I imagine anyone who's been in the military would have no problem with The Metric System since the military converted to metric many years ago. Of course if any readers of the newsgroup left any of the engineering and construction corps of the military in recent years, they could tell us how things are. I wonder if there is still a 2&1/2 ton truck and 40' trailer or has everything gone metric? ^_^
TDD
We're not making any headway.
What's a headway?
Oh, about 8 pounds.
Too bad the rest of the American economy has not caught up with what you sa y is military practice.
We are disadvantaging ourselves by clinging to an old-fashioned metric tha t is virtually alone in the developed (and underdeveloped) world.
Many years ago the government highway folks tried an experiment. They put up signs giving the speed limit in Olde English and metric. Big mistake! Of course most people went with the familiar, and the experiment died.
By contrast, Australia went cold turkey, overnight. Nobody rioted in the s treets. The older Aussies adjusted in time and the younger ones never knew anything different.
Hard to figure WHO is behind this stubborn, continuing nonsense. One guess might be business -- especially the Big Business that really rules the cou ntry. Maybe they don't want the expense of converting. But aren't they cut ting off their nose to spite their face? A short-term view.
Whaddya think?
HB
The real reason is we are in an international world now and fewer things will be available in "American" sizes. You can't even call it english because they converted to metric years ago.
Your mechanic has needed metric tools for years unless he only works on 20 year old American cars. Even most of those had significant metric content.
Funny thing, the most resistant to the change over to The Metric System have been my overly religious friends. Perhaps it's because it breaks with tradition and their mindset is one that is more resistant to change? o_O
TDD
I thought that there had been some legislation afew years ago mandating a c hange over to the metric system about a 10-year period. But that seems to have died.
As an electrical engineer, I have learned to think in more than one languag e/metrology system. I can convert lengths pretty much in my head. But wei ghts and volumes/measures still require me to stop and try to remember the conversion factors. The liquid oz and the volume oz still give me fits whe n reading something and I don't know the exact context so I don't know whic h the author means.
Reminds me of the first time I was going to change the spark plugs in my old Datsun. Went to the Autozone (or whatever) and picked up the plugs. Asked the man behing the counter about a metric spark plug wrench. He did not know so we went to the wrench display and did not see a special wrench for the plugs. Tried several metric sockts and none of them seemed to fit like they should. Tried a standard American plug wrench and it fit just fine. Had a few of them at home, so did not buy a a metric wrench that almost fit. Worked fine. Found out later all plugs at that time were American size.
As a chemist, it would have been practically impossible to work in a lab encumbered by the English system.
notbob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@nbleet.hcc.net:
No, you stated that particular problem backward. The problem there is that *you* don't know something that most other Americans who cook *do* know, namely, that for cooking purposes, it doesn't matter at all whether you measure 'x' ounces of water by volume or by weight, because they're almost exactly the same.
To be precise: One quart of water has a volume of 32 fluid ounces or 946 cubic centimeters.
946 cc of water has a mass of 946 grams. One pound (16 ounces weight) is 453.6 grams, so 946 cc of water weighs 946 / 453.6 = 2.08 pounds = 33.37 ounces weight.Now divide that into 32 fluid ounces volume, and you get -- drum roll, please -- 1 fluid ounce of water weighs 0.96 ounces.
That's more than close enough for cooking. Nobody cares, because it doesn't matter. The ignorance on display here is yours, not everyone else's.
If he's done it a for a lifetime, he knows exactly which wrenches are used for each nut. Changing that isn't a couple of weeks.
" snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net" wrote in news:c7185afe-328d-4dfc- snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
the metric system about a 10-year period. But that seems to have died.
system. I can convert lengths pretty much in my head. But weights and volumes/measures still require me to stop and try to remember the conversion factors. The liquid oz and the volume oz still give me fits when reading something and I don't know the exact context so I don't know which the author means.
Rule of thumb: when you're talking about water, ounces volume and ounces weight are interchangeable. The difference is less than four percent.
And if you needed higher precision than that, you wouldn't be using Imperial measurements for volume and weight anyway.
Did you have a point?
Oh, good grief. ...and this has to do with cutting slats, how?
Works like this. Say your plank is 6". Your plank is 96/16. Your saw kerf is 3/16". Let's say you think getting 3 slats from that is about right. That's simple eyeball work, and your feel for what looks good. You'll lose 6/16 from the 2 kerfs. Leaves 90/16. Divide by 3. 30/16 is 1 7/8" per slat. Mark the plank, and cut there, with the kerf outside of your mark. Repeat. No scrap. You can get real close to same sized slats. If you need more precision, use 192/32 as you plank starting number. But getting anything to 1/32 precision is about the best you can do with a typical saw and that kind of material. It's not micrometer metal working. Doesn't matter at all if it's metrics or inch. You just have to be able to multiply and divide. They taught that in grade school when I was a kid.
Right, he'd already know since US cars have had a mix of sizes since at least the 80's. If a mechanic does not have the ability to use both imperial and metric he is probably out of work.
Smart people can make the change in a day, I was liberal with a couple of weeks. I still have a couple of Whitworth wrenches too. Needed them for the Triumph MC
My wife is a long time chef, so I asked her how she dealt with recipe measurements. No measurement that she has used is metric. It's pretty simple with weight vs volume. Doesn't matter if it's dry or liquid. If the recipe says teaspoon, cup, pint, quart, gallon that's the measure. Volume. If the recipe says ounces, pounds, it goes on the scale. Weight. She often weighs flour, rice, etc, and very rarely weighs fluids. In thousands of recipes she can only remember weighing a fluid a couple times. Only one she remembers was vinegar. But you're right that is sometimes doesn't matter. She said she takes shortcuts with well known recipes. Like using a scoop she knows contains close to 2 lbs of rice. Never touches the scale.
Spark plugs are hanging on to SAE. I don't much care, but would rather have one wrench measurement standard. Why have 2 sets of wrenches? I can eyeball the needed wrench, except when inch and metric wrenches are mixed. Some are interchangeable, but others are sloppy or tight if you grab the wrong one.
One think they could do would to make the metal in metric look different from "standard" bolts. It works with electrical terminals.
Curious... does anyone know if socket drive sizes are standardized imperial world wide? You know, 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4"...
Don't recall ever seeing or hearing of others
Erik
I found this.
One post says, "Things like the Hazet catalogue list them in dual sizes. 1/4" =
6.3mm, 3/8" = 10mm and 1/2" = 12.5mm square drive."So you can say they are standardized. They just call a 1/4" drive a 6.3mm drive. Maybe there's a French or German mechanic who could say what they call the different drives in everyday talk,
I grew up with the non-metrics so that's ingrained in me. Seems it's no big deal to convert either. I don't bother arguing about it. The metric system has obvious advantages with some things, and plain doesn't matter with others. Only time I remember arguing about it was in college, with a science professor. He was telling us how much better the metric system was and that everything should be measured metrically. I understood all that, so I asked him if we should do it with time. Why should a day have 24 hours? Or a minute 60 seconds? He was caught off guard, and had no good answer.
They do. They make some a little bigger, others a little smaller.
At work , we use more metric, but it does not take long to be able to tell a 1/4" from an M6.
Our industry shifted from 100% SAE to 95% metric. If you want to do commerce with the rest of the world you use metric.
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