The Breakroom > The Water Cooler
Measurement Terminology
AdeV:
India, South Africa.... they drive on the left. There's a list here: http://www.rhinocarhire.com/Car-Hire-Blog/August-2009/Which-Countries-Drive-on-the-Left,--a-Handy-Guide.aspx
When I went to secondary school in 1984, we were taught exclusively metric. However, the rest of the country still used largely imperial measures, so I'm basically of the bilingual age. When I'm making stuff, I'll often mix units through the build, so anything on the lathe gets measured and cut in imperial, anything on the CNC machine gets designed in French - er, metric.
When it comes to distances or speeds, I intuitively think in imperial (inches, feet, yards and miles), temperatures and weight in metric. e.g. when someone says he weighs 220lbs, I have to use a conversion calculator to work out if he's fat or not...
Pete W.:
--- Quote from: AdeV on June 24, 2017, 05:26:15 AM ---
SNIP
e.g. when someone says he weighs 220lbs, I have to use a conversion calculator to work out if he's fat or not...
--- End quote ---
vtsteam:
Schizophrenic here, too:
When building very small models I usually weigh them as I build them, in grams.
Larger models I switch to ounces.
Materials density for foam sheets of different brands, covering paper, and other things I use to build with, I compiled a whole spreadsheet for my own use calculating grams per square inch.
I still think of wing area in relative terms of square inches. That's probably because I know how much wing area a great number of models have in square inches -- dating back 50 years, so by comparison, if building something new that mental database is useful. And the square inch is a useful size to keep model wing area in the hundreds, so mental arithmetic feels easier to me when calculating.
I do mental conversions of mm to inches on plans (for approximate size glomming) by multiplying by 4, and moving the decimal point over 2 places. That I can do in a second or two.
I still use sixty seconds in the minute, 60 minutes in the hour, and 24 hours in the day......
Having admitted all the above, I absolutely do not want to defend the imperial system, or the metric system in one of those ten (or twelve!) to the 6th power online arguments about "which is better". I have many ancient Model Engineer magazines where metrication (or metrification) was fervently argued in reader mail, as well.
Me, I am quirky, and use whatever feels most comfortable, but wouldn't inflict that on another! :beer:
Mike E.:
"Imperial" is my first language in regard to measurement. I find it easier to think in inches, feet, and thousandths of an inch. It works just fine for my needs, and also, all of my manually operated shop equipment was designed to use Imperial measurements. I am ambidextrous, so I can work in metric if the need arises. As for other forms of measurement terminology, I'm still trying to figure out "how high is up" ? :scratch:
Spurry:
I think in imperial but try to only work in metric. A chippie (carpenter) I worked with at one time would use whole metres, and rest of measurement in inches, so for instance would measure a piece as being 4metres and 7 3/4 inches.
Pete
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