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from the How-many-slugs-to-the-stone? dept.
AnonTechie writes:
"I have the following requests to members of this new forum:
1) Please use SI Units wherever possible. Alternative comparative units such as swimming pools, size of Florida, cars, libraries of congress, etc are also welcome ...
2) Please cover tech/science related stories from around the world. Please do not make this a US only website !!
Cheers and best wishes,
AnonTechie"
[ED Note: We as a community welcome submissions from around the world, as befits our international userbase. The Editorial team in particular is looking closely at including voices from outside the U.S. as we continue to grow. As for the units question in particular, stories will certainly arrive with a variety of units depending on the origin of the submission. We encourage, though do not require, submitters to include conversions where appropriate for clarity out of courtesy to your fellow readers. Though we try to use a light touch when making edits to story submissions, Editors may add these from time to time as well, should clarity demand and time permit.
Soylentils, does the current ad-hoc approach meet your needs, or do you favor a more formal approach from your news discussion site?]
(Score: 5, Informative) by sootman on Sunday February 23 2014, @08:55PM
Go with the context and/or source; veto and switch units if it makes more sense. If the story is about an American company creating a new car for sale in the US, tell us it gets however many miles per gallon. If it's a new fast European car, go ahead and publish the 0-100kph time. If you (the editors) want to be nice, feel free to do the conversion and supply it in parentheses. (0-62mph)
If you want to be *really* nice, ferret out when the journalists use dumb and/or ambiguous measures and fix them in the summary. ("As fast as a rifle bullet!") Or, update stories per suggestions in the comments here.
The *worst* thing you could do would be to pick one method and rigidly stick to it, ignoring the context. The day you publish "Give'em 2.54 cm, they'll take 1.61km", I'm outta here. :-)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjwt on Monday February 24 2014, @12:13AM
Indeed, its just (un)common sense, something I used to think /. had some of, but after seeing the stupid grow over the years I just lost faith..
Generally things don't need to be a perfect conversion, and in day to day measurements it can be stupid to do so.. Take this for an example, those initial figures where from a /. argument about metric conversion that popped up for some reason.
"Today the temp. is 26.67C(80F), wind speed is 273589(17mph) Decimeters per hour, and damn my kids growing up, he is now 1752.6mm(5'9") tall"
We would say 26C, 27Kph and 175cm.
If you really measure your high to 1/5" (5mm),
your temperature to less than 1/4 degree F(0.5C) and your speed to 0.6mpg (1KPH) fine, but the rest of the world deals with it quite fine driving there 4.9M long cars at 100KPH on a nice sunny 28C day and you sir can travel in your 16' 54/60" long cars at 62.14MPH on a nice sunny 82.4F
(Score: 1) by fotonix on Monday February 24 2014, @01:29AM
I agree to keep the original context. A story from the US would naturally use inches, miles and gallons; a story from elsewhere would use metric units. Having a rough conversion in parenthesis can help, whenever that is practical. I am ok with both systems, but not everyone has lived in several places around the globe.
BTW - I lurked for over a decade on /. but never bothered to register. The launching of SoylentNews is super - kudos to those who made this happen so quickly and that it works so wonderfully from the get-go.
Over-thought solutions get over-engineered and miss the user's requirements.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by photong on Monday February 24 2014, @03:04AM
It would be sufficient to just give SI units in brackets beside original units. For example "3-inch [7.62 cm] ...".
(Score: 1) by quacking duck on Monday February 24 2014, @02:20PM
Only if the original source provides it in imperial. I don't even mean the article that the SN story links to, but the original publisher. The most egregious example in my mind was the /. article linking to I think Discovery.com (American site) reporting on a published British (IIRC) study about the newly derived length of a particular dinosaur based on some new information. The Discovery (and /.) article gave a measurement in ridiculously accurate number of feet, which was called out several times in comments, some even going so far as to call the study bunk because how could they possible know it with such accuracy?
Well, the *actual* study provided measurements in metres. Discovery and /. did a huge disservice by not putting the *original* measurement first, then bracketing in units that their American audience might be more familiar with.
(Score: 1) by hankwang on Monday February 24 2014, @04:14AM
"Go with the context and/or source; veto and switch units if it makes more sense. ... feel free to do the conversion and supply it in parentheses. (0-62mph) "
Seconded, and I say that as an European. Although I think the to-metric conversion shouldn't be entirely optional. I don't have a problem with "5 ft" versus a rounded "1.5 m", but when someone is "6 ft 3 in" or worse: 6'3", it becomes hard to get a feeling for whether that's a tall or short guy.
And don't specify temperatures in degrees without stating Fahrenheit or Celsius!
Avantslash: Slashdot+SoylentNews for mobile [avantslash.org].
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday February 24 2014, @11:30AM
And don't specify temperatures in degrees without stating Fahrenheit or Celsius!
Well, no need to specify if it's forty below, is there?
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