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Anyone else hate the metric system?!?!

530RL

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Something to consider.

There are three countries in the world who have not adopted the metric system, Liberia, Myanmar and the US.

As Squeezer pointed out it is actually easier to use. But when one combines metric with imperial mistakes get made.

If you are a mechanic in any other country your tool costs are half of America. But then again who doesn’t like a big tool box full of tools. :)
 

Ziggy

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Personally, I hope they were pushed...

That was the most frustrating time ever to be a dealership mechanic.

I was very happy moving to Lexus where Everything was metric. They were much more uniform on how they built their cars. Lexus would take guys off the wash rack and make techs out of them. That's how easy they were to work on.

Even Toyota wouldn't do that!!!!!!! lol
Component part outsourcing from foreign countries introduced metric parts and fasteners into domestic cars
 

spectras only

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Apollo program. lunar landing > https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html
With respect to units, the LGC was eclectic. Inside the computer we used metric units, at least in the case of powered-flight navigation and guidance. At the operational level NASA, and especially the astronauts, preferred English units. This meant that before being displayed, altitude and altitude-rate (for example) were calculated from the metric state vector maintained by navigation;), and then were converted to feet and ft/sec. It would have felt weird to speak of spacecraft altitude in meters, and both thrust and mass were commonly expressed in pounds. Because part of the point of this paper is to show how things were called in this era of spaceflight, I shall usually express quantities in the units that it would have felt natural to use at the time.
User manual, 6 inches thick.:)
1582265319900.png
 

Gelcoater

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Something to consider.

There are three countries in the world who have not adopted the metric system, Liberia, Myanmar and the US.

As Squeezer pointed out it is actually easier to use. But when one combines metric with imperial mistakes get made.

If you are a mechanic in any other country your tool costs are half of America. But then again who doesn’t like a big tool box full of tools. :)

9EF917D5-45F6-4E09-AFC5-ABFA023B9280.jpeg
 

rivermobster

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Component part outsourcing from foreign countries introduced metric parts and fasteners into domestic cars

Wanna know what's wierd?

And I remember this clearly cause I was So pissed off! The first metric fastner I came across at Lincoln Mercury was a bolt that held the motor mount to the block.

Is it possible the block was outsourced? Even back in the 80's?

Who knows.

But I can tell you this, and I know You know this, the imports are a Lot easier to work on. With the exception of BMW of course.

;)
 

rivermobster

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Something to consider.

There are three countries in the world who have not adopted the metric system, Liberia, Myanmar and the US.

As Squeezer pointed out it is actually easier to use. But when one combines metric with imperial mistakes get made.

If you are a mechanic in any other country your tool costs are half of America. But then again who doesn’t like a big tool box full of tools. :)

Yeah no.

I've worked at import car dealerships, and American car dealerships.

You need the same shit at both places.

Your data is incorrect on this one. 😉

Oh and ask Squeeze if he's ever done a four wheel alignment, on a machine that was set up to measure/display specs in metric.

Easier my ass! LoL
 

rush1

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Cars started going with metric fasterns in the 70's when the US was going to go all metric but when everyone got pissed off and kept sae standard only half was changed and they stopped moving forward on the change , now a lot of american cars are all metric like the new corvette.
 

Ziggy

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Yeah no.

I've worked at import car dealerships, and American car dealerships.

You need the same shit at both places.

Your data is incorrect on this one. 😉

Oh and ask Squeeze if he's ever done a four wheel alignment, on a machine that was set up to measure/display specs in metric.

Easier my ass! LoL
Don't think you'll fine an SAE bolt on a foriegn car though🙂
 

Carlson-jet

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The metric system ruined the 12-24 fastener.
It is now trying to ruin the Gold weight system that was weird to begin with. :p
 

rrrr

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As you all may remember, I built large data centers for about 20 years before I retired. Sometime around 2004, the standard 2' X 2' raised access floor system was overtaken by 600 X 600 mm flooring made in China.

The reason was simple. I could buy container loads of flooring and understructure for half the cost of domestic flooring made by USG. The panels are 23.622”, so there's no reason dimensionally not to use them. It's close enough.
 

HBCraig

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With all of my cranes it's all metric. Boom length and weights. Metric tons isnt bad because I can over shoot the capacity and just say its metric. ;)
 

530RL

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Yeah no.

I've worked at import car dealerships, and American car dealerships.

You need the same shit at both places.

Your data is incorrect on this one. 😉

Oh and ask Squeeze if he's ever done a four wheel alignment, on a machine that was set up to measure/display specs in metric.

Easier my ass! LoL


If Joseph Dombey wouldn’t have been captured by Pirates, none of these problems we have today would have occurred.........

