It's only stupidly bizarre to those who didn't grow up with it. And it goes back to Rome or earlier, not to "some long dead English king".
It's not bizarre only if you grew up with it.
Perhaps I shoud have used a smiley?
Why should we change _anything_?
Are they the majority? If not then what right do they have to impose their system on the majority?
I think the yard as we know it dates back to Henry I of England. And I
*did* grow up with it. I'm kind of pissed about that. It is a stupid system, regardless of how I can relate to it.
It isn't bizarre... it's based on science. I should have grown up with it as opposed to having it as a sideline. The majority of manufacturing and packaging is done with metric... why is my country so stinking backwards it can't (or more accurately, won't) teach it (effectively) in schools?
Yes it's *my* country, but I really wonder about it sometimes.
Ed
They need to start arresting smugglers instead of just frowning at them.
It will happen over time when it becomes cost effective.
The mill I work for, produces hundreds of thousands of parts a day made from southern pine, the buyers dimensions and specs and final inspections are in millimeters and all the buyers reps use metric in any discussions.
It was far easier and cheaper to adopt metric measurements than constantly make conversions and add another place in the system for errors.
basilisk
Perhaps if the metric measurement were more widely used in th US we would see rules with finer graduations.
Uh, 9mm is just .38 caliber misspelled.
Because time and time again the cost of migrating has been shown to outweigh the benefits?
And just what do you use them for, Leon? Measuring freeze blocks and step stringers. I'm a machinist and seldom use them for measuring anything, certainly not 1/128".
You have no point. You just want to argue.
nb
On what "science" is it based? What research was conducted to show that the units selected for the Metric system were of greater utility than other units?
Interesting--on the one hand you say that the US is backward and doesn't teach it, but on the other, you say that it's used in the majority of manufacturing and packaging, so how _do_ the manufacturers and packagers figure it out?
In any case, I learned it in school and never really found a reason to use it in everyday life. It's just some silly system that some silly people made up.
OMG Leon. Everybody knows that .5mm = 1RCH.
Or at least now everybody knows.
yr hmbl numerologist, jo4hn
They actually use their brains to THINK, a simple function of higher animals that seems to be rapidly falling out of favor.
nb
I suspect none. However, it was invented by scientists who tried to come up with logical and practical standard units.
On the other hand, having used both it is much easier to carry out unit conversions with the metric system. Certain physical constants work out nicely in metric:
-a liter of water masses almost exactly 1kg
-the force due to gravity on earth of 1kg is very close to 10 newtons
-a 1 meter pendulum has a period of very close to 2 seconds
-standard atospheric pressure is very close to 100 kPa
-speed of light in vacuum is very close to 3x10^8 m/s
I do find it interesting that since 1893 the inch and pound are actually defined in terms of metric values. Thus, an inch is defined as 25.4mm, while the pound is defined as 0.45359237 kilogram.
Chris
Heh heh....
I almost got caught, too. Try googling for rch unit of measure. ;)
nb
I am sorry to have troubled you notbob. Clearly you shoud refrain from answering my questions as they seem to throw you into a tizzy.
In your dreams.
nb
What challenge? Found it on the first Google search page:
Nicely done! I'd have bet against finding one from anyone other than a lab supplier
Reason? Most people do not like this kind of change (nor the Obama kind.) Now we are stuck with two systems. Woodworkers are usually skilled in adding fractions.
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