Imperial or Metric Measurements: Which is Best?

sequoia

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I've always wondered why we still use the Imperial system of unit measurement. I mean this system is seriously outdated and obsolete. And yet I continue to use Imperial even though it can be seriously painful. When you think about it, using the length of someone's foot as a standard is seriously primitive. And then the godawful fractions.

There was a movement in America to go metric about 40 years ago. It met with incredible resistance even though it was shown that metric has many advantages over Imperial.

I continue to use the damn system because that is what I was brought up with. Thanks Britain.

Check this out:

For the yard, the length of a pendulum beating seconds at the latitude of Greenwich at Mean Sea Level in vacuo was defined as 39.01393 inches. For the pound, the mass of a cubic inch of distilled water at an atmospheric pressure of 30 inches of mercury and a temperature of 62
 

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I like metric. Healthcare and foreign engine repair use it. Same with liquid measure.
 
I think and function in avoirdupois. Every time I run across metric specifications, I have to resort to a conversion table or app. I don't care what the rest of the world does, I'm sticking to the old way.
 
Imperial works fine if you have young eyes and are really good at fractions. Otherwise, metric is far superior. The divisions are much easier to see and the math is way easier. That said, when I get beyond the size of a guitar, I usually have to go back to Imperial.-Bob
 
I'll try it with the degree symbol changed to the word:


Canada supposedly went metric in the seventies and I am quite comfortable with temperature (Water freezes at 0degreesC and boils/vapourises at 100degreesC. Room temperature is about 20degreesC.)
Distance are in kilometers (or kilometres; both are acceptable) speed limits are k/h and gas is sold by the litre.
Food is sold by the gram or kilogram and milk, juice, pop (That's Canuck for "soda". If you order soda in Canada you'll get soda water.) by the litre.

I am still 6'1" and my weight (Never mind) is in pounds except at the doctor's.
Plywood and drywall are sold in 4' by 8' sheets. Wall studs are 2-by-4s and are installed at 16" centres.
Canucks still talk in inches and feet as well as centimetres and metres for shorter distances.

So after nearly 5 decades, we're only "partially metric".
 
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I'm imagining a conversation between the inventors of the Imperial System of Measurement:

-Let's make this distance, the width of my big toe be an "inch" and we can measure things with it.
-Great idea! Then for bigger distances we can put twelve of those together.
-Sure. Let's call it a "foot".
-Sounds like a plan, and for even longer distances we could put three foots together and call it a yard.
-Good, but let's call 'em "feet" instead of "foots".
-OK. What about really long distances?
-Well, we could put 5283 feet together and call it a "mile".
-That sounds too complicated. Let's round it off to 5280 feet.
-Good idea. That'd make it 1760 yards.
-Cool. Now what about liquid measure?
-. . .
 
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For everyday life I’ve always preferred Imperial dimensions, but for scientific calculations metric is a lot more manageable.

Over many centuries the Imperial system evolved from the world that humans found themselves in and its units relate to the human frame and day to day life in various ways. Fractions of a hole unit are sensible in that they are based on halving things and that's easy enough to physically do though sometimes the resultant maths is easier in metric.

Metric is a soulless system based on arbitrary quantities that have no relationship to humans but instead to the planet we live on. Yes, it works, but for me Imperial works better.
 
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Many years ago, I went into a big department store to buy some material. I didn't have much money on me, so I asked the clerk how much it would cost for two yards.

"We've switched to metric" was the reply.

"OK, two meters, then".

He frowned and chewed his pencil. "I'll have to work it out. It's priced at 55p per foot."

John Colter.
 
I'm quite happy using both. The only time I remember it being a pain was when I was a fabrication inspector and a young lad who was working with us asked me to double check a job he was working on, checking out the dimensions in metric it was a (Marine Boiler Drum) riddled with hundreds of holes where the steam tubes fit he showed me the drawings and all the dimensions looked odd all metric with decimal points like (304.8 cm) and (76.2 cm) or (101.6 mm) wich made it difficult to check just armed with a tape measure...Then it dawned on me what it was all about :( Some lazy draftsman in the drawing office instead of producing a newly designed drawing in metric,, he just took an old imperial drawing and sat there all day with a calculator converting imperial into metric,:( the original would have read (10 ft) (30 inch) (4 inch) once we knew that we just converted it back and used an imperial tape measure..the pic shows the fitters swaging the ends of the tubes into the holes to make a steam proof fit..I used to spend hours inside those drums... never thought i'd end up making ukuleles.
steam drum.jpgboiler 2.jpg
 
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Here in the UK, I grew up with imperial and then we went metric, so now I use both to some degree. A constant source of frustration to me though is when reading forum posts from members from across the pond, when they refer to thicknesses as being 0.080" for example. I can never get used to this, so I now have a conversion app on my phone. With metric I have a mental picture of what 2mm looks like.
 
