Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "Old-fashioned rice cookers are extremely clever" video.

@TheCatLady65 , I think you are confusing the meaning of Degree as a division on a scale, with degrees of angle or something. All Degree means in relation to temperature is a whole number division. For instance, if you raise the temperature of water, you say that you raised it 100 "degrees". It's just the word that describes the division of temperature scales. And while Kelvin no longer uses the ° symbol, just K, that was more to streamline notation than anything, and it did used to use the symbol as well. But it's still perfectly understandable to say that you are measuring in degrees Kelvin, especially when outside of a laboratory, so that people understand you. And, Celsius still uses the °C notation, which is Degrees Celsius, and maybe some obscure source has said to stop using the Degrees designator, but nobody listens to them, and it's still used most of the time by most people, so it's still proper. And again, Degree is totally compatible with the Metric system, because all it means is the whole division on the scale, going from 1 to 2, etc. So no incompatibility with metric!
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@patrickjohnson5658 I think the reference was about checking to see if 50 other slow internet children had already added the correction. But, as a slow internet child, I suppose you missed that part... ;)
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@alessandroceloria the F temperature scale is based on the normal temperature range of human life. 0 F is about as low as the temperature gets in most of the more inhabited parts of the world, and 100 is about as hot as it gets in those places too. So I wouldn't be surprised if he measured the two extremes between winter and summer where he lived, and used those as 0 and 100. But generally speaking, you don't want to be in temperature less than 0 or over 100, it's just not good for your health. C just doesn't fit this kind of useful to everyone range, freezing is not as low as things get most places, and boiling water is WAY too hot! It's great for science where boiling water is a basis for many things, but not so much for human life. You basically live in 12 degrees, while I live in 100 degrees.
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@DrewskisBrews the reason Base 10 became common was for higher math. Adding and subtracting became much easier. But it's not always logical in real world daily life, which is why so many old systems used 12 or 60, because it made sense when not being used for lots of calculations. For instance, while MM and CM and Meter are very logical mathematically, they aren't very user friendly for a carpenter, because mm is too small for easy use and CM is not fine enough for most carpentry, and Meter is way too big, and nothing in between. And because the cm and mm aren't far apart, the cm isn't very useful, so generally things are measured in mm, into the thousands of mm. With the USC system, you have the inch as the base unit, and it's easy to visualize, easy to see, and when you need smaller than an inch, you just pick whatever fraction fits your needs, depending on the tolerances. And then you can measure in inches, or inches and feet, etc, depending on your scale and needs. I spent a while doing carpentry, and I have tried doing it in metric, and I find that USC just fits the job better, probably because it was developed by people doing the actual work, rather than theorists.
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@Cancer McAids wow, you just made my brain hurt, in a good way! It took me a few minutes to process what you said, but you are so true, we think if 10 to be this perfect round number, because that's what we are used to, but if you think about it, 10 could equal Twelve, if you had 2 additional named digits in there, and the math would be just the same. (Zero, One, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Nine, Gorp, Epsiloff, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1§, 1€, 20...) Like I said, I it made my brain hurt! Lol So I guess that the 10 base system is very childish, as in its based on the number of fingers that we have.
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@takix2007 in some situations it can be, for instance if you say to take half a centimeter off a board, but since if you are working with 8 foot lumber (which is still the standard lumber size even in metric countries around the world), a cm is still awfully small, and it's not normally used by carpenters anyway, and metric tapes aren't measured in fractions, but in mm, and you tend to use the measurements that are on the tape. So, while you are right that there are options, they don't work very well in practice.
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@takix2007 you are falling into the old metric argument of making up measurements to show how stupid they are lol We don't use 1/5th of an inch! If I was cutting a 2x4 to fit a space that was say, 80 1/5", chances are I would only need 1/4 inch tolerances, and so would go to 1/4 inch. If I was cutting trim, I might go to 3/16, but 1/16 is about as accurate as you can get cutting wood normally. If I was doing something like super fancy cabinet work I could go to 7/32, but that's getting into fine sandpaper to get that close. If I was making something small, a cripple under a bathroom window header or something, where I wanted it a tight fit and it was a short piece, I personally would probably measure it to 7/32, just to get it close, and also be extra careful actually doing the cut. That's one of the great things for carpentry about USC, is that you can choose how small you want your units to be on the fly, depending on the precision you need. And if you are good, you measure once and cut once. Measuring twice is only if you are unsure of your skill, or need to take multiple measurements in different places to check for things being out of alignment. And in metric countries, the plans are generally in MM. Thousands of MM. For instance, a sheet of plywood is sold as 1220x2440mm, etc.
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@takix2007 if you are using a metric tape, it's hard to get a 1/4 of a cm, because 10 doesn't divide into 4, and if you are trying to do anything less than a cm, you have to count MM ticks to be accurate. With an Inch tape, the fractions use different size ticks, so you can find the right one at a glance.. And the big issue isn't telling someone to cut half a cm, or a quarter of an inch off, its when you are trying to cut a board to 2435 mm, vs 95 3/4". It is just easier to find the length using USC than metric.
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@takix2007 5 mm is NOT 1/5 of an inch. It's close, but not exact, so I didn't mention 1/5 of an inch, I gave an example in metric of an easy "take a fraction of a unit off" measurement, that doesn't work when you are trying to call out longer dimensions. In USC it would be 13/64ths if you were picking a drill bit to make a 5mm hole. And, you would be sad to see that the plans that you are given as a carpenter in metric countries would be in mm, since you need more accuracy than cm would give you.
