Metrication advocates are at it again

Millimeters, of course!

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

This is actually one of the biggest strengths of the metric system. Pi is exactly 3 when expressed in meters. No more irrational, to say nothing of transcendental, numbers at all in fact. If only Pythagoras had used the metric system instead of inches and feet, he wouldn't have despaired over sqrt(2) being inexpressible as the ratio of two numbers.

Avagadro's number would be 5.

Phooey. In '66 we adopted decimal currency ($/¢ as opposed to £/s/d) *not* the metric system per se.

Metrication (of other units and measures) didn't happen on a particular "date" - it progressed (initially from 1901!) from the establishment of the Metric Conversion Board in 1970 until its (the Board's) dissolution in 1988.

This is a function of "dressed all 'round" (DAR) versus sawn, and has 'nowt to do with metrication.

We call that "inflation". It was a function of the '70's - not of metric conversion.

Not true. Visit a large chain hardware store, with a decent stock turnover. At the Nuthouse (real name!) I frequent, metric nuts and bolts are the standard. Imperial are available, but are *not* cheaper - nor are they available in the same range. Country of origin has nothing to do with metrication.

Ummm... yes? The problem here is.... ?

There's 30 million of us. What, 260 million Americans? Guess who has the superior product range? (So we buy John Deeres. What of it?)

No-one in your household maybe. Granted, its taken 20 years, but slowly we (old timers) are getting used to it.

I was educated prior to the changeover, and still think in terms of feet and inches. ("This table is three feet wide.") However, when machining, its nothing to work automatically in millimetres. And guess what!? When I do drag out my 1" micrometer, (for nostalgic reasons only) it reads in decimal! Ain't no 1/16ths or 1/32nds or 1/64ths on that instrument!

My little nephew went to school post-metric. The changeover hadn't hit me until I heard him breathlessly exclaim: "I nearly caught him! He was only 2 metres away!" He thinks in metric. So do the majority now.

I've always thought it would have been easier if they'd just waited until all us old farts had just died off, *then* made the made the change to metric.

Jeff

"PhysicsGenius" wrote i

Someone is trying to be funny, but it isn't working.

Lane

Is that an Imperial gallon? I remembered that there were some failures with hinge pins of booms. After some redesign I gave the info to a draftsman. He asked me what tolerances to use for the bores and for the pins. I showed him that I had indicated a G7/h6 fit. He did not what that was. (This was 40 years ago). Even today that is still the case in many shops in the US or Canada. However even in Europe not everybody uses the metric system properly. There is the 'thousand' rule, e.g. for lengths use meters, kilometers. Or going the other way millimeters or micrometers. And not centimeters or decimeters. However the carpenters in Europe like to use centimeters. About 50 years ago a shipyard figured that pre installing piping in prefabricated sections would speed up the final asy. Needed were plugs to close the open pipes to keep dirt out. It was decided to try that out and from the local carpentry shop a few hundred wooden plugs were ordered of each common pipe size. It took weeks and still no plugs were coming. The carpenters said that the wood was ordered and that as soon as possible they would ship it to us. Finally a phone call: The plugs were ready and were being loaded on the trailers. ???. Yes, they had read the millimeter dimensions as centimeters and each resulting plug weighed 1000 times as much.

You're fighting a losing battle. :-)

It's already here, at least in ISO 9000 compliant shops. The mom and pop shops will all disappear anyway, to China, where they are more than happy to comply with metrics.

Yes, of course, that's it! It's socialistic elitist lunacy. Now why didn't I think of that? Abrasha

Maybe Mr. Lundberg's IQ tops out at 64.

Abrasha

They'll be happy enough to make stuff in Imperial too, if it please you, and provided your order has enough zeros at the end. Might cost a bit more than metric, or not, depending. Won't be less.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Why wouldn't it be less?

Spark plugs, yeah. The US ceramic industry didn't have anything that would stand up to internal combustion stresses, and the Europeans, who did, weren't interested in producing anything with an inch thread. By the time we'd caught up to them in ceramics, the auto industry had standardized on metric threaded plugs.

Now I did no someone who had a car that didn't use metric threaded plugs -- it was a Stanley.

Al Moore

Q: What do the United States, Burma and Upper Volta have in common? A: They are the three most technologically advanced nations not using the SI units.

The tank full of water would weigh 4 kilograms, if gasoline then 2.8 kilograms.

And the speed of light is "10" All answers are "23" or is it "46" ??

It's a metric country- stock, cutters, everything is metric. Most volume of fasteners etc. is in metric. Chances are it won't cost less to make, all other things being equal. That's been my experience in sourcing things like fasteners, anyhow. Custom parts won't matter much.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I think 12 inches in a foot is a great thing. 12 is a great number (divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6). Why aren't inches divided into 12ths also? 10 is a much easier number than 16 or 8 or 32. I vote for decimals, it just seems right to use 10ths. How many fingers do you have.

Eide

Oops, I realized who I was writing to. There might be a few out there who don't have 10 fingers anymore.

incremental

I thought it was 47

2. Consult the sources.

And the weight of maple surup?

Gunner

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"

Its a toss up. Either "42", or "shopping".

Gunner

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"