Centimeters and Millimeters, Inches and - eh? 1

[BIS]

Hallo All,

Just wondering - can an inch be subdivided? Or do you just call it "half an inch", "one third of an inch" etc?

I was watching snooker, and the commentators on a specifically brilliant shot mentioned it was 'inch perfect' - but in reality it was much better than that.

 

[Welshbird]

Actually I do still call things a 'bob' (shilling) and stuff.

I'm just very very old....

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[SantaMufasa]

I can't blame you, Fee...I know a Bob that is worth no more than a shilling, as well. <another grin>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[KenCunningham]

Two tanners and four threpenny bits it is then!

I remember going out for the newspapers for my Dad the morning decimalisation 'came in' and being very excited by all the 'new money' in my change. Simpler times eh?

I want to be good, is that not enough?

 

[Lunatic]

Santa
Don't forget baseball - a 420 foot blast sounds much better than a 128.016 meter blast ;-p

But... have you ever tried to:

Add
One and five eights
to
twenty five and nine sixteenths
plus
thirty three and three quarters
minus
twelve and three sixteenths
quickly?

There were times at the jobsite that I was ready to scream.

I know it will be painful, but by golly, we need to make the jump.

Don't forgot, we won't have any more probes burn up in the Martian atmosphere because some yahoo forgot to convert meters to yards in their re-entry program or whatever that snafu at NASA was.

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[mjldba]

When I happened to catch the local weather forecast in the summer, I love to hear "tomorrow morning we're going to start out at 72* and should reach a high near 85*". I just can't get very excited about "tomorrow morning we're going to start out at 22* and should reach a high near 29*".

They're only numbers but temps in the 20's sounds too cold to me, especially in August.

 

[pinkgecko]

Yes, but I'm much happier with my weight in kilos. It's a good tradeoff for temperatures

[blue]Never listen to your customers. They were dumb enough to buy your product, so they have no credibility. - Dogbert[/blue]

 

[mjldba]

Back in the 70's when Canada went metric, my car club planned a picnic at Long Beach, Ontario with another club. We didn't know mph from kph so when were driving through some small towns in Ontario with posted speedlimit of 60 kph we were thinking "Damn, Canada is an enlightened country".

We proceeded to drive a law-abiding 60 mph in very high profile (read: glittering & loud) 60's Corvettes.

When we got to the Ontario club's cottage they pretty much split a gut laughing at us when we told them what we had done. 60 kph is about 35 mph.

 

[flapeyre]

There is a setting on my car's electronic console that will change everything from US to metric. Miles become kilometers, the temperature shows up in Celsius, fuel economy is liters per 100 km instead of miles per gallon. And the speedometer needle will suddenly indicate a 60% greater value. I like to freak out unsuspecting passengers .

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 

[mjldba]

I'm sure I've heard European Tour golfers refer to 4 foot putts and 100 yard wedge shots. These comments have been made at European Tour events (rebroadcast on the Golf Channel with European announcers/color analysts) as well as PGA events.

I'm sure they're not saying these things for the benefit of USA viewers so is golf perceived as a game measured in yards and feet no matter where it's played?

Just curious, not being geocentric.

 

[SantaMufasa]

fuel economy is liters per 100 km instead of miles per gallon

So is it typical in metric environments to show fuel consumption as "liquid unit per distance" versus the US/UK method of "distance per liquid unit"?


If so, this is my "learn-something-new-every-day" event for today.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[MCuthill]

mjldba,

Good thing you weren't in a part of our fine country where the signs read 100 km/h ... zipping along at 100mph would put around the 175 km/h mark. Which in my experience is fast enough on most Canadian roads.

On the topic of the thread, having grown up in Canada, we learned the Metric system in school, but used the ¿English? system at home (as my parents graduated in the late 70's and grew up with Inches, Feet, Gallons, etc) I would like to think that I have the best of both worlds, but there are some conversions I just don't have a use for... # of Feet in a Mile? .. ~shrugs~ I do agree that some will never change, most every establishment still serves Draft by the Pint... mmmmmm Pint o' Guiness.
Oddly, our Drivers Licence's give height in Feet... weird.

The new car I picked up has a boost gauge, and for some reason, kPa just isn't as nice to read as PSI. The 10lb boost on the car is 68.94kPa ... I don't know about you... but I think it's easier to say 10lbs

Mike
______________________________________________________________
"It Seems All My Problems Exist Between Keyboard and Chair"

 

[Grenage]

Aye, we should clearly just change over suddenly to Kilometers, meters etc. Pints of lager, however, must stay.

Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[MCuthill]

Sorry Santa, you posted after I started viewing and responsing to this post....

But Yes.... in the metric system is it Liquid Per Distance... the car gets about 7.0L/100km : 40MPG

I prefer MPG... but at the end of the day, all that matters is I got there wihout running out of gas. ~chuckles~

Mike
______________________________________________________________
"It Seems All My Problems Exist Between Keyboard and Chair"

 

[flapeyre]

Mike,

Actually, that's only about 34 miles per gallon.

Are 28.3495231 grams of prevention worth 0.45359237 kilograms of cure?

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 

[mjldba]

Mcuthill: have you driven the QEW? Posted speed (I think) is 100 kph, which is about 62 mph, and you need to go about 85 - 90 MPH just to keep up with traffic.

 

[BIS]

Oh dear... seems I may have started one of those threads that seem to go and on and on and on and...

Anyway, just want to drop in here and show my appreciation for all that has been said so far.

It IS funny though, even though we may have gone metric - there are certainly situations where history shows his (or her ?) face. As for the OP, I actually didn't know how you would subdivide an inch - I do now.

Thank you all for your responses - as usual, much appreciated. It also proves that even though my handle may say "(TechnicalUser)" - it is most certainly not in the area of non metric measurements.

High Five to Tek-Tips

 

[SantaMufasa]

BIS, As you will find as you participate more with us in "Making an Impression" (MAI), we MAI-ers seem to get a perverse enjoyment out of "beating a dead horse". (I don't know what the equivalent phrase would be in Koninkrijk der Nederlanden.) But that's what we seem to do well around here.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[edfair]

You're not trying to shut us down are you? Next we need to get into how you prove measurements, such as micrometers, calipers, and guage blocks. Some of which is going to lead to metallurgy, surfacing, heat expansion of metals, etc. And possibly the correct way to use the tools.

Then there is the thing about what you want to measure. Ezamples are wood thicknesses and what they mean, metal thicknesses and what they mean, wire guages and what they mean, and in general who sets the standards. We should be able to cover all this in a day or two.

 

[BIS]

OK - you have converted me.

I have no idea what 'beating a dead horse' would be in Dutch - although I live here it does not mean I have a full grasp of the local (metric) dialect.

I do know that the highest point in The Netherlands is said to be the back of a Frisian cow - whether that is measured in feet or meters I don't know - off I go to investigate.

Now carry on - will be back in an obscure measurement of time.

 

[SantaMufasa]

BIS,

To ensure that I was not confusing you, do you understand the meaning of our slang/idiomatic phrase, "beating a dead horse"? It means, "going far beyond what is necessary (often to the point of silliness, annoyance, or the ridiculous)."

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]