30 replies to this topic

[Shirou]

 Scope, on 13 Nov 2008, 0:42, said:

 Aftershock, on 12 Nov 2008, 14:58, said:

2: Nobody uses the damn hectometer. It's either kilometer or hundreds of meters.

To be fair, a hectare is a square hectometer and this unit is used often in Geography as I discovered this year at Uni

The fact you had to go to university to find that out may indicate...

[Alias]

A hectare may be in principle a square hectometre, however even in government planning over here everything is either done in metres/kilometres, square metres/kilometres or in hectares. I cannot recall one time I have seen the hectometre be used (usually when doing distance it is just hundreds of metres).

tl;dr: Hectometre is barely used.

Edited by Alias, 17 November 2008 - 20:20.

[BeefJeRKy]

 Aftershock, on 17 Nov 2008, 11:17, said:

 Scope, on 13 Nov 2008, 0:42, said:

 Aftershock, on 12 Nov 2008, 14:58, said:

2: Nobody uses the damn hectometer. It's either kilometer or hundreds of meters.

To be fair, a hectare is a square hectometer and this unit is used often in Geography as I discovered this year at Uni

The fact you had to go to university to find that out may indicate...

Well I did discover that the hectare is used in Geography this year at uni because I always used square kilometers in school though I already knew what a hectare is. Also @ Alias, it is used in the study of water runoff and sediment deposition.

[Chyros]

Hectometer-poles (small reference poles) are used along roads here, so you can call in your position on highways if your car breaks down, but other than that the hectometer is not used at all over here.

However, to get slightly more to the point: the good thing about the metric system is that is can use all kinds of prefixes which gives an endlessly flexible but singular unit. You don't speak of micro-inches or kilo-feet (!) which limits the imperial system a lot. Especially if you go down into very precise measurements, like in engineering or any exact science (and probably geography, I imagine), the metric system is invaluable. Then why have some half-usable system on the side as well?

[The Wandering Jew]

 Alias, on 11 Nov 2008, 14:12, said:

The US, Burma and Liberia are the only countries to not officially adopt the Metric system. I really cannot see why.
...

In our case, we officially endorse SI units. However, the English system is still used in our daily living (a strong hangover from the Spanish colonialism)

i.e.:

How many yards of fabric do you wish to sell?
How much do you weigh? (The answer expected is in pounds.)
I need 1/4" expansion bolts for the installation of elevator rail brackets.


It's really a matter of familiarization for us. So far, we are the only place in the world that use both (unoffically).

[Overdose]

 Chyros, on 17 Nov 2008, 23:32, said:

Hectometer-poles (small reference poles) are used along roads here, so you can call in your position on highways if your car breaks down, but other than that the hectometer is not used at all over here.

We use those poles as well. Except ours are in kilometers.