• prettybunnys
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    9 months ago

    Electricity stuff is funny because it combines metric and imperial units sometimes to make bastard measurements

    • derphurr@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Huh? Whatchu talkin bout Willis?

      Watt is a Joule per second

      Volts, Amps, kWh, MJ… These are all metric.

        • kbotc@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          WE INVENTED IT AND BUH GAWD, WE WILL MEASURE IT IN MURICA UNITS!

          Ignore how nonsensical BTUs are: Gonna shove energy and weight into a single measurement and it changes based on the initial temperature of the water.

          • derphurr@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Or HVAC uses tons of ice needed to cool something. Euroguys probably don’t have air conditioners, just that tilt window technology.

            I do like the obscure AWG scale especially 0000

            • kbotc@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              British Thermal Units. It’s the energy needed to heat 1 lb of water 1 degree F.

              The bad part is that no one bothered to set the starting temp of the water so there’s 5 separate standards for what the hell a BTU actually is, which makes it a really bad standard.

        • FBJimmy@lemmus.org
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          9 months ago

          Fun fact: While metric predates our full understanding of electricity, our understanding of electricity played a key role in the definition of the SI units.

          As I understand it, the reason the SI unit for mass is kg not g - making it an outlier to my mind - is so that electical engineers could keep volts and amperes as convenient numbers.

          Long read: https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.07306

      • prettybunnys
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        9 months ago

        In a number of instances where there is not a standard in place already it is not uncommon to see metric measurements mixed with imperial or US customary measurements.

        I’m not in any way shape or form claiming that ALL of it is mixed.

        However what does actually happen is the a unit of measure might be mixed with a customary one and then that becomes the defacto measurement, you may see wire resistance shown as a mix of Ohms/1000ft.

        I am not getting into an argument about the merits of metric, I’m on board, I am with you. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some silly oddballs.

        • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Is their an imperial equivalent to ohm?

          It might be the case that imperial resistance is ohm the same as metric. Metric uses ohm as it’s constituent with base units of metric, but imperial doesn’t abide by rules like that.

          If you had to make a imperial equivalent to resistance, it would be a fraction of the resistance of the monarchs finger.

          • derphurr@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            There’s no non metric electrical units except ohms/1000 ft or cross section dimensions, and AWG (and MCM kilo circular mils kcmils) versus mm^2

            Why US uses awg with reverse scale instead of diameter is insane

            formula: D(AWG) = 0.005·92^((36-AWG)/39) inch