Standard vs Metric

[lmorin]

Those differences have caused so many problems... time for all to switch to metric And if the whole world could speak one language, that would be nice as well - preferably Dutch but English is fine too
........

The US has elected to stay Imperial/Standard along with other leading countries of the world----->Myanmar and Liberia.

 

[DuboisP]

As gcarter said: you can buy gauges that display both imperial and metric. Probably a good investment if you plan to dive outside of the USA zone of influence.

when i dove in USA with my metric gauge, the only questions i had :
analogic gauge ? green zone ? red zone ?

 

[Akimbo]

Akimbo - you are scary brainy ... I always feel stupid after reading posts like this from you. A friend of mine that I did a couple of reef boat dives with was shocked that I could set the O2% on my computer . He said " You commercial divers always have some guy doing that S**t for you". I laughed ... but I am not so far from that. I am techno illiterate.

Thanks, but not really. The secret is storing information as you find it in a spreadsheet and mastering cut & paste!

I’m sure this happens to everyone. You make a calculation when somebody, a book, or a computer comes up with a different value… maybe close but different. That makes me question if I’m lucky and wrong or it’s just a rounding problem. In the process of sorting it out I might learn something like what the real number is, what assumptions they are based on, and/or the best formula. Acceptable rounding errors are often different in recreation diving, deep sat, and engineering. Once you have a spreadsheet, it is just easier to let it work to the highest possible precision and round down at the end.

I actually remember the really embarrassing experience that taught me that Bars didn’t equal Atmospheres. Good thing though because the alternative was ordering two tube trailers, ~10K M³ or 350,000 Ft³, of the wrong deep mix. :blush:

 

[j2s]

Yeah, but we got more cars !!! [maybe not such a good thing either ]

 

[XS-NRG]

I live in Argentina and rented gear is normally in BAR, but you can find some instruments in psi/feet. Also new gear is sell only in metric units.
I've bought my spg in psi, because I was in the US and finding a spg in Bar was impossible. However I find a spg in psi better at a first glance. 3000 psi at start, 2000 psi in the middle and 1000 psi to return. Just big numbers.

Ya BAR would be tricky for that one. 200 to start, 140 in middle and 70 return. Not as nice as PSI but at the same time, if I know what my start is and what I shouldn't go below then I can easily figure it out. I wouldn't even bother converting it but rather just keep an eye on it and stay in the middle of the range!

I speak METrial. Everything with a unit of measure is divided depending what the subject is for me.

 

[oreocookie]

Ya BAR would be tricky for that one. 200 to start, 140 in middle and 70 return. Not as nice as PSI but at the same time, if I know what my start is and what I shouldn't go below then I can easily figure it out. I wouldn't even bother converting it but rather just keep an eye on it and stay in the middle of the range!

I speak METrial. Everything with a unit of measure is divided depending what the subject is for me.

I rented a reg with metric gauges by accident this past summer. Only noticed when I got on the boat for the first dive of my vacation. The DM gave me the reserve she wanted in bar, so all i really needed was a full tank number and on on the boat number, any other number was irrelevant, either "mostly full" or "getting down there". Only problem was when my buddy asked for my pressure; never would have thought I'd ever have use for a "calculator" hand signal, but I did when I decided showing her the gauge would be more helpful than telling her 110. Her response: "huh?" so out came the calculator and mental math.

I'm with you on the METrial. I kinda wish my dive computer had that as an option, might go for feet and C.

I love your avatar, btw.

 

[XS-NRG]

I'm with you on the METrial. I kinda wish my dive computer had that as an option, might go for feet and C.

I love your avatar, btw.

My wish list is the Atomic Cobalt air integrated dive computer. It lets you choose feet or m for depth, PSI or BAR for pressure, but also C or F for temp. It's not just a setting for either imperial across the board or metric across the board. That in itself is a selling feature for me. I scoured youtube videos to find in depth explanations of the computer and some settings and sure enough one of the videos showed me what I was looking for and I was happy with the results.

I'll be taking donations any time from anyone to go towards the Cobalt fund. Christmas is coming people....

Glad you like the avatar I'm going to be building a blog site/photo gallery site soon and that's my logo. Going to need to get some t-shirts made too I think. :cool2:

 

[kwinter]

I teach remedial math at the college level, including the metric system. Promised since I was a kid by President JFK, we are stuck in the "Ugly American" mentality because of the resistance to change. Kids can learn it very easily, but they don't vote. The construction trades would probably be affected most since a 2 by 4 wouldn't be 2 by 4 anymore. Of course a 2 by 4 hasn't really been 2 by 4 in about a hundred years since its 1.5 by 3.5 these days. I remember when the soft drink industry seized the opportunity to capitalize on a world market by making the change. My mother freaked out because of all these new fangled measurements. Today no one gives a second thought to the fact that they buy a 2-liter bottle of Coke and a half-gallon of milk.

After teaching the beauty and simplicity of the metric system for years, I realized that I was still diving in feet and psi. So I decided to change cold turkey. Gauges are in bar. Depth is in meters. And its all very easy to get used to. Temp is still in Fahrenheit because the conversion is more complex, but mostly because it provides more precision since the units are smaller.

Go metric and don't look back. It will bring strange looks from dive buddies and DMs here as well as in some places in the Caribbean where they are not used to Americans being so forward thinking.

 

[gcarter]

My experience around here has been similar. Few use anything other than Imperial units below the surface, whether it's overheard at the dive site/on the boat or over food and adult beverages afterwards. Especially true with the seemingly more numerous who only dive on vacation in warm water. If anything, hearing someone diving in metres locally tends to draw extra attention just because it's unusual.

I'll confess, it is a struggle to leave my computer on metric - I grew up on imperial. I even wrote a temp conversion table in the back of my log book for reference LOL.

 

[Chill Diver]

When I did my first few dives, my rental gear was imperial. As soon as I bought my own gear, it was metric all the way. My observation of other divers around Vancouver is that imperial is more common. Perhaps it is because of our proximity to the USA.

An interesting note - Canada went metric in 1978 (I think). I only learned metric in school so I tend to think in metric. My wife, 9 years older than me, learned mainly imperial in school so she still thinks in imperial. I am trying to convert her