Posted by Pycoed on December 21, 2008 at 13:09:59 from (86.159.61.192):
In Reply to: The Metric System posted by buickanddeere on December 19, 2008 at 17:45:15:
NEsota said: (quoted from post at 20:24:11 12/20/08) The more one works in the physical sciences, the more one sees the long term advantages and efficiencies of the metric system. President Jimmy Carter, a Chemical Engineer by education, made an effort to convert the U.S to the metric system. This was ambitious, but the short term pain of converting would have brought a lot of long term gain. Jimmy’s successor was not a believer in short term sacrifice for gain long term. He scraped the effort to convert. This may have helped the economy short term, as the conversion was not without some cost. We, (the U.S.) would be better able to compete in the world’s markets if our engineering, manufacturing and everything else were done in metric measurement.
Whilst in theory the metric system is easier ( & this is the difference via science & practice!), actually it doesn't seem to work out in real life. Here in UK we are metric officially, but actually most people use Imperial measures. As others have stated, all our roads & buildings have been built to Imperial measure, so a sheet of plywood etc is STILL 8'X4' but is sold as 2440mmX1220mm.
In real life, a yard is an average man's pace, a foot is an average man's foot, an inch is a thumb top joint etc etc. The measures actually MEAN something, & have been derived by centuries of practice. A centimetre is neither one thing nor another. The millimetre is too small for woodworking & too large for metalwork etc.
For ordinary work the metric threading system is OK, but sometimes you need a choice of threads. Any non CNC metric lathe is a right pain to the amateur to use for threading compared to the simplicity of an imperial lathe.
Imperial compound measures, eg. pounds per square inch are a pain to convert say to tons per sq foot, but this is where the metric system really wins out, just move the decimal point.
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