General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
SilverSolder:
When you say "high precision" in terms of US customary units, normally "mils" (1/1000 inch) spring to mind. E.g. think of hole spacing on a PCB.
KL27x:
Personally, I love this unit for precision work. It's small as I need so far, in half a century of life. One mil makes a difference. Within 1 mil, it doesn't matter; I'm done with my job in PCB work. In machining, any further is called sanding/finishing/fitting. But since backlash from the international internet, I have been trying to call them thous, rather than the "mils" I learned from Eagle. Apparently, there's 0.0001% of the metric universe that calls millimeters "mils," and lots more will confuse mils to mean millimeters, even they never use either irl. "Ton" I also vow to concede to metric, thanks to conversation with v6kzgo in this thread. (I want to use kips, instead).
Thous is still fine, and apparently more-used in machining. Still a lot easier to say/think than tens of mics or a hundredth of a mm.
They're trying to take all the good names! This is maybe one reason USC irks the international community?
SilverSolder:
^Thous/mils also have the benefit of being a decimal measurement, just like the Metric system. It is a kind of half way house between the two systems, to my mind.
And a thou is approx a quarter of a tenth of a mm! :-)
schmitt trigger:
19) After 1000+ posts, this thread is not closer to resolution, than it was on post 2.
20) This thread will become one of the Top-3 longest threads, ever. Might even debunk TEA for the first place within this decade.
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: schmitt trigger on January 08, 2020, 04:02:00 am ---19) After 1000+ posts, this thread is not closer to resolution, than it was on post 2.
--- End quote ---
This is not the kind of thread that comes to a resolution. What we can do is expose the false claims and debunk them. One by one.
--- Quote ---20) This thread will become one of the Top-3 longest threads, ever. Might even debunk TEA for the first place within this decade.
--- End quote ---
Well, I learned a lot with this thread. I came to respect much more the painstaking work done along those many decades by the brilliant minds that established metric as the dominant system around the world. I also came to understand that imperial is not a mere inconvenience. It is an obstacle and those who are working everyday to have it disappear deserve our praise.
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