Text 31119, 91 rader
Skriven 2016-01-30 23:10:05 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/716.0)
  Kommentar till text 30772 av Joe Delahaye (57348.fidonews)
Ärende: Fahrenheit
==================
Hi, Joe!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JD>  I purchased a digital weather thermometer in Germany.
JD>  It was from an American Company, made in China, and
JD>  set in Celcius.  It was easily changed to Fahrenheit
JD>  though.  Just like the one I got in the Netherlands,
JD>  also made in China, but for the European market.


          You don't say when you got these... but the general situation appears
to be much the same here now WRT fever thermometers at least.  Just this week I
checked out the offerings at a local drug store.  Of the five examples I found,
all had been set to Celsius but could be changed to Fahrenheit by the user.



JD>  The only problem with the latter was that I could not
JD>  set it for this region.  It only did European regions,
JD>  (for sunset etc).  Not a problem as we> got it close
JD>  enough <G>


          Yes, if the latitude is about the same I reckon the time of sunset in
one European region or another will be about the same as it is at home.

          As Canadians, we know we are outnumbered & learn to go with the flow.
If the only issue I have with the authors of a really good book on gardening is
that for them the known world ends at the 49th parallel I can cope.  We're only
about 50 miles (rule of thumb:  8 km = 5 miles) from Washington State, which is
in the "Pacific Northwest" region.  Seattle is a seaport where it rains a lot &
so is Vancouver BC.  Plants which thrive there will generally thrive here.  :-)



AH>  The initial discussion was about cheaper imports. But...

JD>  Mostly non digital thermometers such as you buy at CTC,
JD>  or Walmart


          Or the dollar store... got it!  It wouldn't occur to me to look there
for many things I expect to last as long as I do.  I don't enjoy shopping.  ;-)



JD>  that are wall mounted and you watch whatever liquid
JD>  (mostly alcohol I think) go up and down the scale.


          Yes, in retrospect I think that's probably what Michiel was referring
to... but it came up in a thread about body temperatures.



JD>  These have a paper scale encased in plastic.


          Ah, well... in that case it shouldn't be too hard to print a bunch of
extra paper strips in Celsius for the European market.  :-Q



JD>  Here they are in both Celcius and Fahrenheit


          We have a couple of thermometers like that a few, uh, steps away from
where I sit.  One was here when we moved in & is made of avocado green plastic.
Late 1960's, I would guess.  The other is only two or three years old.  In both
cases the numbers are painted on, however....  :-)

          I see why dual measurements wouldn't work well on a non-digital fever
thermometer.  Apart from that I grew up with them... the metric system was used
in science class, the Imperial system in everyday life.  I need look no further
than the US-made ruler in my desk drawer or the Canadian-made thermometer in my
oven to read both.  For me it's not difficult to ignore whichever scale I don't
happen to need at the moment because the placement is consistent... or at least
it used to be.  Now that we're in a transitional stage it's a jungle out there.
Some food comes in 284, 398, or 540 ml cans.  How logical... for the producers,
not for the family cook!  I don't trust the former not to round such quantities
down as they did with coffee; next we'll be kissing old family recipes goodbye.
In the same grocery store I see fruit & vegetables sold by the pound while deli
meat is sold in multiples of 100 grams.  When someone wants us to buy something
they often use small units of measurement.  Real estate agents do that as well.
They continue to measure in square feet & acres... news reporters don't.  AFAIC
it's more important than ever for consumers to understand both systems....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)