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Consider that computers use binary. That means that since a base 10 system is NOT a multiple of 2 in any fashion, circuitry and programs need to convert. Some people take it for granted that this is acceptable and proper, but is primarily because they can't think beyond the old metric system.
You have no idea why computers use binary, do you?
There once was a time when computers were analog. Numbers were represented in the electronics as different voltages. 2 might be 1.5 volts. 3 might be 2 volts. Etc... This wasn't a very reliable method though. Electronics weren't/aren't stable enough over time to accurately process numbers. It would be bad to multiply 2 x 2 and get 5 because the voltages were off.
However it is much easier to represent an on or off state reliably. The "digit" 0 can be represented as zero voltage and the digit 1 can be represented by anything not zero. So the on and off become 1 and 0. By stringing the digits together you have a reliable and consistent representation of numbers. Transistors can easily generate on and off values. With a few billion of them on a chip you can do a lot. And converting binary to decimal is nothing that anyone except a few engineers and programmers are concerned with.
If you don't live here, why does it matter what system we use? If you move here, we'll teach you our method. Along with our language and our monetary system.
Umm..... hello. Totally obvious. Manhood is measured in Inches....not centimeters. When you use the word "centimeter" when talking about your manhood, it sounds tiny.... no matter how many it may be. ie; 9 inches sounds much more impressive than 23 centimeters.
In addition, 8 inches is almost as impressive as 9 inches.... sounds closer.
But 20 centimeters sounds significantly less than 23.
FYI: 2.54cm = 1 inch
Last edited by FloridaKash; 06-22-2012 at 12:29 PM..
I am new member from Germany in Europe and I have been to your country few times and I love it very much. I wish one day I will move to America and live there because I love your country and the lifestyle. But I don't like one thing about your country was the miles, yard, feet and fahrenheit system you use. Why don't you use the meter system like rest of the world? It would be much easier and better.
Thank you very much.
Never mind WHY and WHEN the United States started with the inch/foot/mile system. That's not important. It is what it is.
The reason for not converting over to Metric is simple: It would cost hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe more. Roads are laid out in miles. Farm ground is plotted in acres, not hectares. Virtually all construction is done with the inch/foot measurement system.
Considering the cost of converting, it simply is NOT worth it.
Other countries had it too, but replaced it with a better one. Miles arent American. The old system was used by the world too, along with the US. They got with times and updated. The US and Liberia are the only countries backwards enough to keep it.
Your attitude is very American, but it is stupid. Why keep an inferior system to a superior one? It is like using Windows 3.1 because you are used to it.
Superior? To claim that one standard of measure is superior to another is ludicrous.
The reason to change is NOT because of backward thinking. It's because there are still a few people in the world who are not stupid enough to want to waste hundreds of billions of dollars "fixing" something that doesn't need to be fixed.
The US hasn't switched to metric because it's not worth the cost for the vast majority of the population. The people in this country (besides politicians) who are mostly likely to interact with foreigners are engineers, scientists, doctors, etc, all professions in which metric units are used extensively during the college and graduate years anyway.
Soldiers and others in the military who have to interact with counterparts in allied militaries can pick it up quickly enough just through repeated exposure on the ground.
The US hasn't switched to metric because it's not worth the cost for the vast majority of the population. The people in this country (besides politicians) who are mostly likely to interact with foreigners are engineers, scientists, doctors, etc, all professions in which metric units are used extensively during the college and graduate years anyway.
Soldiers and others in the military who have to interact with counterparts in allied militaries can pick it up quickly enough just through repeated exposure on the ground.
It's also probably worth noting that, in this current era of computer technology, "conversions" can be made in a fraction of a second.
You have no idea why computers use binary, do you?
There once was a time when computers were analog. Numbers were represented in the electronics as different voltages. 2 might be 1.5 volts. 3 might be 2 volts. Etc... This wasn't a very reliable method though. Electronics weren't/aren't stable enough over time to accurately process numbers. It would be bad to multiply 2 x 2 and get 5 because the voltages were off.
However it is much easier to represent an on or off state reliably. The "digit" 0 can be represented as zero voltage and the digit 1 can be represented by anything not zero. So the on and off become 1 and 0. By stringing the digits together you have a reliable and consistent representation of numbers. Transistors can easily generate on and off values. With a few billion of them on a chip you can do a lot. And converting binary to decimal is nothing that anyone except a few engineers and programmers are concerned with.
I think you must be speaking to someone else, not me. I most certainly DO know the reasons for binary use. Multimeters are analog computers. Slide rules are analog computers. The simple elegance of a log log scale is evident on a slide rule, and it shows the concept behind certain math functions in a nice way. However, as you point out, there is a limitation to accuracy in analog, which can be a problem when you are lobbing shells or missiles and need exact ballistics. (The women figuring out the math for the ballistics tables were known as computers, and the name stuck when their work was taken over by ... computers.)
This occurred prior to transistors; before them the Fleming and de Forest valves (vacuum tubes) were used. They have a basic normal diode flow, where a screen or gate cannot do more than limit electrons flowing in one direction. Had digital started with transistors, there is another possibility of a number system. There are THREE states - positive, neutral, and negative. We came that close to having electronics use a sexagesimal system instead of it being base 2,4,8,16, or 64.
"converting binary to decimal is nothing that anyone except a few engineers and programmers are concerned with..."
True. More people are concerned with mud-slinging politics, the latest sports craze, and sex. However, those have little to do with a rational number system.
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