Imperial measurement

[Jacob]

..... Although I know 'data' is a plural noun, .....

It may well have been, but it isn't any longer. In fact 'datum' is hardly used except by surveyors or other specialists.
Like it or not, ambiguous or not, the meaning of a word is in it's usage.

 

[bugbear]

..... Although I know 'data' is a plural noun, .....

It may well have been, but it isn't any longer. In fact 'datum' is hardly used except by surveyors or other specialists.
Like it or not, ambiguous or not, the meaning of a word is in it's usage.

"back" :lol: :lol:


BugBear

 

[SammyQ]

"seconded"

 

[Sawyer]

..... Although I know 'data' is a plural noun, .....

It may well have been, but it isn't any longer. In fact 'datum' is hardly used except by surveyors or other specialists.
Like it or not, ambiguous or not, the meaning of a word is in it's usage.

Quite so, we are speaking English here, and it evolves. Which was my point.

I love Latin though, for its history, its beauty and its majesty.

 

[Jacob]

..... Although I know 'data' is a plural noun, .....

It may well have been, but it isn't any longer. In fact 'datum' is hardly used except by surveyors or other specialists.
Like it or not, ambiguous or not, the meaning of a word is in it's usage.

Quite so, we are speaking English here, and it evolves. Which was my point.

I love Latin though, for its history, its beauty and its majesty.

Actually Latin itself also evolved or changed continuously, when it was a living language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin#History_of_Latin

 

[Sawyer]

'Actually Latin itself also evolved or changed continuously, when it was a living language'

No doubt to the dismay of many 'worthies' of the day, who wanted everything written in stone:

O tempores! O mores!

Now then, what was the OP? Imperial measurements - we have the Romans to thank for all that!

 

[John Brown]

..... Although I know 'data' is a plural noun, .....

It may well have been, but it isn't any longer. In fact 'datum' is hardly used except by surveyors or other specialists.
Like it or not, ambiguous or not, the meaning of a word is in it's usage.

There is no apostrophe in that sort of "its".

I suppose that makes me a pedant.

 

[Jacob]

..... Although I know 'data' is a plural noun, .....

It may well have been, but it isn't any longer. In fact 'datum' is hardly used except by surveyors or other specialists.
Like it or not, ambiguous or not, the meaning of a word is in it's usage.

There is no apostrophe in that sort of "its".

I suppose that makes me a pedant.

It makes you a pedant if you point out that sort of mistake out of the context of the conversation, in the way that we all know and love. But as this thread is talking about pedantry you are not a pedant - yet!
I often get 'it's' and 'its' confused but I don't lose any sleep over it.
Anyway I know how to spell 'optimist'. :lol: :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Sawyer - O Tempora! O Mores! This is pedantry we're talking about!

 

[sancho]

In the states we only use decimals for engineering type dwgs with dimensionals that are down to .000" . For woodwork applications fractions are more widley used in the states.

Funny I just got a conversion app for my Iphone b/c I want to start using the metric system for my woodworking.

 

[sancho]

duplicate of my previous post sorry,

 

[Eric The Viking]

In the states we only use decimals for engineering type dwgs with dimensionals that are down to .000" . For woodwork applications fractions are more widley used in the states.

Funny I just got a conversion app for my Iphone b/c I want to start using the metric system for my woodworking.

There is a good practical point to using the imperial system, at least for woodworking and building applications: in many many circumstances you need to divide things by odd numbers. This usually doesn't give you a nice result in metric. It's not perfect in imperial either, but it does at least take much of the guesswork out of it.

I grew up through the main "metrication" transition period here in the UK. Forty years on, I still have difficulty visualizing things in metres, whereas feet, pounds, ounces and inches (and fathoms and acres) I find easy to imagine. It doesn't matter much for engineering, but I think it does for measurements that 'interact' with people, in furniture, houses and so on.

And there's no doubt that imperial (and USA) thread sizes are far more suited to purpose than metric ones. Mr. Whitworth knew his business!

Your mileage may vary, of course!

Cheers,

E.

 

[bugbear]

I don't think any of the units are especially suited to measuring particular things - in the "old days" virtually every trade had its own units, feet and inches be damned.

And French and German tradesman seem to have no trouble making "human" sized tables, chairs and houses.

I think Brits of my generation are just messed up by growing up with one set of units, and then having to half learn new ones.

I note that many "old" carpenters who have been forced to use millimetres daily by trade practice have no difficulty, and chatter happily about door openings in mm to my utter bafflement.

It's those with a choice (in which group I put myself) who seem most troubled.

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

I don't think any of the units are especially suited to measuring particular things - in the "old days" virtually every trade had its own units, feet and inches be damned.

You've just contradicted yourself in one sentence
These trades had their own units because they were convenient.
For example, measuring horses in 'hands' at least means the thing isn't going to rear up at the sight of a measuring stick of some sort!

And French and German tradesman seem to have no trouble making "human" sized tables, chairs and houses.

It's not that you can't, it's that a measure divided into twelve (and fractions) is easier. Anyway, before Napoleon they used feet (which is, after all, an "Italian" measurement!), and after Napoleon they still used feet until they were forced not to!

I think Brits of my generation are just messed up by growing up with one set of units, and then having to half learn new ones.
I note that many "old" carpenters who have been forced to use millimetres daily by trade practice have no difficulty, and chatter happily about door openings in mm to my utter bafflement.
It's those with a choice (in which group I put myself) who seem most troubled.

I know what you mean, but some things are simply perverse: magnetic tape, for example, has always been measured in inches (not sure about wartime German paper-backed tape, but anyway). In the industries that use it we've always had 2" down to 1/8" (audio cassettes). Suddenly, in the computer industry (long a bastion of Imperial, incidentally), 1/8" became "4mm" (DAT), and 1/4" became "8mm".

Why describe it incorrectly? The physical width didn't change, and it wasn't ever in whole metric units!

I think it's the same political correctness that gave us regulations on the straightness of bananas and cucumbers...

 

[bugbear]

I think it's the same political correctness that gave us regulations on the straightness of bananas and cucumbers...

You know those are both myths, right?

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

They're not myths at all.

I used to have the actual EU directives in my possession (downloaded by me from the Europa web site). I may still have them somewhere in a filing cabinet. Trust me: they may have been utterly stupid, but they were completely real.

The bananas one, incidentally, in the sneaky oblique way the EU does things, was actually intended to stop imports from the West Indies (small, sweet, curvy bananas) and favour those from former French colonies instead (large, fat, straight, and relatively not so sweet). I remember the technical language was very similar in the two documents, leading one to believe a lot of cutting+pasting had taken place, although I don't know of a geo-political reason for the cucumber one.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I started junior school in 1961 and I still have an exercise book with sums in £'s shillings, pence and farthings - furlongs, chains, rods, poles and perches - pounds, stones and hundredweights - gallons, pecks and bushels. It's good to know that ten year olds now are so much smarter than we were then!
I can work in metric, but I can't estimate in metric to save my soul.

 

[Sawyer]

It's not that you can't, it's that a measure divided into twelve (and fractions) is easier. Anyway, before Napoleon they used feet (which is, after all, an "Italian" measurement!), and after Napoleon they still used feet until they were forced not to!
quote]


What have the Romans ever done for us?

 

[Eric The Viking]

Saved penalties?

<grabs coat and sprints for the door>

 

[Sawyer]

Saved penalties?

<grabs coat and sprints for the door>

:lol: :lol: =D>