Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2021 19:26:46 -0700
Reply-To: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: metric system
In-Reply-To: <CACvdLxOyh+rXb5xFB+JdKsUh3FGK5q+VE=oQWMYT9xtkoCw1UA@mail.gmail.com>
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David,
I was born in Scotland, first 12 years of my life there. There was metric lessons. In Canada, early 70s, was metric in school. Later in university , and for the next couple or three decades in lab , all metric .
But…
I worked construction too. And that was all imperial measure building supplies.
Now for the last decade , in metal work and cnc machining, it’s all imperial. Oh I get drawings and computer models of parts to make, in metric. But I convert to imperial as we have mostly imperial tooling.
Now, in machining, it doesn’t make any diff to me if measured in mm or thou of inch. At this point it’s just numbers. Decimal inches just as understandable and logical as metric measurement .
All this background means a pretty mixed up view of measuring
Speeds…. Driving etc… all metric
Volumes…. All metric ( it’s a no brainer )
Lengths… human scale… equal metric imperial
Lengths smaller than one inch… equal metric imperial. Really small all metric
Mass/weight… weighing myself is imperial , everything else metric
Fasteners, nuts bolts… equal metric imperial
So mostly metric with exceptions. Anything scientific it’s metric. Machining it’s , as explained , imperial decimal .
Alistair
> On Sep 17, 2021, at 4:01 PM, David McNeely <davmcneely40@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, it is Friday, though to me, this is Vanagon related, since our beasts
> have metric fasteners. I thought I had a link to an opinion piece about
> the metric system and Canadians dislike of it, but it seems to have gotten
> lost. But, maybe you guys can respond anyway. Do Canadians dislike the
> metric system? The article claimed so, based on the fact that retailers
> advertise prices for items giving both metric and English weights and
> measures.
>
> So, Alistair, Bruce, other Maple Leaf types: Care to comment on this?
> Politics aside, which seems to be a part of it, what do Canadians generally
> think of being metric? Since anyone younger than 45 and Canadian could not
> possibly remember when the King's system was the norm, I guess it would be
> older folks who might have some objection. Personally, I wish the U.S.
> were on the metric system, since it is so much simpler than what we have to
> put up with, and I would not have to worry about conversions when traveling.
>
> mcneely
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