Metric Signs

[mgk920]

With the way things have been going recently in Canada, should some of those western provinces eventually gain independence and then join the USA, I would make several reasonable adjustments in the MUTCD to accommodate that.  Ie, I would adopt the 'red circle' for km/h speed limit signs (New Mexico, you can get with the program with your state route markers, perhaps going to a square with "NEW MEXICO [Sun symbol]" at the top), 'arrow' style one way street signs without the words"ONE WAY", etc.

Mike

[LilianaUwU]

With the way things have been going recently in Canada, should some of those western provinces eventually gain independence and then join the USA

Saying this shit on Canada Day? May as well tell every Canadian to go fuck themselves.

[vdeane]

With the way things have been going recently in Canada, should some of those western provinces eventually gain independence and then join the USA, I would make several reasonable adjustments in the MUTCD to accommodate that.  Ie, I would adopt the 'red circle' for km/h speed limit signs (New Mexico, you can get with the program with your state route markers, perhaps going to a square with "NEW MEXICO [Sun symbol]" at the top), 'arrow' style one way street signs without the words"ONE WAY", etc.

Mike

Metric speed limit signs are actually a thing: https://nysroads.com/photos.php?route=us11&state=NY&file=102_6697.JPG

[kphoger]

With the way things have been going recently in Canada, should some of those western provinces eventually gain independence and then join the USA, I would make several reasonable adjustments in the MUTCD to accommodate that.  Ie, I would adopt the 'red circle' for km/h speed limit signs (New Mexico, you can get with the program with your state route markers, perhaps going to a square with "NEW MEXICO [Sun symbol]" at the top), 'arrow' style one way street signs without the words"ONE WAY", etc.

Metric speed limit signs are actually a thing: https://nysroads.com/photos.php?route=us11&state=NY&file=102_6697.JPG

But those signs haven't been included in the MUTCD as approved since the 2003 edition, though, right?

[mgk920]

Those signs have black circles, not red circles (unlike those in most of the rest of the world).

Mike

[kphoger]

Then what does Canada have to do with it?  Canadian speed limit signs don't have red circles either.  UK speed limit signs in m.p.h. do have red circles.

[mgk920]

The UK is the only country in the world that posts 'MPH' speed limits with red circles.  Ireland converted theirs to km/h  a decade or two ago.  Converting the Canadian 'km/h' signs to red circles will eliminate a possible confusion with square 'MPH' signs and state route markers in the USA.  BTW, speed limit signs en Mexico are also red circles, but they do say "km/h" at their bottoms.

Mike

[SEWIGuy]

Western Canada isn't going to become part of the United States.

The United States isn't changing its speed limit sign.

[kphoger]

I would make several reasonable adjustments in the MUTCD

Converting the Canadian 'km/h' signs to red circles will eliminate a possible confusion

The MUTCD does not govern road signs in Canada.

[Scott5114]

Just ignore measurements of time.

I do this a lot, and it seems to make people really upset and say things like "You were supposed to be there at six, where were you?"

With the way things have been going recently in Canada, should some of those western provinces eventually gain independence and then join the USA . . .

With the way things have been going in America, I think it's more likely that it will have fewer states rather than more in the future.

[1995hoo]

The UK is the only country in the world that posts 'MPH' speed limits with red circles.  Ireland converted theirs to km/h  a decade or two ago.  Converting the Canadian 'km/h' signs to red circles will eliminate a possible confusion with square 'MPH' signs and state route markers in the USA.  BTW, speed limit signs en Mexico are also red circles, but they do say "km/h" at their bottoms.

Arguably, Canada's signs already distinguish themselves from US-specification signs because they say "MAXIMUM" rather than "SPEED LIMIT." There would be a case to be made that the different wording should be one way of calling the motorist's attention to the fact that the sign uses a different unit of measure (never mind the practical absurdity of thinking that a sign reading "MAXIMUM 110" means you can go 110 mph).

I would make several reasonable adjustments in the MUTCD

Converting the Canadian 'km/h' signs to red circles will eliminate a possible confusion

The MUTCD does not govern road signs in Canada.

His point was that there is a secessionist movement in Alberta that wants the province to apply for statehood. That sort of speculation isn't totally unprecedented. I recall during the lead-up to the 1995 Quebec referendum, at least one of the premiers in the Atlantic provinces suggested that if the "oui" vote prevailed, his province might have to explore statehood.

