How do measure things? metric or imperial?

[Paul G]

It's duct, tube, & pipe that gets me.

I order 50mm o/d tube and it's 50.8 (2") If it's 2 inch then call it 2 inch.

Nominal bore is even worse. It's made to be threaded BSP (or NPT) so without inventing a new pipe thread it's got to stay the same.
So why call 1/2" nb effin 15mm? I don't have a 15mm BSP die.

An' another thing. Why is it so hard to get a metric tape measure, or an imperial one for that matter?
The twits that sell tapes look at you as if your an idiot when you don't want duel markings.


I left school in '71, the year we went metric BTW.

Paul G

 

[Sarto]

Even here there is a mess, with pipes.
At work I have to fight with:
- bsp for cold water
- schedule "something" for pressure works or steam
- internally polished food grade pipes

Everyone of the above is different, with different fittings, sizes, etc.

 

[fixerupper]

Slightly of topic but ,Here in Crete some things are sold buy weight ,plastic sheeting and rope for example....jeff

 

[langy]

I use whatever suits me at the time but most of the stuff I deal with is American so is all imperial but my customers insist in measuring everything in metric, I keep telling them everything American is imperial but they just don't listen.

 

[wookie]

Taught metric in school, taught imperial helping my dad do Diy, I flip between both but tend to use imperial most of the time as it's just easier to visualize, if your under 5ft your short, if your over 6ft your tall, under 10st is skinny over 15st your a fat ba**ard etc etc

I think a lot of whether you prefer metric or imperial depends on your age, I should be metric but somehow imperial is just easier most of the time.

 

[brightspark]

great fun [NOT )teach u at school imperial then go to college and its all gone metric

 

[Spark plug]

My biggest bug bear is schools teaching metric badly, i.e. Centimetres.

Centimetres are the devil and should be banned, I ask someone to cut something 350 and after 10 minutes they come back empty handed saying we only have 3m lengths.

 

[Sarto]

Before stating any number, you MUST ask if your helper is more a bricklayer (they love cm) or
a mechanic (only mm, of course).

 

[Bsmith]

whats quicker to add up?
5/8 + 3/4 + 2/32 +5/16 = 1 3/4 (2/32 = 1/16)

or 16+19+1.5+8? = 44.5

sometimes quite easy, half of 3/4 = 3/8, half of 3/8 = 3/16, half of 3/16 = 3/32 etc.

I often get confused by both metric and imperiel, should be a law that only one is used.

 

[Paul G]

Before stating any number, you MUST ask if your helper is more a bricklayer (they love cm) or
a mechanic (only mm, of course).

The mechanic, if building engines, might work to the nearest thousandth of an inch.
The bricklayer would argue that it wouldn't be good enough for him as his bricks have to be spot on.

 

[Maker]

Before stating any number, you MUST ask if your helper is more a bricklayer (they love cm) or
a mechanic (only mm, of course).

I did a construction course as one of my GCSEs and they taught bricklaying in millimeters. They did everything in millimeters but in plumbing and carpentry they got us to measure a few things in inches because both might need to measure things in houses build in inches.

 

[ford34/2]

I use either/or, it doesnt realy matter, The metric world is sometimes a lot easier on the brain, But how can it take 50 years to intergrate a system ????? when did plumbing start to change late 60s or early 70s??? 8X4 sheets 12mm thick, 4" X 2" X 3.6m long. probably the biggest rip off was loosing 240 pence to the pound and getting a 100 back,


BUT if I was to say our lass has 36DD cups, you all sit up and take notice, however, how does 914mm DD sound or 91.4 Cm DD. with a 558mm waist and 863.6mm hips, just crazy aint it, so thats 36DD X 22 X 34, Dream on Stan. she`s 69 now, not 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stan

 

[ronan]

Most of the big companies here are american and have most stuff in american spec, so still feet and inches. I used to make hoses for the pharma labs etc, all bsp and npt, all imperial. If you were to start giving the dimensions of that stuff in metric, you wouldn't be long getting a headache.

 

[Spark plug]

I use either/or, it doesnt realy matter, The metric world is sometimes a lot easier on the brain, But how can it take 50 years to intergrate a system ????? when did plumbing start to change late 60s or early 70s??? 8X4 sheets 12mm thick, 4" X 2" X 3.6m long. probably the biggest rip off was loosing 240 pence to the pound and getting a 100 back,


BUT if I was to say our lass has 36DD cups, you all sit up and take notice, however, how does 914mm DD sound or 91.4 Cm DD. with a 558mm waist and 863.6mm hips, just crazy aint it, so thats 36DD X 22 X 34, Dream on Stan. she`s 69 now, not 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stan

And how many people know how heavy the are in kg?

 

[Spark plug]

70.5

Rounded for natural daily variation.

There's always one isn't there

 

[zzr1200]

And how many people know how heavy the are in kg?

Err...nooooo

 

[ford34/2]

There's always one isn't there

In the North East they come in twos.

In Mars, Lady martians have them on their backs --its lots more fun when dancing

Stan

 

[Sidewinder]

Well actually NO !!!! I was greatly amused when in Rome for a few days to see how many Imperial pipe BSP fittings were in use in things like barriers. Saw the same in Spain a few years back - lots of BSP pipe on guard rails at the sea side

BSP, IS, THE, metric pipe thread, work that out!

 

[captain-destructo]

my head hurts after reading this thread
too many numbers!!!!

miles
meters - millimeters
yards - feet - inches
centigrade

 

[graffian]

I had a bloke from latvia drive over to collect an engine conversion kit. I said something like "you must have a used a couple of gallons of fuel".
He starts telling me how he was getting so many litres to the 100kilometre, till they got to Holland, then it dropped to something else.
I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, he could have told me his series[yep a 109"] had a dodecahdron powering it.

The mechanic, if building engines, might work to the nearest thousandth of an inch.
The bricklayer would argue that it wouldn't be good enough for him as his bricks have to be spot on.

I used to get jobs from a bike builder, I often got asked to make a copy of something. And there might
be some difference wanted, e.g "But the hole for the axle is to small, make it a few millimeteres bigger", Dave would be holding his finger and thumb apart as a guide of how much bigger it had to be!
In reality he wanted it maybe a couple of thou larger, In my experience
he had no idea of measurements at all.