Date:         Sat, 18 Sep 2021 02:49:55 +0000
Reply-To:     Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: metric system
In-Reply-To:  <1850070145.746810.1631933290091@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

 Back in the late 70's or early 80's....USA had a chance to convert.  Decision was made not to.  All the embedded stuff from decades before.  As an engineer, I like Alistair am equally equipped to work with either.  There is still the opportunity.  There will be "growing pains".  But I think that Metric is the way to go for long term success.  Lots of "inertia" to overcome.  

    On Friday, September 17, 2021, 07:40:07 PM PDT, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:  
 
 Damn, I felt I forgot something.

It’s all metric for me in temp.

Yeah I sometimes find myself doing conversion to imperial. Mostly for human scale temp.

But realistically and practically and very very most often , metric for temp for me 

Alistair 

> On Sep 17, 2021, at 7:36 PM, Jim Felder <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> All true enough. Except for temperature. Fahrenheit, which takes the coldest and hottest average European temperatures and divide them hundred-scale. It is easier to deduce where you are on that human-factor comparison than the same scale suspended between the states of a liquid no matter how common the liquid might be. 
> 
> Jim
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Sep 17, 2021, at 9:27 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:
>> 
>> 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