All this is because of pirates.... :)
 

Uncle Dave

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Apollo program. lunar landing > https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html
With respect to units, the LGC was eclectic. Inside the computer we used metric units, at least in the case of powered-flight navigation and guidance. At the operational level NASA, and especially the astronauts, preferred English units. This meant that before being displayed, altitude and altitude-rate (for example) were calculated from the metric state vector maintained by navigation;), and then were converted to feet and ft/sec. It would have felt weird to speak of spacecraft altitude in meters, and both thrust and mass were commonly expressed in pounds. Because part of the point of this paper is to show how things were called in this era of spaceflight, I shall usually express quantities in the units that it would have felt natural to use at the time.
User manual, 6 inches thick.:)
View attachment 847018

ehhhh ok ....thats one way to look at it.

Pretty sure all measurements would be derived from a base 2 computations and extrapolated from there - with 10 base math coming before 12 based math. So does that make it "metric" or is the system what the user readouts and calibration were?

UD
 

rivermobster

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ehhhh ok ....thats one way to look at it.

Pretty sure all measurements would be derived from a base 2 computations and extrapolated from there - with 10 base math coming before 12 based math. So does that make it "metric" or is the system what the user readouts and calibration were?

UD

Ones and zeros are metric, right?

:rolleyes:
 

spectras only

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UD, we're in the 21st century now. In my line of work using lasers for the products. not an iota of standard/imperial unit are used. Tight tolerance of 1-2 microns is standard, billet components all CNC machined. The metric system is easy to use, no wonder it's standard in the majority of manufacturing worldwide. I leave the dinosaur system for the carpenters. ;) :p:D
 

Uncle Dave

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UD, we're in the 21st century now. In my line of work using lasers for the products. not an iota of standard/imperial unit are used. Tight tolerance of 1-2 microns is standard, billet components all CNC machined. The metric system is easy to use, no wonder it's standard in the majority of manufacturing worldwide. I leave the dinosaur system for the carpenters. ;) :p:D

Dont debate that..

Nasa went Metric in 90 I think....??

10 based systems (metric) are easy to use, as long as you arent mixing...

that said they arent always as sensical - take farenheit and celcius...

In Farenheit 0 is really cold and 100 is hot,
In Celcius 0 is really cold and at 100 you are dead.



UD
 

rrrr

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UD, we're in the 21st century now. In my line of work using lasers for the products. not an iota of standard/imperial unit are used. Tight tolerance of 1-2 microns is standard, billet components all CNC machined. The metric system is easy to use, no wonder it's standard in the majority of manufacturing worldwide. I leave the dinosaur system for the carpenters. ;) :p:D

When I owned a commercial drywall company in the late 70's, I hired my younger brother to fabricate and install aluminum framing for storefront windows and other similar work.

He used metric measurements for his work. It's easier and more precise. A millimeter is smaller than a sixteenth, and he built to that tolerance. His work always turned out perfect.
 

lbhsbz

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It’s not precise, it’s just easier.
 

Racey

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If it's a smaller unit of measurement, then it's more precise.

That's what the decimal place is for. And when machining and dealing with precise measurement, it doesn't matter metric or standard, you still go out several decimal places with either....

Ironically the older system based on fractions, fractions of an inch for example, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 etc, is more in aligned at a low level with modern binary computing systems since it's essentially a base 2 system.

Another interesting thing is that inch we know and use actually derives it's value from the metric system because of a swedish man named (i think) Johannsen in the 1700s if i remember correctly. He was a pioneer of early measuring equipment and invented gauge blocks if memory serves correct. Back then there were several varations of what an inch should be (3 barley seeds), he standardized it to be exactly 2.54 cm. Which is why there are no running decimals in the conversion, it's exactly 2.5400000000 because that is what he set all of the measuring equipment he sold as. His equipment quickly became industry standard and spread throughout the world, and because of that his version of the inch is the one that we use today.
 
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rrrr

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That's what the decimal place is for. And when machining and dealing with precise measurement, it doesn't matter metric or standard, you still go out several decimal places with either....

Which proves my point. The smaller the unit of measurement, the more precise it is. Since I was speaking specifically about carpentry, and not machining, a tape measure is the tool used, and one millimeter is more precise than one sixteenth of an inch.
 

Racey

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Which proves my point. The smaller the unit of measurement, the more precise it is. Since I was speaking specifically about carpentry, and not machining, a tape measure is the tool used, and one millimeter is more precise than one sixteenth of an inch.

Yes but not more than a 32nd, or a 64th.....

If you think that American carpentry suffers because of the accuracy of a tape measure i know some cabinet makers that would prove that wrong.

The talented person uses the correct level of accuracy for the job, inches or mm are all just arbitrary units. A good craftsman will excel with either.
 

Deja_Vu

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When I worked st Solar Turbines we always made dual dimensioned drawings cause they were selling worldwide.

Designed in inches but converted to metric that’s what we called soft metric ... designed in metric was what we considered hard metric.

801B5A29-A89C-4F81-A0F0-65BA07C171B1.png
 

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Metric system has that 7 tier scale thing and the numbers get to long. Standard for me. It's all in the math. When I did site work and had to figure slope percentage and amount of fall over long stretches the tenth scale made my job easy. Is it even possible to figure percentage in metric?
 

cakemoto

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That’s funny I just did a huge HVAC job all in metric the material the plans everything was all sent here from the UK even the duck work. for some kind of injection clean room
Was a learning curve
 

Deja_Vu

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Is that an A or B impeller??

