Lovro OreskovicMar 15, 2023
Helen Czerski
Properly jaw-dropping moment this evening: an e-mail from my US publisher saying that "since it's a science book", they'll publish Blue Machine WITH METRIC UNITS. So I don't have to convert everything to foot pounds per square elephant. In YEARS of writing for the US, this is the first time I have ever had a hint that there is a world outside feet and inches. Progress! #Books #Metric #Science
Mar 14, 2023 at 10:32pmWeb
Show threadRJDMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski I'll raise my pint glass to that!
Show threadDavid P. CareyMar 15, 2023
@Rjdlandscapes @helenczerski I'd prefer a litre...
Show threadRJDMar 15, 2023
@dpcarey1 an a 1/34th of a firkin!
Show threadSoonLeeNZMar 15, 2023
@Rjdlandscapes @helenczerski British pint or American pint?
Show threadEva AmsenMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski OMG! Will they get a footnote with conversions or are they just thrown in the deep end (in meters)?
Show threadDeirdre Saoirse MoenMar 15, 2023
@easternblot @helenczerski See, my feeling is that we resist the metric system in the US because it’s always introduced as a math problem, and never just like: 15 is a cool, fall morning.
Show threadNeverfadingwood 🇺🇦Mar 14, 2023
@helenczerski Can just imagine what fun the GOP are going to have with that. "Heathen metric units", "spawned by the devil", and the like.
Show threadTimmy O'DanaosMar 15, 2023
@Neverfadingwood @helenczerski Oh they don't need a book for that
Show threadStripymoggieMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski I have pre-ordered your book and look forward to it arriving in the post!
Show threadRuth MottramMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski Well! Is that because they consider it to be science as in a kind of text book rather than "popular" science?
Good news anyway. I can't wait to read it...
Show threadHelen CzerskiMar 15, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram I don't think so - they've read it in detail, so they know it's aimed mostly at people who don't think about science very much (although I think that oceanographers will learn a lot too). I get the impression that they're just fed up of fighting that point. It must come up with every single science book, and I bet a decent chunk of their readers complain about imperial units too. The agreement seems to be that I'll convert kilometres into miles & that's it.
Show threadSteven MolnarMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski As a US resident I rejoice, even though I'm sure they will insist that "blue" is a color, not a colour. I don't mind that, but I draw the line at "soccer" for association football, which is rarely played in the ocean, so it's probably safe to buy the US edition.
Show threadIan RobinsonMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski Happy days :)
Show threadszescstopniMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski Great news. Maybe there is hope.
Show thread🇨🇦 TRH 🇨🇦Mar 14, 2023
@helenczerski As it should be. That cover is very sharp as well.
Show threadGregor KalinkatMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski
I thought the convention was to measure everything in penguins this year 🐧https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/01/asteroid-penguins-giraffes-size/672849/
Asteroid Measurements Make No Sense

Is this space rock the size of a train car or 22 penguins?

The Atlantic
Show threadTor Iver WilhelmsenMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski as I understand it, the US has adopted the metric system, it just avoids telling the Americans that it did.
Show threadTim RichardsMar 15, 2023
@toriver @helenczerski Yes it's my understanding that those old 3½ inch floppy disks were actually manufactured to be exactly 90mm.
Show threadnoodleMar 15, 2023

@timrichards @toriver @helenczerski yup

https://webstore.ansi.org/standards/incits/ansix31371988am11999

ANSI X3.137:1988/AM1-1999 - Information Systems - One- and Two-sided, Unformatted, 90-mm (3.5-in), 5.3-tpmm (135-tpi) Flexible Disk Cartridge for 7958 BPR Use - General, Physical, and Magnetic Requirements

ansix31371988am11999-Information Systems - One- and Two-sided, Unformatted, 90-mm (3.5-in), 5.3-tpmm (135-tpi) Flexible Disk Cartridge for 7958 BPR Use - Genera

Show threadJoe ❌👑Mar 15, 2023
@toriver Jimmy Carter started a metric conversion project in the 1970s. Ronald Reagan killed it.
Show threadMark SaltveitMar 15, 2023
@not2b @toriver
Reagan also spent taxpayers dollars to remove the solar panels Carter had installed on the White House roof. Just knee-jerk opposition.
Show threadAdam PocockMar 14, 2023
@helenczerski Excellent, now I won't have to import my copy from the UK. I ended up with a UK paperback to go with the US hardback as it was too irritating to read in US units.
Show threadDanMar 15, 2023

@craigacp @helenczerski I was watching a film once subtitled in English for a language I do speak but am not fluent enough in to watch TV or films without subtitles...

But it kept throwing me off when I was hearing 1 number and seeing another on the subtitles that made no sense until I relise they were converting units too! (annoying too as being British I have no concept of Fahrenheit as we use Celsius here)

Show threadJoeMcconMar 14, 2023

@helenczerski

I had to have a US state leave the Union in order to use metric in my books. And 24-hour time, too.

