The Yanks do make things difficult for themselves and for me

[williamwright]

I'm designing something, using a template done by an American company. The template is calculated by them from data I supply. The design then has to fit the template. There are a lot of precise measurements. They are in inches, with metric measurements in brackets. Fractions of an inch are in decimals, for instance an eighth of an inch is given as

0.125". The conversions to metric are to centimetres and decimal fractions thereof, and these run to five decimal places. Some dimensions are arrived at by adding together smaller ones, and also by dividing some smaller ones. This gives strange fractions of an inch because of the data I supply, which of necessity can be not-round numbers. Here's an example:

12.86726" (32.68248cm)

It really is terribly cumbersome and confusing. How I wish it was all in mmm!

Bill

[TimW]

When I was working in historic buildings doing joinery obv the old stuff was done in inches. If you then for reasons of tooling or something had to add (or subtract) say three quarters of an inch and 6mm you ended up with a dimension that could never be expressed accurately in either system, couldn't be read off a tape measure or anything. Madness.

TW

[Richard]

Good grief! That's what gnat's whiskers and suchlike are there for. Just get on with it...

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

you can't beat Imperial......

[nightjar]

Except, of course, the Americans don't use Imperial measure. We introduced it after they broke away, which is why they still use the Queen Anne gallon.

[Nick Odell]

Mind you, they still have two alternative standards for the foot in the USA: one of which is only destined to be done away with in 2023.

Nick

[The Natural Philosopher]

Paywalled and covered in adverts that raise browser warnings

[John Rumm]

In firefox, hit page refresh, followed quickly by the "reader view" button, and it circumvents the paywall and any adverts. (may need to repeat once or twice)

[Andy Burns]

plasterboard is "metrified" at 1200x2400, but plywood/osb does vary 1220x2440 or

1220x2420

metric doors are available, but not very popular.

[Pamela]

Or paste the link in

[whisky-dave]

Count yourself lucky they don't use 5/16ths of a cm as a drill bit size.

[Chris Bacon]

They say "A pint's a pound the whole world 'round", which is codswallop.

Everyone knows "A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter".

Further to that, "a pint of pure sht weighs a pound and a bit".

HTH.

[Nick Odell]

...or browse with javascript turned off.

Nick

[S Viemeister]

Yes. And Imperial fluid ounces aren't quite the same as US fluid ounces. Close, though.

[Nick Odell]

Bugger! I had never realised before that the New York Times was just a front for one of those Russian malware outfits.

Nick

[fred]

Never mind them still using their version of imperial dimensions, wtf with four penny nails etc

[John Rumm]

Another that works on many paywalls (but not the NYT) is:

12ft.io/

(just pre-append that to the URL)

[Steve Walker]

You can buy imperial or metric plasterboard, even if metric is more common. For instance 2400mm plasterboard is too short for the 8' wide ceiling in my hallway, but 2440 fits. If I did not want skirtings, 8' boards also reach from floor to ceiling, while 2400mm boards don't.

Metric sizes are fine for new-build or extensions, but not so much for direct replacement or fitting into existing rooms of older houses.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

true true

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

that works thanks