So he was speculating on what to do with road signs if the Alberta secession did come to pass.

[CtrlAltDel]

With the way things have been going recently in Canada, should some of those western provinces eventually gain independence and then join the USA

Saying this shit on Canada Day? May as well tell every Canadian to go fuck themselves.

I know, right? 

[CtrlAltDel]

If we use density of water as a baseline like we do for metric units, the "0.591 liters" would become 591 grams, or 1.3 pounds as the base unit of mass.

If we're going all in with the Planck stuff though, we might as well just use the Planck mass. The nearest power of 2 multiple to the kilogram is 2^26, which is about 1.460 current kilograms.

Decimega- should mean 100,000 of something.
Decakilo- should mean 10,000 of something.
And/or we should bring back the myriad.

You might already know this, but this was allowed at some point. In particular, it gave rise to dimi-, which was short for decimilli-, which is the fractional counterpart to myria-.

Additionally, because why not, there were the prefixes double- and demi-, which were for multiplying or dividing by 2.

[kphoger]

demi-

This is still a prefix, just not really used for units of measurement.

A demigod is a deity who is only partly divine, in some contexts the offspring of a god and a human (half god).

A demi-glace is a glaze that has been reduced by half.

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

[Bickendan]

The hectometer seems like it would be a halfway-useful measurement.  But it really isn't ever used, except of course that a hectare is one square-hectometer.

A hectare is basically two football fields. An "are" is a 10 m x 10 m square. That, conveniently, is a square the size of one of those metric surveying chains which were mentioned earlier in the thread.

The two prefixes that I *NEVER* see used are those for 10000 and 100000. 10000 would be hand in Japan (which has a number separately named for 10000, which, unfortunately, sounds similar to the Latinesque  word for 100). Multiples of 10000 would be handy one the way to 1000000, if we did more things in multiples of 100. I can't think of a single case where I have naturally found it convenient to work in multiples of 100000. Besides, we hardly ever get 5 digits of precision on anything. 4 digits sometimes. 3 digits more commonly. 2 is often not enough. That's the reason for using multiples of 1000.

India has you covered.
1,00,000 (100,000) is a lakh.
1,00,00,000 (10,000,000) is a crore.
1,00,00,00,000 (1,000,000,000) is a lakh crore or arab.

[pderocco]

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

What was the metronome set for, 10bpm?

Since demi, semi, and hemi all mean the same thing, I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

[Bickendan]

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

What was the metronome set for, 10bpm?

Since demi, semi, and hemi all mean the same thing, I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

How many demis was that? Crap, I have to start the count over. Whereas 'demisemihemidemisemi quaver' is a mouthful and stupid compared to '256th note', it's easy to parse.
And they're typically used in slower 3/8 or 4/8 pieces or movements, at about eighth note around 50.

[kphoger]

I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

Liar.  Assuming you read your own post silently to yourself—or even out loud—I'm confident you know darned well why it's not that.




Also, I suppose that, when Demi Guynes married Freddy Moore in 1981, she became Moore's better half.  Ergo, Demi Moore.

[pderocco]

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

What was the metronome set for, 10bpm?

Since demi, semi, and hemi all mean the same thing, I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

How many demis was that? Crap, I have to start the count over. Whereas 'demisemihemidemisemi quaver' is a mouthful and stupid compared to '256th note', it's easy to parse.
And they're typically used in slower 3/8 or 4/8 pieces or movements, at about eighth note around 50.

That's still 32 notes per beat, almost 27 per second, which seems unlikely outside of strumming a multi-string instrument, or a piano glissando. Calling the time signature 3/8 or 4/8, instead of 3/4 or 4/4, seems like an excuse to write notes with more flags or beams than anyone else ever has. And the more you stack up, the more room there is for arguments: "No, it's not hemisemidemihemisemiquaver, it's demisemihemidemisemiquaver."

So Six Flags is a demisemihemisemisemipark?

[Bickendan]

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

What was the metronome set for, 10bpm?

Since demi, semi, and hemi all mean the same thing, I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

How many demis was that? Crap, I have to start the count over. Whereas 'demisemihemidemisemi quaver' is a mouthful and stupid compared to '256th note', it's easy to parse.
And they're typically used in slower 3/8 or 4/8 pieces or movements, at about eighth note around 50.

