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Metric vs Imperial


Razors Edge

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Which is your choice?

Personally, I "think" in the classic imperial system of inches, feet, miles, pounds, but when I actually do technical stuff, metric seems to win out by a long shot.  Measuring stuff in metric seems more "exact", so when my tape measure or ruler has inches and cm/mm, if something doesn't line up exactly on the inch or half-inch, I end up using the metric length.  Same with weights where it just becomes easier to deal with the non-on-the-mark stuff using the easily manipulated metric system.

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For most Americans who still live in the imperial world, this question is a bit like asking "What tastes better, fried chicken or fried walrus penis?"  The overwhelming majority wiĺl say "fried chicken" without ever eating fried walrus penis and without knowing fwp actually tastes like a party in your mouth.

Having grown up through the imperial system and lived through us converting to metric, I can say the metric system is way simpler and makes more sense.  90% of my thoughts involving units of measure are done in metric.  Having said that, I still consider myself 6', 220lbs and never think 182cm, 100kg.  Also any measurement over a foot with a measuring tape I still use feet and inches.  My kitchen measuring items are still in cups, table and teaspoons.  I guess I am a measuring version of bisexual.

And for the record, fried walrus penis is just something I made up, and I have no idea what it would taste like.  That is my story and I am sticking to it

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18 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Measuring stuff in metric seems more "exact", so when my tape measure or ruler has inches and cm/mm, if something doesn't line up exactly on the inch or half-inch, I end us using the metric length.

Your problem is not the measuring system nor the device.  One system is not more or less accurate.  

Your problem is that you either missed a class due to illness in 3rd grade or you have a learning disability.

As my dad used to say, "You have to be smarter than the tool to be able to use it."  If he were alive today he would be happy to see another example of his wisdom being proven true.

 

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1 minute ago, Kzoo said:

Your problem is not the measuring system nor the device.  One system is not more or less accurate.  

Your problem is that you either missed a class due to illness in 3rd grade or you have a learning disability.

As my dad used to say, "You have to be smarter than the tool to be able to use it."  If he were alive today he would be happy to see another example of his wisdom being proven true.

 

It is not a matter of if it can be done, but which is easier.  If you have a board you need to cut into two even pieces, it is way easier to find your mark if the board is 180cm long than if it is 71 3/8 inches long.

Even someone who is resistant to change can see that.

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Imperial but my brain can calculate distance & speed in Km’s pretty easily.

Not sure why the Army did everything in Imperial except measure distance?  We marched in “Klicks”, but drove in MPH?  Really odd.

 When I helped that dude who wiped out on his mtn bike, I was talking to the 911 dispatcher trying to guide the paramedics who I could see but couldn’t see me.  I told the dispatcher to have them come back about 200 meters and they will see the trail... I then thought why’d I say meters?

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Metric.  All the industries I worked in for the last couple of decades since leaving P&W operated in metric.  For all I know, they do too.  Metric screws and nuts are much easier to understand and keep track of.  Multiplying by 10 is easier because I have (still) 10 of them on my hands.

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4 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

It is not a matter of if it can be done, but which is easier.  If you have a board you need to cut into two even pieces, it is way easier to find your mark if the board is 180cm long than if it is 71 3/8 inches long.

Even someone who is resistant to change can see that. 

Kzoo is a closet metric man.  Usually, the folks who stand up loudest against something are really just hiding something.  NTTIAWWT.

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22 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

It is not a matter of if it can be done, but which is easier.  If you have a board you need to cut into two even pieces, it is way easier to find your mark if the board is 180cm long than if it is 71 3/8 inches long.

Even someone who is resistant to change can see that.

Agreed.  But I still would have to measure once and cut twice.

And if someone can't divide 71-3/8 by 2 in their head then they shouldn't be doing any cutting.  

My counter-point to his point was that the system used in not more or less precise.  Maybe he doesn't know what those little marks between the inch marks are. 

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34 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

Agreed.  But I still would have to measure once and cut twice.

And if someone can't divide 71-3/8 by 2 in their head then they shouldn't be doing any cutting.  

My counter-point to his point was that the system used in not more or less precise.  Maybe he doesn't know what those little marks between the inch marks are. 

My method is even easier.  I like to teach life lessons.  Example, I divide 71-3/8 by two in my head and get 35-11/16 but my eyes are bad and I mark and cut at 35-9/16.  I hand the two pieces to my son, who needed the board cut into two exactly equal pieces and when he comes back to tell me they are not the same length, I tell him life is not fair and if you want something done right, do it yourself.

I then walk away smiling to myself.

Problem solved.

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6 minutes ago, jsharr said:

My method is even easier.  I like to teach life lessons.  Example, I divide 71-3/8 by two in my head and get 35-11/16 but my eyes are bad and I mark and cut at 35-9/16.  I hand the two pieces two my son, who needed the board cut into two exact pieces and when he comes back to tell me they are not the same length, I tell him life is not fair. and if you want something done right, do it yourself.

Problem solved.

But how do you halve 9.71 hands??? That's bloody and disgusting!

image.png.2e91430c5879a114fe005430ffe89e11.png

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As a chemist, I much prefer the metric system because it's so easy to move between weight, volume, and length and where the units are decimals so its easy to remember that 1 gram of water is one milliliter and 1 kg of water is 1 liter, etc.

It used to be said that the USA didn't go metric when even England did because our industry was tooled in imperial units.  That's not really the case anymore - every auto mechanic has to have sets of both and so do most of us with home rachet, box wrench, etc. sets and I wonder if sticking with it costs us in global trade.

For example, Caterpillar was using one inch thick steel plates for the floor of one of its vehicles, then switched to a Swedish company that made 25 mm thick plates, less than an inch's 25.4 mm, and Caterpillar saved 1.6% off both the cost of the plate and weight of the plate.  That was millions of savings for Caterpillar.

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In college, in the 70s, the U.S. was going to go metric "in the next few years". We had to do problems in both systems, not just get one answer then convert, one prob would be in Imperial the next in metric. It would get you used to seeing things in one system and then learning to expect answers within certain boundaries.

It helped a lot when I got immersed in metric while in SA.

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5 minutes ago, Chris... said:

I grew up with the imperial system. Then in 1975 they switched, while I was in high school. Then I moved here and had to switch back. ?

Your post reminded me that Imperial liquid measurements are different than US liquid measurements. An Imperial gallon is around 1.2 US gallons.  

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3 hours ago, Zephyr said:

For most Americans who still live in the imperial world, this question is a bit like asking "What tastes better, fried chicken or fried walrus penis?"  The overwhelming majority wiĺl say "fried chicken" without ever eating fried walrus penis and without knowing fwp actually tastes like a party in your mouth.

Having grown up through the imperial system and lived through us converting to metric, I can say the metric system is way simpler and makes more sense.  90% of my thoughts involving units of measure are done in metric.  Having said that, I still consider myself 6', 220lbs and never think 182cm, 100kg.  Also any measurement over a foot with a measuring tape I still use feet and inches.  My kitchen measuring items are still in cups, table and teaspoons.  I guess I am a measuring version of bisexual.

And for the record, fried walrus penis is just something I made up, and I have no idea what it would taste like.  That is my story and I am sticking to it

Do they still trust you with a gun?  :) 

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