We Went to the Moon on Feet and Inches

Anonymous via the Cypherpunks Tonga Remailer wrote:
You're wrong. Please go away.

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| Joseph J. Strout Check out the Mac Web Directory: |
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Joe, its like this: The scientific method demands all theories be put to
the test. This test has been done already in the everyday world. Your
car, for example. You probably drive a foreign car with a lot of those
pesky metric bolts and nuts. Now, lets do the experimentation.

Lay out some USS or SAE bolts and nuts. You will note the series is 3/8
in., 1/2 in., 9/16in., 5/8 in., 3/4 in., 7/8in., and 1 in. as measured
across the flats. You notice the increments are 1/16 in. in the smaller
sizes and increases to 1/8 in. in the larger sizes. This is for a reason,
a very practical one. The eye can identify the size because the difference
from one size exceeds a certain threshold. Thus, a mechanic can choose the
correct size wrench correctly every time by inspection.

Now lay out a bunch of those French metrics. You will note that the series
runs 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24, and 25mm!!!! Each size is separated by only 1/25th of an inch, too
small to be positively labeled by inspection. This means not only does the
spaceman have to carry a box of tools which weights three times a much, but
he is doomed to spend three times longer on his spacewalks doing the trial
and error thing getting a wrench to fit a bolt.

This is Hog Wash. I am a mechanic in that I replace parts on my cars,
change engines to gain an upgrade and other hybridizations- but am not
pursuing it as a career. I can look in my tool bag or at a bolt on the
car and easily select the right sized tool for the job. Your opinion, is
just that.

The term Luddite is ringing in the air.


Try it out on your own car. Half the time you will pick up the wrong
wrench size to fit a particular metric bolt or nut. With just a little
practice, you can get it right all the time with SAE bolts and nuts.


Phooey, same same. Exposure, and working with results in the same outcome.

This problem cannot be remedied by skipping mm's because then the series
will be too coarse. Engineering requires a logical series so stress
requirements can be accommodated. That is why so many bolts are just 1mm
different. Its a real headache, this metric system. Boeing did the right
thing to go SAE; it saved tons of launch weight in fuel saved had they gone
metric. Russia went metric; that neatly explains the need for the Energia
monster rocket.


Hahahah. This is funny. Proof?

All this is not to say the metric system could not have been a better
replacement for the common system. If the meter was 56% longer, then each
mm would be 1/16th inch and the metric system would have all its advantages
it has now and be practical at the same time. Then, your eye could see the
difference between a 10mm bolt and an 11mm bolt and the correct wrench be
chosen without all the trial and error which now occurs. Now you know why
it costs $60 an hour to fix your Benz and billions to fix the Russian half
of the ISS. The guy's always reaching for three wrenches for every bolt to
get one that fits.

So instead of going for the brush off, you might tell us why the meter
isn't 61 inches. That is the best solution and its not too late to change
it before the U.S. decides to go metric.


Crazy talk.


TBerk

T wrote:


BWaHAHAHHAHahahAhahahahahaah!

We, the US, should have moved to Metric a long time ago. We loose
_nothing_ in terms of being unamerican to do so.

If we started training school children Right Now, in ten or twenty
years they would wonder what all the fuss is about, and why we waited
so long.


They tried it back when I was in High School in the 1970's; it didn't
work worth a damn. It would certainly be worth doing, but the problem is
that anyone who grew up with the english measurement system has a hard
time adapting- I still think of a meter as "a little longer than three
feet" and a kilogram as "a little over two pounds" when I'm mentally
doing conversions between the two systems.
But any form of mathematical conversion is _far_ easier in the metric
system.

Pat

Neil Gerace wrote:

Since the metric system was dreamed up by the republican French, I think
it's very American to switch from a system of units based on the length of
an English king's foot.


Particularly when that bloody royal foot is planted firmly on the neck
of the freedom-loving Irish!
Free Derry from the royalists!
May those protestants who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may fall flat on their filthy orangeman arses on marching days,
the God-damned stinking *******s! :-)

Padraig O'Flannabhra

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


T wrote:


BWaHAHAHHAHahahAhahahahahaah!

We, the US, should have moved to Metric a long time ago. We loose
_nothing_ in terms of being unamerican to do so.

If we started training school children Right Now, in ten or twenty
years they would wonder what all the fuss is about, and why we waited
so long.


They tried it back when I was in High School in the 1970's; it didn't
work worth a damn. It would certainly be worth doing, but the problem is
that anyone who grew up with the english measurement system has a hard
time adapting- I still think of a meter as "a little longer than three
feet" and a kilogram as "a little over two pounds" when I'm mentally
doing conversions between the two systems.
But any form of mathematical conversion is _far_ easier in the metric
system.


I was taught metric starting in junior high school in Los Angeles, back in
the 70s. It stuck. At university in the 80s, we used metric units in all
of our engineering classes. On the job over the past 20 years, I've used
metric units on a nearly daily basis. I also use the old English system for
colloquial stuff.

It's like speaking more than one language. Use both. Use either. BFD.


MK

On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 14:21:03 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:



Neil Gerace wrote:

Since the metric system was dreamed up by the republican French, I think
it's very American to switch from a system of units based on the length of
an English king's foot.


Particularly when that bloody royal foot is planted firmly on the neck
of the freedom-loving Irish!
Free Derry from the royalists!
May those protestants who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may fall flat on their filthy orangeman arses on marching days,
the God-damned stinking *******s! :-)

Padraig O'Flannabhra



Calm down and listen to this version of "This Land Is My Land".

http://www.soundclick.com/util/strea...ID=697541&q=Hi

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/ce...eedommusic.htm


-Rusty Barton

Pat Flannery wrote:


T wrote:


BWaHAHAHHAHahahAhahahahahaah!

We, the US, should have moved to Metric a long time ago. We loose
_nothing_ in terms of being unamerican to do so.

If we started training school children Right Now, in ten or twenty
years they would wonder what all the fuss is about, and why we waited
so long.



They tried it back when I was in High School in the 1970's; it didn't
work worth a damn. It would certainly be worth doing, but the problem is
that anyone who grew up with the english measurement system has a hard
time adapting- I still think of a meter as "a little longer than three
feet" and a kilogram as "a little over two pounds" when I'm mentally
doing conversions between the two systems.
But any form of mathematical conversion is _far_ easier in the metric
system.

Pat



I was right there with you but the effort wasn't sustained long enough.

Granted change, while inevitable, is often uncomfortable, if not
downright painful, but I would not be in such a bad shape if we had gone
on and gotten it over with.

And the school children of today wouldn't have that same trouble, if
anything they would have certain things measured 'naturally' with one
set of units and everything else measured with the other. This would go
on for a little while longer until only anachronistic items would remain
in 'old' units and everybody would be Metric.

'Don't do Metric because it's French' is funny, or it's pitiful. Take
your pick.


TBerk

"Mighty Krell" wrote in message
ink.net...
It's like speaking more than one language. Use both. Use either. BFD.

I use both as needed. Hasn't been a problem for me. I'd much rather use
metric, but the neanderthals around me can't even spell it.

For that matter, I'd *rather* use SI, but explaining the difference isn't
worth the effort.