Imperial Or Metric?

[Marla_Singer]

Borrowed with liberty from the noble and rational pioneers of the metric system:

Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Les impérialistes à la lanterne!
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Ces qui disent <<pousses>> et <<pieds>>, on les pendra!
Le despotisme expirera,
La rationalisme triomphera,
Ah!

Well, the French translation for "inch" is "pouce" and not "pousse" as far as I know.

Anyway, The French Revolution is often distorted in english speaking official History. However, it's been a decisive step in Europe for the people - all the people - to take control of politics in Europe. I'm saying a decisive step, not the final step, but a much important one. It's not a dictatorial revolution as it's pictured in Britain or in the US.

 

[Taliesin]

Bah! Correct spelling is highly overrated anyhow.

And I do recognise that the Revolution was a good thing-- not least because it gave us sensible measurement units-- at least up until 1792, and even considering the Terror, it was a step in the right direction.

 

[Fetus4188]

It's not depicted as a dictatorial revolution in the US. It's depicted as an unfortunately bloody one that embraced many of the same ideals that the Constitution and Declaration of Indepence outlined.

 

[Marla_Singer]

It's not depicted as a dictatorial revolution in the US. It's depicted as an unfortunately bloody one that embraced many of the same ideals that the Constitution and Declaration of Indepence outlined.

Except that the United States were then small colonies in a far away land when France was the most populous and influent countries in Western Europe with more than 25 million people (which was a lot then).

Furthermore, the whole Europe didn't declare war to the US once they've seceded. A European coalition is what France had to face. All in all, both events aren't as easy to compare as it sounds.

By the way, I always wondered how the US dealt the nobility issue. In France, we had a cast of nobles and religious clerics which violently opposed the revolution. Not really because they wanted to keep their monopoly on business, but actually because they had the priviledge not to have to work for a living. I know that didn't exist in England, but still, lords still have today their own parliamentary house in the UK. Where they nobles in the US before 1776 ? If yes, what did they become ?

 

[Taliesin]

There were no aristocrats in the United States. Or rather, since I'm sure some nobles might have been visiting or administering at any given time, there were no landed titles in the U.S.: no Dukes of New York or Counts of Connecticut that had to be disposed of.

 

[Fetus4188]

Any nobles in the US were english nobles, although I doubt there were any here because we were a bunch of barbaric unruly colonists. I imagine any that were probably left around the tar and feathering era.

 

[Perfection]

Well, the U.S. did have an aristocracy during the colonial times, Southern slave owners. They became revolutionary heros who we build monuments for.

 

[Taliesin]

They didn't possess titles, though, did they? I'd call them more of a patriciate than an aristocracy.

 

[Perfection]

They didn't possess titles, though, did they?

Not really

I'd call them more of a patriciate than an aristocracy.

Eh, potayto potawto

 

[Marla_Singer]

Well without any nobles, it's totally understandable there haven't been any opposition to democracy in the US then.

It's another element proving how the US independence and the French revolution are actually totally dissimilar events. Not because of the ideals, but because of the context. Without under-estimating the task of such a revolution in the US, it was still a piece of cake compared to the task of French revolutionners.

 

[Fetus4188]

The revolutions are different, sure. I would say you are overestimating the difficulty of the French Revolution however. But then again you have an understandable bias.

 

[Marla_Singer]

The revolutions are different, sure. I would say you are overestimating the difficulty of the French Revolution however. But then again you have an understandable bias.

Over-estimating it ? How exactly ?

The Ancient Regime was based on a dual power from the state religion and the artistocracy. All lands were controlled by nobles, at several scales. There was also a whole system of serfdom where people actually belonged to their noble which had freedom of life and death on them. We're talking about a huge and very deep superior cast having all powers... including moral powers.

Furthermore, ain't it amazing to imagine that all other European powers declared war on France together to annihilate the Revolution... those powers being backed in the inside by the French arsitocracy. And ain't it even more amazing to image the brand new French republic, still disorganized and troubled by royalist uprising domestically, actually succeeded to win the wars against all other European powers !! For the country which is the worst at war it's ain't that bad. And I'm talking only about events which have occured before Napoleon.

Actually, I can't see how we can overestimate the task of the French revolution. France had the most backward regime in Western Europe before the Revolution. If you want to make an analogy with the difficulties French revolution has faced, the Russian revolution is more accurate than the US independence.

A whole new country is born from the revolution. There wasn't any France before it. It was simply few lands owned by a lord called the King of France. But that country isn't born from nothing. And that's where lies all the difficulties. At the opposite of what most people think, from the French revolution is born a country based on ideals, and not on anything ethnical.

 

[Perfection]

Let's get back to units with this fun page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_strange_units_of_measurement

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Why don't you admit that you're just too lazy to learn a new system?

I admit it - I'm too lazy to learn a new system. I know both imperial and metric already, so I don't really feel a need to learn another. However, I'll try to be open-minded (kinda goes against the grain...) - what new system are you offering ?

 

[Stapel]

nanometers, picometers, femtometers...

attometers!

 

[Stapel]

Sorry, we also called them microns in French, but as I wasn't sure of the English translation I've checked in a dictionnary and they were saying micrometers.

My fault.

In Dutch it simply is micrometer! (Or maybe mikrometer)

 

[Stapel]

Could someone here explain the imperial systems (both UK and US)?

12 inch = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
yard to x
x to mile?
land mile? sea mile?

ounces to pounds to stones?

pint to gallons?

Any relation between a pint and an ounce? Between a pint and an inch?

 

[MCdread]

I admit it - I'm too lazy to learn a new system. I know both imperial and metric already, so I don't really feel a need to learn another. However, I'll try to be open-minded (kinda goes against the grain...) - what new system are you offering ?

It's not a question of knowing how the units convert. The difficulty is hearing that has a tank with 1000 litres capacity and mentally picture imediatly how much that is, without actually having to make the obvious and easy conversion that 1000 litres are 1000 cubic decimeters, therefor 1 cubic meter. Or to picture how tall someone is when he says he's 1.85 m and how much more that is over someone that's 1.72 m. And so on.

When we switched to Euro, at the beggining I used to mentally make the conversion to escudos to better understand how much was I paying for something. After 3 years of dealing exclusevely with Euro, most people don't need to relate to the old currency.

Anyway, is it even correct to call the Imperial System a system, when the relations between all the units are, with a few minor exceptions, arbitrary? There's nothing systematic about that.

 

[marshal zhukov]

Metric, except for temperature, celcius is too inprecise.

I don't want to offend you in any way.
But that was the dumbest thing I've read in this forum

 

[Perfection]

I don't want to offend you in any way.
But that was the dumbest thing I've read in this forum

It's not that dumb, Fareignhiet units are of a very convenient human scale. Celsius units are not. Celsius units are more convenient physical systems though.

Additionally, calling that the dumbest thing is really an insult to some of the magnificantly stupid things said here.

Maybe you just don't read that much in this forum.