looks like 22 oz which is 2 3/4 cups which I can easily picture in my head.
Where I work now, it isn’t a problem. Just a matter of converting Kg to lbs for the parents. We have a conversion chart, but I never bother to read it. And converting degrees C into F for parents. I prefer to do it on my calculator. When I worked in the ICU, you HAD to know your conversions, in the NICU, not so important. We do everything in metric across the board, no conversions needed. We rarely even have to convert ng->mg->gm here.
