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why is the US not Metric
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Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on December 06, 2019, 02:58:10 am ---
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 05, 2019, 06:42:39 am ---You seem really naive to think this is about you and your screws,
--- End quote ---

The same straw man again? Can we proclaim you Your Majesty, the King Of The Straw Men? Of course it is not about me and my screws. The screws are an indication of a FACT: imperial costs more to maintain. And that's the point.

--- End quote ---

Not here in the US it doesn't.

-Pat
Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on December 06, 2019, 02:58:10 am ---
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 05, 2019, 06:42:39 am ---You seem really naive to think this is about you and your screws,
--- End quote ---

The same straw man again? Can we proclaim you Your Majesty, the King Of The Straw Men? Of course it is not about me and my screws. The screws are an indication of a FACT: imperial costs more to maintain. And that's the point.

--- End quote ---

And as I pointed out in my response to you earlier, even if the US goes full on hard core metric tomorrow, those legacy screws in existing things are still going to be the same as they are today.  So, I'm asking again - why do you still have things with inch hardware in them if metric is so much better and cost efficient?  If you purge your life of such things you won't need to worry about expensive, hard to find replacement hardware.

-Pat
vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: KL27x on December 05, 2019, 09:30:36 pm ---
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on December 05, 2019, 02:25:20 pm ---Just call the bloody thing a "tonne", even pronounce it as it's spelled.
"tonne" is always the same, whether I pronounce it funny or not!

--- End quote ---
Interesting. I didn't know it's pronounced differently. I can't figure out how it should sound.


--- Quote ---Even the most obscure metric prefixes can be related back to familiar ones, by simply working out what the prefix stands for
--- End quote ---
So you just work it out with your knowledge of latin? Or do you mean, you have to actually look it up?


--- Quote --- & calculating what the measurement is in those familiar units, using powers of ten.
All the panoply of Imperial measures require individual translation.
--- End quote ---
If by panoply, you mean a very tiny handful of units that are so common they each have a single syllable name that is instantly recognizable, yeah. There's a panoply Americans have no trouble knowing. The ones you may have used as a colony of Britain were obviously too many for an average brain, hearing of your troubles! In America, we manage to only use the ones that are useful to us.


--- Quote ---The difference is, with rods, furlongs, etc, is that you don't save any zeros, you just end up with lots of odd numbers.

--- End quote ---
Exactly why no one in America in the last 100 years has ever used these weird units that you guys mention. No wonder the backlash is so strong. Sounds like Britain tortured you guys by making you measure things in chains and furlongs. Probably to cheat you guys in trade, lol.
 
All of the former commonwealth has followed mother UK into metrication.
--- End quote ---
Nope! Most of us went Metric earlier than the Brits.

--- Quote ---
 but American feels no need to stop using imperial. If you guys are metric but you still like and know your british imperial units, no wonder you can't stand american customary. Pints is wrong! Ton is wrong! Gallon is wrong! Here, we just use the units which are legally defined by metric and cover daily life, and we don't worry about what Britain did 100 years ago. Or what you guys did up until however many decades ago. For some strange reason, you care what we do... even though you stopped using imperial, altogether. Our imperial is short and sweet and consistent and easily converted back and forth to metric, and it causes no trouble in our daily lives. It sounds like that was never the case in Australia.

Most metric-only people could easily live in America without a care, only figuring out how many gallons of gas fit in their car (but most people just look at the price) and getting the feel for F and for miles. But someone from a former british colony would apparently experience PTSD.

To wit:

--- Quote ---The Brits know what an Imperial ton is----2240lbs!
--- End quote ---
This is imperial. And it is a seemingly random and inconvenient number. And you don't use it. But you care about it. The Brits know!

