Ah those crazy imperials

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 28 August 2009 08:49:29

So in Australia we like the metric system. Well I like it. And nearly everyone uses it. Except in certain sayings/phrases such as "I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole" or "the traffic is inching along".

An exception to this is in science/medical settings where we often like to talk in moles (Avagadro's number and all that) rather than grams. This makes sense because it's more sensible to talk about chemical reactions by number of atoms/molecules because those are the numbers that have meaning in chemical equations (and what the periodic table is based on). Luckily we can use n=m/M to convert between moles and grams. Phew.

In America they use the imperial system most of the time. Except when they don't. Again the medical/science setting is the exception. But what is interesting is that in places where we use molar values for things (eg. blood glucose and cholesterol levels), they use mg/mL or mg/dL or some other metrically-derived unit. And although drinks are sold by fl oz or gallon, IV fluids or other injections are in ccs. Now we use mL or L here because we're all metric you see. But despite the different name, a cc is but a mL.

If we rearrange the equation, we find that cc/L = m, therefore 1000cc/L = 1km.

The End.