Here in the UK, I grew up with imperial and then we went metric, so now I use both to some degree. A constant source of frustration to me though is when reading forum posts from members from across the pond, when they refer to thicknesses as being 0.080" for example. I can never get used to this, so I now have a conversion app on my phone. With metric I have a mental picture of what 2mm looks like.

Also from the UK and old enough to have grown up with imperial, I used to struggle with decimal inches too until I got myself an old Myford lathe. Now I've learnt that 1mm is 40 thou it's not so bad.
 
Also from the UK and old enough to have grown up with imperial, I used to struggle with decimal inches too until I got myself an old Myford lathe. Now I've learnt that 1mm is 40 thou it's not so bad.
Lathe ? Dibbs are you now making clarinets as well as playing em ?.....I have an old Myford as well.
 
I've owned 2 Triumph motorcycles over the years . Both were late 60's bikes. It used metric nuts and bolts , imperial , and Withworth?
Three different sizes , .... boy , I loved those bikes. Well worth the aggravation.
 
I never bumped into the issue with ukuleles (everyone seemed to express nut widths in millimeters, or maybe I was just lucky), but when I got into banjos, nearly every resource, luthier, or list of specs used imperial measurements. During my researches, I'd just keep a web site open with a conversion calculator. I found it difficult to make sense of 1-3/8", 1-1/4", 1-3/16", 1-9/32", 1-5/16", 1-1/8", etc and wasn't always able to tell which one was bigger, unless fractions were directly comparable (Yes, somewhere in the distant past, I was taught fractions in school, but it was a long time ago!), let alone mentally convert them to millimeters. When people use decimals instead of fractions, that is already a big step up, though.
 
I agree. It is ridiculous. From what I've read, the reasons are largely financial. It would cost a lot to convert (although other countries have been able to pay the bill), and it would cost businesses money. Our government seems to exist to keep businesses happy.

I work a lot with tools - wrenches and sockets. I have to spend twice as much for them because I must buy both metric and imperial. I once took the bumper off a Buick, and there were equal numbers of metric and imperial-sized bolts. That makes sense?

When woodworking, it's often easier to use metric measuring because there are all those little mm lines evenly spaced. I have tapes with both measuring systems on them. If the United States was totally imperial, that would be fine, but it's thoroughly mixed.
 
I've owned 2 Triumph motorcycles over the years . Both were late 60's bikes. It used metric nuts and bolts , imperial , and Withworth?
Three different sizes , .... boy , I loved those bikes. Well worth the aggravation.

I had a couple of MG Ts and they used Whitworth - another set of tools I had to buy. ;)
 
Lathe ? Dibbs are you now making clarinets as well as playing em ?.....I have an old Myford as well.

Yup. But not modern ones.

clarinet.jpg

I've got 2 Myfords. An ML7 dating from 1949 and an ML8 wood turning lathe from the 60s.
 
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I'm imagining a conversation between the inventors of the Imperial System of Measurement:

-Let's make this distance, the width of my big toe be an "inch" and we can measure things with it.
-Great idea! Then for bigger distances we can put twelve of those together.
-Sure. Let's call it a "foot".
-Sounds like a plan, and for even longer distances we could put three foots together and call it a yard.
-Good, but let's call 'em "feet" instead of "foots".
-OK. What about really long distances?
-Well, we could put 5283 feet together and call it a "mile".
-That sounds too complicated. Let's round it off to 5280 feet.
-Good idea. That'd make it 1760 yards.
-Cool. Now what about liquid measure?
-. . .

And who decided a stone was 14 pounds?
 
Well at least the cubit went out of style shortly after the ark ran aground.
 
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