Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
Moderator: Harold_V
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
Hi people,
If my memory serves me right, it is either English or Americans who say: as easy as 1 2 3....which points to a metric idea rather, otherwise they might say as 1/64 1/32 1/16 1/4 then add and convert to a number that can be used in setting your lathe or mill. Try giving the above fractions to your 7 years old son and ask him to give you the length of the total....
I understand that people using inch graduated machines would have a problem with metric for practical reasons besides keeping in mind that old habits dye hard. However, going through the various opinions expressed in the thread, i read more than once the word gallon. I am sure you all know it but wish to remind you that in imperial system USA gallon is not "imperial " since the British (they had the empire) gallon is not the same as the American one. As far as the BA system, the English were smart enough to discard it since 1962 if i remember correctly. I write these lines not trying to prove something but simpl9y expressing some thoughts of mine.
Please excuse my possible mistakes but English is not my native language...
George
If my memory serves me right, it is either English or Americans who say: as easy as 1 2 3....which points to a metric idea rather, otherwise they might say as 1/64 1/32 1/16 1/4 then add and convert to a number that can be used in setting your lathe or mill. Try giving the above fractions to your 7 years old son and ask him to give you the length of the total....
I understand that people using inch graduated machines would have a problem with metric for practical reasons besides keeping in mind that old habits dye hard. However, going through the various opinions expressed in the thread, i read more than once the word gallon. I am sure you all know it but wish to remind you that in imperial system USA gallon is not "imperial " since the British (they had the empire) gallon is not the same as the American one. As far as the BA system, the English were smart enough to discard it since 1962 if i remember correctly. I write these lines not trying to prove something but simpl9y expressing some thoughts of mine.
Please excuse my possible mistakes but English is not my native language...
George
- liveaboard
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
I grew up and worked in the US; moved to India.
The workshops there use metric and imperial more or less equally; materials might come in either system, fasteners are available in both. I did some small projects there.
After working in Europe for 20 years, metric only, I hope never to return to inches.
The math is just horrendous in comparison; and this strange idea that imperial is easier to eyeball isn't true, at least for me.
And for machining; 0.1 1, 10, 100... millimeter become meters, divide, multiply, SO EASY. I'm dyslexic, this really makes a difference.
Pressures, weights, forget that newtons versus kilograms story too; in the real world, we just use kilos.
10,000 cc's to the cubic meter, which is a ton of water. I never want to see ounces, quarts, cubic feet, or gallons again. Makes my head hurt.
I also have doubt about the accepted notion here that metric threads strip easier; before leaving the US I was a car mechanic, and after leaving I've continued to work with many nuts and bolts.
I suspect that a disproportionate number of the metric fasteners you get in the US are low quality material attached to low quality imported manufactured goods.
I haven't been to China, but India was similar; fasteners were garbage. Unless you ask for good ones, which cost more. They have them. I bought lots.
I believe the problem is not the country of manufacture, or pitch of thread, but the demand for lower cost.
I haven't noticed any extra problem with quality metric fasteners [like we have here] stripping.
I'm not saying anyone should change anything; just that given the choice, I MUCH prefer metric. And I've lived, built and worked in both systems.
The workshops there use metric and imperial more or less equally; materials might come in either system, fasteners are available in both. I did some small projects there.
After working in Europe for 20 years, metric only, I hope never to return to inches.
The math is just horrendous in comparison; and this strange idea that imperial is easier to eyeball isn't true, at least for me.
And for machining; 0.1 1, 10, 100... millimeter become meters, divide, multiply, SO EASY. I'm dyslexic, this really makes a difference.
Pressures, weights, forget that newtons versus kilograms story too; in the real world, we just use kilos.
10,000 cc's to the cubic meter, which is a ton of water. I never want to see ounces, quarts, cubic feet, or gallons again. Makes my head hurt.
I also have doubt about the accepted notion here that metric threads strip easier; before leaving the US I was a car mechanic, and after leaving I've continued to work with many nuts and bolts.
I suspect that a disproportionate number of the metric fasteners you get in the US are low quality material attached to low quality imported manufactured goods.
I haven't been to China, but India was similar; fasteners were garbage. Unless you ask for good ones, which cost more. They have them. I bought lots.
I believe the problem is not the country of manufacture, or pitch of thread, but the demand for lower cost.
I haven't noticed any extra problem with quality metric fasteners [like we have here] stripping.
I'm not saying anyone should change anything; just that given the choice, I MUCH prefer metric. And I've lived, built and worked in both systems.
- Bill Shields
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
I moved out of the USA in 1974 and dove into a world that was a combination of both IMPERIAL / METRIC where I worked. This was a time when Detroit had imperial cars with METRIC stuff under the hood and mechanics had tool boxes full of both wrenches (I still do).
for years now I have been working with (almost exclusively) metric-think people (99% of the world), so my soggy old brain is now bi(dimensional).
I think in kilometers, look at things and think millimeters. Drives my wife crazy when I navigate and say 'about a click to go'....even my GPS is set up in kilometers.
Now...I look at a 4-40 bolt and immediately think 3 mm.
YES...I keep my metric taps in a very special, locked-up drawer - right next to m BA taps and dies because everything in my personal shop is still inches (drives me crazy trying to remember drill sizes that I used to know by heart).
the only time I convert is outside temperature, but I have to admit that degrees C is becoming more and more logical..but I admit that I still think in PSI and HORSE-POWER and never really knew what a kilo pascal was in the first place.
you should try writing a magazine article in imperial when you think in metric..makes proof reading dimensions and drawings somewhat....erratic.
some really crazy numbers have gotten by me the past few years.
the concept that metric threads are inherently less strong is totally off in outer space.
as said, junk hardware (imperial and metric) is a major problem in the world. Origin countries are self-evident.
any time I need something with KNOWN strength for hardware, I purchase something made in the USA from a known quality manufacturer.
for years now I have been working with (almost exclusively) metric-think people (99% of the world), so my soggy old brain is now bi(dimensional).
