Inches not metric
- Thread starter bentbiker
- Start date
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Have you ever noticed that the only time the USA uses the Day, Month, Year is on the Fourth of July? :black_eyed: *chokes on irony*
I am 100% in favor of the U.S. switching to the metric system. Tell congress that it will create jobs. It's a nice dream. But until that happens, maybe the Flite Test crew can stick with SAE hardware in their builds. It's rather difficult to get metric nuts and bolts at the local hardware store. It's far easier to use a #6 machine screw than find a 3mm anything.
Well until that day comes how about we make it both metric and um, standard, as far as plans go? With parts you're probably going to have a problem in the long run, motors having metric threads and what not, but I don't see the problem with substituting a 1/8" bolt and nut with their 3mm metric counterparts.
By the way, are there special designations for 1/32" and 1/64", because that seems like an engineering tongue twister waiting to happen...
Well. Most of the world still uses feet for aviation altitudes, doesn't it? 
Metrification of the USA is an ongoing task for quite a while now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States
Metrification of the USA is an ongoing task for quite a while now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States
I did a bit of work for the US army a while back... Some of their Vehicles are a hodge podge of metric and standard threads, not to mention after market modifications.
Kind of a nightmare if half of the workforce don't know a metric from a wood screw...
Also some of the manuals would state fractions of an inch in decimals... Why the hell ever they tought a 0.015" gap would be easier to measure than a 1/64th" gap is beyond my grasp.
By the way, Balu, I hope you got away clean in the recent floodings in your area.
stay-fun
Helicopter addict
It's quite funny how SAE is called the 'standard' system: there's nothing standard about it.
I came to the US when I was 29, I'm from The Netherlands. I'm here for 2.5 years now (so you know how old I am). Things that I'm getting used to are inches, as long as it's not more than 26 because after that I'm having trouble converting. Not that I can't, but I don't have a 'feel' for how long that is anymore. Same with feet, as it gets over 10 feet, I no longer have a 'feel' for how long that is. I have gotten used to miles though.
Things I'll never get used to are ounces (both volumetric and mass) and drill bits that are fractions of inches. I needed a 5mm drill bit, and I could go for a 4.8 or 5.2 in SAE system. The latter is 13/64ths of an inch. Are you effing kidding me?! 13/64ths? Does ANYBODY have a 'feel' for what size that is? And is this smaller or larger than a 3/16th? (answer: slightly larger, but you need to do multiple calculations to find this out: 64/16=4, 4*3=12)
The problem is also converting: from mm to inches (in decimals) to fraction... Seriously, I've made a spreadsheet on my computer to calculate this, so I have a lookup table...
Is metric really so hard?
I came to the US when I was 29, I'm from The Netherlands. I'm here for 2.5 years now (so you know how old I am). Things that I'm getting used to are inches, as long as it's not more than 26 because after that I'm having trouble converting. Not that I can't, but I don't have a 'feel' for how long that is anymore. Same with feet, as it gets over 10 feet, I no longer have a 'feel' for how long that is. I have gotten used to miles though.
Things I'll never get used to are ounces (both volumetric and mass) and drill bits that are fractions of inches. I needed a 5mm drill bit, and I could go for a 4.8 or 5.2 in SAE system. The latter is 13/64ths of an inch. Are you effing kidding me?! 13/64ths? Does ANYBODY have a 'feel' for what size that is? And is this smaller or larger than a 3/16th? (answer: slightly larger, but you need to do multiple calculations to find this out: 64/16=4, 4*3=12)
The problem is also converting: from mm to inches (in decimals) to fraction... Seriously, I've made a spreadsheet on my computer to calculate this, so I have a lookup table...
Is metric really so hard?
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No. And neither is SAE if that's what you're used to. What's hard, as you've discovered, is conversion.
BTW, we would never use 13/64", assuming they even make that size. We would use 3/16" which they do make.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Am I the only one that thinks Year, Month, Day would make the most sense? Especially when writing folder/file titles for computers. Personally I organize all of my pictures into folders titled the year in which they where taken, and then sub-folders with the month_day as the title. Then all my photos are in chronological order.
