Why we won’t kill the Imperial System

Mobile Hydraulic Tips ^ | November 2, 2012 | Paul Heney

[Nik Naym]

” I’ve heard of spark plug gaps in thousands of inches.”

They work fine as long as the coils are made by Tesla.

And forget listening to the radio when the engine is running.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Come on, thirty yards

[HiTech RedNeck]

cuz no redneck ever uses metric for mud tires!

[Nik Naym]

“Ha, I’ve ended up with a plethora of 10 mm wenches and sockets.”

Hmm...maybe that’s what happened to all my 10mm sockets. Hey, you don’t happen find a lot of extra socks you don’t recognize in your dryer, do you?

I am not sure I have ever seen 10mm wench, though.

[Nik Naym]

“200+ replies for an Imperial v Metric thread on election eve .. lotta folks needing a politics break, apparently .. LOL”

You’ve got that right.

I am so nervous my butthole is twitching like a rabbit’s nose.

[Nowhere Man]

Pretty much all the engines offered in the Pinto came from Ford of Europe, and the one exception I can think of (the 2.3L four) was an adaptation of one of those.

My first car was a ‘74 Pinto with a 2.0L OHC four, which is commonly known as the “Pinto engine” although it was offered in several other Ford cars as well.

BTW, the 2.3L is still used, it comes with the Ford Ranger, believe me, they go like slugs.

[Nowhere Man]

The Brits still use “Stone” for weight.

Some early 1891 Russian Nagant rifles were calibrated in range using "arshins" which is 28 inches. They were also called "3 line (.30 inch) caliber" rifles as well. The Russians also had a mile too but it equaled 24,500 feet. The did have a unit called a "turn" (turn of a plow) that equaled 3500 feet.

[Nowhere Man]

I started elementary school the same year as you (1973.). While I don’t remember the NBC program, I do remember an A/V cart wheeled into our classroom on a weekly basis. The reception wasn’t the best, but we’d watch PBS for what was kind of like The Electric Company devoted solely to the metric system. It had a catchy theme song- I think it just repeated “It’s the metric system!” We were told how, Under President Carter, the entire USA would make the switch. And then, we never spoke of it again...

We did the same thing too, we used to watch PBS where they showed "the Electric Company," "Zoom," "Big Blue Marble," and a few others. I remember early on, we only had B&W TV's old Setchell/Carlsons but by 1977 or so, we finally went to color. Reception was good, we watched WQED here in Pittsburgh.

"Big Blue Marble" was about children around the world and how they lived. IIRC, I remember one 1976/77 episode about a teenaged girl in Iran and although they were Moslem, they adopted and loved Western values. She liked how she could wear jeans, listen to rock music and not have to wear a hijab (head scarf) when she went out. Sad to say, that would change after a couple of years. B-(

[Nowhere Man]

They considered doing that in the ‘70s when gas hit $1.00 per gallon and the pumps could not handle prices over 0.999. Wouldn’t help any more though since gas is now over 0.999 per litre in many places.

I know a station that still uses the old 1960's/1970's era pumps and they were only designed to go to $3.00 a gallon to measure gasoline so he had them set to measure it in half-gallons instead. I said to him, "you charge $1.80 a gallon?! I'm coming here!" He then explained it to me.

[Squawk 8888]

Base 8 is the easiest way to translate to/from binary; each digit represents three bits. The four-digit transponder codes for aircraft are actually 12-bit numbers, which is why only the digits 0-7 are used.

[Nowhere Man]

Yeah we need a break before we go into action here. I sort of like the laid back conversations like these.

[tomkat]

That's pretty nervous !

TMI / LOL

[Cronos]

The Babylonians used 24 hours a day, 60 minutes per hour. WTF? That's divisible by...

it's divisible by 6. The Sumerian numeric system was a base 60, hence we have 360 degrees in a circle

The problem with the Imperial is that is is not truly a base - anything.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

the 2.3L is still used, it comes with the Ford Ranger, believe me, they go like slugs.

But they're tough and don't really come alive until you give em some boost.

Either that or an Esslinger head. They're used in all kinds of race venues.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

A 100cm chest is bigger than a 36" chest; 100cm equals 39.37". :)

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Then why do I have 31"X 10.50" X 15" tires on my vehicle?

I'm going to guess that these tires are either on a truck or a race car...

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

BTW, the 2.3L is still used, it comes with the Ford Ranger, believe me, they go like slugs.

The Ranger switched to a 2.3L Duratec in mid-2001, actually. The most obvious difference between the two engines is the Duratec is a DOHC engine.

[TChris]

> It's an education and acceptance problem, not inferiority.

Wrongo! I majored in physics, so the metric system is something I understand well. The problem is replacing dreadfully expensive machine tools.

OK, so you're in the "acceptance" camp rather than the "education" one. Your milling machine can't cut a millimeter of metal off? What does it do, skip over it until you've dialed in a nice Imperial measurement? Other than a screw machine, I guess I don't know enough about machine tools to understand why the machine would care what system it's on. The computer controls don't speak metric?

[TChris]

Their draftsmen don’t like it much either. Toyota, Nissan and VW all send their blueprints in standard increments, not metric.The parts themselves are in metric, and will have screws, nuts, and bolts in metric. They will be done to standard measurements though

What "blueprints"? Nobody "sends blueprints" for anything outside of civil construction, that I've ever heard of in 15 years or more. They're CAD files, and CAD software can instantly translate and/or scale the same drawing into whatever measurements you like. If anyone is still using blueprints, the problem is pretty clear: Tradition trumps everything.

I used to be a drafter working for a printer manufacturer, and we worked exclusively metric. That was clear back in the 90's. The CAD software certainly doesn't care one way or the other.

[GingisK]

The computer controls don't speak metric?

You get a lot of exercise jumping to conclusions. My machines are not CNC. Neither are my measuring tools.

OK, so you're in the "acceptance" camp rather than the "education" one.

You are in the "doesn't read" camp. Physics and Computer Science degrees aren't handed out by gas stations.

Would it help your understanding to know that my metalworking equipment is for hobby purposes?