Metric vs Imperial poll

[rlewis]

Metric, just in case we intend to land it on mars some day

[gonzo]

Re-reading "The War of The Worlds", I don't see any mention to Martians using the Metric system.

[FAST FRED]

I much prefer Knots and NM as they can be directly used on a chart.

Also much of the early marine writing is ALL in Knots and NM , so reading of past exploits is easier to visualize.

FAST FRED

[plain_sailing]

Immortal Metric

[fireball]

Why is everyone so hung up on using a set of units that offer no consistency for conversions. One kilogram weight 1000 grams, this to me seems to me obvious as does 1000mm is 1m.

The only thing that should be accepted when expressing units is the use of nautical miles and knots. I am sick of hearing that my tyre pressure should be 34 PSI!!

What is so good about inches and feet?? They seem to me to be just a force of habit and nothing else.

[Corpus Skipper]

am sick of hearing that my tyre pressure should be 34 PSI!!

Being told mine should be 2.3 bar makes no sense to me!

[mistral]

I waste a couple of month in my university career to learn how to manipulate inches, pounds, psi, feet and yards, and i'm convinced they're just a wreckage of the past!!! how can you deal with measures that didn't have a rational conversion factor ????? not to mention the two (or threee) different miles, Mph and knots, the fluid oz, solid oz......
a pressure unit like bar is related with atmospheric pressure (30 meters underwater 4 bar, easy....), I don't think psi is related to anything.....

Mistral

[asathor]

It is all very simple; look around you in the sailing and boating industry/sport/recreation arena and see how many thumbs the average boatowner and builder have, observe how easily they stick their foot in their mouth and how much trouble they have figuring out the money part.

Money these days are in metric and that is the root of the problem. A mesument system based on counting a fraction of your bodys appendages is too difficult - most people never learn fractions that well. And if you include bums, knockers, etc, men and woment don't even have the same count and to make matters worse the count sometimes change over time or even more or less instantaneusly.

Then again only the women seem to agree with the 12 inches to a foot but at least all men know that that is an arbitrary unit used on rulers and that real inches are much smaller.

Hopefully the designers and engineers master both and state the chosen units on the blueprints including an sample scale drawing of their inches.

[asathor]

It is all very simple; look around you in the sailing and boating industry/ sport/ recreation arena and see how many thumbs the average boatowner and builder have, observe how easily they stick their foot in their mouth and how much trouble they have figuring out the money part.

Money these days are in metric and that is the root of the problem. A measument system based on counting a fraction of your bodys appendages is too difficult - most people never learn fractions that well. And if you include bums, knockers, etc, men and woment don't even have the same count and to make matters worse the count sometimes change over time or even more or less instantaneusly.

Then again only the women seem to agree with the 12 inches to a foot but at least all men know that that is an arbitrary unit used on rulers and that real inches are much smaller.

I think the simplest way to shore up this flaw in an otherwise excellent and very intuitive measument system is to ask the designers and engineers to include a sample scale drawing of their inches on all blue prints.

[Corpus Skipper]

I don't think psi is related to anything.....

Ah.... but it is! 1 psi= 1 pound of force exerted upon 1 square inch. Easy! 2 bar just doesn't sound right to me, no picture comes to mind. But say 29.4 psi, and I can see, even feel my little dog standing on one foot on my leg or something (they always want to stand on you where it hurts the most, don't they?) It's all a matter of how you were brought up. Some on metric, some on imperial. Some speak English, some speak Portugese. To each his own says I!

Originally Posted by Corpus Skipper

To each his own says I!

Ah yes. I totally agree.
(I can accept other people have different ideas from me, just so long as they realise they are wrong)

Rob

[Wynand N]

It mystifies my mind how the yanks put a man on the moon with the imperial system.

Once we were also in the dark ages but luckily in the early 1960's we stepped into the light.

What is easier than the metric system. you just move the decimal.
1 kilometer = 1000meter (1.6 mile) 1meter =1000mm, or 100cm or 10dm

eg: 1200mm+64mm +3800mm = 5064mm or 5.064m or 50.64dm or 506.4cm

Try to add feet, inches, and fractions of inches this easy? No way

Same apply to mass: 1 ton = 1000kg. 1 kilogram (kg) = 1000gram (g)
Liquids: 1 liter = 1000ml, No gallons, pints and quarts to confuse you.

Except for the Americans, how many countries still steer the horse by the tail.

Lovies

Wynand

[gonzo]

We must remember the moon was built in feet and inches. It pre-dates the metric system

[MikeJohns]

These days with calculating machines its easy to work in any measurement system. The physical distance is absolute there nothing absolute about the measurement system.

With a boat I feel feet make more intuitive measurement for length beam and draft. But displacement is better in metric tonnes due the UK, US differing values leading to confusion.
I'd be lost without mm and the mm lends itself very well on boats to scantling thicknesses and reduces errors due to misreading fractions.

As for Nuatical miles and knots vs km/hr...how many detractors have actually navigated? the nautical mile is here to stay forever as a very sensible logical measurement.

How many adopt the new angle measurement (radian) that excel defaults to? How many can relate to a measurement that tends to give you meaningless fractions. I would think everyone here prefers 128 degrees to 2.234 radians. Confusion over angular measurement has led to several errors that I have witnessed over the years. Yet the radian is the sensible logical measurement.

Time mesaurement works in a relativley complicated sytem that we all grasp without trouble. So it is with inches feet and yards, they have been, and remain good intuitive measurements for many people in the world.

If you want to relate to the wealth in older knowledge bases you need to be conversant with most measurement systems.

Budding designers would be well advised to be able to design in either.

Now shall i have 14.326m or a 13.716m on the waterline .............?

[lakerunner]

Ok Metric it is...............don't buck the votes .........We all learn from it ......
can we start?