trz Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Curious, how many of the Americans on here use the metric system rather than the correct way? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenaqua Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 I sometimes use the metric system for work when a client requires it or I am doing work on a project that is outside of the USA. For woodworking I have never used the metric system. Having used both, I would switch over to the metric system if everybody else would but I am fairly confident that this will never happen in my lifetime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDave Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 But they said we would when I was in grade school 40 years ago...what happened Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwacker Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Yes for the most part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Eric. Posted February 6, 2015 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Obviously it's a better system but since I've been seeing life in inches since birth, I'm ruined. I can guess two feet within an inch or two...3,249 millimeters means absolutely nothing to me. Could be the length of a hot dog or the height of a horse's ass. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weithman5 Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 just saying that none of these metric using countries have made it to the moon. that said i tend to use both systems for various things. when i was an engineer i would use primarily english, but not always, and now that i am a doctor, i tend to use metric, mostly for dosing meds, measuring small moles..... then to top it off i will describe the size of things in relation to common objects, that mole is about the size of a dime, that cyst the size of an egg... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Same here. I can tell a 6' board from a 7' board at a glance, but working in metric I either have to convert to feet and inches in my head, or spend equivalent time picturing what 13 centimeters would be. If everything I bought was sized in metric, I'd probably get used to it pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arminius Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 I turn in metric, because I learned from Australian authors, but when everything I work with is board feet of x/4 material, it would be silly even to try metric. I was in school during the transition. To this day, I use Celsius for most of the school year, but when it is warm I switch to Fahrenheit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Sometimes when I need more accuracy I run an entire job in metric. It forces you to work to a smaller scale. Probably takes me 15 minutes to swap the scale on my crosscut table and zero it out. Grab metric tapes and the Wixey scale on my tablesaw fence just have to push a button. A client recently had a full set of plans that were all in Millimeters with exact sizes for every part. And we were building it from Baltic Birch which is metric size and thickness. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 As a Canadian, we are raised on the metric system. All measurments taught in school are metric, and it makes sense. The metric system is all multiples of 10, and this makes conversions very easy. I dont know how americans keep track of how many ounces in this, or yards in that. Most countries use metric, and I am unsure why the USA holds on so tight to imperial. The same issue exists with celcius (again 100 parts in the scale, water freezing at 0 and boiling at 100) and fahrenheit (32 for freezing?). Of course, the lumber and construction industry have never converted, probably due to our relationship with the USA. I never really nothered with inches and feet until I started woodworking. I feel comfortable working in both, but much prefer the imperial system when working wood or doing DIY, as I am so accustomed to it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 I come from a long of machinists and tradesmen. Metric is the absolute devil to them. I have no issues measuring things in 32nds or 64ths if I need to go with stuff that small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 As a Canadian, we are raised on the metric system. All measurments taught in school are metric, and it makes sense. The metric system is all multiples of 10, and this makes conversions very easy. I dont know how americans keep track of how many ounces in this, or yards in that. Most countries use metric, and I am unsure why the USA holds on so tight to imperial. The same issue exists with celcius (again 100 parts in the scale, water freezing at 0 and boiling at 100) and fahrenheit (32 for freezing?). Of course, the lumber and construction industry have never converted, probably due to our relationship with the USA. I never really nothered with inches and feet until I started woodworking. I feel comfortable working in both, but much prefer the imperial system when working wood or doing DIY, as I am so accustomed to it now. 32 for freezing, 212 for boiling. The base 10 system of metric is much easier to do mathematically, whereas imperial is base 2. 10, 100, 1000 is much easier than 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 ==>All measurments taught in school are metric Same in the US (or at least it was for me)... From Grade School through Grad School -- all Metric... In the workplace: in/ft/yrd... I'd love to work in Metric, but I can't "think" in Metric... So I look at a board and read 6' in my head, but have to think about the conversions... Actually, I use a dual-scale tape measure in the shop, so I just use that for quick conversions that are far more accurate than I can do in my head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Coop Posted February 6, 2015 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 M&M's are meant to go in a bag of popcorn and eaten with a cold beer, not go on a ruler or tape. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Metric is easier to do math with because we all learned base 10 math in school. Imperial inches make sense in practice because each subdivision is 1/2 the previous unit. Its easy to cut something evenly in half, much harder to divide it into 10 equal parts. Also helps that common imperial units of inch and foot are easy to estimate by comparing to bodyparts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trz Posted February 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 I would love to find plans for something i want to build and do it strictly in metric measurements. Seems it would be difficult to transfer the plans from one to the other though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 It don't really matter. I find units of 10 easy. Measuring is just a standardized language. If you've spoken imperial your whole life speaking metric is likely a waste of time. Wonder if they'll ever offer metric clocks? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 A point of reference I rarely quote "height of a horse's ass" but will do so from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 M&M's are meant to go in a bag of popcorn and eaten with a cold beer, not go on a ruler or tape. Now I want M&Ms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 A point of reference I rarely quote "height of a horse's ass" but will do so from now on. I'm here to help in any way possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodbutcher74 Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 I'm here to help in any way possible. Actually the height of a horses ass is measured in hands not feet, inches or millimeters. Maybe we should switch to wood working in hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-astragal Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Ever seen a metric drive ratchet? No, 1/4, 3/8,1/2" drive is still the norm. So the metric system hasn't really taken on completely Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Ever seen a metric drive ratchet? No, 1/4, 3/8,1/2" drive is still the norm. So the metric system hasn't really taken on completely Steve Do you mean socket sets? I have 2 metric sets for working on my car (Canadian "made" Toyota). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-astragal Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Show me your 13mm drive sockets. How about 10mm drive? Metric sockets are driven with imperial ratchets as far as I know. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 It don't really matter. I find units of 10 easy. Measuring is just a standardized language. If you've spoken imperial your whole life speaking metric is likely a waste of time. This is an excellent point, really. As long as we get there in the end, it doesnt really matter how we measure. It would be nice if we all spoke the same measurement language though. There are still a few terms of measurement I find amusing. Stone, and fluid vs solid ounce. There are still lots of instances where metric has not taken over. CDN football uses yards, and not meters, for example. I do like the idea of a metric clock - "I'll meet you at 14:87 at the coffee shop". LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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