Thread: Imperial vs Metric system

The coherance of the metric system is its biggest appeal to me. Doing away with imperial units means you in turn do away with a mountain of conversion factors. Makes doing a lot of calculations much more straight forward.

Doing away with? !

I'll have to hide my imperial stuff from the likes of you.

Jordan

Originally Posted by chambezio

I whole heartedly agree that the Imperial system was quite clumsy in a few/lot of areas and were termed with names we don't use much in todays language.......(furlong, rod, pole, perch, dram....)
But.....how about System 32?????? (Cabinet Making basis for white board cupboards)
It is based around using 16mm thick pynebord/MDF
The distance between the face edge of a carcase is 37mm. This is where you screw on hinges through a plate that you fix the hinge onto
Handle are commonly fitted into holes 96mm apart
And so it goes on. Clumsy measurements.....16, 32, 96mm......all quite happily living in "System 32"

Maybe the French were having another shot at the Poms by throwing in these measurements

System 32 was devised after WWII when lots of rebuilding needed to be done; 32mm was chosen as that was the largest(??) most common(??) spacing available on multiple head boring machines at the time.

Close enough for me..jpg

But if you say 1.375 inches.
An american is going to ask you what the hell it means??

Even after explaining what it means they still get stuck,
they want it as 1 3/8 inch.

Of course you lot have been spared the Cape CWT and Cape foot used in the Southern African colonies.

G'Day Fellas,
I have always thought the imperial system was perfect for inbred hillbillys with six fingers on each hand, which may explain why our American cousins are so determined to hang on to it,
Regards,
Martin

The maths of the imperial system were based on magic numbers.

12 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 - good if you need to share a dozen widegts with your mates.
36, 60, 144, 360 also have numerous factors.

So we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.
360 degrees in a circle

etc...

Does anyone else remember when Current Affair tried the april fool joke that soon we would go to decimal time.
100 seconds, 100 minutes and 20 hours per day.

Originally Posted by .RC.

As a total deviation.... Everyone remember at primary school the multiplication tables getting drummed into you.. Up to 12X12... Even today think they still do it...

It would not surprise me if that is a leftover idea from the imperial measurement years...

I was wondering if they still did the multiplication tables up to 12.
Once there was a reason for it but not since 1966.

Originally Posted by Bedford

Close enough for me..jpg

Now that white tape is just quality! Love it.

Originally Posted by Bedford

Close enough for me..jpg

Is the white one a radius tape?

Originally Posted by _fly_

Is the white one a radius tape?

No, it's a five dollar one from the two dollar shop.

The white one has ten eighths!

> Does anyone know which system came first?

About 200 years ago, every country still had its own "imperial" system. Even countries like Switzerland, that otherwise did away with anything "imperial" like kings and emperors already some 800 years ago. Every language had another name for "inch". Pousse in French, Zoll in German, Pollice in Italy, etc etc. And the exact length of each "inch" was subtly different in each country. The inch is defined as the length of an average human thumb tip. Not a very accurate or stable definition. It was a big mess.

Then Mr N. Buonaparte forcefully introduced the meter, based on a metal standard. Initially nobody wanted or needed yet another measuring system. But the advantages were undeniable, and most countries worldwide converted during the 19th century (eg 1800 to 1900) to the metric system. With the exception of the UK and their former colonies. But during the 20th century even these have converted to the meter. Leaving today in the 21st century only the USA still firmly stuck with the imperial system. Funny enough, even the US are officially a metric country since well over 100 years - they just never seriously undertook to legislate and implement the transition. Still, I believe it is safe to say that in a generation (or about 25 years time) even the Americans will have completed their transition to the meter.

Hey, who really cares? It is not too hard to work in either system. For home shop users, it mens lots of good obsolete imperial tools become available for cheap.