Metric on tape measures

[geoff]

In message , nightjar writes

Feet are seldom the same size ...

[geoff]

That's the problem innit, cm are a useful size for many things encountered in real life situations (added for the pedants there)

[The Medway Handyman]

nightjar

Two different foot rules were found aboard

And where would we be with too many rules....

[Dave]

Dave

[Steve Walker]

I'll mix and match, I'll quite often measure sheet material in mm one way and inches the other if they happen to fall on memorable numbers (typically

10s and 5s for mm, 1/8 or 1/4 for inch).

For measuring structures or people, I prefer imperial - I can visualise things in feet and inches much better than metric, although I was tought in metric and have used mainly metric in my job. The most common imperial measurements are just so easy to visualise - a foot and a yard both working on a human scale, a pound being a reasonable measure for food. Metric units seem all to be either on too large or small a scale.

The silliest imperial unit I have ever seen was for a process where small amounts were produced at a rate determined by a torque applied. The unit for relating the torque to the rate was the foot/pound per pennyweight fortnight!

SteveW

[Mike Barnes]

Yes, for instance furniture dimensions. Cms are just right.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

I was taught that strictly speaking, it should be 1.520m As you hit the thousand mark you go up to the next descriptor unit. cms are a unit of convenience I find handy, and of course it's common for building timbers and engineering bits'nbobs to be expressed in mms, ie

1520mm, so not much attention is paid to doing it properly - which is fine as long as everybody's on the same page.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

"I have twelve inches..."

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember John Rumm saying something like:

When the speed limits over here went metric all the pedants came out of the woodwork insisting in it being km/h. I'm happy to note the common useage of kph, even though it's really referring to kilos per hour :)

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Mike Barnes saying something like:

I can quite happily visualise a packing box or object size in cms, which is fairly ordinary now.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "michael adams" saying something like:

You just couldn't keep it up, could you?

[Roger Chapman]

Under ISO metric the prefixes hecto, deca, deci and centi should be avoided wherever possible and as centimetres can always be avoided as a unit then, strictly speaking, they should never be used. :-)

As to quoting to three decimal places ISTR I was taught (possibly back in the golden days before ISO metric was born) that the preciseness of a number is an indication of accuracy. A length given as 1.520m should be to the nearest mm. 1.52m OTOH should be to the nearest 5mm.

[dennis]

Shirley you mean 1m52 You don't want to miss the point.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Champ saying something like:

Architects living in hope?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "dennis@home" saying something like:

That's the new-fangled way of doing it.

[Steve Walker]

There was one on Grand Designs where the guy designed his own steelwork and oversaw the erection and it turned out to be to better than 5mm.

SteveW