Metric vs Imperial poll

[Paul Kotzebue]

Originally Posted by MikeJohns

Structural requirements go up by the square of the span of a structural member. the structural side of things, floor joists beams lintels etc don't scale linearly. Iin otherwords if the dimensions were 3 times over the design then much of the structure would need to be be 9 times bigger for the same stresses. Otherwise it would have fallen down.

Not exactly. If the design pressure remains constant, the bending moment on the floor joists will increase by the cube of the scale factor (spacing x span^2). However, the section modulus of the joist will also increase by the cube of the scale factor (width x height^2), so it evens out.

[Boston]

that and the Fins have monstrous trees to play with
I dated a Fin at one point and ended up there on vacation
I saw a number of log cabins
the logs were enormous
the place is like a Walt Disney movie setting
even the ferns were over my head

ps
that girl could drink most drunks under the table and not even belch

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by Boston

that and the Fins have monstrous trees to play with

Had, being precise.. Nowadays those big logs are imported from Russia..
Once I were helping a friend to restore old house he bought.. floor boards were 4" x 10-14" and the beams 7" x 16". The oven and the chimney were built directly on the floor boards without any additional foundation. Some 3 to 4 tons of bricks and mortar..
It's funny after all metric and SI units etc the building industry is producing most materials as modul lengths. One modul being 300mm It would've been easier to remain feet..

[hoytedow]

I will try to refrain from putting my 304.8mm in mouth here, but I mostly use imperial, simply because it is most commonly used in U.S. Metric is not a bad system, though, and I am comfortable with it.

[wardd]

inches are better because they're bigger than mm or cm

[Boston]

thats right Wardd
when you told that girl in the bar 8 up and 8 around you didnt specify inches or millimeters
so she had no business being disappointed now did she

Teddy I didnt know you were in Finland
dam beautiful country mate
its been about twenty five years but wow
what beautiful place you have there
and a tremendous history to it as well
I have read numerous accounts of the Fins defense of there land in ww2
stopped the Russians cold and that just after beating the crap out of the Germans
hell they beat the Russians with stuff taken from the Germans
Anna ( my Fin friend ) and I always had some great conversations about our histories
both her people and mine were best not to piss off

[TeddyDiver]

Actually the Russians were stopped twice and then the Germans were thrown out..
For us fins they were three separate wars, winter 39-40 against the russians who were "kind of allied" with the germans.. All we had that time was sympathy from the west but germans and swedes stopped most of the arms coming to Finland.. My grandfather destroyed a russian tank with the last shot of this 120mm (japanese) navy cannon at Taipale.. Take a look at the pipe to know why it was the last shot

[TeddyDiver]

That was th first one.. Second war we were allied with Germany and tried take back what was ours.. after the treaty with the allies we had the third war against the germans who were still in Lappland..

[Boston]

nice crack in that barrel
must have been a hot round
although its also got a few pretty good dents in it
looks almost like some fool dropped it when they were moving it

ya the part that always impressed me was the "take back what was ours part"
if I remember that was a slow grind against the largest army by far Europe had ever seen
and a well equipped one as well
man dont screw with Finland
Im not even sure you folks produced any weapons at all
just used whatever you could get your hands on

the Iroquois did something similar
after the pequot massacre we allied with the french who provided arms as did the colonists
the english were out of there element in heavy woods and deep snow
were not able to form any effective defense to an intense gorilla type war
that
and the Iroquois immediately realized the benefit of the riffle
something new at the time
the Iroquois were not traditionalists and took on new technology probably faster than any other Indian tribe
the English and later the Americans discovered the difficulty in performing complex military maneuvers in such a diverse terrain
oh we were on the run a few times but always took back what was ours as well

I have a lot of respect for the Fins history
they didnt take anything that wasnt there's in the first place
and they beat the snot out of some of the largest players in the game

B

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by Boston

although its also got a few pretty good dents in it
looks almost like some fool dropped it when they were moving it

It were the russian artillery trying to drop that gun.. At worst they had some 100 shells/hour (nobody of you would believe what's the total amount if I reveald the number) towards this particular battery so they are mostly shrapnel hits..
Being not totally offtopic that gun was from the 1905 Russian-Japan war spoils (everybody knows Battle of Tsushima) and Japan was allready then metric anyway in navy cannons

[wardd]

contrary to popular belief Japanese arms of the time were not first rate

[hoytedow]

I think you served Molotov one hell of a cocktail.

[boat fan]

Originally Posted by kmartyr

haha. I wish we would though. It would make my life so much easier. It would probably make everyones lives easier.

Absolutely.

Nothing compares to the simplicity of units of ten.

Even the English abandoned that archaic "imperial "system decades ago...
and they " invented " it in the first place!

[TeddyDiver]

Quote from Wikipedia
"Evidence for Unit Measures
The best and clearest evidence is found on Egyptian ceremonial rulers where it is carved in stone and where even those not fluent in reading hieroglyphic writing can observe the mh or foot cubit glyph spanning 15 fingers (3 hands) and 16 fingers (four palms = 300 mm).

The ceremonial ruler identifies the foot cubit mh placed across 15 and 16 fingers allowing a foot to be measured in palms or hands the remen has the nibw glyph above 20 fingers.

5 palms = 1 remen = 375 mm
The Romans, whose uncia became the English inch, made their remen 15" or 381 mm. The Egyptian inch was the basis for the Romans' Uncia and English inch."

[hoytedow]

So the English DIDN'T invent the English system? Then they weren't stupid for inventing it, just stupid for borrowing it from the most succesful military empire in human history, who borrowed it from the Egyptians. Huh!
"My dog was dying inch by inch and I was taking it hard, so I took him out to the alley so he could die by the yard."