Bolt Thread Size (Damn Metric Shit)

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To find out how it spans studs 16" OC, perhaps?

The problem is primarily in having to mix the two and irregardless of the theoretical niceties of metric vis a vis English, there is a history dating back several hundred years that can't be whisked away--if, for nothing else, for those raised using English, despite "book-larnin' " about MKS, it just "ain't natural". As a trained engineer working w/ metric for 30 years, there still isn't the inate "feel" for ordinary day-to-day things in metric measures that there is for English. I just don't think that I'm really putting in 19 l instead of 5 gal so it's "only" 76.5 c/l instead of $2.90 /gal -- no, all I'm thinking is the producers are making a killing at $75/bbl.

Similarly, it's going to be d-- near 100 out this afternoon...I don't feel a bit cooler at whatever it is in C and I have to stop and calculate it out rather than "just knowing".

And, even as we continue to teach mks in school, the common usage remains (and will remain for the foreseeable future).

Also, I don't really agree w/ the argument advanced earlier that there are really that many fewer sizes in metric--in actuality, it seems to me there tend to be more, at least in the smaller sizes where it seems you find stuff every mm.

I do agree that the 70s/80s transition period with mismatched fasteners on a single product was an abomination--I had one of them as well.

I'm not sure how much it really affects US industry's overall efficiency--as someone else noted, most export sales are and have been metric for quite some time now and a great portion of that production is not in the US anyway. I'm sure there is some affect, but doubt it would make a huge difference in competitive balance if it were to disappear overnight (which of course, it can't owing to all the above historical considerations).

You're totally missing the point. Under the metric system, things are sold in metric units -- not in the metric equivalents of imperial units.

For example, a Canadian car has a speedometer that displays speed in kph (kilometers per hour), the speed limit signs are posted in kph, and the distances on the highway signs are in kilometers. No big deal. You see a sign that says "Toronto -- 100km", you look at your speedometer and see that you're going 80kph, and you know that you'll be there in an hour and a quarter.

Carpet and cloth are sold by the meter. Gasoline and milk are sold by the liter. Meat and nails are sold by the kilogram. Nobody bothers doing any conversions, because it isn't necessary.

Why would you make a board 5.08 x 10.16cm? You would make it 5x10.

Get it?

Do you have a problem with buying a 2 liter bottle of Coke? Of course not, it's 2 liters. They don't package and label it as 2.15 quarts bottle.

In the same sense, a 10mm bolts is called a 10mm bolt. It's not a .3937" bolt.

It's just a matter of getting used to visualize a quantity or weight of something using metric measurements.

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But I have to mentally compute (by 5/8 for convenient reasonable approximation) to find out I'm actually only about 62 miles away! :)

What are standard building dimensions as compared to US? Here, framing is 16" OC so virtually all sheathing materials are 4' x 8' which is both a convenient size for handling and works out evenly in both directions. The "tubafor" has evolved over the years from being a rough (green) sawn actual 2" x 4" through various finished sizes to the now familiar 1.5" x 3.5". Precut studs are made for base and top plates to end up w/ finished wall heights of 8' which accomodates 4' wallboard w/o trimming. I've never built anything outside the US but w/ all the trade between the two and general dimensions of buildings there certainly aren't far different than ours, I presume there's considerable overlap?

You Yanks are just too insular. It's time to join the rest of the world.

Mike

I just asked what actual dimensions were common... :(

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Seem to be doing fine as is, but thanks for asking, anyway... :)

Right, we're not insular, we buy everything from China. We let them figure the metric stuff and sell it back to us or ship them oil.

I really wish that were the case. Besides, why use a second rate measurement system when we could go with a better one. inches, feet yards rods miles (two kinds) and no easy conversions between any of them, while in metric you only have to worry about meters and factor them up or down by

You forgot fathom, chains, furlong, leagues.

And to be offended that the plural for two of those is the same as the singular.

There are 11 fathom in a surveyor's chain.

See? It's simple.

According to dpb :

It's a trick of proportion. We average twice as tall as you guys, so the building standards are based on entirely different numbers.

In reality, Canada has evolved to a situation somewhat short of where Europe is. All official weights and measures are MKS (metric), such as surveys, standards etc. Schools teach very little of FPS (Imperial aka "english"). The latest generation can pretty much entirely avoid FPS until they're in the construction industry.

Residential construction _itself_ is still using an unchanged system almost identical to yours. 2x4s, 8x2 sheets of construction plywood,

It may seem confusing, but in practise it isn't.

I grew up in FPS, and now I'm equally comfortable in both systems. [Except pascals. I hate pascals. They should use mm of mercury - that I can visualize - it's been around far longer than our metric "conversion".]

Given the education system, and another generation, only a few industries will be doing much in the way of FPS, and we'll arrive in a situation where we'll be viewing construction practise in the same way you should be viewing that idiotic penny nail measurement "standard".

According to Goedjn :

Not to mention 2.75 fathoms in a rod.

Naaaah. You're an hour away. Drive faster, you get there sooner; slower, later. Who cares about the distance?

Good valid points about what your are used to. The changeover, if it ever occurs, will not be painless of course but the pain won't last long. In a few years everyone except a few would be wondering why they fought it. England made the change and never looked back.

There would remain the problem of matching up metric with stuff built under the English system but it can be done (England for one).

Harry K

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I guess you didn't take the smiley at face value??? :)

But, strangely enough, some folks _do_ have a yen to know the distance---from my experience I hypothesis it tends to the folks in cities and areas which aren't amenable to straight-line navigation (such as the Eastern US w/ all the windy hills, etc.) that simply consider distances as time. Being in and from an area that is all laid off in sections, we navigate by section line and distances are what is the innate feeling. As my other post notes, it's a case of what one is familiar with, nothing else...

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That's what I recall the mantra being about the time my kids started school--as is typical in the US, however, being no widespread public "mandate", there was no way to get a universal acceptance and the movement floundered. Despite the (more-or-less) common language, there's a big difference between public/government dynamics in the US vis a vis England. I don't foresee a switch in common usage for a long time (TM). Even the campaigns for metric road signs (about as painless as it gets) are all gone afaict.

"Full fathom five my father lies, of his bones are coral made. . ." And the other one is furlong.

Pluralization of both with the 's' is correct.

Horse races are measured in furlongs:

If the speed of sound is 750 miles per hour, please translate that into furlongs per fortnight.

~2M furlongs/fortnight (FSF system was used as an example of what not to use as a system of units in college physics)