Yes, it's from a book called "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" and that book was resting on a closed toilet seat in a nation that only kind of uses the metric system in certain situations... however, you'd be surprised how much you can learn after a single visit to any local fast-food joint!
Heyyy I've got two of Uncle John's books on the commode right now!
Uncle John's bathroom reader! ~~I know this has nothing to do with the metric system, but I saw the toilet paper roll around the page number and got a surge of happy brain sauce due to the happy memories of all the copies I owned through the years: 2~~
The paragraph on the meter should mention that their measuring error from the pole to the equator was .02%, which, without using satellites or even electricity, is fucking impressive.
So how the hell was it done? Long piece of rope? Hot air balloon? Or having a bird fly from one point to another and timing it?
Calculations. In 240 BCE, Eratosthenes used a stick. He basically found a place where the sun was directly overhead, and measured the shadow from a stick a known distance to the north of that location. He approximated the circumference of the earth to be 25,000 miles, which was off by 99 miles.
That is impressive & a nice amendment on your part. Thank you for the added detail
Also, unlike the imperialist system it is not utter horseshite.
I think this snippet misrepresents the accuracy of the former definition of the metre. Sure, it's no longer the distance from the equator to the pole (the modern definition uses the speed of light and the period of transition for a particular atom), but the difference is quite small. The circumference of the Earth around the poles (so 4 times the distance from equator to pole) is 40007.863 km. In Napoleonic times scientists had a pretty good idea what the shape of the Earth was.
So we only know a kilogram of water weighs a kilogram because of an arbitrary decision by the French? How much does it really weigh?
Ever since that dude translated the Rosetta stone they've been up their own asses.
The other fun thing is with the new calendar, they literslly reset the count to year 1. The coins for the first few years literally said "l'an 7" or "l'an 11".
"We decide when history starts" is a hell of a sentiment.
I'm still sad decimal time didn't catch on.
"We decide when history starts" is a hell of a sentiment.
It's only consequencial if you want to get rid of anything that was imposed by the church.
We still do it, we just celebrated new year 235
I like that sentiment if it starts with us having the knowledge to be better than before
Love me some Uncle John’s. I’d recognize that page number decorator anywhere!
Uncle John knows the correct way to mount toilet paper.
Americans could at least have the decency to spell "metre" correctly, but no, they have to go and change the spelling of a measurement system they don't even use.
It's called "meter" in lots of metric countries though (I know because I live in one).
i think it is ok, as meter more correctly matches the pronounciation
I'm willing to give them the spelling if they just adopt the fucking metric system.
I'm on the phone with them.
They said they'll do it after France or Canada does first. Not sure if they got the memo, or if they are just being silly again.
I mean yeah, Metric scales.
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