World Metrology Day

[RONALD]

http://www.worldmetrologyday.org/

[Steggy]

http://www.worldmetrologyday.org/

I hope the website...ah...measures up!

[pete]

Hmmmf, guess I'll have to forgo the street partys and general mayhem of that celebration since it's only for and about the meter. Canaduh may be a metric country but them there meaters and millimumeaters don't get across my property line. I'm not sure if the metric button on any of the digitals even works.

And yes I do know metric is an easier, better system once you retrain your thinking and visualization processes. But wot was good enough for the industrial revolution is good enough for me.

[RSG]

LOL, I live in Canada and even I don't use it. Sure I know it since it's used heavily at work but other than that my shop is a metric-free zone LOL

[SteveHGraham]

I am in tears. My costume didn't arrive in time, and I'm out $300.

[pete]

It's pretty funny to read the comments section on Youtube videos when anything pops up about metric/imperial and how many in other countrys think America and the other 2 ??? countrys in the world that aren't metric are thought of as being fools and morons. Anything built for the U.S. military is to metric measurement, trade goods that are metric dimensions are made and shipped all over the world as well. My guess is American industry is pretty much metric anyway. I'm not sure you can even buy a CNC machine tool that doesn't have metric ball screws and nuts. Daily life by average people in the real world in those countrys are still using pounds, gallons, feet, yards. But American manufacturing is likely just as metric as any other country is. And all those metric only countrys still produce at least some imperial sized hardware just as replacements for all the older imperial sized equipment that's still in use in there own countrys. You can still buy Whitworth and imperial bolts and nuts in the U.K. if you needed them. 16" centers and 4' x 8' plywood is almost used world wide as a building standard. Even those metric only countrys still use it except it's in non round number metric dimensions. They did make the damn plywood thinner though so that was metric.

Exact physical measurements are still only a mathematical concept anyway. There's no such thing in the physical world that's "exactly" an inch, foot, meter if your measurements are accurate enough. Since I'm pretty sure the meter is now measured as a fraction of the speed of light which is supposed to be a constant and a real huge number then how much of a fudge factor is in it's "exact" speed? Measurement standards only work because enough people and countrys agreed on the definition of what the terms mean. You could still build anything you wanted if your measureing equipment and tools were calibrated in parts of a furlong, cubit, league, bushel, hogshead etc. with a conversion to how they compared to an imperial or metric measurement. Metric is always pointed out as being far simpler to do basic simple additions subtractions etc because it's based on a unit of 10 and not 12 like the imperial foot. Ok that's true, but decimal inches like we use are still a unit of 10 so in that way there's no real difference there. Besides that, they taught me imperial back in school and I'm just way too stubborn to change now.

[Steggy]

And yes I do know metric is an easier, better system...

That's what the SI crowd wants you to believe. Any system of measurement that is understood by its users is a good system.

[tornitore45]

Too much has been discussed about metric versus imperial already but can't resist adding to it.
I came from a metric only country and own an imperial lathe and mill. I am extremely comfortable with both systems and appreciate the different merits of each, my adult life imperialization was 100 times easier than learning English. I have a stock of metric and imperial fasteners and matching taps and dies. Regardless of what the drawing call for I pick the closest fastener that match style and length be it metric or imperial.
I make model engines so nobody has anything to say about fasteners choice. If I have to single point it and have a choice then is an imperial thread so I can use the lathe tread dial.

[SteveHGraham]

What conceivable merit does the imperial system have, apart from making people really good at fractions?

[pete]

I do much the same Mauro. Tool making and model engines are where my interests are. Unfortunately I own a mix of older American and newer Asian made machine tools but there feed and leadscrews are all imperial. Only the machines fasteners are metric. So there's no choice but to have both imperial and metric taps, dies and hand tools. The normal 115 pc set of imperial sized drills works more than well enough for any metric thread I've done so far. One single system in either measurement would be a lot cheaper and sooner or later will happen world wide. Old model engineering drawings can be a real mix of thread types. Model engineers 40, 32, cycle thread of 26? tpi. Even some Whitworth can be found on the real old ones. If you know the threads major and minor diameters then a good imperial and metric thread chart is all that's needed to pick the nearest equivalent that you do have available and that works just fine. The constant pitch 40 tpi series is pretty handy for tool making when a measured movement has to be made for tool adjustment though.

[BadDog]

I wouldn't have a bit of problem with switching to metric, as long as everyone just got on with it. It's the bastardized mixed up world where you never know what to expect (particularly in the automotive world) that really ticks me off. It sure makes calculations easier, but when standard distance units jump from millimeter to meter, that makes some things just inconvenient to work with, or to visualize. And certain things just work better fractionally. It provides a more convenient incremental continuum, think about a common 1/64th drill index. Of course you can do the same thing with mm, but you wind up with some weird higher precision decimal values that don't visualize as well. Still, no harder than the common maths required to deal with imperial, but as others have said, you can also deal with higher precision decimal values and forget all about fractions, which just leaves the units conversions minor inconvenience. And for another benefit of Imperial, there are some pretty significant benefits, one in particular you should be very well aware of, which is generating threads on a lathe. There is nothing short of CNC that will make single point metric threading as convenient as imperial, though that is a niche concern (particularly in the modern CNC world).

Like I said earlier, I would be happy with either, but they (whoever "they" are) need to pick a freaking system and stick with it! What we have now is pretty much the worst possible option.

[Mr Ron]

At age 82, I'm not about to switch from imperial.