Metric vs Imperial poll

[masrapido]

Originally Posted by ancient kayaker

The Inuit people had a system for measuring based on the human body; a kayak for a specific task (hunting, exploring, beaching dead animals) would have its various measurements defined in this way, the width of the hips plus a the width of a fist might define the cockpit width for a particular type of boat tailored to a specific person, for example. Very practical for boat making using undimensioned material found lying on the beach, not very practical for trade.

Do you realise that "imperial" system is based on the body as well? inch is thumb, then the foot, and what is the measure based on the forearm's lenght...?

[capt vimes]

to all who are in the opinion that a metric ruler is not accurate enough...

1/16th for example is 1,5875 mm and thats quite easy to read from a m-ruler... it is also quite easily possible to read 0,5 mm from such a ruler and that would be less than 1/32nd inch...
some rulers even have 0,5 mm markers on them....

if you want or have to be more accurate and precise like in machinery or something there are calipers and gauges used..
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messschieber

with a caliper you are able to meassure in the 1/10th of mm quite accuratly (1/100th with the ones featuring a digital reading)... and no fussing around with 1/128th of an inch and stuff...

but i know that everybody is used to the units he learned to use... everything apart from it 'feels' weird...
and i am personally at a total loss when it comes to units for pressure, torque and such given in imperial...
i just have absolutely no 'feeling' for psi, lbs (i do not even know what that stands for... pound*second?), lbft and all of those calculated units because i was brought up using SI units like N/m² (Pa, bar) or Nm...
there i do have the biggest problem with imperial and the unlogical units for weight and distance in imperial is only the root of the whole thing...

[murdomack]

Originally Posted by capt vimes

to all who are in the opinion that a metric ruler is not accurate enough...

1/16th for example is 1,5875 mm and thats quite easy to read from a m-ruler... it is also quite easily possible to read 0,5 mm from such a ruler and that would be less than 1/32nd inch...
some rulers even have 0,5 mm markers on them....

if you want or have to be more accurate and precise like in machinery or something there are calipers and gauges used..
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messschieber

with a caliper you are able to meassure in the 1/100th of mm quite accuratly... and no fussing around with 1/128th of an inch and stuff...

but i know that everybody is used to the units he learned to use... everything apart from it 'feels' weird...
and i am personally at a total loss when it comes to units for pressure, torque and such given in imperial...
i just have absolutely no 'feeling' for psi, lbs (i do not even know what that stands for... pound*second?), lbft and all of those calculated units because i was brought up using SI units like N/m² (Pa, bar) or Nm...
there i do have the biggest problem with imperial and the unlogical units for weight and distance in imperial is only the root of the whole thing...

When I was a Fabrication apprentice many years ago, we were allowed to be no more than 1/32" out in any size. That was on welded work as well. The checker would ask to borrow your hammer and with a very short explanation start breaking loose the offending part. Today I see drawings and "standards" that allow 4mm. Whatever else Metric has done for us, it has certainly not maintained quality at the old Imperial Standard.

I am totally opposite your position, I dont really understand things like Newtons and Pascals. I know what they are but I have no feel for them like I have for Pounds. I know my pounds intimately, when I was a kid everything arrived at our house in either 56lb(1/2cwt), 112lb(cwt), 140 lbs(Bole) or 144lb(Gross) sacks. If I went to the shop and purchased anything, it was always Ozs, Lbs and Stones. We would usually be carrying home 1/2 a stone each of potatoes and oatmeal in tall brown paper bags. Bags of sweets were 4 ozs or a quarter pound. Packaged sugar came in 2 Lb bags.

When it comes to Pressure, I know that the atmosphere supports 30" Hg, or about 34 ft of water and that it is at about 14.7 psi. From this I can work out most of the things I need to know about pressures and vacuums, water collumn's, head of water, and so on. I can understand everything I am doing and I don't need to look anything up. Pascals mean nothing to me.

[Astute Boats]

Metric is the way... for boat builders here in Europe that is, even the straight edges lost the Inch graduations some time ago... working in 10ths of a mm is the norm. I like working with optical surveying levels to achieve this during the whole boat build.

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by masrapido

I find it funny how 'democrats' of all colours in those three underdeveloped countries still using that archaic and clumsy system, love calling it "imperial".

One would think metric would be perfect for 'democrats" to cut the ties with their empires.

