Hmph. I suddenly realised that none of you, except for me, work in metric.
Sorry 'bout dat.
bye for now
tac [red-faced]
TAC,
Sheesh and here I thought this was going to be an April Fool’s prank :(… or is it? 
Terry A de C Foley said:Why the red (dragon?) face? I'm sure HJ knows a millimetre from a barleycorn, and I've been working in both metric and in/ft for ... well, longer than I care to think, from 00 up (and down) I use a metric rule for G baseboards/trestles, for example, because all commonly available G sectional track is in metric lengths and radii. Of course, I buy the lumber in nominal in/ft -- and the nominal planed dimensions are getting ever farther from the real ones. Canadian plywood is metric thickness these days, anyway; e.g. so-called "3/4-inch" is actually 17 or 18 mm, "1/2-inch" 11 or 12 mm -- which explains loose fits when you cut rabbets with your old router bits and slot new ply into them -- that'd be HJ's "throw fits" :( I've actually used a pica rule on occasion: 6 picas to an inch, 12 points in a pica -- quite useful for duodecimal scaling.
Hmph. I suddenly realised that none of you, except for me, work in metric. Sorry 'bout dat. tac [red-faced]
I recall when Canada started going metric, I was huffily informed by one of the newly knowledgeable that I should not refer to mass in “kilos” in casual conversation; it was kilograms, harrumph. My reply that all those Europeans had been getting it wrong for the previous century or so, then, merely elicited another supercilious sniff. Oh yes, and it’s kIlometres, not kilOmetres. I invited the newly know-it-all to stick it in his spEEdometer and Odometer.
My dear mama bought fabric in Rome in the '50s by “elli”, not metres (of course, they used a metre-stick, but the old term (ell, clothyard) had persisted.
Chris, What is a barleycorn??
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
TAC,Sheesh and here I thought this was going to be an April Fool’s prank :(… or is it?
No, it’s not a prank. I have much better things to do with my time than fart around doing three billion calculations. Just thort with at least one person on the forum changing scale from 7/8th to 1/20.3 that it might be useful, is all.
Anyone who wants it, send me an e-mail, or do your own. I really could care less.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Chris Vernell said:Mr Vernell, it's called embarassment at making a fool of myself on a public forum.Terry A de C Foley said:Why the red (dragon?) face?
tac [red-faced]
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Why do you think we don’t work in metric? I use it all the time. It’s a lot easier to calculate the center of a 200 mm part…as opposed to the center of one that is 7 7/8". Or if I want to divide another part into 4 pieces. Let’s see…100 mm…or 3 15/16"? Which should I choose?
Terry A de C Foley said:Can't say as I noticed any folly, unless I look in a mirror. Me green (dragon) face, for envy of that Garratt.Chris Vernell said:Mr Vernell, it's called embarassment at making a fool of myself on a public forum. tac Ottawa Valley GRSTerry A de C Foley said:Why the red (dragon?) face?
tac [red-faced]
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Chris, What is a barleycorn??
Wikipedia: Basic Anglo-Saxon unit, the length of a corn of barley. The unit survived after 1066, redefined as 1/3 inch.
OK, if anyone is interested, including those citizens of the US who work in metric in spite of
all the opposition to the use of the metric system, I have now finished the imperial version as well.
Re: The metrication of the USA - A study recommended that the United States implement a carefully planned transition to predominant use of the metric system over a ten-year period. Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 “to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric system in the United States.” The Act, however, did not require a ten-year conversion period. A process of voluntary conversion was initiated, and the U.S. Metric Board was established. The Board was charged with “devising and carrying out a broad program of planning, coordination, and public education, consistent with other national policy and interests, with the aim of implementing the policy set forth in this Act.” The efforts of the Metric Board were largely ignored by the American public, and in 1981, the Board reported to Congress that it lacked the clear Congressional mandate necessary to bring about national conversion. Due to this apparent ineffectiveness, and in a Reagan effort to reduce federal spending, the Metric Board was disestablished in the fall of 1982.
Congress included new encouragement for U.S. industrial metrication in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. This legislation amended the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 and designates the metric system as “the Preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce”. The legislation states that the Federal Government has a responsibility to assist industry, especially small business, as it voluntarily converts to the metric system of measurement.
Federal agencies were required by this legislation, with certain exceptions, to use the metric system in their procurement, grants and other business-related activities by the end of 1992. While not mandating metric use in the private sector, the Federal Government has sought to serve as a catalyst in the metric conversion of the country’s trade, industry, and commerce. Exceptions were allowed for the highway and construction industries. The Department of Transportation was planning to require metric units by 2000, but this plan was canceled by the 1998 highway bill TEA21. Use in the U.S. military is generally high, due, in part, to the need to work with other nations’ militaries.
