Are you metric or not? Why?

[8thsinner]

I use maily old fashoined measuring when I can, If I do need to be precise I use metric usually.

Metric measurements are a great thing, science is considerably easier to calculate in almost every equation.

We should however keep imperial and still teach it. It's a part of our history, humanities history.

We should not abondon it simply for convenience, for it's not convenient at all it's pure laziness.

just my opinion.

[Dags3777]

i LOVE metric, we have been totally metric for as long as i can remember... i cant get my head around pounds and oz, feet and inches..all the measurements are different....if i cant divide something by 10, 100 or 1000 if doesnt make sense to me. However for a whole country as big as yours to change now would be such a huge undertaking, but on the other hand, have different countries on different systems seems a little crazy too.

I'm with you leatheroo, best thing we did in OZ, only need 1 set of spanners, unless you drive a dinosaur or british / yank tank. (Sry)

Metric I find easy to use and I'm an oldie, because of it's 10's characteristics. But depending were you live this question will last forever. Darryl

[Vikti]

Metric is the devils' toy!!!

I honestly prefer points & picas. Spent most of my life measuring with them, 16 years in the printing industry. But I guess that the standard system works for me at work. But what other unit of measure will allow a pound of feathers to weigh more than a pound of gold. (Does anyone know why?)

Damon

[CitizenKate]

But what other unit of measure will allow a pound of feathers to weigh more than a pound of gold. (Does anyone know why?)

I didn't know before I read your post, but here's what I found from a Google search: Wiki Answers: Which weighs more, a pound of feathers, or a pound of gold?

Kate

[ferret]

Personaly I'm sticking with cubits. I can just about handle this new fangled imperial stuff, but life's too short to start learning new measurements every couple of millenia.

[Ian]

Personaly I'm sticking with cubits. I can just about handle this new fangled imperial stuff, but life's too short to start learning new measurements every couple of millenia.

[JohnD]

I use inches and lbs, just cause thats what I grew up with and is how I think. I can look at a nut or bolt and, usually, know what size wrench I need. I can pretty accurately guess ranges, distances and lengths so It makes my life easier to stick with it. I use the decimal system for accuracy, no less accurate than the metric system in my opinion. Plus, I'm used to it so its easier for me.

I thought The Ton was 100mph?

John

[tonyc1]

I use inches and lbs, just cause thats what I grew up with and is how I think. I can look at a nut or bolt and, usually, know what size wrench I need. I can pretty accurately guess ranges, distances and lengths so It makes my life easier to stick with it. I use the decimal system for accuracy, no less accurate than the metric system in my opinion. Plus, I'm used to it so its easier for me.

I thought The Ton was 100mph?

John

Or, it could be a 100 runs in cricket!

Tony.

[Denise]

Or, it could be a 100 runs in cricket

Cricket. Now that is something that is indecipherable!!

[David]

You got my head spinning Johanna....Did you ask for the square root of a Gregorian banana? Never was good at Chinese arithmatic.

Dave

[sniper]

I prefer real numbers, thank you very much! The only thing I can come up with in metric is 10 kilometers=~6 miles....but only after some mental gymnastics,and if it is an irregular number like 9, or 235...forget it!.

[sniper]

A Ton out here is 2240 pounds.Tony.Tina, I thought a Metric Ton would be a Tonne.Tony.

And a long ton is 2200 lbs. And a click is 1/4 inch at 100 yards, or some smdidgen below 100 meters... KIlograms, kilowatts, kilometers, gigaframmises, shakes...Will it never end???

[oldtimer]

I'm with you Roo, I LOVE my metric system that make sense all the way...

I try my best to adapt to the American "system" but it's not easy, everything's a mess and you actually have to learn each system one by one (weight, lenght, volume etc) Metric is sooo easy, just 1, 10, 100, 1000 on all types...And a metric ton is of course 1000kg :-)

I´m with you Tina ! I LOVE my metric system that make sense all the way...

Unfortunately it seems to be a Mission Impossible to convert all these stubborn Americans into metric !

Not to mention the advantage of metric threads - one logic system , no UNC, UNF ......

I must though admit ( it hurts ! ) that inch is a practical measure in saddlery and leatherwork for straps and buckles. It is much easier to remember 1/2", 3/4" .... than 13 mm , 19 mm and so on, but that is the end of the line! .

/ Knut

What a great topic!

Edited November 27, 2010 by oldtimer

[joquarter]

For me it is the Metric system, but I grow up with it .

If I have to order in inches , don't know how big ore small it is .

Got crazy from all the different sizes. foot , feet , inches and whatever.

Need to search on the internet to find out how long it is in mm.

The metric system is easy : 1km = 1000m

1m = 10 dm= 100cm =1000mm

It's a logic system .

In some old cooking books you have to use a spoon ore a cup , but witch cup ore spoon is the , right one?

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Inches here. Being a machinist I work in thousands of an inch. The shop I am working in now converts all of the metric prints to thousands, so we can make sense of them. You get used to working one way, and something different can be difficult to adapt to.

I have had to pass on some cookbooks I found because they were metric. I have cups, tbs, tbls ,oz in my kitchen, not grams, ml, kg.

Gold is in Troy oz.

Gunpowder is measured in Grains. 7,000 grains to a pound.

Land is in acres, and sections.

Surveyors use rods, and chains.

[gary]

I use metric because we have to since the UK agreed to become part of the European experiment. I think and use Imperial for almost all my leatherwork.

