Godamned 0603

We do science and engineering in SI units.

Pounds, ounces, inches, feet, miles, pints, gallons, degrees F are familiar and convenient everyday units. Nothing wrong with that.

Converting to metric was unpopular, so it wasn't forced.

aioe usenet snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:suvsdd$1t4i$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org:

The USA has been metric for decades. We just happen to embrace both. Big deal. Or at least only to those wanting to piss and moan about it. Kids are taught metric in US schools. Young adults get taught fractional inch in the contruction trade and a few others. Both are taught and US auto makers have been metric for half a century.

A change like that is always hard, and therefore unpopular. But it typically gets harder the longer you wait.

Part of the job of a government is to do things that are unpopular, but are nonetheless the right move in the long run. It seems to me that governments are getting worse at that, with the USA in the lead but not alone - politicians are unwilling to risk their current popularity by making long-term investments where the benefits will be reaped by later politicians. The American system of presidents from alternating parties whose main focus seems to be undoing everything from the previous presidency, makes it even harder to make major long-term changes.

An exception to this trend is Brexit - there the UK government /was/ willing to go through very significant cost and hardship for long-term change. Unfortunately the short-term cost and hardship is a sacrifice leading to longer-term cost and hardship - change is perhaps inevitable, but progress is not.

The British went through the change to metric (keeping pints for beer and milk, which is fine). They went through a change in currency in about 1971, from silly pounds / shillings / pence to a decimal system. It can be done, and it is worth doing.

Maybe a deal can be made - the USA changes its outdated measurement system, its daft paper sizes, and its non-standard mains electricity. In return, the British will accept "color", "analog" and "neighbor" as acceptable spelling :-)

Assuming that a ruling elite can ignore the preferences of the dumb flyover populace who, for some bizarre reason, are allowed to vote.

It seems to me that

Democracy sucks. What you need are a few good kings.

No, leave things alone, we find your quirks amusing when we take tours to see the ancient Brits in their native costumes.

Pity about the food, although I have had some great Italian in England.

Don't confuse decimal with imperial or metric. The binary fractions are a common use of inches, but it is far from universal. Virtually any use of inches other than personal usage is decimal inches.

I don't think the US ever made any promises. The efforts to metrify were always voluntary. We have become a dual measurement country. But habits are hard to change. We have supermarket products labeled in both Imperial and metric, but most people here are more comfortable with Imperial. We happily buy our liquor in metric. That industry simply converted and is done with "fifths" and half pints, etc. Beer is commonly sold by ounces though. I'm currently drinking a soft drink in a tall skinny can that is 330 ml/11.15 fl oz.

I think few people from outside the US can appreciate the level of isolation in the US. Yeah, we can pretty much live fat, dumb and happy with the Imperial system in everyday use. However, anything international has to include metric. Data sheets in the US for international products, just like from other countries, have dual labels for metric and Imperial. So we are doing what we must to fit in. If or when the international convention for data sheets becomes metric only, our data sheets will still include metric values, so we will be compatible.

It is my hope that someday we will convert, but there is literally no pain in staying with our current system. None that the typical voter sees anyway. So politicians are not going to push the issue.

How does this affect anyone outside the US? If the US converted to metric measurements today, 100%, what would change for you?

I've always though the British monetary units were cute. How about a Bob, Guv? I still can't remember how much a crown is, but it sounds interesting. The guinea is the one that really gets me though, £1/1/-. Who invented that!? Apparently it arose from the fact it was gold and intended to be 20 shillings, but the shilling was in silver and the relative value varied. At some point the guinea was standardized to be worth 21 shillings (the relative value at the time) and the oddness was born!

English is the common language that divides us.

snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Where the f*ck were you back when the Vietnam thing was happening?

I think socially inept dumbfucks like you should not be permitted to vote.

"ruling elite"??? "dumb flyover populace"??? What the f*ck is that even, you stupid twerp?

