Wacky new form of measurement.

[Peter Sefton]

It's always quicker on the way home because now you know the way.

Yeah but with 4 or 5 cars in the way she better be careful, or maybe she shouldn't be aloud out on her own

 

[DiscoStu]

Mm is straight forward. 12mm + 24mm = 36mm

1/12 + 1/15 = 2/27 or rather it doesn't. You can't easily use a calculator to work it out.

It's just a bizarre system.

I agree metric is better, but your sum is off.

From my vague recollection of maths 1/12 + 1/15 should sum to 27/180, which equals 0.15. I just did the sums separately to check and the decimals for 1/12 and 1/15 do add up to the same, near enough, 0.149999999 etc.

I know my sum was off - that's why I put "or rather it doesn't) it's not easy to add fractions up - you need everything to have a common denominator so you have to work out that, then work out the numerator for each fraction and then you can add them up.

As for the 8 X 4 sheet and holding it half of 8ft is 4ft but if you cut an 8x4 sheet to 4ft then you won't have cut it in half because the sheet known as an 8x4 is actually 2440mm and therefore slightly larger than 8ft.

So halving an 8x4 sheet only works easily if you use mm.

As someone wrote it doesn't really matter as long as it works for you.

However when it doesn't work is when you have issues. Anyone remember the Mars orbiter that got within a few miles of Mars and disintegrated due to a **** up of lbs and newtons.

 

[NazNomad]

I hate metric. It's the Devils work.

No, it's just French (which could quite easily amount to the same thing) :-D

 

[memzey]

I hate metric. It's the Devils work.

No, it's just French (which could quite easily amount to the same thing) :-D

Actually I think its roots are Roman given that the original length of a meter was the distance covered by a centurion's single marching pace but I do know what you mean. The French standardised and codified it even if they got it a bit wrong to start with.

It always seems that, for me at least, Imperial works better when I'm making something whereas metric seems to be better suited to straight counting. Could be because when things are made the size of a component relative to the size of another component is more important than the number it hits on a rule (but that could just be bunkum from my feeble mind). Might be just me but if I could run a 100% Imperial workshop I would. Unfortunately that doesn't seem possible in this country, in this day and age but I do my best! BTW I am 40 years old and learnt both in school so metric isn't a mystery to me as such. I just prefer to use imperial for my hobby as I find it better suited for woodworking.

 

[Jacob]

Imperial (duodecimal) works brilliantly (better than metric) for makers, measurers, geometers, astronomers, navigators.
Decimal works brilliantly for calculating, counting, maths, money, science.

 

[DiscoStu]

Depends on the type of navigating you're talking about!


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[Benchwayze]

And it depends on the currency. I.e. One hundred pence to the pound or 240 pennies to the pound!

And of course a nautical mile is 2,000 yards as opposed to a lubber's mile; 1760 yards, while a fathom is two imperial yards. So, how many feet in a cable, when a furlong is an eighth of a mile ?
Confusing innit? But I still understand that more than metric.

 

[Jacob]

Depends on the type of navigating you're talking about!


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Ocean. Navigating which involves 360º.
Nautical mile is a good example of a practical unit. It was defined as the distance between minutes of arc at a particular latitude and hence the length varies slightly from equator to pole. But that's fine if you are navigating by the stars with a sextant and the almanacs.

 

[MarkDennehy]

Think a fair few astronomers wouldn't agree with you there Jacob (not about the nautical mile, which is in the metric system - see table 8 - just not an SI unit). Astronomers don't use imperial measurements at all, but have their own fun units like AUs and solar masses and lightyears and parsecs (and aside from fun things like that, they use SI units).

 

[Jacob]

Think a fair few astronomers wouldn't agree with you there Jacob (not about the nautical mile, which is in the metric system - see table 8 - just not an SI unit). Astronomers don't use imperial measurements at all, but have their own fun units like AUs and solar masses and lightyears and parsecs (and aside from fun things like that, they use SI units).

Yes but the nautical mile relates to star positions and astro-navigation.