And that's exactly how I organized the PDF archive for the newspaper. And yet I still get asked to locate a particular page, and give me the full date, section, and page.
The UK is very much a mixed country, they still use imperial on large distances, weights and all that, but have been changing very much to metric in more precise things like small measurements. Here in Spain we use inches still, but for very specific things like in plumbing, where if you say the measurement in metric it's a socket, and in inches it's a thread
Besides you Americans generally use metric in more scientific things like forensics, medicine, technology studies and scientific measures for example, so you are slowly being assimilated muahahahahah!!! And on this notion, seeing as aeromodelism involves more engineering that cookery, well... but then now we're at it, maybe we should do away with both of them and use the aeronautical measurements, which are really a bit of both, and adding a bit of their own, like knots.
I think to be fair, seeing as the show is international and reaching out every time more worldwide, it should be subbed with the measurements in both, although I do understand it would be more work, but not that much really. A lot of the world doesn't speak english (yes, there are other languages!!) and those people are already putting a lot of dedication into following the show in a language they don't know too well at all, and the subtitles in both systems would help make things a lot easier for those people too, as it's one thing less to think about when they are franticly trying to translate in their heads.
As far as temperature is concerned, when I hear that the weather is in the high 70's for example, the only thing I can think of is "Give Hades my regards!!". Ok, so freezing is 32º and boiling is 212º... can someone please tell me where those totally random numbers come from? Might as well use kelvin, at least it's a logical system that even runs parallel with centigrade (centi, as in a round number like 100) and just redefines the "starting point"!!
Let's put it this way, it's a man's world, and men were put in charge of it all... now if you had "founding mothers" instead, it would be a lot better, like "12 seeds make a flower and 20 flowers make a flowerbed"... we almost got it in the 60's, but... damn imperialists!!!
Besides you Americans generally use metric in more scientific things like forensics, medicine, technology studies and scientific measures for example, so you are slowly being assimilated muahahahahah!!! And on this notion, seeing as aeromodelism involves more engineering that cookery, well... but then now we're at it, maybe we should do away with both of them and use the aeronautical measurements, which are really a bit of both, and adding a bit of their own, like knots.
I think to be fair, seeing as the show is international and reaching out every time more worldwide, it should be subbed with the measurements in both, although I do understand it would be more work, but not that much really. A lot of the world doesn't speak english (yes, there are other languages!!) and those people are already putting a lot of dedication into following the show in a language they don't know too well at all, and the subtitles in both systems would help make things a lot easier for those people too, as it's one thing less to think about when they are franticly trying to translate in their heads.
As far as temperature is concerned, when I hear that the weather is in the high 70's for example, the only thing I can think of is "Give Hades my regards!!". Ok, so freezing is 32º and boiling is 212º... can someone please tell me where those totally random numbers come from? Might as well use kelvin, at least it's a logical system that even runs parallel with centigrade (centi, as in a round number like 100) and just redefines the "starting point"!!
Let's put it this way, it's a man's world, and men were put in charge of it all... now if you had "founding mothers" instead, it would be a lot better, like "12 seeds make a flower and 20 flowers make a flowerbed"... we almost got it in the 60's, but... damn imperialists!!!
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stay-fun
Helicopter addict
That makes sense, which is the reason why it won´t ever be a standard
Actually it is - since 1988: ISO 8601
I started writing the date like this for Computer use over 15 years ago:
Today is: 2014July30
I did not like to have to visually discern the breaks in a string of numbers representing the date.
Thurmond
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rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Generally when people ask me the date I'll just say the number of the day, not the month nor the year.
"What's today's date?"
"The 31st."
But I see your point. It's weird no matter what order you go with.
johanjonker
New member
I would never have have thought anyone would ever ask the question that way around.. "Inches not metric" wow.. I'm not trolling..
I was hoping the flitetest crew would move to metric, to accommodate the rest of the world..
the red areas are the only countries who doesn't use the metric system..
I was hoping the flitetest crew would move to metric, to accommodate the rest of the world..
the red areas are the only countries who doesn't use the metric system..