WOW!!!


That’s an axial compressor rotor for a large gas turbine ... large blade where he’s measuring is at the inlet and each stage compresses more air for combustion ... 2/3 is used to burn fuel and 1/3 is bled off too cool the turbine section internally
 

rrrr

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I already know a bit about the story of Johansson gauge blocks, but I had to use reference sources to get these exact details of their manufacture and accuracy.

Invented around 1880, Johansson gauge blocks became the arbiter of precision measurement in the early 20th century. Henry Ford purchased the US rights to the blocks, and they were used to establish production standards at the huge Ford River Rouge plant. We think of early automobiles as crude and unsophisticated, but by 1925, Ford was manufacturing engine parts to tolerances of .0005".

I read somewhere that around that time period, a set of the gauge blocks cost around $5,000, which is more than $100,000 in 2020 dollars. A "good" set of gauge blocks can be purchased today for about $1,000.

As Racey said, the standard of 25.4 mm per inch was established by Johansson. Prior to that, the inch was defined as 25.40000508 mm. Since Johansson's blocks were so accurate, the 25.4 mm value became the standard, as the measurement devices of the day were too coarse to accurately detect the difference of 5.08 millionths of an inch, and it became a useless appendage.

The manufacturing standards of gauge blocks have not changed much since Johansson began producing them in the 19th century. The gauge blocks are made in a set of varying thicknesses, stacked together they can establish any dimension up to 20 inches or so to five decimal places. and are lapped to dimensionally absolute tolerances so tight they actually stick together via molecular attraction. The flatness standard for the most common grade of blocks is 5 microinches,. Blocks with a reference grade of AAA have a tolerance of one microinch. One microinch is a millionth of an inch!

The individual gauge blocks can be measured with an interferometer to prove their accuracy. In case you don't know the physics involved, an interferometer splits a light beam into two sources, and when it is recombined, the difference in time that the two paths take can be examined to establish a dimension of the object being measured. Since this method involves light traveling at, well, the speed of light, the units of measurement are impossibly small. That's how accurately the blocks are made.

This is a set made in 1923.

208688d1506224357-help-identifying-these-please-dsc00879.jpg
 
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rrrr

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That’s an axial compressor rotor for a large gas turbine ... large blade where he’s measuring is at the inlet and each stage compresses more air for combustion ... 2/3 is used to burn fuel and 1/3 is bled off too cool the turbine section internally

Do you have a photo of an individual blade? I remember reading that nanometer size holes are drilled in the blades to the route cooling air to the surface.
 

rivermobster

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I'm gonna solve this problem right now...

I just ordered some Lucas Metric Conversion Fluid additive. It was kinna expensive, so I bought a whole case. It was Way cheaper that way! :cool:
 

LargeOrangeFont

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I'm gonna solve this problem right now...

I just ordered some Lucas Metric Conversion Fluid additive. It was kinna expensive, so I bought a whole case. It was Way cheaper that way! :cool:

You bought the wrong additive. You need the Imperial conversion additive. If you put it on a slanted piece of metal and come back tomorrow you will be amazed at what you will see compared the the Metric conversion additive.
 

mash on it

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I'm gonna solve this problem right now...

I just ordered some Lucas Metric Conversion Fluid additive. It was kinna expensive, so I bought a whole case. It was Way cheaper that way! :cool:

Ounces or liters?

Dan'l
 

Deja_Vu

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Do you have a photo of an individual blade? I remember reading that nanometer size holes are drilled in the blades to the route cooling air to the surface.

Similar to this...

Our blades had a fir tree at the root not a dovetail

36CD1243-2C72-4189-9D64-27ADDF60CBAC.jpeg
DC4C5039-9382-4536-8D78-54C1B6F97DB5.jpeg

I specialized in the first stage nozzle which is the first component out of the combustor

84026476-99EE-4995-9E5B-7B4FE8C68B22.jpeg


The trailing edge cooling is casted in, the film cooling holes are plunge EDM using a comb looking electrode
 

lbhsbz

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Which proves my point. The smaller the unit of measurement, the more precise it is. Since I was speaking specifically about carpentry, and not machining, a tape measure is the tool used, and one millimeter is more precise than one sixteenth of an inch.

The same level of precision can achieved with either...but doing math in your head is easier with base 10
 

lbhsbz

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That’s funny I just did a huge HVAC job all in metric the material the plans everything was all sent here from the UK even the duck work. for some kind of injection clean room
Was a learning curve

Did you use Duck tape?
 

stephenkatsea

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What volume does 1long ton of water occupy? How about 1 short ton of gasoline? Let's see it in cubic yards and cubic feet.

Although I find truly working in the metric system preferred, it will always be a 283, 327, 409, 454 etc. etc. for me.
 
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