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Author Topic: Bring back feet and inches...  (Read 13378 times)

das boot

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Bring back feet and inches...
« on: March 12, 2009, 07:18:35 pm »

Would it be possible to have a set of conversion tables put up on the forum? I hate this new fangled metrical stuff....   >>:-(


Rich
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regiment

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2009, 07:53:24 pm »

glad there is someone else who is  baffed about metric best idea since sliced bread
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chingdevil

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2009, 07:54:19 pm »

Rich

Have you tried searching the internet, there are load of online ones available and ones to download to your PC. This site does one that I have on my desk top http://www.gregorybraun.com/



Brian
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Bee

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2009, 07:54:41 pm »

I'm already in feet an inches - what would I want to convert stuff to metric for?  %)
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Bunkerbarge

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2009, 08:19:40 pm »

You can convert most things relatively easily (keep a calculator in your workshop though!) if you remember two things and they are:

1) 1mm = 40 thou

2) 1 inch = 25.4mm.

Dealing with fractions though is a bit of a different ball game but if you use the second one above even something as obtuse as 5/8" is relatively easily converted with a calculator.  Simply divide 25.4 by 8 and then multiply by 5 so it's not too bad.
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Malcolm Reade

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2009, 08:49:08 pm »

Why bother?

Just scrap feet and inches - metric is so much easier...

Malc



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das boot

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2009, 08:50:35 pm »

I found this one http://www.metric-conversion-tables.com/autometricconversionlength.htm

It's still a pain in the a55 though, things in metrical never seem big enough. How am I 'sposed to get all my r/c gear, batteries, esc, pumps and stuff into a WTC that measures 125mm? Silly idea....


Rich
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dougal99

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2009, 08:52:49 pm »

Why bother?

Just scrap feet and inches - metric is so much easier...

Malc





Yea but my plywood supplier doesn't do 1.5mm only 1/16" and divisors thereof  {:-{
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Umi_Ryuzuki

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2009, 08:54:52 pm »

I am okay with measurement conversions, but volumetric conversions... %%

I use this website for volume coversions... has some other nice plug in's also.

http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm
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das boot

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #9 on: March 12, 2009, 08:57:07 pm »

You can't even go out for a pint nowadays, it just don't seem right asking for a litre of best bitter.  {:-{

And the powers that be call it 'progress.....' ;D



Rich
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Garabaldy

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2009, 09:01:32 pm »

1 litre of beer.......thats a big glass!  a pint is 568ml.

the metric system is brilliant.  1litre of water - 1kg. 
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Bowwave

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #11 on: March 12, 2009, 09:12:27 pm »

I lament the  loss of the old methods of weights and measures  but most younger  people under 30 are tought to think and use the metric system.  If we start reverting  to imperial then that's going to confuse  a confusing issue even further. We've got the sytem , there is no going back and I for one find  metric  weights  mesurment much easier to use.
Bowwave
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craftysod

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #12 on: March 12, 2009, 09:28:33 pm »

Bring back pence an shillings ,sixpence,thruppence and ten bob note  {-)
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Malcolm Reade

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #13 on: March 12, 2009, 10:16:53 pm »

I lament the  loss of the old methods of weights and measures  but most younger  people under 30 are tought to think and use the metric system.  If we start reverting  to imperial then that's going to confuse  a confusing issue even further. We've got the sytem , there is no going back and I for one find  metric  weights  mesurment much easier to use.
Bowwave

I was taught metric weights and measures at school and technical college in the 1960's.  When we emigrated to South Africa in 1980, we quickly discovered that they had abandoned the old Imperial system completely.  In fact it's illegal in South Africa to own a tape measure with feet and inches!  The metric system really simplifies things.

I find that I can now use both equally badly, but I actually prefer the metric SI (Système International d'Unités) system.  Previous posts have referred to the correlation between weight and volume (1 Litre of water weighs 1 Kilogramme). 1 cubic metre of water, 1000 Litres, weighs 1 metric ton etc.  It's so much easier, you can do the arithmetic without having to take your shoes and socks off {-) {-), for most things anyway... %) %)

Oddly enough, it's the only area where I side with the Europeans rather than the Americans.

Malc




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Colin Bishop

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #14 on: March 12, 2009, 10:25:02 pm »

I'm still pretty comfortable in both, like building at 150th Scale 2mm= 1foot.  :}

If you like older prototypes then all your plan dimensions will be in Imperial as will be most historical data you need to work with.

Colin
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tony23

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2009, 10:38:35 pm »

my profession is a carpenter/builder so work this one out then, building a flat roof to architects drawings fit the ceiling joist at 400mm centres (done) fit 2400x1200x12mm plaster board to ceiling (no problem) all joints finish on centre of the ceiling joists, then screw down 8'x4'x3/4" ply to top  %% {-) >:-o >>:-( none of the plywood boards fit. So why do all the suppliers sell Imperial plywood  %)
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #16 on: March 12, 2009, 10:52:29 pm »

I think the problem in the building trade is that most existing older buildings are built to Imperial dimensions with Imperially sized materials - my kitchen is based on that for example. Also of course, America is still using largely Imperial dimensions. The fixings on my recently sold full size boat were a mixture of Imperial and Metric. It's going to be a long, long, long time before everything gets standardised.

