Metric measurements?

[MargaritaMike]

Fraction speak only belongs when talking about pizza or pie and even with that, no one eats 9/16ths of pizza.

You obviously don't live in my house. That's 8½ slices!

No wonder land surveyors use decimal feet.

I now know the decimal feet usage, but I have a conversion chart down to thirty-seconds in the front of my surveyor's journal that I used for a while. I run an medium old transit for fun and when my wife asks how far something is in her garden, she wants to know in feet and inches down to the 1/8 inch. So I have to convert something like 24.438 feet to 24' 5¼". The decimal feet are great when working elevations. Makes drop measurements for irrigation much easier. But I can still handle the fractions.

people who were in grade school in the 1970s like me were indoctrinated in it

In the 1970's I had a child in grade school. He didn't have to learn metric that I recall, although he wasn't in school very long.

Cheers -

 

[Storker]

The decimal feet are great when working elevations. Makes drop measurements for irrigation much easier. But I can still handle the fractions.

If y'all insist on using a nonstandard distance unit like the foot, I won't argue much. But using feet, inches and fractions of inches instead of decimal *whateveryourfavoriteunitis*, that's just weird.

 

[MargaritaMike]

And to find the height of the tires in inches you have to multiply the width by the aspect ratio, change it to inches and add it to the rim diameter.

To measure the height of a tire I get a tape measure and measure it.

 

[Gareth J]

Being British, born in the mid 60's, I am basically straddled the two systems. For years, weight made no sense to me.

The amusing thing is that I extensively use metric. But, I happy mix and match. Part of that is to annoy either my European friends and American friends.

e.g. its 10 inches, +/- a few millimetres

Interestingly carpentry, although theoretically metric, is actually still imperial. 3x4 inch = 75x100 (with a tolerance allowance). Nails and screws are still 1", 2", 3' (25mm, 50mm, 75mm)

 

[Storker]

For years, weight made no sense to me.

Makes sense. After all, you Brits have to be the only ones measuring body weight in stones

Interestingly carpentry, although theoretically metric, is actually still imperial.

While most people over here still speak about 2x4 etc, when we shop lumber it's 48x98. Etc.

 

[Gareth J]

While most people over here still speak about 2x4 etc, when we shop lumber it's 48x98. Etc.

Yep, that's what we get.

 

[Storker]

Fun fact: the Scandinavian foot and the Scandinavian inch are just a little bit longer than their Imperial counterparts. While the Imperial foot and inch are 30.48cm and 2.54cm, respectively, the Scandinavian ditto are 31.37cm and 2.61cm. Which came in handy when we exported lumber across the North Sea, since the customers never got less material than they paid for. Even considering the effect of drying during the trip across the sea.

While a modern folding rule uses international (i.e. Imperial) inches, I recently found an old folding rule using Scandinavian inches. That was slightly amusing.

 

[Gareth J]

Fun fact: the Scandinavian foot and the Scandinavian inch are just a little bit longer than their Imperial counterparts. While the Imperial foot and inch are 30.48cm and 2.54cm, respectively, the Scandinavian ditto are 31.37cm and 2.61cm. Which came in handy when we exported lumber across the North Sea, since the customers never got less material than they paid for. Even considering the effect of drying during the trip across the sea.

While a modern folding rule uses international (i.e. Imperial) inches, I recently found an old folding rule using Scandinavian inches. That was slightly amusing.

I seem to remember Swedish miles are longer (considerably) than the imperial mile - or am I wrong?

 

[Storker]

I seem to remember Swedish miles are longer (considerably) than the imperial mile - or am I wrong?

Well, our land "mile" is 10 km, so yes, you're right. I assume that the Swedes see it the same way. And the nautical mile is 15% longer than a statute mile, but I guess you may be using the nautical mile as well.

Even if I'm a die-hard metric unit fan, my boat and my fishing rods are measured in feet, and on water I measure distance in nautical miles and speeds in knots. But i don't use fathoms for depth, on that point I've converted to metric.

 

[John Bantin]

Well, our land "mile" is 10 km, so yes, you're right. I assume that the Swedes see it the same way. And the nautical mile is 15% longer than a statute mile, but I guess you may be using the nautical mile as well.

Even if I'm a die-hard metric unit fan, my boat and my fishing rods are measured in feet, and on water I measure distance in nautical miles and speeds in knots. But i don't use fathoms for depth, on that point I've converted to metric.

A nautical mile is a minute of latitude so not really anything to do with either Metric or Imperial measurements.