brandnewb
Going for serious. starting as newb
if you guys were not our only hope in NATO sense I would have dismissed this attitude.
But let's get one thing clear. I still love you guys.
Stronger yet I want to come to California soon for holiday.
measurement unit consensus.
- Thread starter brandnewb
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But let's get one thing clear. I still love you guys.
Stronger yet I want to come to California soon for holiday.
Don B. Cilly
Energetic energy padawan
650 million Americans (on two continents) have adopted it.
Compared to 350 million of the United States
What was your country called, again? Oh, it doesn't really have a name, does it? Oh well.
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This. Americans in technical jobs tend to use both. Sometimes it is convenient to be able to measure fractional lengths by halves, quarters, eighths, etc. Sometimes it is better to use decimals. Since most of my things are set up for inches I tend to use that. Sharing drawings with people can be easier if we all use metric. I do happen to own several 16R (1/32, 1/64, 1/50, 1/100 inch graduations) steel rulers, but I don't own any decent metric rulers. What's the point of owning a metric rule? Heck, my 0.001" dial caliper measures down to 25.4 micrometers, or actually a bit less if I care to interpolate the reading. If you need metric, I measure in inches and convert for you.
And we Americans are not the problem since we know both systems. Those of you who don't know the conversions could be the problem.
1 Inch = 25.4 mm by definition; presumably so one can use a 127 tooth gear to thread metric threads on a lathe with a fractional inch lead screw.
1 Pound (mass) = ~1/2.202 Kg. This is a bone of contention since a pound is force and a Kg is mass. This conversion only works with an assumed gravity value. Almost nobody wants to use Slugs unless they are actually dealing with mass. In that case, I bet they use metric.
1 Pound (force) = ~4.448 Newton. I will admit that most Americans have no idea what a Newton even is.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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Murika lol
timselectric
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They know what a Fig Newton is. lol
Let’s not get into things like Roots, Chains, Tons and Tonnes because it doesn't really matter what we use as long as we make it plain to everyone else. We are all smart people aren’t we and have a our friend Google to help us convert if need be.
and have a our friend Google to help us convert if need be.
brandnewb
Going for serious. starting as newb
almost though as I what made me start this thread in the first place is that I as someone from the wong side of the pond, pitching in with my thoughts, ran into conversion issues with all well intended suggestsiont in weird units.
So once again I am not saying. I am just saying
Metric does sound more scientific does it? or perhaps I am missing some of the fine print?
Please gang I am not disrespecting anoone. If fact it was not without American help I could have gotten this far. I am only trying to liven up the debate. Which seems to be working.
@brandnewb I'm really confused about what you are trying to achieve with your posts. This is a forum about DIY solar. Most of the time that means talking about watts, volts, and amps. Both sides of the pond use those same units. So for the vast majority of posts we are all talking the same units.
Sometimes there are questions about wire size. You can't just expect everyone to use mm² wire sizes. People need to use the wire sizes available to them. No one in the USA is going to go to any store and find metric sized wire. It's all AWG (american wire gauge).
Sometimes people need to talk about the length of a wire. Again, people should use their locale's customary units. As long as people are clear it doesn't matter whether they talk in feet or meters.
I've answered many questions on this forum. If the OP asks about things using metric units then I answer in metric units. If the OP asks using AWG and feet then I answer in AWG and feet. Simple. If a metric user comes across a post talking in AWG and feet then it's trivial to find conversion charts.
Any attempt to get everyone to only post in metric is pointless. We live in a world with lots of measurement systems. We use a forum where people are from different places that use different systems. New users are not going to magically know that wherever they live and no matter what units they prefer, they have to post only in metric. And there's no reason they should.
Sometimes there are questions about wire size. You can't just expect everyone to use mm² wire sizes. People need to use the wire sizes available to them. No one in the USA is going to go to any store and find metric sized wire. It's all AWG (american wire gauge).
Sometimes people need to talk about the length of a wire. Again, people should use their locale's customary units. As long as people are clear it doesn't matter whether they talk in feet or meters.
I've answered many questions on this forum. If the OP asks about things using metric units then I answer in metric units. If the OP asks using AWG and feet then I answer in AWG and feet. Simple. If a metric user comes across a post talking in AWG and feet then it's trivial to find conversion charts.
Any attempt to get everyone to only post in metric is pointless. We live in a world with lots of measurement systems. We use a forum where people are from different places that use different systems. New users are not going to magically know that wherever they live and no matter what units they prefer, they have to post only in metric. And there's no reason they should.
As a private pilot in the USA it was odd doing weather briefings with temperatures in Celsius but cloud heights and altitudes in feet. And distances are in nautical miles. It must be even stranger for pilots in every other country to have to use feet for altitudes (even flight levels are just abbreviated altitudes in feet).
But as a glider pilot I'm used to using vertical speed in feet per minute, altitudes in feet, distances in statute miles, and speed in miles per hour. I've flown in a few other countries and I had to switch everything. Vertical speed is meters per second, altitude in meters, distance in kilometers, and speed in kilometers per hour. We don't talk with ATC while flying in uncontrolled airspace so there is no need for common units like pilots in powered aircraft talking with ATC.
Ozark Tinkering
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I learned metrics as a teen buying Mexican weed and driving on the streets of Mexicali. That made it easy to pick up a metric wrench and work on a datsun when I turned wrenches at the dealership. Then I built a Toyota car plant in Indiana and all the prints were metric. I thanked my early teen education on the street for being able to use metric prints to layout the conveyor lines. The contractor did have to replace my 6' folding rule though for a metric folding rule. Now that I'm building reusable rockets for NASA my metrics education is still right there with me. The skin of the booster and upper stage averages 4mm in thickness. We're shooting for 3mm.
