I hate being "Metricated!....

[Hawkeye07]

I guess it's all about what you're raised with as to what you're comfortable using but I'm with the Fozz on this one. BUT I also agree with Matt that centi, milli whatever is a lot more precise as far as "communicating" measurements either orally or in writing unless you're talking "1000's of an inch" which is used in most aviation maintenance references on this side of the Atlantic. I've worn out a couple of micrometers doing aircraft structures work. Matter of fact the thickness of sheet and extruded aluminium used on aircraft is in 1000's of an inch, most common being 32 or 40 thousands of an inch (Boeing anyway).

1000's of inches.... ...!

Lots of inches!

.... ...!

I think you missed out the "th's", Hawk!

40 thousand[ths] of an inch!

A very thin inch!

For aluminium sheet we used; 14, 16, 18, 20, 22-gauge thickness.
(Cooking foil is really thin...Ideal for roast chickens, and Boeing Airframes!).

Paul.... ...!

I've got a feeling about gauges!.... ...!

You're correct Foz. My fingers have a speech impediment.

[H]

I primarily work with the 12" foot, the size shoe (12W) I now wear...
we were taught the metric system during the latter part of grade school but usually converted mm and cm to inches or fractions thereof; I remember that a meter is @ 39 inches.
The spedometers of my 1973 and 1976 Monte Carlos were marked with both miles and km; 60mi/hr was @ 100km/hr (the latter made a mile-a-minute seem a bit faster).
Mentioning this, I recall a vehicle passing us on the interstate highway and my grandmother (born in the 1890s) exclaiming, "He's going a mile a minute!"
"Gram, we're in a 70 mile-per-hour zone; a mile-a-minute is 60 miles-per-hour -- our buggies are a little faster than yours were."

[Webb]

I don't know how you buy petrol but here we buy gasoline in dollars per gallon (with the annoying 9/10¢ added to every gallon). I'd never be able to figure out Euros per liter. If I could work out the math I would be astounded to discover that European petrol costs twice as much as American gasoline. Various taxes raise the price of gasoline by 10% and no one says anything. If Exxon makes 1.5% on a gallon instead of the 1% it made last year all hell breaks loose.

They do that with food too - Euros per kilogram.

[Fozzer]

Fortunately for me (to understand) Americans still use Miles and Gallons, whereas we confuse ourselves with Miles and Litres, but Americans use Cubic Inches (cu in) for engine size, whereas we use Cubic Centimetres (cc), and I am forever trying to convert Harley Davidson cubic inch engines into cubic centimetres to actually understand their size!
..and to confuse me totally; while Americans use Imperial, we use a confusing mixture of Imperial and Metric, and Australians and New Zealanders have gone completely over to Metric......apart from their engine sizes!!
I can put up with that, but my head always hurts with; "Cubic Inch Engines", although Inch sizes for the bore and the stroke is easy to visualise!

Its a funny old do, but no one seems to be altogether happy with the measurement system, (whatever it is), as it stands... ...!

Firing up my 50mm bore, 50mm stroke, 98 cubic centimetres, single cylinder, 2-stroke engine, for a trip to the Supermarket, to buy some petrol, in silly, confusing litres!
(Recently fitted some mm tyres onto my inch diameter wheels).
Fortunately..the milk there is still in Pints!.... ...!

I wonder if Confucius ever got confused?.... ...!

Paul... .... ...!

[PhantomTweak]

We might even be forced to drive/ride on the wrong side on the road!... ...!

You already do drive on the wrong side!
I understand the history behind the two ways, though, with the British sticking with the old "right hand (sword hand) facing approaching enemies (strangers=enemies in their minds)", and our newer way, with it's "to heck with Britain and all things British!" ways, driving on the opposite side of the road, using dollars and cents vs pounds and pence, etc etc.

Fortunately..the milk there is still in Pints!.... ...!

Me, I much prefer to get my milk the old way, by the cup. You know, B-cup, C-cup, and the famous D-cup, and so on. Now to me, THAT is the way to get my milk, and no fresher is to be had!
I'll just say a big THANK YOU to Mama Nature, and let it go at that

Over-all, myself, personally, I got inoculated into the metrics for longer distances (Shooting from the 500 meter line, hiking 10 kilometers, etc etc) in the Corps, so I tend to stick to it, doing fast-n-dirty conversions in my pea-brain when required, but it's caliber in inches (.223, .30-06, .303, .50 etc ) and above that for some odd reason, they went to MM (20mm, 30mm, 105mm etc). They mixed and matched as it suited them and as their suppliers required. I'm still a gallon, pints and so on type of guy again, upbringing did it to me. Nothing to do for it now, too set in my few neurons left.
I will certainly acknowledge the metric system makes much more sense being Base 10, like our normal math, but heck, having to learn Binary, Octal, Hex and so on for computer work kinda blew that for me. I just use the system required, whether Rod-n-Chains, fathoms or furlongs. Just whatever is required by the "customer" as it were.
Great days and fair winds to all! (whether it's in MPH or KPH!)
Pat☺

[Fozzer]

The Treaty of Paris, (1783) changed the rules to make Americans independent of Great Britain and drive on the right-hand side of the road, (just to be awkward), whereas we Brits, (on the right side of the Atlantic Ocean), retained the right to continue to drive on the left-hand side of the road as we have done since the time of our good Queen Boadicea in her conflict with the Romans.
(The diameter of the wheels on her Chariot were measured in inches....and the blades on the wheel hubs were very sharp. The surviving Romans were very short in stature from the knees upwards).

