We have been Tealed..!

[Handyjack]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Taking a sample into a shop means you are likely to buy the correct (or closest) item. Even a 1:1 photo copy is worth it.

Ideal working scale 1000mm:1 metre.

[BobL]

SWMBO is finally getting down to the level of detail requires..
I sent her into Serles Fasteners to buy 50mm M4, CS, SS, Phillips head screws.
I provided a 40mm long sample for her to show the sales assistant.
After a few minutes SWMBO came out with a sample and said, "This has everything you asked for but has a slightly smaller head, 6.0 versus 6.4 mm diameter".

[ian]

SWMBO is finally getting down to the level of detail requires..
I sent her into Serles Fasteners to buy 50mm M4, CS, SS, Phillips head screws.
I provided a 40mm long sample for her to show the sales assistant.
After a few minutes SWMBO came out with a sample and said, "This has everything you asked for but has a slightly smaller head, 6.0 versus 6.4 mm diameter".

You are a devil BobL.
Sending SWMBO into a fastener supplier with a mix dimension sample. Shame on you
6.4 mm is 1/4" rounded to the nearest tenth of a mm.
I'm pretty sure the full metric screw (were you looking for machine screws by chance?) has a 6 mm dia head

[damian]

Bring back gils and cubits I say.


The thing is the "old" measurement systems were based on real life situations and assumed the user could divide by 12. The metric system is based in fantasy for people who can't do maths.


I had to learn both long before I left school. Sometimes on the fly conversions get me (C and F!) but I mostly manage to trundle through.


Picking up non engineering people on trivial errors is really petty. The purpose of language is communication. If you fumble through to an understanding job done. I am absolutely useless at things biological but people I have encountered in those professions are very understanding of my limitations.


It is poor form to belittle people for not understanding my/our professions. Unless of course you happen to know everything...and as far as I'm aware there is only one of me...

[Mr Brush]

The imperial:metric changeover happened to me midway through schooling in the UK, so I'm comfortable with both.

This does mean, however, that my intuitive measuring scale moves freely between both systems according to which is a closer fit to the object I'm describing.

Hence my eyeballs are calibrated to a measurement scale of 3mm, 5mm, 1/4", 10mm, 1/2", 15mm, 3/4", 20mm, 1", etc.

I must have been in the cub scouts when the money went decimal; still remember the exciting evening when our "subs" went from a shiny sixpence to "two-and-a-half-new-pence"

[AlexS]

When Australia went metric in 1974, most states went from measuring water flow in cubic feet a second to cubic metres a second. Both good units because you could visualise them, or make an estimate by throwing a bit of grass in, estimating its velocity and the cross-sectional area and doing a quick mental multiplication. NSW, however went for megalitres per day. Totally impossible to visualise.

[Mr Brush]

When Australia went metric in 1974, most states went from measuring water flow in cubic feet a second to cubic metres a second. Both good units because you could visualise them, or make an estimate by throwing a bit of grass in, estimating its velocity and the cross-sectional area and doing a quick mental multiplication. NSW, however went for megalitres per day. Totally impossible to visualise.

I hadn't thought of that one. Even if I squint, hold my thumb up to sight at, and stick my tongue out the corner of my mouth a bit, I can't visualise a megalitre....let alone "half an olympic swimming pool per day"

[BobL]

You are a devil BobL.
Sending SWMBO into a fastener supplier with a mix dimension sample. Shame on you
6.4 mm is 1/4" rounded to the nearest tenth of a mm.
I'm pretty sure the full metric screw (were you looking for machine screws by chance?) has a 6 mm dia head

Yes machine screw.
Most of the M4 CS screws (eg bunnings) I use have a 7.32 mm diameter head
732head.jpg
The screw with the 6.4 mm diameter head is from my 3D printer
635head.jpg
I can't take a picture of the 6.0mm heads as they are now on my printer.

My M4 Pan heads are 6.6- 6.7 mm diameter

[ian]

Yes machine screw.

The screw with the 6.4 mm diameter head is from my 3D printer
635head.jpg

I know you are aware that 6.35mm is actually 1/4"

[ian]

When Australia went metric in 1974, most states went from measuring water flow in cubic feet a second to cubic metres a second. Both good units because you could visualise them, or make an estimate by throwing a bit of grass in, estimating its velocity and the cross-sectional area and doing a quick mental multiplication. NSW, however went for megalitres per day. Totally impossible to visualise.

I don't get why a megalitre per day is impossible to visualise. Not that I use megalitres all that much, if at all if I'm honest.

But a megalitre per day is near enough a thousand cubic metres per day. should be easy to visualise.


The measure I don't get is "Olympic swimming pools"
How wide is that "Olympic pool" 8 lanes; 8 and a bit lanes (i.e. a dividing rope to the outside of lanes 1 and 8; 10 and a bit lanes -- the difference going from 8 standard lanes to 10 lanes and a bit lanes is something like 27% in surface area.

How deep is that "Olympic pool"? What is the Olympic standard depth? Is the "standard" a constant depth, or is the end with the blocks always deeper than the other end?


When I was swimming competitively, "Olympic pools" came in two standard lengths -- 55 yards or 50 metres -- and there was a 2 to 3 second difference between the 800m and 880yd world records.

[Tomislav]

and just how did sarcastic thread on the the electorate and millenials turn into something more useful .

I went and borrowed the precision book and lost hours!

bloody woodies..

[BobL]

In high school we mainly used imperial but some metric.
In first year uni (except for chemistry which was all metric ) we had about an equal amount of imperial and metric for teh rest.
From third year onwards it was all metric apart from a couple of crusty old professors who still threw in the occasional imperial assignment and exam question - I think they were extract these questions from old text books.

During my post graduate work I started getting into air flows in dust free labs.
All our air flow and particle detection gear was imperial (ft/sec and CFM, particles/cuft) so I got used to those and they're still my goto units for air flow.

[Tonyz]

When I was in high school last century, the tech teacher tried using his YARD RULER on my desk to get my attention. Now when your busy chatting to a mate (cobber in NZ) and something comes flying past your ear you react quickly. Suffice to say his ruler disappeared from his hand very quickly and finished being 2 rulers instead.
O also finished up at home contemplating my actions, which I came to the conclusion were very good and brave. The headmaster didnt think so. so ended my time with imperial rulers including the principal, Queen Elizabeth etc

few years later I had an evening job pumping at a servo and was very tempted when said teacher came in the show him the difference between metric litres and imperial gallons.

[lovetoride]

My 17yo has been hanging around in my workshop too long. She understands feet and inches quite well. Metric is too confusing as she speaks in centimetres and I speak in millimetres (proper engineering speak).

Cheers, Vann.

My 34yo daughter can speak fluent imperial length measurements with me. Anything else imperial and she has no idea. BUT when we measure before heading to the hardware or elsewhere for her renos she does cm and I do mm! Mistakes have been made

I am 64 and fluent in all imperial and metric but when I am generally describing something to someone else I state lengths in inches. Go figure.

Jane

[damian]

Every time I hear a "journalist" say X Olympic swimming pools or "centered around" I want to stab them in the neck. English is the basis of their "profession" (or perhaps it's hairspray). If my maths or physics had been as bad as an engineer I'd be in gaol.