Ozark Tinkering
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Do you fly straight up or straight down most often, in your glider?
Ozark Tinkering
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Well they tried anyway.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
I actually asked this of Kyle Hill one time and as a general layman's reference it's about the amount of torque on your shoulder if you're holding a full cup of coffee at arms reach.
Not extremely scientific but it is a good reference like the finger-inch and forearm-foot and 1litre of soda being a kilo and so on.
I just need to calculate out how many Fig Newtons are in a Newton at arms reach as they get closer to my mouth.
In other news, Chains, Shots, Fathoms, Leagues are all nautical measurements.
Don B. Cilly
Energetic energy padawan
Actually, the nautical mile is the only measure of distance which makes sense geographically ;·)
The French should have made the metre 1.852 metres - it would also be very close to a fathom - easy enough to adjust the litre and gram accordingly... but then :·)
That said, I do agree that this forum being mainly about electricity, metric or imperial is rather irrelevant.
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Ozark Tinkering
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My first Journeyman couldn't read a tape measure any closer than a 1/4". Anything in between the quarter marks he'd count as itty bitty marks. Like... 3 itty bitty marks past 1/2". That was a real pain in the butt. He had just recently learned that he could see the back of his head with 2 mirrors once he began to let that 70s barber style his hair instead of keeping it in a forever summer cut.
They are doing percentage angle instead of percentage grade?! Wow, that is silly. Not many roads go due vertical...Back when I was young and lived in the UK the road signs to denote a hill were expressed as a ratio i.e. 1:5 and we all understood what they meant. Now the trend is to nominate the steepness as a percentage of the angle from horizontal to vertical i.e. 15%. Why anyone would want to make it more complex for those that have enough issues grasping the steepness of an incline I have no idea. I can‘t imagine many drivers relating to a sign that indicates a hill as a percentage of 90 degrees
Ozark Tinkering
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3 would be close enough for my first journeyman.
He must have had very big hands. I'm about 5 shakas to a meter.
Ozark Tinkering
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U.S. Interstate System has used % of grade since Eisenhower and he did pretty much win the war.
Chains are a surveying measurement. 80 chain to a statute mile. 4 Rods to a chain, and 100 links to a chain (about 8 inches each link).
So 5280 feet per mile / 80 chain = 66 feet per chain.
66 feet per chain / 4 rods = 16.5 feet per rod.
What has always bugged me is that a square mile is 6,400 square chain, yet a square mile has 640 acres. They missed an opportunity to make acres easy to count. I guess you could always use square chain divided by ten to get acres.
By the way, even our great metric neighbor to the north (Canada) uses rods as a measure on their canoe trail portages, since one rod is very close to a common canoe length (you know, ~5.03 meters).
Horsefly
Solar Wizard
I just go through driving around Ireland and Northern Ireland (U.K.) for almost two weeks. This discussion touches on something that was really notable in our experience.
We spent most of our time driving in Ireland. The distances were in km, the speeds were in km/hr, and the speedometer of our car (rented in Dublin) was in km/hr. Most importantly, the speed limit signs were a black number inside a red circle on a white background. The speed limits in Ireland had nothing to do with the safe speed for the rode you were on (a subject for a different discussion), but I could get my head around it.
About 9 days into our drive we crossed the border from Ireland into Northern Ireland. There was no marked border (that we noticed), and virtually nothing changed. Of note, the speed limit signs were black numbers inside a red circle on a white background. Just like in Ireland. So we just kept going for several hours, but noticed that everyone - and I mean everyone - was flying past us. Some even gave us dirty looks like we were driving way too slow, even though I knew we were just a bit over what was marked as the speed limit.
Then we took a break for fuel and I decided I should look something up. The signs may be exactly the same in Ireland and Northern Ireland, but in Ireland they are km/hr and in Northern Ireland they are in Miles/hr. WHAT?! So it seems that the U.K. went most of the way towards metric and then sometime in the 70's just gave up. So the miles as a distance and miles per hour as a speed stuck. The fact that neither Ireland nor the U.K. put any units on their signs is completely stupid, but so be it.
We spent most of our time driving in Ireland. The distances were in km, the speeds were in km/hr, and the speedometer of our car (rented in Dublin) was in km/hr. Most importantly, the speed limit signs were a black number inside a red circle on a white background. The speed limits in Ireland had nothing to do with the safe speed for the rode you were on (a subject for a different discussion), but I could get my head around it.
About 9 days into our drive we crossed the border from Ireland into Northern Ireland. There was no marked border (that we noticed), and virtually nothing changed. Of note, the speed limit signs were black numbers inside a red circle on a white background. Just like in Ireland. So we just kept going for several hours, but noticed that everyone - and I mean everyone - was flying past us. Some even gave us dirty looks like we were driving way too slow, even though I knew we were just a bit over what was marked as the speed limit.
Then we took a break for fuel and I decided I should look something up. The signs may be exactly the same in Ireland and Northern Ireland, but in Ireland they are km/hr and in Northern Ireland they are in Miles/hr. WHAT?! So it seems that the U.K. went most of the way towards metric and then sometime in the 70's just gave up. So the miles as a distance and miles per hour as a speed stuck. The fact that neither Ireland nor the U.K. put any units on their signs is completely stupid, but so be it.
Don B. Cilly
Energetic energy padawan
Yes, they still use miles (for roads) and pints (for drinks) in Britain. But then, they don't really need converting or dividing much.
Anything that needs simple conversions, like litres for big volumes (of, like, water) or square metres and the like, they use metric.
Pints and miles are quaint and harmless enough ;·)
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Anything that needs simple conversions, like litres for big volumes (of, like, water) or square metres and the like, they use metric.
Pints and miles are quaint and harmless enough ;·)
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