The Breakroom > The Water Cooler
Measurement Terminology
joshagrady:
Being raised and educated in the US, but having spent essentially all of my adult life in Europe, I also switch back and forth without much problem. (The exception being temperature; as a more visceral measurement, I intuitively know that 95°f feels hot, but have to think about whether 35°c will make me sweat.)
One huge advantage I've found to the imperial system is that, when doing an installation on site, I don't have to worry about my imperial tape 'growing legs', whereas metric tapes disappear quickly if one isn't careful. Spaniards quickly learn not to ask to borrow my tape measure. :lol:
AdeV:
I'm currently reading a fascinating book called "Measuring America", by Andro Linklater. Seems one Thomas Jefferson (I imagine most Americans will know who he is without any introductions...), who spent considerable time in France and was tasked with reforming the USA's exceedingly haphazard and non-standardised Weights and Measures (and currency), proposed a decimal system of feet and inches (10 inches to the foot) based on a rod which, when suspended from one end and set swinging like a pendulum, would have a frequency of exactly 1/2Hz (i.e. 1 second to swing fully to one side, 1 second to swing back again).
I haven't got far enough through the book to find out what happened next, but I can recommend it to anyone who's interested in why the USA is divided up as it is, and how its measurement system came to be!
awemawson:
" Frequency of a pendulum is One over two pi times root L over G, so period is Two Pi times root L over G"
Amazing how things things pop back into your brain from physics lessons 50 years ago - the teaching then obviously worked :lol:
Biggles:
Like John B I am an old codger, schooling was Imperial and metrification came latter. I have no problems with Metric measurements except that I am easier thinking Imperial. I can picture a foot but I find it a little more difficult in picturing 300mm. :loco:
SwarfnStuff:
Guess what Biggles?
I see 300mm and think, "Foot" Likewise 150mm becomes 6" etc. It's just how I picture them in my mind, but happily go on to measure and machine in metric.
The real fun begins when I get imperial plans and set about multiplying everything by 25.4 to get mm, bolt / screw holes get changed to the nearest metric size as I don't posses imperial fasteners nor the taps / dies to form them. Then remember to adjust things for the minor differences, or forget to do so and confuse myself later.
Temperature stays metric, To be fair to Mr Fahrenheit, he at least knew that there were temperatures below freezing water.
John B
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