How do measure things? metric or imperial?

[Sarto]

Interesting.
Here in Italy everything is metric.
As stated by Colnerov, I find strange "visualize" something in inches.
It takes me a while.
Let alone the sheetmetal gages. I printed a table with the thicknesses,
just to save my brain.

 

[500e]

Think in both now it can get very confusing as being dyslexic as well,
Cant visualize mm or mtrs though have to change to yards, feet & inches an age thing left school before we went metric

 

[Maker]

Sheetmetal gauges to denote thickness are just silly anyway.

I think copper sheet thickness is denoted by the weight of a square foot of it, IE a 1' square of 16 oz copper sheet weighs a pound.

 

[gaz1]

i can use both was taught in imperial due to the older person that taught me and plumber demanding i use the imperial route becaue i could use both and i swapped between them both

as metric came in i do use that version as well

the guage thickness does catch me out on some of the metal guages so have to look to find out what it is

you should try teaching the metric people to use imperial they dont like using it

 

[KemppiFrog]

Jeez.. I learned in imperial, but since I left the UK in '75,I have always used metric since. BUT, I still talk of inches and feet and use both. What I have to think about is adding and subtracting inches and feet. Lots of scribbles on paper while that is going on. Apart from the metalwork, I like building small boats and they traditionally come in Feet, Inches & Eighths. My Axminster steel rule in both inches and metric gets a lot of use...

 

[daleyd]

When it gets to larger measurements does anyone else use the system of things like "football pitch", "double decker bus" or "Wales"?

 

[ajlelectronics]

Why would imperial fraction be difficult? It is easy and logical. Half of 1/4 is 1/8 and half again is 1/16.

 

[BrokenBiker]

i use both. if i measure something i look to see which system it lines up with best and use that, if im fabricating something its usually in metric, as is machining unless im given a fag packet drawing in inches. i can visualise size in both, and can convert both fairly easily in my head. i quite like winding guys up in work and asking for things like 4" long, 30mm deep and a length of 1M and 2'...really annoys them but they usually get it right

 

[Migmac]

I use both

 

[awemawson]

Interesting.
Here in Italy everything is metric.
.

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

 

[roofman]

Or Fred Dibnah describing a leak on a rivet on his boiler, "the hole's only the size of a flys leg"

 

[brightspark]

its off by a midges di,,,k

 

[Digger6135]

I am old school and prefer imperial, I do occasionally measure in metric, as already stated most DRO's and calliper's have a change over switch, I seem to visualise things better in inches.

Digger6135

 

[Spark plug]

I use either or and both sometimes, I have convenient conversions commuted to memory like:

4 thou = 0.1mm
8' = 2440mm
16' = 4.8m
2.2lb = 1kg
1CWT = 50kg

And there's plenty more way they came from but I can flip back and forth without realising it, if I need to machine 0.25mm off a part even though I've measured it in metric I will tell myself to remove 10 thou on a metric lathe.

 

[wristpin]

not forgetting the "hair" system either John

Is that larger or smaller units than the gnat's c**k system?

 

[Robotstar5]

Decimal inches is an abortion well and truly. ...

We have to use decimal time at work, instead of a process taking 20 seconds, it's 0.33 minutes

 

[Maker]

We have to use decimal time at work, instead of a process taking 20 seconds, it's 0.33 minutes

Do you use hours, or is everything minutes? Would a process take 3 hours or 180 minutes?

 

[awemawson]

Wait till they introduce the 10 hour shift and 10 day week for you

 

[Robotstar5]

Do you use hours, or is everything minutes? Would a process take 3 hours or 180 minutes?

We only use minutes as non of the processes takt time take more than a couple of minutes

 

[Richiew]

I was born in 1975. Everything taught at school (Which was generally rubbish) was in metric. However every adult I ever met with a proper job who actually had to measure anything when I was growing up at the time used imperial as this was what they knew and understood. This had quite an effect on me. Hell, I can add up in pounds, shillings and pence despite it all being abolished before I was born. I am very comfortable using either side of the tape measure.

If I am building something something large such as a work bench I often measure and mark out in inches. I prefer whole numbers. I think it is all about using an appropriate scale. I honestly think that if you are measuring anything in thousandths of a unit then you have chosen the wrong unit to measure with in the first place. I find metric decimal handy for small stuff and inches better for big stuff. Fractions of an inch and thousandths are a pain I can do without. Doubleboost's videos have however turned my head towards imperial at the small end of the scale a bit I have to say.

I have a similar split with temperatures. I prefer Celsius for the cold stuff as zero degrees is easier to understand than 32 Fahrenheit. At the other end of the scale I find hotter temperatures in the 80s and 90s easier to relate to than saying 25 or 30 odd degrees Celsius. The bigger numbers are more dramatic and feel more appropriate. This goes to pot of course at the temperature of boiling water as 100 degrees Celsius is much more sensible than 212 degrees Farenheit in my mind at least.

Horses for courses I suppose. I'm not sure what the metric version of that translates as. Sorry.