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Metric vs Imperial - Practical or Traditional?

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John Olsen27/10/2010 23:58:08
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Ah, but they also say that if you can remember the sixties then you weren't really there...
 
regards
John
Steve Garnett28/10/2010 00:04:20
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Posted by Andrew Johnston on 27/10/2010 22:44:42:
I would hope that they would at least have the decency to brainwash us with kilometres.
 

 Surely if they were doing any sort of washing, it would have to be litres?

Nicholas Farr28/10/2010 00:36:24
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Hi. or millielitres.
 
Regards Nick
V8Eng28/10/2010 18:26:05
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Oops!
 
Sorry folks, yes it should have been Kilometres.
Same as they use on the UK roadwork information website.
 
As somebody who went metric decades ago I would be quite happy with a single system, what we have at present is just a silly mix.
chris stephens28/10/2010 18:41:58
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Well it shows how stupid TV program makers are, the Mile is still the official unit of distance in this country. It was one of the exemptions to metrification, along with the pint! May it long be so.
chriStephens 
Andrew Johnston28/10/2010 21:46:51
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Ah, but how do we fathom which one, statute or nautical? 
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
Wolfie29/10/2010 09:30:03
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If you're on the nautical one you have wet feet...
Andrew Johnston29/10/2010 09:49:45
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Not necessarily; aviation uses nautical miles too! More like high and dry.
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
Martin W29/10/2010 10:34:16
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Andrew
 
 
Is this a result of early long range flying being conducted in 'Flying Boats'? Even now we have captains, first officers, etc on the 'flight deck' so is this another relic of bygone days?
 
Definitely a wet foot job if making a hard landing or should that be making a splash on your arrival  !!!
 
Just a couple of rumblings from an underused mind.
 
Cheers
 
Martin
 
PS.
 
Then there is of course the 'pilot' another nautical term, well in one meaning of the word .

Edited By Martin W on 29/10/2010 10:42:07

Chris Trice29/10/2010 11:27:57
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The essential truth is that a decimal system is undeniably easier to use and to make calculations in. Even Imperial measures get expressed in thou's. People's preferences are often sustained by the graduations their machinery is based on and long may individuals have the right to choose (I still use both) but the future is ultimately metric driven by arguments hard to challenge. Does anyone consider the old imperial money system to make more sense than the decimal system? Of course it doesn't. It's just what you're used to.
Wolfie29/10/2010 11:41:15
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Thats a good point, however I would add one more factor. Conveniency.
 
Its convenient to use what you are used to. Its also convenient to use a single value or multiples thereof. Thus for small measurements a thou will always be handier than the millimetre because you will always be talking of a fraction of a mill, however represented. I appreciate that the thou is a fraction of an inch, but it has its own title so until we have the 'hun' for 1/100 of a millimetre the thou it is!
 
For intermediate measurements then the mill is spot on and I use it regularly in my other modelling discipline where very small measurements are not required. And for anything bigger its the inch.
 
Its interesting to note that in my plastic modelling world, all the raw plasticard and rod and sections etc that I use in scratchbuilding and conversion are bought in imperial sizes although nearly every other aspect of this genre is metric. So its usual to hear someone saying "I cut a 20 x 40[mm] piece of 20 thou plasticard" And so on.
 
Lets keep both, it clearly works!

Edited By Wolfie on 29/10/2010 11:42:25

KWIL29/10/2010 11:56:22
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I note that in many instances, not just in model size, that studs into castings use Imperial threads because the availability of a wider range of suitable coarse threads.

Edited By KWIL on 29/10/2010 11:57:03

Nicholas Farr29/10/2010 12:12:20
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Hi Kwill, indeed this is so, espceialy in industry UNC is very commanly used. As we know a coarser thread is stronger in cast iron.
 
Regards Nick.
chris stephens29/10/2010 13:39:24
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Hi Chris,
Yes of course the decimal system is easier, but you don't have to use the metric system to use it. A "thou" is a decimal unit, remember. 
As for the old money units, there was one instance when Imperial money was far better. When buying animal feed priced in so many shillings per hundredweight you instantly knew how much per Ton!  Oh and another, when petrol was 6/8 per gallon, you got three gallons to the pound, no wait that is not easier just cheaper. I miss the old days.
chriStephens 
Nicholas Farr29/10/2010 17:07:17
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Hi, when petrol was £0 2s11d you could get 6 gallons for a quid and get some change to boot.
 
Regards Nick.
Axel29/10/2010 17:11:12
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Posted by Wolfie on 29/10/2010 11:41:15:

Thats a good point, however I would add one more factor. Conveniency.
 
Its convenient to use what you are used to. Its also convenient to use a single value or multiples thereof. Thus for small measurements a thou will always be handier than the millimetre because you will always be talking of a fraction of a mill, however represented. I appreciate that the thou is a fraction of an inch, but it has its own title so until we have the 'hun' for 1/100 of a millimetre the thou it is!
 
For intermediate measurements then the mill is spot on and I use it regularly in my other modelling discipline where very small measurements are not required. And for anything bigger its the inch.
 
Its interesting to note that in my plastic modelling world, all the raw plasticard and rod and sections etc that I use in scratchbuilding and conversion are bought in imperial sizes although nearly every other aspect of this genre is metric. So its usual to hear someone saying "I cut a 20 x 40[mm] piece of 20 thou plasticard" And so on.
 
Lets keep both, it clearly works!

Edited By Wolfie on 29/10/2010 11:42:25

 If you want to use something with its own title, use "micrometres" ; 1/100 or .01mm as we should write it, is 10 µm. And that is how its written in most techincal books. A common fraction or decimal fraction is rare to see!

 

Chris Trice29/10/2010 19:39:27
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Imperial is warm and comfortable for many because of familiarity. If you were devising a measuring standard from scratch on a clean sheet of paper, imperial is a non-starter. It's a throwback to a time when a yard was set by the length of a king's arm and not for any other logical reason. It exists today as a remnant of the only system we had. It's only convenient to use what you know because it saves you having to learn something new but in a generation or two, 3/16th of an inch will have as much real world meaning as a florin. Metal stockists are going metric because they recognise that's the way the world is inevitably going. I build replicas that were originally built using imperial materials and it's getting increasingly difficult to source some of the more obscure bits but I accept the reason and have to move with the times. There's nothing to fear from metric and indeed much to be gained but you have to be open minded. How many photographers mourned the passing of film but have subsequently come to embrace and appreciate the benefits of digital? The old ways don't have to die but they are usually kept alive by those who don't want the change that will inevitably overwhelm them.

Edited By Chris Trice on 29/10/2010 19:42:57

Ian Abbott29/10/2010 19:56:35
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I liked the days when I could fill my Morris Minor's tank for, I think, five bob.  This was also when American tourists had no clue about pounds shillings and pence, we'd hang around the castle and "help" them with their change.  
 
Ah, those were the days, it wasn't always uphill both ways in three feet of snow in bare feet.
 
"Half a league, half a league, half a league on......" 
 
"Point eight two of a kilometre,  point eight two of a kilometre,  point eight two of a kilometre on......"
 
Just doesn't have it.
 
Ian 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ian Abbott29/10/2010 20:01:43
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Sorry, I should have said " 914.4 mm of snow."
 
Much easier to visualise isn't it. 
 
Ian 
 
 
Nicholas Farr29/10/2010 20:02:33
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Hi Chris, I have no fear of metrication, never have had and have been using metric rule measurements since before the seventy's. Deosn't mean I've got to give up using Imperial.
 
Regards Nick.
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