Metric vs Imperial poll

[Boston]

there is a great book called civilization one in which it is reveled that the metric system has actually been used for thousands of years
with most ancient measures being made in metric
thing is that with a minor understanding of pendulums and a knowledge of ones latitude it can be determined fairly easily with completely primitive tools what a meter is

the pint
divides into two cubic meters with an accuracy of 1/100000
Stonehenge
the Sarson stones when measured center to center are on a metric grid
and on and on

real interesting stuff
Ild recomend that book to anyone

best
B

[ancient kayaker]

It's the decimal system that's at the heart of the problem. If the metric proponents had the sense to change to an octal or hexadecimal system we would have all been computer literate years earlier. Dividing things by ten just because of the number of fingers and toes we have doesn't make a lot of sense. Repetitively dividing by 2 is a very practical thing to do and is at the heart of the binary arithmetic used by computers.

Binary doesn't lend itself well to adding columns of money expressed in decimals, however, so the tax collectors had their way. Decimal based systems aren't all that dominant historically speaking, 12-base and 20-base as reflected in the old British currency system were inherited from earlier cultures.

The British used to work comfortably to bases of 4 (farthings to a penny), 12 (pennies per shilling), 14 (pounds to a stone), 16 (ounces to the pound), 20 (shillings per pound) every day. Lets not even discuss their liquid measures. It may sound horrible but from schoolboy to grandmother they could all convert effortlessly from one system to another. Some of the currency elements were a riot of tourist-befuddling confusion: 12 pennies to the shilling, 24 to the florin, 30 to the half-crown, nobody ever saw a crown of course but there was a four-shilling piece just for the heck of it.

[Wynand N]

Fact of the matter is you cannot beat the metric system for simplicity and ease to use. What is easier than moving a decimal point left or right? Easy to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Basically, its like 1, 2, 3, 4....

The big question; I think only the USA still uses the prehistoric imperial system fulltime - now who would be correct - The imperialist Yankees or rest of the world metrics?

[Boston]

Gotta go with Wynand on that one Mr Yaker
the metric system is dam simple and nearly universal already
so to get that last hold out on board is just a mater of time

I think it was the Sumerians who used the base six system and its still with us today though
so no telling what will happen

[ancient kayaker]

Well, I'll do my bills in decimal and my boats in imperial, as nature intended

[DMacPherson]

Wynand:

Don't you find it a bit unseemly to damn the "prehistoric imperial system" yet you list your location in degrees and minutes? Tsk, Tsk...

Don MacPherson

[ancient kayaker]

Decades ago working on an ancient military system I noted that it was calibrated in milliradians - 64,000 to the circle. Not exactly 1/1000 of a radian but I thought it was a sensible unit for circular measure, but the scientist in me felt it was unseemly at the time.

[Boston]

I had to work in radians before
what a pain in the ass

it was in a calculation of gyroscopic energies based on mass speed ( measured in radians pr sec ) diameter bla bla bla

[Wynand N]

Originally Posted by DMacPherson

Wynand:

Don't you find it a bit unseemly to damn the "prehistoric imperial system" yet you list your location in degrees and minutes? Tsk, Tsk...

Don MacPherson

but not in feet and inches

[TeddyDiver]

As a carpenter I'm still using inches in timber dimension.. It's just convinient to say 2x4 insted of 98x48
Length however in (milli)metric.
But whats really weird are paper sizes like "letter" or "legal"

[Mikey]

Come on guys, 6.7 billion people in the world (6,700,000,000) and only US, Burma and Liberia still thinks 100 degrees is a hot day, the rest of us expects water to boil by then

306,177,706/6,772,087,814 = 0.0452. You 4.52% ever thought of feeling lonely?

It is time, it will take a couple of generations but it is time...

Mikey

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html

[Landlubber]

Mikey, forgive them mate, they are slow learners!

[murdomack]

Originally Posted by Wynand N

********, how can a measuring system bring about lower standard of workmanship Bad artisans always blame poor workmanship on the tools... Perhaps is is the punk generation that started during the 70' in the UK that bears fruit now

I may have been writing a little tonque in cheek, but it was very clear to me in my work that standards changed for the worse when the UK changed to the Metric system. There is no doubt that there are, and were, good and bad artisans in every generation and they are the same irrespective of the measuring system in use.

I remember one day in the mid seventies when everyone fitting out a pair of new boilers kept coming in to report that the exhausts, blowdowns etc, were all clashing with each other. After checking all the drawings and the fabrications and finding everything right, I was left with only one remaining reason that it could be, one or both of the boilers was welded down in the wrong spot.

It turned out that they were meant to be centred on 3500mm, but had been installed on 3050mm. Very close to 10ft, but I never found out if this was part of the reason.

When I arrived in my present job, a lot of the drawings were in ft & ins. Most of the lads we had were very smart, schooled by the Spannish, but had been trained by a French contractor, so our engineers used to change the dimensions into metric before they were issued to the shop. There were a lot of costly mistakes, mostly by the engineers making dyslexic errors in Metric, eg 5236 would become 5326. I had two ex-pat trainers, but they were Metric orientated as well, so I trained everyone, including the trainers, in fractions, decimals and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide staying with the dimensions given, Imperial or Metric, no converting. Applying their new knowledge directly to their work they were soon all fluent in both systems and the mistakes became a rarity.

Taking the two dimensions above in Ft & Ins we would get 17ft 2-9/64ins and 17 ft 5-11/16ins respectively. It's not impossible to make mistakes in Imperial, I've made a few myself, but you must admit it is a lot harder.

[Fanie]

I work with measurements that is from fractures of a mm to meters long. Using anything other than the metric system would have been a disater to say the very least.

********, how can a measuring system bring about lower standard of workmanship

It is very easy to see why a measuring system actually does bring about lower standards. The person working with it has to use more complex calculations to calculate answers, hence takes more time to acomplish and the risk of error is increased. Using the metric system calculations is a lot easier and can even be logic when a calculation is made to see if it is at fault or correct.

I see many of the US guys are beginning to use metric measurements which seems logical if the rest of the world is already there. Rather stupid to go on in one standard if your customer uses another. It's like speaking another language.

It's not a matter of being right for using one specific system, it's about what works the best and the easiest. Everything we do today revolves around time and money. It then is just common sense to use what offers the biggest advantage.

[Fanie]

Mikey, if it is announced officially that you are changing to the metric system it will be done so almost overnight. Many hands I mean minds make light work. If you do it alone... well it's gonna take a while