Metric may be more superficially convenient but it is actually less versatile than Imperial. 12 has more division options than 10 does which is probably why it was originally adopted despite the fact that we have ten fingers which would seem to have made base 10 the more logical option.

Somehow, Metric doesn't always give you convenient measures. a pound of something is usually more useful than half a kilo for example. A foot is a user friendly measurement length - in Metric it's just an arbitrary 30cms.

In short, Imperial measures are "organic" in origin and more user friendly and are buried in the National psyche - Metric ones are totally artificial.

There is always a reason for everything, whether it is still valid is of course a moot point.

Colin

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Malcolm Reade

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2009, 10:55:59 pm »

So why do all the suppliers sell Imperial plywood  %)

Because they all get together after work and drink pints....

Seriously though, it's symptomatic of the British, we love tradition and only accept gradual change, even then only grudgingly.  You only have to look at the plight of the 'Metric Martyrs'.

If we were to get rid of the Imperial system overnight, there would be uproar.  Things do change, we no longer use farthings or groats.  Chains, pecks and bushels are pretty much history already I believe?  For now we have to live with metric plasterboard (just about to do my downstairs ceilings), and Imperial plywood.  It's the dual systems that make things difficult, in isolation, both are easy enough.

Malc
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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #18 on: March 12, 2009, 11:20:58 pm »

I have compromised.
I tend to think  in Imperial e.g. I'm nearly six feet tall, not 1.8m - but I work  in metric, because all the little marks on the rule are the same, so I can't confuse 1/8s with 1/10s etc.
Works for me.
While ever our colonial cousins/franchise owners continue to use Imperial then we've no hope of ditching it in the UK, no matter what the Eurocrats want. I'm just glad that out pints are bigger than theirs  ok2
FLJ

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KitS

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #19 on: March 13, 2009, 12:57:09 am »

My brain works the same as FLJs, I think in Imperial because that was what I was taught at school and at college.

Most of my formative work as an engineer took place in the 60s and 70s, in Imperial. I've only had to work with Metric more recently and even then I had to go back to Imperial depending what I was working on. Upgrading a ginormous test system at Airbus Filton that was originally built in 1945 (!) was totally useless if I worked in Metric, trying to find a hydraulic seal kit that fitted a piston that was 1219.2 mm inner diameter was a waste of time because it was designed to be four FEET in diameter.

I have an intrinsic feel for what 100 ft ilbs of torque are, I have a gut feeling for 3000 psi of pressure, but not 207 bar, that's the just the way I was taught.

In a generation's time it won't be a problem because all of us educated this way will have moved on to higher things, then the Metric Lobby can have things all their own way. In the meanwhile, whether they like it or not, we have to live in a dual standard world.

Mind you, if that Airbus test system is still working then someone will have to find a 1219.2 mm seal when it springs a leak............  ok2
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Regards
Kit

Peter Fitness

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #20 on: March 13, 2009, 12:57:16 am »

Just scrap feet and inches - metric is so much easier...

Couldn't agree more, Malc. The problems arise when using US designed or made gear, as they won't change to metric  >>:-(
I was taught the Metric system at school in the early 50s, well before Australia went over to that system, in 1966, and remember thinking even then, how much easier it was than the Imperial system.

Peter.

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toesupwa

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #21 on: March 13, 2009, 05:51:49 am »


The problems arise when using US designed or made gear, as they won't change to metric  >>:-(


Ahhh.. but GB gave the USA the Imperial system... and you know how long it takes the USA to catch up with the rest of the world..  O0
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Malcolm Reade

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #22 on: March 13, 2009, 06:20:00 am »


The problems arise when using US designed or made gear, as they won't change to metric  >>:-(


Ahhh.. but GB gave the USA the Imperial system... and you know how long it takes the USA to catch up with the rest of the world..  O0

I have recently been trying to specify telemetry communication cables manufactured in America for a UK client - all quoted in AWG wire sizes.  Doing voltage drop calculations for these cables has been an absolute nightmare! Having to look up the actual diameter of the cable cores in an American Imperial AWG table and then converting these to metric cross-sectional areas before running the calculations.  All of the client's standards are written using metric values, volts per kilometre etc.

Malc
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Roger in France

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #23 on: March 13, 2009, 06:27:02 am »

The USA does not use Imperial Units. It uses some but the gallon there, for example, is not the same as an Imperial Gallon and they usually express smaller weights as a fraction of an Avoirdupois pound. Engineering throughout the world is a different ball game with several differing guages and standards used.

Roger in France
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toesupwa

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Re: Bring back feet and inches...
« Reply #24 on: March 13, 2009, 07:18:29 am »

The USA does not use Imperial Units.

Hmmmmm

"The United States uses a hodgepodge of metric and customary units. The customary units in use there are historically derived from units which were in use in England at the time of settlement. The measurements of most of these units in England itself were subsequently changed.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units
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