You are the clueless thinks he's above the rest utter idiot on this bus.

The original reason that Industry in the US resisted conversion to Metric was that with the technology of that day, Industry would have had to replace all their machine tools and tooling, and redo all their drawings and documentation. All for no practical advantage.

Now days, with everything becoming computer-controlled, switching is far easier, and conversion is happening gradually, in the natural course of progress.

Some industries are already totally metric, or nearly so. One that comes to mind is optics. Pharma also.

Joe Gwinn

A "bob" is a shilling - one twentieth of a pound, and thus 5 "new pence" (or 12 d in old money). A florin was two shillings. A crown was 5 shillings, and of course a half-crown was therefore 2½ shillings. A shilling was two sixpences, each of which was two thrupences or three tuppences. (My spelling might not be 100% accurate here - my newsreader dictionary is not old enough!). A penny was two ha'pennies, or four farthings.

Common names for coins can still be used - "bob" was common long after shillings were obsolete, and lasted until 5 pence was basically worthless. I guess you have the same thing with dimes and nickels.

Guineas were heavily used for auctions. (I can't say for sure if auctions were the origin, or if it was due to the prices of gold and silver as you say.) Basically, they buyer paid the price in guineas, the seller got the price in pounds, and the auctioneer kept the 5% cut. Horse auctions are still done in guineas, last I heard.

There are plenty of differences in spelling in which the American version just makes more sense - "color", for example. You didn't go through the "make it look more like French by adding random vowels" period that we had.

On the other hand, you have some cases where the word is the same, but you've got the meaning completely wrong. And you can't pronounce "route" correctly - for some reason, that one always bugs me.

But you are still closer to the Queen's English than in many parts of the UK :-)

Rick C snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

It is about usage. Just like baseball and basketball, pool, etc. To get good at any of them, one must experience the operations over and over again to become familiar with them. Commonly referred to as practice.

To do metric in a dual realm demographic, the INDIVIDUAL must decide to make a conscious effort in that direction. Then personally do so each time one is confronted with weights and measures in their daily life. So at first one nit-picks every little thing and does the conversions. Once the conversions take root in the person's mindset, less nit-picking and more automatic self metrification take place in the brain. IOW It become easier... hard wired even... enjoyable.

I used to have a good idea what a one inch span was between my fingers. Really good. Now, I concentrate on my brain learning one millimeter, then 5 and 10, and then ten of those and then the meter itself. Practice is all it takes. A conscious effort.

And when one becomes really good at one of those games, we call it expert or pro. I call it The Harlem Globe Trotter Effect. Meadowlark Lemon could stand at half court with his back to the rim, talking to Howard Cosell and flip a shot over his shoulder and in for a swish.

Easy for me... when I do carpentry or framing I use inch. Because were I to get in a conversation with a friend, or neighbor, or realtor, I would want to be able to tell them about the size of those elements I built the way they are still 'traditionally' referred to as. As I myself do that conversion in my head, and could tell someone in metric what the span was at a certain location.

When I do small part design, and machining or PCB layout, I use metric and speak metric about it. Base ten is easy. Describing something in millimeters and knowing what ten of those make (a centimeter), one can describe small machined parts or circuit board elements. With the early SMD realm here, however, we used the standard form factors listed usually 2106, 0805, 0602, 0402. I can solder down to 0402.

It all comes down to personal experience in the US. If one is exposed to the metric system, one learns it and then has two in his or her brain. It could be argued that in the metric only places in the world, they are missing out. Many here can't be bothered. And the rest of the globe looks at my nation and thinks that we are all as dumb as the can't be bothered crowd.

Very valuable nowadays, those tuppences.

Clive Arthur snipped-for-privacy@nowaytoday.co.uk> wrote in news:sv0i44$efj$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And those pressurized firkins too.

Just ask Ringo... err Yougman Grand. ;-)

You'd rather rout your packets off the battlefield!

:-)