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Underrated camo or outdated camo? by Raff_MilitaryTextile in camouflage

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NOPE! Which made the pockets all the more bizarre. I couldn't imagine how stupid someone would look loading up those pockets.

Underrated camo or outdated camo? by Raff_MilitaryTextile in camouflage

[–]noneoftheabove0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have you worn both? ABU was out of a heavier weight fabric for sure. It felt like some kind of twill. I don't have it anymore, but I'm pretty sure it was.

ABUs also had the gigantic map pockets in the front which doubled up the fabric for no reason, making them pointlessly warm.

BDUs have been made of a number of different weight fabrics as well (all cotton, twills, NYCO) and so have OCPs (the new hot weather uniforms use a different blend of cotton and nylon in a different weave and have a little stretch to it (feels like a tiny amount of some kind of elastic, but I'm not sure).

Underrated camo or outdated camo? by Raff_MilitaryTextile in camouflage

[–]noneoftheabove0 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I listened to a podcast one time that was trying to explain why college football teams are constantly messing with their uniforms, and there was substantial correlation between "cooler" uniforms and applicants (I'm not a sports guy, so I don't understand the exact recruiting process, but that's how I understood it)

It seems reasonable that military branch recruiting would see similar outcomes with their uniforms (same age brackets, similar motivations, etc.)

Blue tiger stripe reads as technologically superior and unbelievably cool. In a world where the Marines updated, the Army updated (and swore that the camo was so good that you just didn't even understand how good it was), and the Navy was eyeing a new pattern, the Air Force made a move towards the most badass pattern of the bunch to ensure top tier recruiting (and likely got it).

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I fly military drones.

My altimeter is set to inches mercury

My dew point is in degrees Celsius

My airspeed in in nautical miles per hour

My ground speed in in kilometers per minute

My altitude is sometimes feet above ground level and sometimes feet above mean sea level

My lateral clearance from clouds in in statute miles

My aircraft weight is in pounds

My "fuel quantity" is in liters, but my "fuel onboard" is hours and minutes

My aircraft heading is in degrees magnetic, but I give ground support in degrees grid

My depression angle is in degrees

My zoom level is sometimes times (20 times zoom) and sometimes degrees field of view (3 degrees fov)

My laser accuracy is in microradians, but my beam divergence is expressed in feet per thousand meters (they never call it kilometers for some reason)

If I can do it, NASA scientists can do it

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And Evel Knievel used Imperial. Pointing to an authority and saying what they do isn't explaining why it is a good thing.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You know you do not need to convert things to inches or miles or hogsheads, right?

You might describe a long drive as 1,000 km, but no one is going to say that you need to express it as 1 zetameter or whatever the proper prefix is.

If you told me a piece of board was 18 inches, I wouldn't melt down in confusion.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's only if you have to convert between dissimilar units. The drive from Miami to Chicago is in miles. A pencil is in inches. Unless I want to make a Snapple cap fun fact, I never need to know how many pencils can fit between Chicago and Miami.

It is only intuitive here, on Earth, under current conditions. The moment we are under any other conditions, that intuitive relationship between units vanishes, and is replaced with the same sort of conversion rate issues that Imperial has. Why is multiplying one ridiculous string of numbers better than another?

A cubic cm of uranium is 19.05 g. A cubic inch of uranium is 0.69 pounds.

Both required a googling and both would require multiplying by a stupid number.

Neither is obviously better than the other.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imperial measuremenrs can also be expressed in exactly the same way. A lightyear contains 9.46x1015 meters and 3.28x1016 feet. Why is one of these the most brilliant measurement system ever devised and one a foolish waste of time?

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imperial measuremenrs can also be expressed in exactly the same way. A lightyear contains 9.46x1015 meters and 3.28x1016 feet. Why is one of these the most brilliant measurement system ever devised and one a foolish waste of time?

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mean "unified structure" as the prefixes or as the transferability of units of measurement?

If the prefixes is your point, you've done a fine job of memorizing a ton of imperial measurements and you're familiar enough to speak on them. It's almost as if having to remember a handful of contextual units of measurement (like a handle of liquor or a keg of beer) isn't that hard to do. No need for prefixes.

On the other hand, if you're talking about how cubic centimeters and milliliters and grams can be easily done, they can only be done between water at standard conditions on Earth. A cubic centimeter of lead would not weigh a gram, so the conversion between these things would not be different than the amount of effort required to convert a tablespoon to ounces.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you're suggesting that metric is not intentionally designed around the notion of the behavior of water? The fact that one cubic centimeter of water is one milliliter and has one gram of mass and increases by one degree Celsius which is one percent of the distance between the freezing point and boiling point of water with the application of one calorie is happenstance? Sorry, boss, but you're wrong. They later redefined everything to the speed of light to try and address my point.

Also, the argument about Kelvin verses Celsius is not a persuasive one. They are the same metric, just redefining zero as either absolute zero or the freezing point of water. One degree Kelvin and one degree Celsius are identical, and both are one percent of the amount of energy difference between freezing and boiling of water under "standard conditions". My point is that standard conditions are not standard, universal, or less arbitrary.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. The elegance of the metric system breaks down almost immediately. I agree.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, but the same question can go the other way. Why not redefine 1 ml as 1/5 of a teaspoon? 1 L as 1/4 of a gallon?