We buy litres of petrol (gas) but all our roadsigns are in miles and yards. I use miles per gallon but they try and sell us car performance at litres per 100 kilometres.

Don't hate Napoleon too much as he was the originator of riding on the right - something to do with reducing the number of sword fights from horseback I am led to believe.

My mother still mentally converts metric pounds and pence to imperial pounds, shillings and pence and nearly has a heart attack when she finds out how much something costs.

When I started nursing in the 70's we had only recently gone metric so many of the older doctors/nurses still thought and spoke and wrote in drachms and so on, so we had to learn to convert in our heads as all meds were in metric. Midwives still seem to talk about baby feeds in ounces rather than millilitres.

We've had hectares for years but everyone I know still speaks in acres and you can visualise an acre (well, I can), but a hectare?.

And metric quantities are still sold by the dozen.

And didn't the UK, at one time many years ago, want to be like Europe and drive on the right? That would have been very sporty!

Gary

[Nutty Saddler]

As the Aircraft industry is supposed to be the most advanced , you would think they would use the metric system as it is the most logical ...........

Aircraft engine thrust is measured in pounds , internal gas pressure systems are measured in Pounds per Square inch - or Bar, altimeters primary measurement is in feet , when re-filling a pilots breathing cylinder you re-fill it with cu.ft , the list is almost endless

When the space shuttle takes off ? don't they measure the takeoff weight in tonnes or pounds

To really confuse things there are two different gallons , a US gallon is 3.78 litres , an Imperial gallon is 4.54 litres - I can remember in the 80's a passanger flight ran out of fuel because someone on the ground got confused , I don't know the exact specifics but for example the ground crew were told to put 10,000 gallons( imperial or 45,400 litres) of fuel on the plane but instead they only put 10,000 US gallons on the plane ( 37,800 litres ) so the plane was 7,600 litres short and ran out of fuel - only the quick thinking pilot who happened to be an ex-military pilot and remembered where there was a disused airfield saved everyone onboard.

A ships speed is measured in Knotts , A horse race is measured in Furlongs ( in the UK ) , a horses height is measured in hands , a horse at auction is still sold in Guineas ...... confused yet

I personaly use imperial measurements for all my work - most everything is measured in 1/8 inch or multiples of that - though sometimes I do cut strips at 11/16 ( don't ask )

Edited November 28, 2010 by Nutty Saddler

[tonyc1]

I attempted to use Metric when the country swapped to metric but buggered up too many jobs, so went back to good old Imperial as I can picture so many cubic feet and not so many litres! Too old to chaange now. I must say it is hard to find wooden rulers in imperial these days. Horse rugs are sold in feet and inches and so are many other items. I'm comfortable and understand imperial so I'll stay with it now.

Tony.

[Nutty Saddler]

My bad - my memory isn't what it used to be .

The year was 1983 and a Canadian airlines 767 took off after having being re-fueled with 22,000 LBS of fuel instead of 22,000 KGS !

[gary]

And I've just remembered the military used both degrees and mils to describe an angle. 360 degrees = 6400 mils.

Everyone used degrees because it was easiest apart from the artillery who used mils.

Massive potential for confusion as an azimuth of 180 degrees (behind me) for indirect fire could be interpreted as 180 mils (almost in front of me).

Don't know if mils is a metric or scientific abberation.

Something to do with one mil angle at 1000 metres (or meters) measured 1 metre laterally.

[JLSleather]

It's only because both exist that there even is any confusion.

Wife is from New Zealand, and mostly uses "English", because the butcher would have us committed if we asked for 60 grams of sirloin. She's better at it than before, which is good cuz the speed limits are in "English".

I know that 6 mm = .234 inches. I always remember that because I spent 12 hours one night drilling out two dozen 1/4" cap screws that some genius forced into 6 mm holes in a hardened die block.

If we had JUST metric stuff, I wouldn't need to remember the conversion, So, go with just ONE ... and the one the rest of the world uses is metric. Should be easy enough ... me 'n' the kids LIKE the idea of going down the road at 100 (k).

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Ok, I am comfortable in both, I have worked as a draftsman, machinist, decorating engineer and seating engineer, hobbies in auto racing, sporterizing rifles, and saddle making in my life time. If I had my druthers, I'd druther stick to the sae measurement I grew up with in the 40's and 50's. Besides, that's just the way I think and am too damn old to change!

Bob

[oldtimer]

And I've just remembered the military used both degrees and mils to describe an angle. 360 degrees = 6400 mils.

Everyone used degrees because it was easiest apart from the artillery who used mils.

Massive potential for confusion as an azimuth of 180 degrees (behind me) for indirect fire could be interpreted as 180 mils (almost in front of me).

Don't know if mils is a metric or scientific abberation.

Something to do with one mil angle at 1000 metres (or meters) measured 1 metre laterally.

Correct ! But, in the Swedish Artillery we counted 6300 mils for a full circle.

/ Knut

Edited November 28, 2010 by oldtimer

[gary]

I think it's based on pi times 2000 for some reason (and then rounded-up).

[MikeCahill]

I have a random assortment of metric and imperial rules and straight edges and use both, if I start a job in metric, I stick with metric to the end, if imperial, ditto. one of the stories I remember was that British Waterways, a government agency that manages the canal system ordered as a rush job a pair of lock gates, from two of their workshops (one gate each) one gate was made in imperial, the other workshop only worked in metric, so all the dimensions were converted into both systems, I don't know which way round! surprise , surprise the gates didn't fit!