Stuart wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@argonet.co.uk:
Drywall in Europe comes in 4x8ft sheets: Directly from the website of a big box store (Gamma):
# size 122x61 or 244x122 cm. # thickness 9-12-15-18 mm.
IIRC the number of digits in the measurement was the problem remembering.
If I measured something that was fifty nine and thirteen sixteenth inches, I could usually remember it until I got to the saw. I can envision the reading on the tape measure.
If I measured something in metric sizes say 1519 mm, or 1.519 m, I seemed to get two digits reversed sometimes, or forgot one digit by the time I got to the saw. I am sure it was just lack of practice. It felt like a lot of numerical precision and hard to carry in my head for the few seconds.
Although the old system was carrying the same number of digits (and more formatting info) in my head it felt like it was in convenient, expected, groups that could be more easily remembered. Then there is always just the comfort of the system you can envision in your brain.
I am sure with more practice it would become second nature. I have to convert foreignheat temperatures to C to think how warm they are now. That has only been a few decades of getting comfortable with the system here. Some still don`t feel comfortable with C temperatures due to lack of exposure.
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"Robert Allison" wrote in message news:4d63428c$0$9303$c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com... By the way, what was so confusing about the metric system for you? Hard to stop at 10?
I have been told they are the same calibre.
Is a 9mm bore exactly 9mm, though. I would be sure the format of the bullet would be different, even if the bore was identical.
What is done for stud spacing then. Here we use 16 inch spacing and it takes three per sheet width or multiples for sheet length (sideways mount)
Ever had a friend who stopped smoking, drinking, or eating meat? Or started jogging, losing weight or _____(fill in blank)? Or discovered a new religion? Remember how they bragged and nagged trying to get you to do the same? I think everyone has a little missionary in them.
We (USA) have always used inches, pounds and gallons and are happy and comfortable with them. Will changing to the metric system make us happier, live longer, lose weight or sleep better? I don't think so. Foreign manufacturers use metric and I can put up with finding a wrench to fit, but when they start preaching to us to change the way we live and do things I balk.
"Josepi" wrote in news:D2P8p.26860$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe22.iad:
You'd have ask over there - stud construction is something I wasn't familiar with until after I got to the US. As a kid over there, there was no such thing as studs. I remember a garage being built in the yard for our car. It was built brick by brick. No wood or metal in the walls until the roof/attic support.
Even if it makes more sense than that ancient British system, eh? Loyalty to the Queen and all that rot, eh? You want to stick with the speedometer reading in Furlongs Per Fortnight, so be it. Yessiree, Bob, I guess you'll show the world who's the smarter one, eh? The rest of the planet will reduce errors by using a simplified metric system. I grew up with metric, came to Canada and switched to inches, then the country switched to metric... by now I'm pretty well versed in either, but I use inches in my shop, but metric on my CNC.
Gawd... some people...
Amen!
It is far easier to say 151.9 centimeters.
Most films (i know, i know, what's a film?) were measured in mm
8mm 16mm 35mm 70mm 120etc.
Embarassingly that just happened to me over the weekend (except for the dramatic ending) while using two different tapes, one marked largely with feet, one not. Measured for two notches spaced 5' 3 1/4" from one end on a
12' long 1x10. Rough cut the notches at 53 1/4". I went to dry fit it for fine tuning and was astonished I got THAT far off. Consistently 10" too short. I replaced the board, destroyed the evidence and wasn't going to tell anyone. Then I read this! Thanks! ScottGerald Ross wrote in news:X6udndKg-
9oxXv7QnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:*snip*
If a device is all metric or all standard, no problem. I can work in either system, but if the device is split between the two systems the annoyance levels go way up. Why should I have to have both my 12mm and
1/2" wrenches out when trying to put something together? They're almost the same size, might as well make them one or the other.Puckdropper
Been There and Done That. I owned four GM vehicles that were made between 1978 and 1986, and all four of them had a mix of metric and SAE fasteners. It cranked up my blood pressure every time I had to make a repair on one of them
-- never knew which socket set I was going to need. But my son's 96 Firebird is all metric. Thank goodness.
When that happens I just grab 2 crescents; my 12" and my 304 mm and I am ready for either one.
That's why carpenters always read off their tapes in inches, never feet and inches.
"Doug Miller" wrote
Yep. I found that if a part bolted into the engine block, it was SAE. If it was an accessory or body bolt, it was metric. That was a full sized 87 Chevy van.
I recently got a 06, but have not done much wrench turning yet. New engine design, so probably metric. I hope it is all metric, like you said.
"Scott" wrote>
The other common mistake for me and students is to measure with the tape right side up, the measure upside down, and count the fraction on the wrong side of the inch mark.
"Morgans" wrote in news:MZ29p.79809$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe03.iad:
I've made that error before! I wonder if alternating the background color would help avoid it. Odd inches would be in one color (orange?) and even inches would be in a different color (yellow?).
Why don't we ever seem to cut the piece 1" too long?
Puckdropper
I'd expect so. I'm not sure when GM finally went all-metric, but evidently it was sometime between '86 and '96. We had a '96 Roadmaster before my other son wrecked it. Replacement was a '96 Saturn. A few years later, we bought another Saturn, a '99. My FIL has a '97 LeSabre that I do the maintenance on. All four of these cars are all-metric, just like my son's '96 Firebird -- so I have a hard time imagining that anything newer has gone back to SAE fasteners.
:> Foreign manufacturers use metric and I can put up with finding a :> wrench to fit, but when they start preaching to us to change the way :> we live and do things I balk.
: Even if it makes more sense than that ancient British system, eh?
Yeah, but it doesn't.
: The rest of the planet will reduce errors by using a simplified metric : system.
Do you have any citations on error rates to back that up?
-- Andy Barss
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