MattF
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Because in some matters, the Americans show greater intelligence?
The other train of thought could be that it would just confuse the hell out of them.
Because in some matters, the Americans show greater intelligence?
Same as me, when I left school (1965) I worked for a little while in a BMC dealership, there was a mixture of UNF, UNC, BSW & BSF all on the same vehicle. You just accepted it. From memory on the front plate of an A series most were UNF, but just to throw you, 2 or 3 of the bolts were 1/4 whitworth headed. Why, who knows, it was just BMC!I work with American engines and parts so use imperial a lot but I use both, it doesn't bother me at all, I learnt in imperial at school, metric wasn't even heard of !!!
One of the 1st things I noticed after joining this forum is that most members talk in metric measurements. Considering the majority of you (from what I have seen so far) are from England and surrounds it surprised me to see this. I thought you used imperial measurements like inches and feet etc ?
I started work as a carpenter here in Australia back in 1970 and for the first 2 years we all used feet and inches and then in 1972 we started converting to metric and find it much easier especially in the building game. I can easily work either way and we often walk into a timber yard and ask for "3 metres of 4" x 2" which is kind of half and half metric / imperial. Even the younger blokes working there know what a "4 X 2" is or how long "4 feet" is. What I can't handle is "centimetres". We were told that is for dress makers !
Mick.
(6 foot or 1830 mm tall.)
Why greater intelligence using the imperial system ? I have used metric and imperial and find metric by far the easier to use, and things like verniers and mic's much easier to read. I doubt the japanese and germans would be using metric if imperial was superior.
I can work in both units part from "decimal time" which seems popular in the automotive industry, example is one of our machines has a cycle time of 1.38 minutes and one of the maintenance schedules allocates a job 0.33 hours to complete.
do u use the 12 hour clock or 24I can work in both units part from "decimal time" which seems popular in the automotive industry, example is one of our machines has a cycle time of 1.38 minutes and one of the maintenance schedules allocates a job 0.33 hours to complete.
As has already been discussed, real measurements are easier to use and capable of greater accuracy. The march to metrication, like the EU is about trying to make everyone the same.
Just because lots of people use metric, it doesn't mean it is the best for job, look at Windows OS as a superb example of that.
yes but look at the other side of the tape and all the lengths of timber are imperial just converted to metricIts always strange, ply and sheet materials are 8` X 4` but you can have 4mm,6mm 9,mm 12mm,15mm,18mm thick, and the 18 is sometimes just 17. about the only consistant stuff is MDF, thickness is always spot on.
Was Plumbing not the first to change from imperial to metric, very late 60s/early70s????
Timber to some extent timber is still 4"x2" but you can have it in 2.4m,2.7m,3.0m,3.6m,3.9m.4.2m long.etc.
I still use both -imperial/metric, centimetres confuses a lot of people.
Stan
I don't know why the americans won't swap to metric, especially when they are developing new products etc.
Leyland trucks still used a mixture of all the different threads even up until around the millennium.Same as me, when I left school (1965) I worked for a little while in a BMC dealership, there was a mixture of UNF, UNC, BSW & BSF all on the same vehicle. You just accepted it. From memory on the front plate of an A series most were UNF, but just to throw you, 2 or 3 of the bolts were 1/4 whitworth headed. Why, who knows, it was just BMC!