Decoupling Capacitors

Bob Scott said:

Force/mass conversions can be confusing. In metric, KG can be used for weight and mass. The unit of force is the Newton. In Imperial, Pounds can be used for weight and force. The unit of mass is the Slug.

Click to expand...

Well, it's actually mass all the time. BUt people just say the weight is 5kg. BUt because they say kg it's still mass. THe fact that the bag of potatoes weighs 10lbs doesn't work if you aren't on earth (or it doesn't have the same meaning rather).

Bob Scott said:

Do the British still use wrenches that are uniquely British size?

Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware the first 'standard' thread and spanner sizes were invented by Joeseph Whitworth? (incidently only a couple of miles from where I work). Before that nuts and bolts were made individually, so you needed the exact correct nut for each bolt, and spanners were 'hit and miss'.

'Whitworth' threads and spanners are still just about available, but were really replaced by metric and AF ones years ago.

So it wasn't a question of a 'unique' system, merely of being the worlds FIRST system (as with much else British).

I'm also curious..Do you still need to buy licenses to own televisions and radios in England?

Click to expand...

For television only, you no longer need a radio licence - the licence fee funds the BBC, which doesn't carry advertising - again, it was the worlds first television service!.

Some say it's not fair that we all have to pay the license fee, there again other countries have govenment stations that are funded by tax payers whether they have TVs of not. At least in England only the people with televisions have to pay and the BBC isn't directly controlled by the government.

At a "pub" in North America you can order a 12oz beer bottle, a glass full or a jug full of beer. Who knows how many ounces are in their glass or jug?

I think at bars, glasses of beer are standardized 16oz and pitchers are 60oz. I'm not a drinker though.

speakerguy79 said:

I think at bars, glasses of beer are standardized 16oz and pitchers are 60oz. I'm not a drinker though.

Click to expand...

In the UK it's a pint or half a pint, no idea what that is in fluid ounces?, it's really not something that's ever used!.

Nigel Goodwin said:

In the UK it's a pint or half a pint, no idea what that is in fluid ounces?, it's really not something that's ever used!.

Click to expand...

At a stopover in Seattle SeaTac airport, the pub served 16 oz. pints, but you could get the whole 32 oz US quart for 25 cents more.

When I revisited England a few years ago, A pint of bitter at the pub in Brighton was 20 Oz. Lager or white wine was stylish for ladies. Spirits were not sold in ounces but standard single was 2/5 of a gill.

I haven't been in a pub in Canada in years.

By the way, for all interested and inventive technical types like we are, the "weight table" in Webster's dictionary has all kinds of these conversions for troy, avoir du pois, Imperial etc, not just weights. And the few odd conversions you can also look up individually, like 42 US gallons in a barrel, how many rods in a furlong, how many fathoms in a league.

I figure if you really did submerge 20,000 leagues under the sea, you would go so deep you would re-emerge on the other side of the Earth and be halfway to the moon.

Cheers, Bob