electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

From: Dwight K. Elvey <dwight.elvey_at_amd.com>
Date: Mon Dec 13 14:12:05 2004

>From: "Paul Koning" <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
---snip---
>
>Some of this discussion reminds me of the "arguments" why the metric
>system is inferior to the US system of measures.

 Contrary to what Tom Jennings states in a later post, there
are sound physical reasons for using fractional systems
when dealing with the physical world. I'm not defending
the English system that is a hodgepodge of poorly
related measurement standards. The only reason we have
a decimal system is because of the number of fingers we
have. Hardly a sound reason to squeeze physical relations
into. One wonders why there are 2.5mm screws when the
decimal system works so well.
 If we'd had 8 finger, things would have been so much
easier to work with. 8 is 2 cubed and one hand would
be 4 or 2 squared. These both fit nicely into the physical
world were squares cubes are most often worked with.
Even logs would have made more sense under a base 8 system.

>
>I don't actually know where 50 and 60 Hz came from, nor 100 and 115
>and 220 and 240 volts. There may be some ancient justification in the
>tinkerings of various 19th century engineers, but it seems to me it
>makes most sense simply to view them as random numbers.

 I've been trying to find some actual history on the 50/60
thing on the net but so far, all I was able to find was
that cell phones are frying our brains. My understanding
was that it was a balance between efficient generation
and efficient transformers. The voltages were mainly to
control line loss. In the US, most people live close to
their distribution transformer and line loss is not that
high at 110-115V.
Dwight

>
> paul
>
>
Received on Mon Dec 13 2004 - 14:12:05 GMT