avp typo

[pfrsue]

And suddenly the reason I can't seem to get a date becomes so much clearer...

[DocD83]

If you emphasize the SI system over metric and mention the grammar arguments we have about once every six weeks you'll have much better success with the pick up lines.

[FiveMileSmile]

PoolMan said:

So if the timer in AVP drops (or adds, I haven't seen this scene) a digit for every ten less significant digits that pass, it's counting in base 10.

Metric/Imperial/Incan/Vulcan measurement systems have nothing to do with it. The only real question is whether the Incans used the second as a unit of measure, and how the patterns of convenience (their equivalent to minutes, hours, days, etc) were arranged.

For those of you considering a future in electronics, particularly in digital circuits and the like, this is part of the mandatory education. Just thought you might like some warning.

Nobody out-nitpicks the PoolMan!

It all becomes clear now - because you haven't seen the film, you're oblivious to the depths of its idiocy. Here's the scene in question (no real spoilers).

Two scientists are trapped in the pyramid, where the walls, floors, and ceilings keep shifting. Half way through a conversation, one of the scientists watches starts to beep. The other one asks what that is. And he says "just testing a theory".

Sure enough after the beeps stop, the pyramid starts shifting again. "How did you know that?" asks the other amazed scientist". And here's where the idiocy kicks in.

"The Aztecs were the first people to use the metric system - so I guessed that the Pyramid would re-arrange itself every ten minutes."

Now, remember, we're not talking about Base 10 here - we're talking about metric. And the progression of all metric measures is 1>10>100>1000 and so forth.

10 minutes is 600 seconds, which fails to feature anywhere on the metric system.

Point made, case solved, and did I mention this was the time you should all be kneeling before Zod?

Thats what I thought.

- Rich

[DocD83]

What if they used minutes as the basic unit of time? Then 10 minutes would fit the metric pattern. I use the kg-m-s SI sytem but there is also a g-cm-s...couldn't the Aztecs have used kg-m-min or something like it?

[FiveMileSmile]

No, and here's why.

The Metric System MUST follow this progression, or it's not metric.

1 unit = 10small units = 100 smaller units = 1000 tiny units

So, by that reckoning, if they were using Seconds as their smallest unit of time, then there would be 10 seconds to a minute, which I think we all know is not true.

Because it takes 60 seconds to make a minute, and 6 appears nowhere in the Metric progression, it's impossible for it to work like that.

And even if the Aztecs had minutes of 10 or 100 seconds, how would setting your modern wristwatch to a 10 minute alarm (600 seconds) mesh with that. It wouldn't.

I hope you're Kneeling Before Zod, Doc.

- Rich

EDIT: OK, I re-read your question and realised I hadn't answered that. So, your supposition is that the base unit of measure for Aztec Metric Time (or AMT) is the 60 second minute; So, that leads to Hundred Minute Hours, and 1000 minute days.

Earth rotates on it's Axis every 1440 minutes. Meaning that their clocks are off with the cycle of the earth's rotation either by 7.3 hours. However, they're the Aztecs, they can do what they want.

So, if that ludicrous supposition is true, and given that they've been losing 7.3 hours every day, how exactly does the timelock know its the 10th of October 2004? And to be fair, why don't they have metric months and years?

Dah, it's all so stupid.

[PoolMan]

I'm really, really hoping that "kneeling before Zod" isn't some sick euphimism in Rich's world.

I mentioned a couple of times that I wasn't contesting the whole Aztec/Metric thing. I was just explaining base 10. I totally believe, based on all I've heard, that AVP is filled with total illogic. No need to convince me of that.

Now, kneel before... um... the other... anti-Superman badguy... you know, the one with the beard and the overdeveloped forehead! The guy who growled at everybody! Yeah, kneel before him!

[DocD83]

OK, I re-read your question and realised I hadn't answered that. So, your supposition is that the base unit of measure for Aztec Metric Time (or AMT) is the 60 second minute; So, that leads to Hundred Minute Hours, and 1000 minute days.

Changing the units like that is entirely un-metric. In metric (or SI, I should specify, since I don't use metric in the strictest sense), you add a prefix to specify larger chunks of something measured in the basic unit. So there would be no hours, there'd be kilominutes or whatever. Besides, we shouldn't ignore the possibility that the Aztec Metric System was only used by the elite and the technical classes, who ignored solar days as much as they could and only translated to astronomical time units when they had to.

Besides, whoever said their second was our second? What is roughly 10 minutes in our time might be split into 1000 smaller units in AMT.

I will never kneel!

[Head Mutant]

We are such. Freaking. Nerds.

*happy sigh*

[dajaymann]

This is usually the spot where I follow up Justin's smart remarks with something equally snarky, but my head exploded about 13 posts back. So, ummmm, insert smartassed comment here.

[duckie]

And if your head hasn't exploded yet, let me tell you about some of the ways we abuse the conventional unit systems at work...

1) For data analysis, we don't collect at a standard frequency. So, our data comes in as hh:mm:ss format, but not evenly distributed. So, I have to convert it to decimal format (e.g., mm.mm), in order to calculate rates. So, whether or not it is in base 10 initially, it is definitely in a base 10 format when I'm done with it

2) We report content in our product in g/ft3. Nothing like being undecided about which unit system to use... ;D

I sometimes wonder if this is all done in an attempt to thwart me from completing my daily tasks... Dilbert, anyone?

[PoolMan]

duckie said:

So, whether or not it is in base 10 initially, it is definitely in a base 10 format when I'm done with it

Oh, I could poke you in the eye.

duckie said:

We report content in our product in g/ft3. Nothing like being undecided about which unit system to use... ;D

I'm guessing that's so you get a nice, round number to express, like 5 g/ft^3, or 50, instead of .000005 or 50,000,000. Am I right?

[duckie]

PoolMan said:

I'm guessing that's so you get a nice, round number to express, like 5 g/ft^3, or 50, instead of .000005 or 50,000,000. Am I right?

Maybe at one point... but I really think it was done to confuse the enemy Ya know, make the competition convert their reported values from g/L to g/ft3, and hope for a mistake...