Paul...supping a nice cup of hot Boston Tea!..... ... ...!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_%281783%29

[brando5450]

Being born in the late 90s I should really be using the metric system but I just can't use it all the time. I use feet and inches for measurement and degrees Celsius for temperature. But then I use litre for amounts of liquid and KG for weight. I'm a strange guy when it comes to my measurement systems. Maybe I should get my head checked!

[Anthindelahunt]

I'm the same brando.Maybe Dublin did it to us.

How are things in dear old Dublin these days?

Anthin.

[H]

We might even be forced to drive/ride on the wrong side on the road!... ...!

You already do drive on the wrong side!
I understand the history behind the two ways, though, with the British sticking with the old "right hand (sword hand) facing approaching enemies (strangers=enemies in their minds)..."

Which means our militia had to face them on the same side of the road to stop their advance
-- so we've been on the right side ever since...

[musicflyer2]

I don't know about the rest of you but I am currently in an Algebra-Based physics course and doing things in Metric is SOOOOO much simpler then using US units. http://www.convert-me.com/en/metric_conversions.html

The table at the bottom of the link shows just how easy it is to convert in the metric system. You are literally just adding zeroes to one of the decimal point or the other. This is not so with US units. Freezing is 32 degrees? 1 foot is 12 inches? Or 1 mile is 5,280 ft? While one could easily figure out how to find the amount of inches in a mile using those numbers (simply multiply 12 x 5280 = 63,360 inches)...why would one want to? Especially when all one has to do is shift the whole number a few digits to right and/or the left to solve the problem if one is using Metric (granted it would probably be cm to km or something along those lines). Now the only time I've ever been asked to do something remotely like that has been on a test...so probably no real life application with that example (seriously, who designs modern day College tests?! haha). But the point remains the same.

Also, I am currently a student of Aircraft Mechanics and like an earlier post said, when trying to measure a piece of aluminum to a size so thin it's almost to small for the caliper to pick up, using metric is a life saver.

While I am quite familiar with US units and use them on a regular everyday basis, after spending some time in maintenance school, I do see how Metric really is the easier system to use (never thought I'd say that)

Anyways, just my two cents.

Happy Easter Everyone!

[Webb]

Let me know when you land 12 men on the moon using the metric system.

[musicflyer2]

Let me know when you land 12 men on the moon using the metric system.

It could be much worse. We could all be using Kelvin

If it's 0 Kelvin...

Yes, Nasa put 12 men on the moon. Something that we as a Nation can always stand tall and proud for.

This kind of reminded me of something. We are having this discussion about Metric/US units. The above picture is a perfect example of this (and a quite funny way to put an end to this argument unless one is extremely quick witted )

Think of all the contests we have on Earth. Seriously, think about it. I think it was Armstrong who said something like when he got back into the Command Module he could see Earth out the window and he could blot out the planet with his thumb (same thing we do here on earth with the moon). He said that instead of it giving him a feeling of great power, it left him feeling very small and weak.

Just remember that we can have all the discussions we want down here and get nowhere (even if they are all in good fun like this one) but once we "Slip the surly bonds of Earth" all of the sudden it all seems somewhat mundane...kinda like two ants talking about which one is stronger while standing at the base of a mountain. A mountain that is of course 8,848 Meters tall



Hope you all eat some Easter food!

[H]

...once we "Slip the surly bonds of Earth" all of the sudden it all seems somewhat mundane ...kinda like two ants talking about which one is stronger while standing at the base of a mountain ... mountain that is, of course, 8,848 Meters tall.

That would be 9,676 in our back yards, plus @ 10-29/64 inches...

Passed on to us via Greeks and Romans, the length of one foot was supposedly from the length of a particular man's foot st the time; measuring and counting was (sometimes, yet is) often done by the use of body parts (many things were done by hand or foot back in ancient times). Although now often fractured into decimals, inches have been traditionally divided into fractions; we may note that adult humans see things from the perspective of an inch (the approximate size of their eyeball)... thus, those in Canada, parts of the U.K. and the U.S. (especially the elder) tend to resist being decimated... although the reaction may vary greatly when medicated dosages are metricated...

[expat]

Fortunately for me (to understand) Americans still use Miles and Gallons, whereas we confuse ourselves with Miles and Litres, but Americans use Cubic Inches (cu in) for engine size, whereas we use Cubic Centimetres (cc), and I am forever trying to convert Harley Davidson cubic inch engines into cubic centimetres to actually understand their size!
..and to confuse me totally; while Americans use Imperial, we use a confusing mixture of Imperial and Metric, and Australians and New Zealanders have gone completely over to Metric......apart from their engine sizes!!
I can put up with that, but my head always hurts with; "Cubic Inch Engines", although Inch sizes for the bore and the stroke is easy to visualise!

Its a funny old do, but no one seems to be altogether happy with the measurement system, (whatever it is), as it stands... ...!

Firing up my 50mm bore, 50mm stroke, 98 cubic centimetres, single cylinder, 2-stroke engine, for a trip to the Supermarket, to buy some petrol, in silly, confusing litres!
(Recently fitted some mm tyres onto my inch diameter wheels).
Fortunately..the milk there is still in Pints!.... ...!

I wonder if Confucius ever got confused?.... ...!

Paul... .... ...!

Don't forget to add Paul, the American gallon in smaller than the UK gallon. So it is Miles per small gallon as opposed to our miles per gallon...........

Matt

[Hawkeye07]

Big deal! We spent BILLIONS of dollars to land 12 guys on the Moon BUT THEY LEFT THE DAMN CAR !!!!

I'll bet that by the time we get back there the batteries will be shot. But the good news is there shouldn't be any rust.

Hmm... I wonder if NASA has a meteor rider on their insurance policy?