Some members of Congress attempted to ban use of the metric system on federal highways in 1992 and 1993. However, these anti-metric bills were not met with much enthusiasm by the House and failed without a vote at the time. Despite this, the National Highway System Designation Act passed in 1995 and prohibited the use of Federal-aid highway funds to convert existing signs or purchase new signs with metric units.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS, and bi-lingual in imperial and metric since age 4.
Don’t work in metric, or fractions. But I do work in decimals.
That’s sorta metric, ain’t it?
jb
John Bouck said:Yes John,
Don't work in metric, or fractions. But I do work in decimals. That's sorta metric, ain't it? :) :) jb
At least it doesn’t leave you fractured!
I don’t care what system we use, I just wish it would be consistant. American cars are a “Croc” to work on. Half the hardware is metric and half is US standard. One never knows what tool to grab because the two uses can be side by side. Our lumber is sized to metric and called by it’s old standards…and nothing fits. I ship stuff that has the shipping weight printed right on the container…in kg, but UPS recognizes lbs…
It’s a mess. I put the blame for the mess square on our congresses lap.
I work in medicine. The Fahrenheit scale was originally devised, so I am told, so that the “normal” temperature for a healthy adult human, in good health (I guess that I said that, didn’t I?) would be 100.0 degrees F, and H2O would freeze solid at 0 degrees F. Over the years, sluggish thyroid glands have dragged down the normal to 98.4 degrees F. If you have a constant oral temp of 97.5 degrees F on 3 occasions, separated by 3 hours, that is prima fascia evidence of hypothyroidism. Anything below that and you are in some trouble of one sort or another.
I have no idea where I am going with this. Perhaps if I keep typing, it will come to me… Damn Ambien, takes away my ability to think. It is a communist plot of the first water! Got to stay focused.
SO, now that I have a gestalt, I “grok” what 98.6 F is. When someone tells me that the patients body temp is 37.4 degrees C, I do not even have a clue. I have to take a look at the chart. This is called an advance in medicine.
Hogwash, Balderdash and poppycock. And other sorts of foolishness.
Generally, what I find at least as useful is to put the back of my hand on the forehead. If the forehead is warm/hot, I can predict that there is a fever and that measures need to be taken to reduce the fever. If the patients skin is hot and dry when the back of the hand is placed on the forehead, that is usually a medical emergency and must be dealt with expeditiously. Get him in an ice bath, a tub filled with ice, leaving the feet, legs and arms out. The cooled blood needs some place cool to go without causing a shock
If the skin is cool and clammy, we will deal with that in another class
After all that, I still don’t know what 37.6 Degrees C means, nor what I should do about it.
Tac ,
I have had your very useful conversion charts forwarded to me . They are well done , and my son Martyn is taking my (and his) copies to work to encapsulate them in plastic --metric of course .
I personally use metric , imperial , and the little known “metrinch” especially when selecting spanners from a tool box . See the post about correct tool usage in the General Section posts .
Much used companions to the "metrinch " are the “baht right” and the "Iss’l doo " . These are particularly useful when your only , say , 10mm has just fallen into the bottom of the engine bay , to be found later by the expedient of cross country driving , thus making it fall out .
Now I must add that "attl doo " to the list , thus nearly completing my list of tool standards .
Mike
Steve ,
Don’t you get sticky , working in medicine ?
Mike
I use the ‘Fitz’ system of wrenches, spanners sockets and so on…never having owned a British car or motorcycle, I don’t have a problem there.
Teeny railroad stuff here in UK, live steam especially, is either metric [Aster, Accucraft] or BA [home-built stuff]. Colour-coded boxes help me there.
I can sympathise with our US cousins - our first Mercedes-Benz ML350 was actually built in the USA, although our present one was not. My 380SL, a California car with all the emission control stuff on it, has a mix of SAE and metric on the plumbing, though.
Drives my M-B service guy bats.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
PS - anyone want a 7/8th scale table, while I’m in the mood and feeling at one with the universe?
OK - 7/8th scale tables available - some of you have them already, thanx to the wonders of electricity.
Going to bed now.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Thank you, Terry for the tables…most handy to have.
…and young fella; many more of us DO appreciate the time and effort it took to provide them, than you would know.
I soon changed over to the metric temperature scale, when I saw that “0C” was the freezing point. It was VERY easy to change over to. I just had to look at a thermometer and if it was above “0C” it was warm, and below “0C” it was cold…sure beats the old 32F idea…
As far as other measurements; I still fall back on my old Imperial measure, same with speed. But around here it’s easier to just convert over for speed as the signs are all in “Kilometer’s”
Mike Morgan said:
Steve , Don't you get sticky , working in medicine ?Mike
It’s better than working in chocolate, or manure. It’s a living.