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Metric or Imperial


Buckshot Bear

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18 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

I was in school in the '60s' when Australia changed, one day we were Imperial and the next Metric, but even 50+ years later after the metric change here in Australia TV's are still sold in inches, surfboards in inches, newborn babies are in Lbs and inches, jeans and belts are often in inches and lots of other things.

TVs are sold in inches worldwide. In my experience it’s not called inches but people know that a 50 is bigger than a 40.

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Although I had metric in high school, sixty-odd years ago, and the U.S. officially use metric for a lot of stuff, I still cannot think in metric!  I have to convert, sometimes roughly in my head. A meter is approximately 1.1 yards.  A kilometer (km) is 5.8 mile.  A kilogram is 2.2 lbs.  Beyond that, I have to go to conversion tables.  

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My wife and I have homes in the US and England.  I am starting to think in both systems.  Oddly, they still use miles and MPH on the roads, but cm and meters on tape measures, mostly.  Dual system thinking is harder than switching back and forth between driving on the right and driving on the left side of the road.

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2 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

 I still cannot think in metric!  I have to convert, sometimes roughly in my head. 

 

for some common bolts I have to remove when I break the belt on the Club's John Deere's mower I know I'm going to need  13 mm and 15 mm deep sockets. 

 

When I was riding my Honda Shadow I knew which bolt were 12 mm.

 

I also know what SAE sizes the Dillon SDB die heads are.

 

You learn what you work with/on 

 

 

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I am fluent in both.
My Loudspeaker design work is best done in Metric.
Construction projects in Imperial.

However, I will forever think in cubic inches.
"440" is SO much more impressive than "7 liter Interceptor" which sounds more like a shopping cart full of soda.
A long time ago, I slid one of those into my wife's grocery getter.
 

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The problem with metric is precisely its supposed 'logic'. English measurements (and Imperial) may not be logical, but they are much more natural.

 

A meter and a liter are OK. One is almost the same as a yard, and the other is sort of a big quart. For example, it's nice to get a liter bottle of whiskey.

 

But a kilogram is too big. A hungry man can eat a pound, but nobody really can eat 2.2 pounds. A kilometer is way too short; when you drive into Canada, and have to go in kilometers, it's like driving in molasses. It's just a puny thing, especially in a continental nation. Even the English still use miles.

 

A big problem is that there are no good intermediate measurements. A yard is ok, but there is no provision for a foot; a very natural measurement. A centimeter is way to short; a decimeter is incomprehensible. And don't even get started on grams-- nothing between a gram and a thousand of them. Very unsatisfactory.

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Metric is easier. We have this measurement, and the next measurement up is 10 times that, and the next measurement up is 10 times that. Simple. Unlike normal American measurement, where we have this measurement, and the next measurement up is 12 times that, and the next measurement up is three times that. Complicated.

 

I believe metric was invented for people that were too stupid to do fractions. I have no trouble with half an inch or a quarter inch or an eighth of an inch or a 16th or 32nd or even a 64th.

 

Let's convert. The inch is our normal measurement. There are approximately 25 mm in an inch. There are approximately two and a half centimeters in an inch. There is a quarter of a decimeter in an inch. Why? What's wrong with an inch? Do we need something smaller than an inch? Oh well certainly let's use the millimeter. How big is it? 1/25th of an inch. We don't use 1/25th of an inch. But we routinely use 1/16 and 1/32. That appears to bracket 1/25 very well. So tell me again why we need to use 1/25?

 

How big is that 1/25? 0.040. I have tools that measure down to 0.001. why would I need to use something that only goes down to 0.040? Oh I can go smaller? Yes I can. 0.004. That's a micro meter, right? Does anyone use that?

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3 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

I know one thing men don't want measured in centimetres. 

This statement really doesn't make sense to me. It appears to be talking about the wedding tackle. But since 6 inches is 15 centimeters, it seems that people who were worried about that type of thing would wish to be measured in centimeters.

 

Something I would not like to have measured in centimeters is my waistband. It's bad enough having a 40 inch waist. Don't want to have 100 centimeter waist.

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Just now, Subdeacon Joe said:

When people talk about the metric system being more logical I'll as them what is logical about using a system based on a mismeasurement of the distance from the equator to the north pole on a line running through Paris.

 

 .......... yeah, .... but I've got 10 thumbs and the system werks ......   :P

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I remember working on GM cars in the 70's and 80's. Go to the tool box and grab metric and Imperial wrenches because you never knew what they used. Some choice words were applied about making up their minds.

And oh yeah I have a 69 Camaro with a 427, not a 7 liter motor.

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