The Metric System

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Garry in AZ

Garry in AZ

Building a 9 second Valiant
Joined
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I was reading another post about how we prefer to use cubic inches to describe our motors (me included) and it got me thinking...
I was born in the 50's, and I grew up in Canada. When I was in grade school, we used feet, miles, pounds, cubic inches, degrees Fahrenheit, etc. So that's what I learned first, got comfortable with, and it all still makes perfect sense. Then in the early 1970's, Canada converted to the metric system. Everyone bitched and moaned, we struggled with it for about 5 years, but the more we used it, the easier it was. Even my Dad... who was a stubborn, tough WWII vet, eventually came around to the benefits of the metric system, and more or less accepted it.
These days I work in an engineering field, so everything is in metric anyway. However, I still refer to lots of American made motors by their cubic inch displacement. Harleys too.

But, did you know that there are only 3 countries in the whole world who do not use the metric system? The United States, Liberia, and Myanmar. Everywhere else is metric. It's only a matter of time before we are too.
 
as a machinist by trade in Canada, I still deal with inches vs millimeters, and actually most of the engineers and consulting firms we deal with at work submit drawings to me in the shop in inches. I can quickly conceptualize a tolerance of .0002 as tight quicker than .005 mm, same a 16 or a 32 microinch surface finish, and so on. All of my measuring equipment is in imperial.

I guess it comes down to conception
 
I got the change in grade 7/8, so I have no problem with either system. It's all easy for me........except.......lumber! I will always work with 2X4's and 4X8 sheets of plywood!
 
There's officially metric in some countries where it is almost, but not quite, reality.
The Brits didn't give up selling petrol in both liters and gallons sometime after 1990..LOL
And the last time I was there, the motorways were still MPH.
You can be sure that beer will always be in Imperial Pints, to the mark!
and go ask a Brit how much they weigh...
 
300m Pro drag racing or 400m for Index Classes doesn't sound too awful bad. 3/10 or 4/10 of a Kilometer is a bit windy :lol:
 
Yep it's screwed up. Metric makes so much sense.
 
OH, don't forget about our friends that came up BSW.... British Standard Whitworth. Still have my old sockets and spanners I used on my BSA's, and MG's....years ago...……..

220px-5-8_vs_5-8_003.jpg
 
toolmanmike said:
Yep it's screwed up. Metric makes so much sense.
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Not for some things.
And Unified thread form is generally stronger.
Dicer said:
BSW.... British Standard Whitworth.
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and it turns out that Whitworth thread is also very good form for spreading the load over more of the thread.

British standard also used on all English bicycles..
and BSP is still used on a surprising number of racecars (road racing), probably human inertia.
upload_2018-12-14_17-9-5.gif
 
I sold Proto adjustable wrenches. Standard capacity on one side, metric on the other! LOL
 
I’m in my mid fifties and back in 3rd or 4th grade I can remember the teacher saying thar the U.S. was going to switch to the metric system and we started to learn it and it was realativly easy to pick up. Well here it is 40+ years later and we haven’t switched yet, just do it already and get it over with. Sure people will ***** but they”ll get over it.
 
Its the conversion that gets everybody confused, people need to get that out of their head and move on.

I do like my MPH as it works well for planning a trip.


Alan
 
You're always going to have some old dogs that just won't convert.
Back in the mid-70s I was a design draftsman for a manufacturer of earthmoving machine digging accessories. All of the dimensions on our drawings were shown in both inches and metric. But the shop General Manager refused to even consider metric dimensions.
He also had a fairly poor knowledge of decimal measurements.
He was in the office one day and we asked him, "Robby, how many thousandths are there in one inch?"
He thought for awhile and finally said, "Jeez, they're tiny little things...there must be millions of 'em."
...and the company is still in business today.
 
ocdart said:
You're always going to have some old dogs that just won't convert.
Back in the mid-70s I was a design draftsman for a manufacturer of earthmoving machine digging accessories. All of the dimensions on our drawings were shown in both inches and metric. But the shop General Manager refused to even consider metric dimensions.
He also had a fairly poor knowledge of decimal measurements.
He was in the office one day and we asked him, "Robby, how many thousandths are there in one inch?"
He thought for awhile and finally said, "Jeez, they're tiny little things...there must be millions of 'em."
...and the company is still in business today.
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That's funny! Scary but funny!
 
I think the metric system is an incredibly clever conspiracy by tool manufacturers to sell us twice as many tools as we really need. I spent a fortune just on metric crescent wrenches alone! Ha!
 
Mike69cuda said:
I think the metric system is an incredibly clever conspiracy by tool manufacturers to sell us twice as many tools as we really need. I spent a fortune just on metric crescent wrenches alone! Ha!
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LOL I have been accused of being involved. LOL
 
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