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2022
- Thread starter RandyM
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As a scientist and engineer, I have been using both the Imperial and metric system for more than fifty years. Aside from a few examples, I still have to translate from one to the other. I have a very good mental picture of what -10ºF is but -25ºC, I need to to a calculation to get a good picture. I know that 1mm is .04" and .01mm is 4 thou but if I am measuring a length of 87mm, I have to do the math to understand that this is 3.4". Much of the rough calculations are done mentally but it is still a translation
I once read that if someone learns a second language early in life, they will think in that language. Learned later and they will always be translating back to their primary language. When I was learning to send and receive Morse code required for a ham radio license, I found that at lower speeds like 5 words per minute, a recipient visualized individual characters as they were received. whereas , people who were adept at higher speeds visualized entire words as they were received.
This phenomenon is also true for dialects and accents. When I traveled to the UK, I found that people spoke too fast for me to fully grasp what they were saying. Conversely, relatives and friends from the UK would constantly complain that Americans speak too fast. This is in spite of the fact that both countries speak a common (mostly) language. After we become acclimated, we find that their speech has slowed down.
I see it as well in currency exchange. All too often, I hear the phrase, "how much is that in real money".
I once read that if someone learns a second language early in life, they will think in that language. Learned later and they will always be translating back to their primary language. When I was learning to send and receive Morse code required for a ham radio license, I found that at lower speeds like 5 words per minute, a recipient visualized individual characters as they were received. whereas , people who were adept at higher speeds visualized entire words as they were received.
This phenomenon is also true for dialects and accents. When I traveled to the UK, I found that people spoke too fast for me to fully grasp what they were saying. Conversely, relatives and friends from the UK would constantly complain that Americans speak too fast. This is in spite of the fact that both countries speak a common (mostly) language. After we become acclimated, we find that their speech has slowed down.
I see it as well in currency exchange. All too often, I hear the phrase, "how much is that in real money".
I wish the politicians of the '70's would have had the guts to finish the metric conversion of the country.
In my business most of the hardware we used was European/metric so were the machines, so I became accustom to using metric. Now in retirement when figuring out my own projects, I prefer using metric. It's just easier. Even simply grabbing a drill for a threaded hole is simpler. I mostly leave my DROs on mm.
In my business most of the hardware we used was European/metric so were the machines, so I became accustom to using metric. Now in retirement when figuring out my own projects, I prefer using metric. It's just easier. Even simply grabbing a drill for a threaded hole is simpler. I mostly leave my DROs on mm.
My hobby (model trains) has an odd scaling factor, from Metric to Imperial. The scale is HO, meaning half "0", approximately 1:87.5. HO is calculated as 3.5mm to 1 foot. It came about from the English around 1930ish where they determined "0"(aught) scale was 7mm to the foot. At the time, it was considered small, the larger (#1, #2, #3, etc) being in fractional inches. HO and 00 scales represent the "half" sizes. HO to Americans and OO to English. HO, truely half "O" scale is 3.5mm to the foot. OO scale is actually a more useful scale at 4.0mm to the foot. 1mm is 3 inches, et al. . . Which was first, and who had to be different is lost to history. At the time, England was using inches so it was a matter of politics, no more.
I have been doing this conversoin in my head for over 60 years. Even after all those years, I can tell you only that a Nr 6 machine screw is 3.5mm, 0.138 inch. When I visualize a measurement, it is in Imperial which I convert to the Metric scaling factor. A centimeter is ~around 3/8 inch. 12mm is ~around 1/2 inch, 100mm is ~around 4 inches. Until the entire US comes around to this thinking, Metric conversion will be spotty at best.
Until the '50s-'60s, the US was the primary source of solid, reliable machinery. That has culturely changed, nowadays Europe and China are taking the lead. And with them, metrics. We, in the US, will of necessity learn Metrics the hard way. Being forced to, but it won't be easy or instantaneous. It will be from a collapse of the "industrial might" we all grew up with.
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At work I’m in charge of the torque tools. We have manufacturing process documents which call out ft/lbs, in/lbs and in/oz’s. You would think that a factory with all metric fasteners would use newton meters….
Won’t even go into explaining to engineers why it matters that they need to spec if the application is torque setting or torque limiting.
John
Won’t even go into explaining to engineers why it matters that they need to spec if the application is torque setting or torque limiting.
John
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