Are you still imperial?

Do you use imperial or metric when diving?

  • Imperial, my country's system

    Votes: 86 60.1%
  • Imperial, tough my country is metric

    Votes: 16 11.2%
  • Metric, my country's system

    Votes: 27 18.9%
  • Metric, though my country is imperial

    Votes: 14 9.8%

  • Total voters
    143

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sheck33 once bubbled...
i am metric 'all the way', at work, in school and elsewhere.
however, i have just switched my divecomputer display from meters to feet. Since the foot is a smaller unit it allows for more accurate depthkeeping. I like it.

I don't know what computer you have, but the Suunto's appear to have one decimal point when in metric mode -- so you actually have precision down to the 10cm level. This is one-third (4") of a foot...
 
KrisB once bubbled...


I don't know what computer you have, but the Suunto's appear to have one decimal point when in metric mode -- so you actually have precision down to the 10cm level. This is one-third (4") of a foot...

The fact that the display shows 0.1 increments does NOT mean you are actually measuring to that accuracy. It is a common misconception. Displays very often show larger 'accuracy's' than are really measured. For example, i use thermocouple readouts that display 0.1 C while i know that these thermocouples are not capable of measuring temperature to that accuracy.

suunto states the accuracy is 1% of full scale from 0 to 80m
it is not obvious what they mean here. One could interprete this as 1% of 80m no matter what the reading OR 1% of the reading up to 80m. in the first case that would be an accuracy of 0.8 m or about 2.6 feet at all readings OR 1% of the present reading which means the reading gets less accurate as you go deeper, so at 30m it would be an error of 0.3 m (1 foot), 20m 0.2m (0.66 foot) etc. i'm inclined to think it is the first option, but either way the displayed accuracy is NOT the measured accuracy. and you do not get an accuracy of 1/3 of a foot.

accuracy and resolution are NOT the same thing.
and to make it more confusing accuracy and precision are NOT the same thing. What you mean by 'precision' in your post really is 'accuracy'. 'Precision' means repeatability of a particular measurement, a measurement with high precision is not necessarilly accurate.
 
I would think the computer has the same accuracy in either mode.
The issue here is which system do you want to use?
I've seen manual gauges recently that have both units on them.
So take your pick, stay within your limits and you'll be fine.

I'm familiar with both systems but to me metric is easier, just don't ask me to convert it. Pain in the a..
 
Talking temperature, F definitely has a higher resolution without having to resort to fractions.
100 degrees between freezing and boiling for C
180 degrees between freezing and boiling for F
 
RichLockyer once bubbled...
Talking temperature, F definitely has a higher resolution without having to resort to fractions.
100 degrees between freezing and boiling for C
180 degrees between freezing and boiling for F

Yes, but one is simple and logical, the other one, well... Have you looked at the conversion formula? A 1°C difference is always 1°C. The same is not true for 1°F...

On top of it, if you need a measurement that has to be more precise than +/- 1°C, you probablly need to switch to another unit (kelvin or rankine).
 
Metric is NOT going to happen in the US...you might as well get used to that.

How much metric is used in heavy industry in the US? Production lines, power plants, factories...they are not going to retool everything to meet some standard that no one really wants over here.

And that pretty much sums it up...no one over here wants it. Oh, there are a few that would promote it like a religion, but you can count them on one hand.

The US doesn't want it...so it isn't going to happen over here.
 
Arnaud:

The celcius is just as arbitrary of a unit as the fahrenheit, it just happens to be easier because freezing water is 0 C and boiling water is 100 C (although that is not even really always true as this depends on several other factors)

If anything the Kelvin should be used to measure temperature as it is more solidly linked to thermodynamics.

Knavey:

Yea metric it is like the whole DIR thing, it is different and scary so 'the US doesnt want it'. BS, the more people see the metric system is more logical and easier to deal with the more they'll use it, same with DIR diving. Basically the entire scientific community in the US uses the metric system already.
 
Arnaud once bubbled...
On top of it, if you need a measurement that has to be more precise than +/- 1°C, you probablly need to switch to another unit (kelvin or rankine).

Well, Kelvin is no more precise than Celcius -- it just has a different '0'.

0 Kelvin = -273.15 degrees C.
0 Celcius = 273.15 degrees K.
100 Celcius = 373.15 degrees K.
100 Kelvin = -173.15 degrees C.

You get the picture? Kelvin just ensures that you never have to deal with negatives -- 0 K = absolute zero -- the lowest possible temperature.
 
Knavey once bubbled...
Metric is NOT going to happen in the US...you might as well get used to that.

With an attitude like that, no, you're right -- you'll be stuck in the stone age for eons! No wonder it's always Europe and Canada making the technological advancements which are then simply stolen and remarketed in the US...

How much metric is used in heavy industry in the US? Production lines, power plants, factories...they are not going to retool everything to meet some standard that no one really wants over here.

You'd be surprised how prevalent it is already.

And that pretty much sums it up...no one over here wants it. Oh, there are a few that would promote it like a religion, but you can count them on one hand.

Yeah... the bright ones -- you know, the ones who have their triple PhD -- the ones that don't have their head stuck in the sand.

The US doesn't want it...so it isn't going to happen over here.

Do you really think the rest of the world wanted to change when they did? All it takes is the right person getting the vision for what metric offers... then BOOM... the whole nation has to convert.
 
KrisB once bubbled...


With an attitude like that, no, you're right -- you'll be stuck in the stone age for eons! No wonder it's always Europe and Canada making the technological advancements which are then simply stolen and remarketed in the US...



You'd be surprised how prevalent it is already.



Yeah... the bright ones -- you know, the ones who have their triple PhD -- the ones that don't have their head stuck in the sand.



Do you really think the rest of the world wanted to change when they did? All it takes is the right person getting the vision for what metric offers... then BOOM... the whole nation has to convert.

Stone age? You have GOT to be kidding me! You are living on this planet right?

Prevelance? Cite a few examples please. I gave you mine. Still have a ton of metric wrences in a tool box that rarely see the light of day.

PHDs make you bright? IMOH, its just another piece of paper. I know a couple of PHDs, and I know several janitors. Sometimes its a tossup on who lives in the real world, but my gut feeling is that I would rather have a janitor for my wingman than a PHD (although their are exceptions).

Name the "right person that had the vision" and converted the rest of the world to the metric system.

My point is...yes, my Honda Accord uses metric crap. And I take it to the dealer for repairs. My good old fashioned Ford and my Jeep, use standard and I work on them myself (sometimes the Ford goes to the shop, but that a computer issue that I don't want to pay for the equipment to diagnose stuff). Americans don't want the metric system. How many speed limit signs do you see with metric on them. Oh, I remember the HUGE push when the right person came along and was going to make all the US interstate highway system metric. 88 km/hr...those signs are REAL popular right now...as ANTIQUES.
 
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