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  #21  
Old 01-06-2021, 01:35 AM
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Of course the phrase is tongue and cheek, and a response to Euro-elitism about the metric system. Most people in engineering in the 50's -70s are aware of the jabs Euro engineers took at the US for our continued use of the Imperial system. It was their simplistic response to our domination of manufacturing, innovation, space travel and the world economy.

Break room conversation ...
US "You'd be speaking German if not for us" (actually probably Russian)
Euro "You still aren't using the Metric system? You backwards cowboys"
US "Yeah, well there are two types of countries in the world, those that use the metric system and those that put a man on the moon"
Euro "Your cars suck"
US "Shut up and get me a beer booze monkey"


In Navy Nuke School in the 70's we used both, depending on the subject being taught. Physics was more often in Metric, Thermodynamics in Imperial but more often than not we used both systems depending on what was the most common unit used in standardized formulas for a given field of study. Navy leaned towards Imperial for Thermodynamics because so many of the standardized steam table calculations and formulas were in BTUs, lbs-mass/ft3, etc but we also used the Calorie (large C) which is related to the Metric system.


Last edited by dataway; 01-06-2021 at 01:48 AM.
  #22  
Old 01-06-2021, 08:50 AM
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As an engineer, I always joke we are going to the metric system inch-by-inch. I prefer metric in design projects but is hard using US raw materials.

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  #23  
Old 01-06-2021, 09:00 AM
66sprint6 66sprint6 is offline
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We had the metric system shoved down our throats in the 70's. Nowadays, I don't believe that it would have passed. Truly, there was no sense to it. It's a great system, no doubt. But our two largest trading partners, the UK and the US, stayed with Imperial.
There were issues with the change over. The most notable being an airliner running out of fuel over Manitoba and having to land on an in use drag strip near Winnipeg. Fortunately, the pilot was an experienced glider and the car guys had fire extinguishers when the nose skidded on the runway and caught fire.

  #24  
Old 01-06-2021, 03:00 PM
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One big problem with the imperial distance measures is the 12" foot. If the foot was 10" the whole system would make way more sense. Below 1" the imperial system is a decimal system anyway. If the foot was actually 10" then it would be decimal up to a mile.

But hard to beat the overall metric system.

1 gram of water is a volume of water 1 cm x 1cm x 1 cm
1 kilogram of water is a volume of water 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm and weighs 1 kilogram
1 calorie (small c) is the amount of energy it takes to heat one gram of water 1 degree C
1 Calorie (large C) is the amount of energy it takes to heat one kilogram of water 1 degree C (same as a joule I think?)

If I could go back in time 2000 years and only take one item with me to help civilization advance it would be a very, very accurate 1 meter ruler. From that you could build the entire metric system of weights and measures, and once having standardized measures, science, engineering and commerce would have accelerated tremendously.

  #25  
Old 01-06-2021, 06:39 PM
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A few conversion factors that are useful:

Cubic inches x 16.39 = cubic centimeters:

Cubic centimeters x .06102 = cubic inches

One cubic foot has 1728 cubic inches

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  #26  
Old 01-06-2021, 07:59 PM
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One area I really like the metric system is in grading fasteners. Many more choices in pitch in the common automotive sizes we use. Such as a 10 mm bolt. 4 common pitches vs 2 in English . Means needing more taps and dies, but a better fastener for a given situation is the result.

  #27  
Old 01-06-2021, 08:48 PM
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Quote:
If I could go back in time 2000 years and only take one item with me to help civilization advance it would be a very, very accurate 1 meter ruler. From that you could build the entire metric system of weights and measures, and once having standardized measures, science, engineering and commerce would have accelerated tremendously.

Do you think the Egyptians would have built the pyramids the same way?
(and the Druids)



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  #28  
Old 01-07-2021, 01:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnta1 View Post
Do you think the Egyptians would have built the pyramids the same way?
(and the Druids)


Well, that was more like 5,000 years ago .. so, considering the materials technology of the day, not sure it would have helped.

But .. 2000 years ago, in the era when the Pantheon was built, the great Aqueducts, the Coliseum .... there were some very good engineers that would have been able to make good use of a unified system of measurements.

The major advantage of a unified system of measurement is it allows the dissemination of standardized formulas for .... well, everything, and the application of those formulas in real world using the same units of measure.

Simple things like the acceleration of Gravity .. 9.8m/sec2, or 32 feet/sec2 ... hard to work with if there is no consistent meter or foot from one town to the next, or a standard second.

Even with time .... with a widespread accurate system of measurement, a baseline "second" can be determined using the period of a pendulum of a given length. But that length must be accurate, and the same everywhere.

It is very easy to forget the engineering failures of the past ... because they are not there to be remembered, the Egyptians failed many many times building pyramids until they discovered the maximum incline they could use with the materials they had chosen. The desert is littered with the failures that you never read about. Same applies to Cathedrals, towers, castles, bridges etc. we only marvel at the successes .... because they are still standing, makes the engineers of the past seem dis-proportionally brilliant because we don't see the many failures.

  #29  
Old 01-07-2021, 08:41 AM
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The Biblical "cubit" I believe to be from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Well, if Noah had a friend doing the other side of the Ark, it would have been shaped like a banana.

Standardization is most always good.

Same could be said for language, but ...... oh well

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  #30  
Old 01-07-2021, 02:17 PM
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Quote:
The Biblical "cubit" I believe to be from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

That's why I posted that. I'm amazed at all the things they did with very little machinery or tools. Mostly just human power.
Now, Stonehedge may not have any human work on it?



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  #31  
Old 01-07-2021, 09:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dataway View Post
Even with time ...
60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. Clock face has 12 hours. A complete sweep is 360 degrees. Five of those amount to 60 hours. 360 days per year. And it finds it's way into essentials like beer. Even though they speak Metric, our Aussie friends know a "slab" has to have 24 cans.

Quarter mile or... 402.336 meters??

  #32  
Old 01-08-2021, 04:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 66sprint6 View Post
The Soviet Union, Japan, the European Space Agency, China, India, Luxembourg, and Israel have all had moon missions. All metric.
How many of those countries stood on the moon?

As for the metric system; Grandpa Simpson said it best:

https://youtu.be/z5-s-4KPtD8

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  #33  
Old 01-08-2021, 06:43 AM
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Metric ad campaigns suck though. I'd walk a Kilometer for a Camel? Doesn't sound right.

  #34  
Old 01-08-2021, 11:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dataway View Post
Metric ad campaigns suck though. I'd walk a Kilometer for a Camel? Doesn't sound right.
How recently have you heard any add mentioning any kind of distance/measurement?

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  #35  
Old 01-09-2021, 01:47 AM
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Originally Posted by tooski View Post
How recently have you heard any add mentioning any kind of distance/measurement?
Exactly .... the metric system has destroyed a whole avenue down which the creators of ad campaigns could explore.

  #36  
Old 01-09-2021, 09:35 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tooski View Post
How recently have you heard any add mentioning any kind of distance/measurement?

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  #37  
Old 01-09-2021, 02:34 PM
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I grew up and was educated using Imperial. I never quite made the full transition to metric. Carpentry projects, weather reports etc still in Imperial.. When I bought my car new I was at first tickled that it had a 160 MPH speedo - no, wait,- that's 160 KPH - only 100 MPH. Not so impressed; considering all the cars my folks had were 120 MPH speedos.

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