--- Quote ---For some unfathomable reason, the USA uses both the local ton & the Imperial ton in commerce
--- End quote ---

I would venture guess that the american or short ton (a "metricized" 2000 lb) was/is used for civil engineering more than trade. The only other country to have ever officially recognized an American ton was Canada. I would venture that if we still use "normal" tons for international trade, it's with businesses in other former british colonies that still use them. But if one American business wants to trade with another American business in big blue buckets, that doesn't concern me. If I wanted to enter into that business, I would pick up a calculator.

But I concede. America fucked up to call this engineering ton a "ton." And to start calling the "real ton" a "long ton." American should have given the 2000 lb ton a unique name.
--- End quote ---

It is a shame that the USA didn't manage to export their rationalised ton & gallon to the world, prior to Metric appearing.
Imagine how easy it would be to convert if there were 2 lbs to a kg, & 2000lbs to a ton/tonne, but, alas, that was not to be, & that part of  Metric grew from the already established traditional ton, gallons, etc.

--- Quote --- Like Britain kinda sorta did by adding the "-ne" and apparently pronouncing it differently. Tunnay? Maybe we can start calling meters yardays? :)


--- End quote ---
I think "tonnes" probably came from the old French word for "ton', & (again I conjecture) was probably the same mass as that ton.
(The French & Brits would have to differ, even if only by 1.6%.)
Your French equivalents, back in the day would probably have "gone to the barricades" to protect their non Metric Tonne, otherwise.

From memory, the correct pronunciation of "tonne" was supposed to rhyme with "gone" or "Don", but we were lazy, &, as it didn't matter much, slipped back into our old pronunciation.
bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: Tepe on December 05, 2019, 11:57:39 am ---
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 05, 2019, 11:51:25 am ---We use all the prefixes in electronics. We need 'em all. And whadya know, Americans use these units in electronics, too.

--- End quote ---
Yeah, you are slowly learning. Those doubly prefixed millimicrofarad (mµF) are past history now.

--- End quote ---

That's an interesting remark. One of the things that these guys that "know everything" about the metric system don't get is that the metric system is not the imperial system with different units.

The metric system was designed to prevent the creation of ad hoc units, i.e., improvised units for a particular purpose only, lacking generality. A classical example is that for horizontal distances people use the mile, but for vertical distances the foot.  Two thousand years ago that made perfect sense because units were basically ad hoc, with no regard one for the other. Today, the use of such expedient is ridiculous.

There are plenty of other examples. And when these guys have to use the metric system they tend to bring the same cacoëthes they acquired by the prolonged harmful exposure to imperial.

So, you almost certainly can decide if someone is fully conversant in metric if they write 100nF, instead of 0.1µF. Because for the metric guy, the unit is F, but for the imperial guy it is µF.
vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: Cubdriver on December 06, 2019, 03:01:40 am ---
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on December 06, 2019, 02:58:10 am ---
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 05, 2019, 06:42:39 am ---You seem really naive to think this is about you and your screws,
--- End quote ---

The same straw man again? Can we proclaim you Your Majesty, the King Of The Straw Men? Of course it is not about me and my screws. The screws are an indication of a FACT: imperial costs more to maintain. And that's the point.

--- End quote ---

Not here in the US it doesn't.

-Pat

--- End quote ---

Yeah?----Try finding BSF, Whitworth or BA screws in the USA.

They all have a perfect "Imperial" heritage.
Admittedly, BSF is pretty much obsolete, but we are talking about "legacy" equipment.
Most Brit test equipment up into the '80s used BA extensively.

Frankly, I think you would have a much better chance of finding Metric

Of course, if you are fixing up old Brit cars, there are lots of BSF, & the delightful "Lucas" thread that "The Prince of Darkness" used for the battery connection to some of his older starter motors.

Even if you stick to US cars, you may come unstuck.
My 1936 Chev had, on the front hubs, what were referred to by an old mechanic, as "General Motors" threads.
(I dropped the nut, couldn't immediately find it, & was trying to find a replacement.)
I'm not sure if he was correct, but, if he was.......
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