The price of living in the stone age...

Which underdeveloped countries are democratic? I thought they all had "esteemed and beloved life-long leaders" by now.

[MikeJohns]

Originally Posted by murdomack

....... I dont really understand things like Newtons and Pascals. I know what they are but I have no feel for them ...

I'm equally happy with either system and tend to use whatever fits best for the things i'm doing. But for engineering the SI system is significantly more user friendly,and is actually very easy to work with and very logical.
It is a very good idea to get an understanding of the fundamental unit of force called after Isaac Newton

( Newton's work in the 1600's was on par with Einstein's for sheer deductive brilliance ).

The Newton(N) is close to the force experienced from holding a decent sized cooking apple on the Earths surface. It’s very easy to relate to.

One pound force is 'four and a half' Newtons (4.5N)


Material strength is given in Newtons per square millimeter otherwise known as megapascals (MPa)

Just to illustrate this
Consider how many apples (N) can I support with a mild steel wire 2mm in cross sectional area with a yield strength of 300 apples(N) per square millimeter ( or 300MPa yield ).
.After about 5 minutes of exposure the Newton becomes a real and useful unit which anyone can grasp.
And it’s really useful for working with apples

[capt vimes]

Originally Posted by MikeJohns

....Material strength is given in Newtons per square millimeter otherwise known as megapascals (MPa)...

thats also something i did not even think of since i don't know anything else...
how can someone work without knowing what those numbers actually mean - or do you have any other weird unit for material strength in your nutshell called imperial?

some other things..
in the electric world we have Volts and Ampere and everybody knows that Watt = V*A

now Watt is generally spoken the SI unit for power... where W = Joule/seconds
J = Nm... so W = Nm/s = VA

nowhere fits any lbft or something in...
i really do not know how someone can work in imperial... it would drive me mad... ;-)

[ancient kayaker]

I thought the Newton was a type of apple and the Pascal a type of pear that comes from France.

[rambo!]

I think murdomack gave the aswer..."both are just as good when you are use to it".

I can never remember IP-numbers, and my young colleagues has it all in their head. My excuse is, my brain was not programmed to store 12-digit numbers, I don´t have a map for that many columns and digits. It´s like going from the old area code and 5 to 6-digits into mobile 10+ digits in a row...no way I can remember such a number.

[ancient kayaker]

I shocked a cop a few years back. He wanted to see my driving licence which I discovered I had left home with my wallet. So I gave him the 15 digit number from memory, together with my name, address etc. He entered it into his little computer and was so amazed that it was correct he let me off with a warning. I suspect what shocked him was not the fact that I had memorized it as much as the thought that anyone would bother.

[Fanie]

So I gave him the 15 digit number from memory,

Thankfully it was a metric number. If it was an imperial combination...

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by Fanie

Thankfully it was a metric number. If it was an imperial combination...

There was also a letter or two. If it had been in miles-furlongs-chains-yards-feet-inches, guineas-pounds-crowns-shillings-pence-farthings or tons-hundredweight-stones-pounds-ounces it might have been easier to remember ...

[Fanie]

Actually I'm fascinated by the measurements the impurialists are using.

Who decided things like the 'stones' and inches. I bet it comes from before they had rulers or scales or units for that matter. I'm surprised they don't have sheep and cows and whales in it there somewhere.

Ok, how many guineas in a sheep or in a cow. How many in an elephant

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by Fanie

... Who decided things like the 'stones' and inches ...

Maybe the same folk that decided to use a poetry term to name the meter.

Originally Posted by Fanie

... how many guineas in a sheep or in a cow. How many in an elephant ...

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you

[hoytedow]

Originally Posted by Fanie

Actually I'm fascinated by the measurements the impurialists are using.

Who decided things like the 'stones' and inches. I bet it comes from before they had rulers or scales or units for that matter. I'm surprised they don't have sheep and cows and whales in it there somewhere.

Ok, how many guineas in a sheep or in a cow. How many in an elephant

I believe the Fahrenheit thermometer was based upon the imperialist dairy industry, where 0d F is the freezing point of milk and 100d F is the normal body temp of a cow. I believe those were the 2 most important temps to that industry at the time of the development of that scale. Stones may have been a military measurement for standardising the weight of projectiles for range calculations during the age of catapults and trebuchets.