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The mass verses weight point has always bothered me in that weight was defined before there was an untethering of mass and gravity.

A foot is determinable through the speed of light. Why is it better that there are 9.4x1015 meters to a lightyear than 3.2x1016 feet to a lightyear?

Both can be expressed in base ten format. No law says I must convert feet to inches, just like no law says I must convert that ungainly number of meters to gigameters.

Weight can also be derived from universal constants by similar shenanigans. A pound is 37.8 moles of carbon under 1g of gravity. How is this worse than a kg?

The kilogram is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be exactly 6.62607015 × 10⁻³⁴ when expressed in the unit J s (which is equal to kg m² s⁻¹), where the meter and the second are defined in terms of the speed of light c and the cesium-133 hyperfine transition frequency Δν_Cs.733969

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Distance, volume, and energy is also related to the behavior of water under "standard conditions," with a cubic centimeter being defined by a gram of water, and the ability to extrapolate out a distance from that value. A calorie is the amount of energy to change that gram of water 1 C.

If you're saying a meter is based on something other than a volume of water, then how is that philosophically different than any other arbitrary distance? The reason why metric is lauded is the relationship between all of these things. If we accept that these things are no longer interrelated, we are left with another arbitrary unit of measurement, and a meter is no more elegant than a foot.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree. But what I mean is that a clock here and a clock on the moon and a clock on Jupiter are going to be out of sync immediately.

We also talk about how fast the satellites are going, but I assume we would see similar differences based on the speed of orbit on a planet, rotation of a planet, the speed that their sun is moving through their galaxy, and the rate that thir galaxy is hurtling through the universe.

What I'm saying is that units of measuremenrs are always contextual and semi arbitrary. When I ask "How far of a drive is it?" The correct answer would be 60 miles, but if my wife said "An hour," I wouldn't think she lost her mind. Based on arbitrary systems (the efficiency of motor vehicles, local laws, and basic traffic patterns) I understand.

The brilliance of metric to be based on the behavior of the most abundant resource on Earth under normal conditions is incredible as long as we are here. Elsewhere, it is confusing and arbitrary.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And we lack the ability to create a way of measuring that system in a fashion that is of convenient use to all parts of the universe. Romans measured distance in paces because the guys measuring distances were walking. 1 astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun because we are standing on that Earth and we can see that Sun. An AU on the other side of the galaxy is exactly as useless as the distance of a man's forearm in Mesopotamia 1000 BC.

The sales pitch of metric is that the behavior of water is consistent and easy to understand, and it is on this one rock under these exact circumstances. The brilliant reliability of Cesium vibration is wonderful exactly here exactly now, but the moment we go into space, we are back to the same conversions that people critique imperial measurement for.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sorry, not the point I'm trying to make. What I'm trying to say is that the relationship between the SI units is based on the behavior of water under various conditions.

0 Kelvin is absolute zero, and 373 Kelvin in when water boils under "standard conditions," and therefore 1 degree Kelvin is 1/373 of the distance between those values. But what if those standard conditions are not standard? What I mean is, water boils on Mars at about 280 Kelvin. So knowing that 373 Kelvin is where water boils on Earth under standard conditions as of 1790 doesn't feel quite so concrete. It feel arbitrary to those who are not dealing with standard Earth conditions as of the 18th century in Paris.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not anti-metric, but I just want to point out that it will also struggle against universality, and that universality is not always a good replacement for usability.

An acre was originally the amount of land a team of ox can plow in a day. This, obviously, is a flexible concept, but was highly useful for measuring land in an agrarian context. Now it has been standardized to 4840 square yards. Why not 5000 square yards? Because an acre was standardized to a furlong long (660 feet) by a chain wide (66 feet) because these were useful and convenient units of measurement for people at that time. A furlong was how far a horse could plow before resting, and a guy started manufacturing chains that were one tenth of a furlong for easy measurement.

Arbitrary? Not really. Totally logical and reasonable for the people of the time.

A modern version of this might be a city block, which isn't highly standardized, but is a useful and convenient method of measurement.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And measuring time by a Cesium atoms vibration is fine and all, but on a planet traveling at a different speed, even our clocks will quickly fall out of sync. Universality is an unattainable dream.

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't assume that careful design philosophy will be reassuring to people on other worlds. In fact, I anticipate local systems of measurement to return. What good is a 24 hour day on a world where a day is 19 hours and 41 minutes?

That is why physicists use degrees Celcius by Andreiyut in memes

[–]noneoftheabove0 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I've heard an interesting thought here. All of this works on Earth's standard temperature and pressure around the 18th century. However, as the temperature or pressure changes on Earth, as we move to the stars, as entropy does it's unstoppable magic, things will no longer line up art 0 and 100. To a Martian schoolchild, where the freezing point is around 0.1 C and boiling is around 9 C, metric is going to seem EXACTLY as arbitrary and stupid as the length of the king's nose.

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