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@takix2007 plans usually are in inches and fractions. Though for long distances they may choose to call it out in feet and inches, but then inches are your smallest unit, and you aren't dealing with fractions. And no, if your tolerance is half an inch, you call out the nearest half inch or higher line. (it could be a full inch) If your tolerance is 1/16 of an inch, you call out the nearest 1/16 or higher line (which could be 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or a whole inch.) If you were looking at a USC tape it would make sense, because each smaller fraction uses a smaller line, and so it's basically about how far you drill down when you are reading the tape. So if I am throwing studs in, I don't look down at anything smaller than 1/4 inch, unless it needs more accuracy, and then I can look at smaller lines, but I can easily switch how close I get. With a metric tape, you have cm, and then mm, so you have to count mm, or estimate the count, and I just find that harder to do.
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@takix2007 if I were dealing only with 1/32 or 1/64 accuracy, than I would just as soon do it in metric. But if I am spending my day at that level of precision, I am probably doing machine work, and will just be using thousandths anyway, and there isn't any benefit to using metric thousandths or inch thousandths at that point. But I was specifically talking about carpentry, and in most carpentry, you rarely need to get down to 1/32, thus why I say that it's easier in USC.
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@takix2007 I agree that once you are used to a system, you don't really want to, or need to, change, anymore than changing the language that you speak. And I often use language as an analogy when comparing USC and metric. However, just like some languages are easier to express some things in, so to, some things are easier done with USC (which was specifically put together with the trades in mind, and how they naturally used units), and some things are easier to do in Metric, which was specifically designed for scientific and theoretical uses. And in each case, it was created by the users for their purposes. USC was done by groups made up of the different manufacturers and such, and USC by scientists. How much carpentry have you done personally? You may think in theory that it's the same, but I have done it both ways, and USC is easier. And I do use metric when it makes sense, and while my first language is USC, I do appreciate where metric is better. Just like I know some Hebrew and Greek and Latin for use in theology and botany.
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@takix2007 if I lived in a metric country, obviously I would need to use their system lol And if I use a system for a while, it would become natural for me, and I would find ways to make it easier, and I totally don't expect you to understand the work flow when you are in a different environment where it's not really an option for you anyway. When I am working off of blueprints, I need to use the system they use, but when I have been doing personal projects, I have tried doing it in metric to see the benefits (since the math is easier basically), and while there are some benefits, I missed the shortcuts and better sized units that inches and fractions come with. If there were a unit somewhere between CM and Metre, it would make things a little easier, but that's why everyone just uses mm generally. One thing that I really appreciate about USC (United States Customary, which shares some units, but is different from Imperial in several ways) is that we have options about what units to use for the work we are doing. For instance, carpentry is normally in feet and inches, but grading and earthworks usually use feet and tenths of a foot. Since when you are setting grades you are having to do lots of math, and you don't need accuracy less than an inch, tenths just make it fit the needs. And if I am doing metal working, I will probably be using either decimal inches or thousandths, depending on what the tolerances are. Wood by nature is imprecise, so using a more flexible fractions system matches the job. And yes, it is more complicated to learn multiple units and systems, but when a system is tailored to a specific task, if you are doing that task frequently, it saves you time in the long run. And metric is just less flexible in that regard. You have to apply the same set of units to everything. It's kind of like the difference between English, and a native language. In English, we take words from whatever language has a useful word, and add it to English, sometimes modifying it to work best for us. In other languages, sometimes things are a lot more clumsy to express, because you are confined to that language. USC was specifically designed using the logical units, as needed by various users, refined from the old units, and modified as needed. Metric was designed by white lab coats, and then everyone has to figure out how to fit their needs to the old system, because it's perfect, therefore you can't change anything to make it more versatile lol But, since you are in a metric country, you really don't have any choice, so it's just theory to you, although, since lumber generally is still based on US standard sizes, I suppose that you could do carpentry the same way I do, once you got it home from the lumber yard lol And I know that in some metric countries, the carpenters use a mix of USC and metric, depending on what works easiest for a particular situation.
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@TechnologyConnections the key is the difference in Curie temperature between the magnet and magnetic alloy. So, the Curie Point is 215 Degrees F or whatever for the alloy in the button, but just a random Google search showed me a site saying that their cheap ferrite magnets could be used safely up to 480 degrees F, and in some cases even higher. So, it sounds like the magnetic alloy button has an especially low Curie temperature, and so even if the magnet itself got to the same temperature, it would not even be close to its Curie temperature. In addition, there would be a tendency for the magnet to stay cooler due to poor heat transfer dynamics, and when the button reaches the temperature, the magnet pulls away and starts cooling down, so probably never reaches higher than 212, if that. But the magnet being much higher Curie is the key factor. Oh, and you could probably do great doing infomercials, you sounded just like it at the beginning of the video! Lol
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@TheRip72 wrong on several counts. Lol 0 is an easily reproduced mixture of equal amounts of water, ice, and a salt. 32 is easily reproduced as equal amounts of water and ice. And he originally considered body temperature to by 96 degrees. I haven't seen anything that 100 was supposed to reference specifically, but it wasn't body temperature, since that was 96. After his death, it got recalibrated a little bit, and that's how body temperature shifted to 98.6~ He started this because he was figuring out how to use the new and more accurate mercury thermometer, instead of the older alcohol style. I suspect that he made the scale based on the range of the thermometer that he was using, so basically divided the actual glass tube into degrees, and then measured different things and looked at where they fell on the tube. Ice, water and salt was probably the coldest thing he could easily make, so setting it as zero made sense, and then likely it was based on a tube of a certain diameter and markings a certain distance apart.
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