I think in kilometers, look at things and think millimeters. Drives my wife crazy when I navigate and say 'about a click to go'....even my GPS is set up in kilometers.
Now...I look at a 4-40 bolt and immediately think 3 mm.
YES...I keep my metric taps in a very special, locked-up drawer - right next to m BA taps and dies because everything in my personal shop is still inches (drives me crazy trying to remember drill sizes that I used to know by heart).
the only time I convert is outside temperature, but I have to admit that degrees C is becoming more and more logical..but I admit that I still think in PSI and HORSE-POWER and never really knew what a kilo pascal was in the first place.
you should try writing a magazine article in imperial when you think in metric..makes proof reading dimensions and drawings somewhat....erratic.
some really crazy numbers have gotten by me the past few years.
the concept that metric threads are inherently less strong is totally off in outer space.
as said, junk hardware (imperial and metric) is a major problem in the world. Origin countries are self-evident.
any time I need something with KNOWN strength for hardware, I purchase something made in the USA from a known quality manufacturer.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
- steamin10
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
Pie are round, cornbread are square. I have not used any geometry or algebra this week either. So I dont know exactly how many joules my 6 pounder gives the nail. I dunno how many Newtons on the meter when my stuck bolt looses its head.
I got to own several Jap bikes, and had the experience of getting bolts that refused to fit Land Rovers, and other European cars. Not to mention Domestic car makers using metric bolts salted on engines, with Imperial for most everything else. I did not enjoy the guessing game.
I worked in a bolt works, and watched the nightmare created by metric intrusion, into manufacturing. And I watched as my company began buying Japanese made common hardware bolts to supply the market in imperial (SAE). Two continuous rolling machines that were ordered from Italy, were sent back, as they had metric fasteners all through the works of the machine. Craziness. It was built to European standards, with 50 cycle motors and all.
When you enter the world of technology, you find its changes, and PSI becomes BAR, Cycles become Hertz, Rankin, Fahrenheit, or Celsius. They all tell the same tale, just speak differently for the purpose used. And, ya, I get a headache over this stuff. But better to ask and know, than be ignorant. Ignorance can be cured with knowledge, stupid, cannot.
I got to own several Jap bikes, and had the experience of getting bolts that refused to fit Land Rovers, and other European cars. Not to mention Domestic car makers using metric bolts salted on engines, with Imperial for most everything else. I did not enjoy the guessing game.
I worked in a bolt works, and watched the nightmare created by metric intrusion, into manufacturing. And I watched as my company began buying Japanese made common hardware bolts to supply the market in imperial (SAE). Two continuous rolling machines that were ordered from Italy, were sent back, as they had metric fasteners all through the works of the machine. Craziness. It was built to European standards, with 50 cycle motors and all.
When you enter the world of technology, you find its changes, and PSI becomes BAR, Cycles become Hertz, Rankin, Fahrenheit, or Celsius. They all tell the same tale, just speak differently for the purpose used. And, ya, I get a headache over this stuff. But better to ask and know, than be ignorant. Ignorance can be cured with knowledge, stupid, cannot.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
I sort of wonder if most people are aware that the Metric system has been an accepted legal standard in the United States for 150 years (as of the coming June 28th). The Metric Act of 1866 adopted and allowed (but did not mandate) metric units.
While I acknowledge the inherent advantages of the sub-units and interrelationship of SI, I don't see widespread adoption of it here until the items we commonly purchase and use come in even metric quantities and people "get used to it".
You can lead a horse...
While I acknowledge the inherent advantages of the sub-units and interrelationship of SI, I don't see widespread adoption of it here until the items we commonly purchase and use come in even metric quantities and people "get used to it".
You can lead a horse...
Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
You can lead a horse to water but You can't understand Metric for Him.
- warmstrong1955
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
Mmmmmm.......mcostello wrote:You can lead a horse to water but You can't understand Metric for Him.
You can lead a horse to water....but a rolling stone gathers no moss....?
No....that's not it....but could well be as stupid.....
We humans are creatures of habit.
Grew up thinkin' in inches....that's how ya think.
Think in milly-meters....that's how ya think.
One better than the other? I don't think so.
Who cares. It don't matter.
Results, the work, the product, that's all that matters.....
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
I'm afraid I have to agree. Not that the metric system isn't more convenient in some ways.warmstrong1955 wrote:One better than the other? I don't think so.
Who cares. It don't matter.
Results, the work, the product, that's all that matters.....
The harsh reality is, I have been exposed to both systems, especially volumes, for a long time. The metric units still mean very little to me, as I still have to compare to Imperial in order to gain a (mental) reference. Someone says liter, I think a large quart.
Anyone interested in getting rid of all their Imperial measuring instruments? I know I'm not.
I see no more need for the US to comply to the metric system than I see the balance of the non English speaking nations having to learn English. If they care to, fine. If they prefer not to, that's fine, too.
Bill and I march to the music we hear.
Harold
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
- tornitore45
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
I think metric versus imperial is just as pernicious as a religion discussion, for many IS a matter of religion and should be off limit on this board.
Last edited by tornitore45 on Thu Apr 07, 2016 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
in Austin TX
- SteveHGraham
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
That's why I brought it up.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
If you can't make parts to spec. in imperial units, I doubt that making the switch to metric will solve the problem!
Glenn
Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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Re: Why People Prefer Imperial to Metric
Numbers are just numbers.
I got a DRO, got calculator and got over it
I got a DRO, got calculator and got over it