That's still 32 notes per beat, almost 27 per second, which seems unlikely outside of strumming a multi-string instrument, or a piano glissando. Calling the time signature 3/8 or 4/8, instead of 3/4 or 4/4, seems like an excuse to write notes with more flags or beams than anyone else ever has. And the more you stack up, the more room there is for arguments: "No, it's not hemisemidemihemisemiquaver, it's demisemihemidemisemiquaver."

So Six Flags is a demisemihemisemisemipark?

It was the Baroque period. And they certainly didn't call it the mouthfuliquavers -- that's just an English practice. Americans and Canadians prefer the binary divisions; the French, Germans, and Italians have their own terms for it, as would the Chinese and Japanese when they play Western music.

[pderocco]

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

What was the metronome set for, 10bpm?

Since demi, semi, and hemi all mean the same thing, I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

How many demis was that? Crap, I have to start the count over. Whereas 'demisemihemidemisemi quaver' is a mouthful and stupid compared to '256th note', it's easy to parse.
And they're typically used in slower 3/8 or 4/8 pieces or movements, at about eighth note around 50.

That's still 32 notes per beat, almost 27 per second, which seems unlikely outside of strumming a multi-string instrument, or a piano glissando. Calling the time signature 3/8 or 4/8, instead of 3/4 or 4/4, seems like an excuse to write notes with more flags or beams than anyone else ever has. And the more you stack up, the more room there is for arguments: "No, it's not hemisemidemihemisemiquaver, it's demisemihemidemisemiquaver."

So Six Flags is a demisemihemisemisemipark?

It was the Baroque period. And they certainly didn't call it the mouthfuliquavers -- that's just an English practice. Americans and Canadians prefer the binary divisions; the French, Germans, and Italians have their own terms for it, as would the Chinese and Japanese when they play Western music.

So, to drag this back to roads, should there be signs that say Next Exit, 1 demisemihemimile?"

[Bickendan]

And, for something even more math-related, a demisemihemidemisemiquaver is technically the British name for a musical 256th note, which has six flags/beams.  And yes, they actually exist in real life, including sheet music from Vivaldi.

What was the metronome set for, 10bpm?

Since demi, semi, and hemi all mean the same thing, I don't understand why it wouldn't just be demidemidemidemidemiquaver.

How many demis was that? Crap, I have to start the count over. Whereas 'demisemihemidemisemi quaver' is a mouthful and stupid compared to '256th note', it's easy to parse.
And they're typically used in slower 3/8 or 4/8 pieces or movements, at about eighth note around 50.

That's still 32 notes per beat, almost 27 per second, which seems unlikely outside of strumming a multi-string instrument, or a piano glissando. Calling the time signature 3/8 or 4/8, instead of 3/4 or 4/4, seems like an excuse to write notes with more flags or beams than anyone else ever has. And the more you stack up, the more room there is for arguments: "No, it's not hemisemidemihemisemiquaver, it's demisemihemidemisemiquaver."

So Six Flags is a demisemihemisemisemipark?

It was the Baroque period. And they certainly didn't call it the mouthfuliquavers -- that's just an English practice. Americans and Canadians prefer the binary divisions; the French, Germans, and Italians have their own terms for it, as would the Chinese and Japanese when they play Western music.

So, to drag this back to roads, should there be signs that say Next Exit, 1 demisemihemimile?"

Convince a locality to name themselves that. I'm all for it!

[kphoger]

unlikely outside of strumming a multi-string instrument, or a piano glissando

And that's pretty much what they notate.  Examples are pretty much all consecutive runs of notes.  I think there's also a well-known modern example at the end of a piece, where the tempo is already slowing down significantly due to a final ritardando—but, again, I seem to recall it's also a consecutive run of notes.

I mean, if your piece is written in 6/8 time, and you play a really fast run of sixteen notes (about two octaves) in the space of one beat—which certainly isn't unthinkable if the tempo is anywhere near or below 72 bpm—then how else would you notate it, other than as 128th notes?  It's not totally unreasonable.  In fact, writing a simple glissando would imply things about the run of notes that you don't actually intend to communicate to the performer—and it wouldn't be appropriate at all if the final couple of notes make a sort of trill or whatever.