US divers using metric?

[Kevrumbo]

Again, the motivation is for the traveling diver to destinations & dive-ops overseas -especially critical for the advanced or technical diver, where you will frequently have Asian or European teammates. . . and again once you commit to metric, it's way easier & intuitive to work with:

Easy Imperial US/Metric Conversions for depth & pressure, that you can do in your head:

Depth in Meters multiplied by 10/3 gives Depth in Feet;
Feet multiplied by 3/10 gives Meters.
Example: 18m(10/3) = 60' ; 60'(3/10) = 18m

Pressure Bar multiplied by 3/2, and multiplied again by 10 gives Pressure PSI;
Pressure PSI multiplied by 2/3, and divided by 10 gives Pressure Bar.
Ex): 200bar(3/2)(10) = 3000psi ; 3000psi(2/3)/10 = 200bar.

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Your common counting numbers, or Reference Cardinal Numbers, for depth in a typical Scuba Dive Table are:

Imperial US (feet) by 10's:
Ex): 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 etc

Metric System goes by 3's:
Ex): 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 etc

. ..Hence the depth conversion factors 3/10 & 10/3 above between the two number sequences; Check out an old monograph attachment below -which convinced me to switch to metric units- on gas planning in metric & Imperial units. . .

 

[DiverGuam]

Hey KevRumbo, do you have a blog section here at SB? I would love to send people who ask why I use metric to your explanations, and easy ideas to work around things when needed.

 

[Nemrod]

Th Metric system is fine in science, I was trained in and worked in Metric, no problem. However, I find it less useful in my daily life preferring USA feet, inches, psi. I do not bother making conversions back and forth, if I am working in Metric then I stay in and think Metric and if I am in US/Imperial units then I stay in and think Imperial. No need to always be converting back and forth.

N

 

[kwinter]

You find it less useful in daily life because we are stuck in an archaic system. Eliminate the US Imperial system and conversions become unnecessary. Kids learn metric easily. Smart adults will use conversions for a while until it becomes second nature. Plumbers, carpenters, chefs and bakers will initially think they've been screwed over, until they find that they no longer have to deal with fractions.

However, we will have to change some things. A 2x4 will no longer be 2x4. Of course it hasn't been 2x4 in over a hundred years. It's actually 1.5x3.5. So a 2x4 is only 3.5 wide and a 2x6 is only 5.5, but then bigger sizes change again and a 2x10 is only 9.25 wide. This is really a system worth hanging on to.

So take out a piece of paper that used to be 8.5 x 11 inches and write to your congressmen and senators that they need to wise up.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[dfx]

However, we will have to change some things. A 2x4 will no longer be 2x4. Of course it hasn't been 2x4 in over a hundred years. It's actually 1.5x3.5. So a 2x4 is only 3.5 wide and a 2x6 is only 5.5, but then bigger sizes change again and a 2x10 is only 9.25 wide. This is really a system worth hanging on to.

Using Canada as an example, in these cases the imperial system still prevails here unfortunately. Not just in everyday speech, but in stores like Home Depot you still by stuff by the foot.

Speaking of Canada, one of my biggest beef with the imperial/US system is that there's a disagreement in the volumetric units. A Canadian gallon is bigger than a US gallon, a Canadian pint is bigger than a US pint. There's 20 imperial ounces in an imperial pint, but 16 US ounces in a US pint. The imperial ounce is also different from the US ounce. That's fluid ounces, not weight ounces, which are the same. Ounces and pounds are a measure of... mass, right? How do you measure force? Also pounds. Aaahhh!

 

[kwinter]

Sorry, but force would be in foot-pounds or inch-pounds. I've never thought about a metric torque wrench. Thanks for adding a new twist. As for the Canadians having larger pints, ounces and gallons, it must have something to do with consumption of Labatts or Molson. Seriously, it is the big reason they renamed it the US Customary system of measurement and got rid of the Imperial misnomer. Anyone who ever drove through Canada knows about Imperial gallons at the pump.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[t4e]

Sorry, but force would be in foot-pounds or inch-pounds. I've never thought about a metric torque wrench. Thanks for adding a new twist. As for the Canadians having larger pints, ounces and gallons, it must have something to do with consumption of Labatts or Molson. Seriously, it is the big reason they renamed it the US Customary system of measurement and got rid of the Imperial misnomer. Anyone who ever drove through Canada knows about Imperial gallons at the pump.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

just can't get my head around as to why did the US have to make their own measurements?

 

[dfx]

Sorry, but force would be in foot-pounds or inch-pounds. I've never thought about a metric torque wrench.

Foot-pound is a measure of torque, not force. Torque is distance times force. In metric, it's newton-meters, newton being the force and meter the distance. Thus, foot being the distance, pound is the force (same is the P in PSI is not a measure of mass). More precisely, it should be called pound-foot, to avoid confusion with foot-pounds being a measure of energy or work. In metric, you have joules for that. Confused already?

Pound-foot (torque) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Foot-pound (energy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pound (force) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pound (mass) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyone who ever drove through Canada knows about Imperial gallons at the pump.

Actually you'd have liters, not gallons :tongue:

To make things worse, when you deal with fluid ounces or pints in Canada, you often deal with the US units, not the imperial ones. Or maybe you don't. You're never quite sure.

 

[Aquavelvet]

For manufacturing and industry, the controlling dimensions are all in metric. So we fit just fine into the global economy. Oddly enough, electronic PCBs use mixed dimensions - trace widths and spacing are still in mils, while all other dimensions are mm. And the fab houses in Singapore have no problem with that.

So why does it make any difference that daily units used by the people are English/Imperial? There's no real incentive to switch. We do just fine buying milk and gasoline by the gallon, driving miles from one place to another, and putting PSI of gas into our tires and scuba tanks. British pints are great for drinking beer, but US pints work just fine otherwise.


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[JDelage]

I'd love for the US to switch to metric, but it's not going to happen. There's no incentive to do so and there would be significant social and financial costs. So, not going to happen generally, but could happen for specific fields like diving.