Show threadSomcakMar 14, 2023

@helenczerski fun fact, Americans, I being one of them, generally don't even know foot/inches/miles sizes anyway.

Bravo on the book! I'm glad the publisher sensibly decided against conversion.

Show threadScottinSoCal 🇺🇦 🕊 🏳‍🌈Mar 14, 2023

@helenczerski

Science uses metric, worldwide. At my work we use microns and angstroms, for most things.
Of course, we also use mils, but it's easy if you just remember there's 25.4 microns per mil.

Show threadLive, Laugh, LovecraftMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski That's terrific!
Show threadQuixoticgeekMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski excellent news. does this also include the audio book?
Show threadNickMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski lol "foot-pounds per square elephant" 😂😂
Show threadGlen DowntonMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Unfathomable!
Show threadIrwin DeVriesMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski @GlenDownton In a league of its own.
Show threadGTMLosAngelesMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski As a U.S.-ian, I felt I had no other choice but to decide on my own to convert to the metric system. I am the only one among my family, social group, or work colleagues who uses metric, but I try to be patient with them when they pull out their phones to do the conversions.
Show threadDanMar 15, 2023
@Gtmlosangeles @helenczerski I would definitely recommend buying your measuring tapes and other instruments from the UK or Canada in that case.
We both tend to put dual scales on everything!
Show threadJames Bartlett Mar 15, 2023
@helenczerski I just added it to my list on #GoodReads!
Show threadRickGMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Let's hear it for SI units! I worked for a European company in the US and everything was a mix. Constantly converting units. The one that boggled my mind was a measurement of weight per unit area that was expressed as grams per square foot. How asinine is that?
Show threadDaniel LakelandMar 15, 2023
@rgod8855
I know, right? Everyone knows that grams are a measure of MASS 😅
@helenczerski
Show threadScott MatterMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski now readers will have to convert back into foot pounds per square elephant on their own?!? 😜
Show threadJohn BeresfordMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski "foot pounds per square elephant" = first laugh out loud of the day. Thank you 😃 (and grats on the book!)
Show threadMattMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski no elephants? 😢
Show threadDanMar 15, 2023
@MattFerrel @helenczerski not even the 4 that the world is perched on, the stand on the turtle
Show threadseachangedMar 15, 2023

@helenczerski

I'm thinking about compactness of saying sverdrup when you mean a million cubic meters of water per second..

.. instead of saying almost exactly 400 Olympic sized swimming pools per second, or a stack of Olympic sized swimming pools a half mile tall each second.

Show threadJohnEvansMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski the diversity that dare not speak its name....
Show threadMartin 🎶💻🤓🐱Mar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Kilomolometers? https://youtu.be/AV7cJ7s5DNo
BBC Archives Womans thoughts on transition from miles to 'kilomolometers'

YouTube
Show threadDeusMar 15, 2023
I never noticed it. At most, “Oh. Must’ve been an American author.” ..and continued reading.
Show threadPhil Thane ✅Mar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Retired now but I used to write for trade mags with US and UK readers. It was a nightmare talking to industrialists in the US about their 'state of the art' process with all the stats in US customary units and then comparing that with rival processes elsewhere. And writing it up to make sense to both sets of readers.
Show threadIke RosenMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski
I am 72 years old, and I remember being told in elementary school that the US was going to covert to Metric "in a few years".
I'm glad that I didn't hold my breath!
Show threadTony NovakMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Congrats. So now us Yankees will have no idea of what you are trying to tell us. ;)
Show threadCogito Ergo DisputoMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski hurray!
Show threadMike SpoonerMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Furlongs per fortnight.
Show threadMikeKMar 15, 2023

@helenczerski

http://blog.karliner.net/posts/units-of-simile/

SI Units of Simile

The International System of Units, often referred to as the SI System, defines a small number of basic units, such as the second (time), metre (distance), kilogram (mass). However, for the popular media these units have proved too limiting for the magnificent descriptive powers of our journalists and broadcasters, who have therefore evolved an alternative set of units which are used exclusively in the hackneyed writing of, well, hacks.

Mike's Blog
Show threadElliott Bignell Слава Україні!Mar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Brilliant news. The tendency of US writers to formulate measurements in furlongs per fortnight has always raised my ire. Of course, scientists in the USA actually use metric units, but engineers use mediaeval units. At least one space launch was lost due to mixing the two up.
Show threadAlvin BryanMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Finally!
Show threadRaviMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski Interesting topic! I hope its available in India soon!
Show threadMoving PicturesMar 15, 2023

@helenczerski
Try being in construction.... that will be an imperial holdout for way too long.

PS "Foot-pounds per square elephant" made me giggle.

Show threadDigbyMar 15, 2023
@helenczerski
Science should only be done in metric.