Any suggestions for HO gradient?

I know. I was just pulling his chain. :-)

I'll accept "English Language Flag" . :-)

-- Cheers.

Roger T. See the GER at: -

Ok, let us call it that :-))

The whole gauge/scale mess came about because commercial makers in the late 1800s/early 1900s didn't agree on scale ratios, and early authors who wrote handbooks for "model engineers", proposed scales that would be (relatively) easy to measure with ordinary rulers, at least to the limits of precision possible with hand tools. Henry Greenly was one such. Look him up. ;-)

HTH

wolf k.

Exactly so. Which is why ordinary non-scientific, non technical people get pretty exasperated with it. As this thread demonstrates. ;-)

Cheers, wolf k.

Wim van Bemmel wrote: [...]

You have small beer glasses...

Here a beer mug = 1 bottle, which vary bit by source, so a beer mug must hold about 400ml, to leave some room for the head.

Cheers!

wolf k.

Hey, Bob, welcome back!

And how dull Usenet would be without some nonsense once in a while? ;-)

Cheers!

wolf k.

Yes indeed. A full size glass beer in Holland is 0,25 l. The most used bottle size is 0,30 l. In France the most common size 'a demi' is 0,25 l too.

When was HO ever 3.5mm to 1'????

In the real world HO it is 1:87. In the US it's a rounded version of 3.5/304.8mm, according to the NMRA, which is neither 1:87 nor 3.5mm:1'. Only the Brit's are daft enough to muddle metric and imperial measurements in a single ratio. (the US only does that in programing NASA landers)

Regards, Greg.P. NZ

You use a lot more nonsensical dimensions than that! There's 'Thou's', 128ths, 64ths, 32nds, 16ths, 8ths, quarters, halves of an inch. There's links, rods, chains, yards, ... There's grains, carats, tons, US shortweight tons, tonnes and umpteen other weight measurements. Fluid ounces, US fluid ounces, pints, US pints, gallons, US gallons, hogsheads etc etc.

Each of those, including the hundreds of traditional measurements I haven't mentioned, have irrational conversion factors to many of the others. Just scaling a dimension like 15' 5 7/8" requires 2 conversions and two additions to get a dimension into a form where you can begin to apply a conversion factor.

Greg.P.

A problem there, is that the rest of the World doesn't know what your definitions are.

For example, your "55 gallon drum" appears to equate to an imperial "44 gallon drum" or a Metric "200 litre" drum (if such a thing exists) Who knows what your "quart", "fluid ounce" and "ton" equate to? As to all your other dimensions, who knows what your "standards" are? With Metric, at least we all know what is meant, because everyone has agreed.

Greg.P.

You don't use 3.5mm:1', go check your NMRA standards.

The Wright Flyer didn't come first. That's just a story for dumb yanks.

Regards, Greg.P. NZ

The instructions are written in German, so that won't help!

Greg.P. NZ

They think the liquid petrol they put in their cars is a gas so they're lost before they begin!

On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:15:41 +1300, Wolf K wrote:=

Why do you have difficulty in pronouncing "Kilometer"? I know you have difficulty with many words, eg "alu-min-ium", "veh-icle"= , =

"con-tribute" which you mangle into "alum-in-um", "ve-hicle" and "contra-bute" (some sort of architectural =

device for ennsuring walls fall down?)

If you need to add ingredients to your latest batch of wine it's handy t= o know the ratio between your hogshead or barrel and your fluid ounces. =

(Imperial? US?)

The seller and buyer need to agree on the quantities being offered - who= =

knows what US measurements equate to?

Err, US and imperial volumes are different.

Is that how big a US barrel is!?! (so wat quantity is a US gallon???)

containers of 40 or 53 feet,

53'??? Container ships are built with guides at 40' spacings, so that 10= ', =

20' 30' and 40' containers can be accomodated.

Yes and no. Speed of course is distance over time, speed in knots is =

distance over time multiplied by some conversion factor. (you're possibly thinking of aircraft where nautical miles, knots and fe= et =

are standardized) How many feet in a knot? (Vertical and horizontal speeds measured in =

different units, even though aircraft don't often fly level)

How many carats to the fluid ounce???

Regards, Greg.P.

That would be because you are used to visualizing objects in your particular dimensions.

Greg.P.

You obviously haven't tried the imperial system with it's huge variety of exasperating units!

Greg.P.

That's neither 3.5mm:1' nor 1:87.

Greg.P.

No! You have 5m of horizontal length and 100mm of rise. That's 5001mm (rounded) of track.

Greg.P.

Some railways measure one way, others the other. (the US seems consistant in using percentage, whereas the railways I model use "rise over distance") Of course, real railways can't easily measure along the flat baseboard, they have to measure along the hypotenuse of their theoretical triangle.

Greg.P.