Thread: Imperial vs Metric system

The following is from page 170 of "A Polishers Handbook" Written by yours truely

UNDERSTANDING FINE & COARSE MEASUREMENTS
As used by woodworkers in sheds, garages and workshops throughout Australia.
Compiled initially by Neil Ellis for the National Woodworkers Calendar 1987

Hairsbreath: Smallest measurement. If you can find it, you can use it - approx. 1 millionths of a micro millimetre

Foofteenth: much bigger - 25 micro mm

Gnatshair: 15 Foofteenths

Gnatsdick: not an exact measurement. Usually between 10 - 20 Gnatshairs (dependant upon how well hung the Gnat is)

Beesdick: the most commonly used fine measurements (usually bigger than a Gnatsdick, but not always) 1/100th mm or there about.

Fairy’s fart: all encompassing measurement - covers all sizes below .25(¼) mm.

A Metrik: one millimetre (mm)

A Smidgen: also called a Smidg - 7.35mm but 7mm is near enough

A Tad: 1.3 centimetres

A Touch: two Tads

A Bit: three Smidgens

A Little Bit: 15 Smidgens or there about

Heaps: also called Lots - 10 Tads, 1 Smidg & a Metrik

Stacks: also called Lots more - 5 Heaps

Bags: also known as Bagful - 350 Tads

Bulls Roar: 734 metres - almost exactly 1,000 smidgen or there about

Klick: 1 Kilometre

Country Mile: 3218 Klicks

Thick as a Brick: a brickies measurement that should never be used in woodwork

Thick as 2 planks: 984cm from beam to beam.

Beam: hunk of wood too long and too cumbersome for one person to handle alone.

Cheers - Neil

I'm still a fan of a positional Sexagesimal system. It has been around a long time ~3000BC, we still use it today time angles etc, has the best of base 10 and base 12. It stacks very well and also position fractions work out great. 12'20 = 12 and 1/3 not 12.333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333......

As a side note how come nobody uses 1/3rd of a foot? or a 1/3rd of an hour to 6 oclock?

The Japanese carpenters also have an interesting square where the scale on one edge is 1.414 * the other scale, very useful for figuring the square beam you can hew from a log.

Its all arbitrary, the main reason I prefer the metric system is because of the interrelated system of SI units. Even the inch is defined by the metric system.

1000g of water ~ 1000mL ~ 1000cm^3 etc etc.

-J

So Neil, if I understand rightly, an inch is a gnatshair bigger than 25mm, but an inch is also a couple of fairy farts small than a touch (being two tads).

I'm confused already.

Michael

Not there to be understood, just to be of help with units of measurement.

No one said it wasn't confusing, frustrating or right or wrong.... It must be right at least a little bit or a tad fairies fart or something similar.

Can't possibly we wrong for woodworkers because no one ever works that fine.

Also from "A Polishers Handbook" page 158.

THE MEASURE OF A TRUE WOODWORKER
Two friends, a woodie (woodworker) and a mathematician were together in a pub discussing a mathematical problem. On a table four metres away they had placed a carton of beer.

The problem was to get to the table by taking a first step of any size, the second step should then be half of the first, the third step half of the second, and so on.

The mathematician showed that he was truly a man of learning and figures by saying, “This is a geometric progression asymptotic to zero, and no matter how many steps you take you will never reach the table.”

With that the woodie jumped to his feet, leapt two metres, strode one metre, crept half a metre, leaned over, picked up the beer and in true woodie style, triumphantly declared,
“Near enough is good enough!”

woody beer.png

i brought and ate metric eggs today.
they were ok. but wont last as long

I think its brilliant that English, Australian and US shoe sizes are all defined in barleycorns to this day.... I never knew this before reading about barleycorns inspired by this thread (I always thought the numbers were made up)

I'm guessing barley grows bigger in Australia as I can wear size 15 AU, 16 UK and 17 US shoes all with the one foot (however if I go by EU measurements I always get a shoe that fits

Jake - is that you?

I'm guessing barley grows bigger in Australia as I can wear size 15 AU, 16 UK and 17 US shoes all with the one foot

no, not jake and the link did not work.

Really?
The link didn't work?
It renders on my screen as a pic of Rolf Harris as "Jake the Peg" with 3 legs!.

This is all i get....

Originally Posted by Timless Timber

Really?
The link didn't work?
It renders on my screen as a pic of Rolf Harris as "Jake the Peg" with 3 legs!.

I got three legs.....

But one's a spare.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

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.

32mm became the standard because that was the smallest spacing they could get before the gears connecting the spindles to each other became too prone to failure.

Or at least that's what I was taught when I did my wood machining course.

One thing about the Imperial system is that it makes a person's brain work harder. Brains are like muscles... the harder they work, the stronger they get. This led the British to invent such things as the weaving loom and the steam engine, and to conquer half a planet. Then along came the French, with the 'easy' metric system, which was all the measurement they needed to put white flags into mass production. The human race was forever doomed. Here endeth the lesson.

There is a nice image here London Visitor's Guide - Trafalgar Square of the standards for foot, yard etc.

The current inch is only 54 years old.

It was not until 1959 that the United Kingdom and United States redefined the yard to be exactly 0.9144 metres and hence one inch as exactly 25.4 mm. This is called the international inch.
And so it has nothing to do with the inch you used BEFORE 1959 except for the name "inch" could just as well have called it "yanks'.