[adantessr]

Originally Posted by Irelands child

I use a little 1/2"mic to check drill sizes tho next time I'm in HF will consider one of their cheapy digital vernier for that - and old eyes - I have my old QC 8x magnifier when I use my vernier or my .0001 mics as those little lines - all blend together and become one wide blob

Dave W

I was using a 0-1" micrometer also and bought the 4" digital caliper for the same reason. Now where did I set those reading glasses ? For some reason it seems that we have hi-jacked this thread. Back to what Brian said .......

[mustangsal]

Originally Posted by joe_padavano

Are you people all really that bad at math?

Sorry, but this thread just reinforces the dumbing of America. Just divide the top number by the bottom number in the fraction to get the decimal equivalent. Geeze, every cell phone in the world has a build in calculator function now if 1/4 is too hard for you to figure out.

Joe,

It's not that I can't convert a fraction to a decimal. It was originally an attempt in finding better tool. I was trying to square a frame and the dimensions given in the manual are decimal numbers.

Math can help me find the fraction in a decimal number, however, all of that isn't worth squat if the tape I have only measures down to the 16th of an inch.

-Mike

[Bowles8742]

Lufkin 2212DX is a 12 foot Engineers tape that measures to 64th on one edge and 100ths of an inch on the other edge. To me multiplying or dividing in hundreds or tenths of an inch is a heck of a lot easier than doing it in a variety of fractions

[evolvo]

Again, that is why the metric system is the way to go, or the way we should have gone. It's all based on tens, just like our money. Look at it this way.
$1 = 1 mm.
Each mm is broken into 100 parts as $1 has 100 pennies.
So $.25 equals .25mm, $.89 = .89mm and so forth.
10mm = $10
100mm = $100
1000mm = $1000 and 1000mm = 1 meter
1000 meters = 1 kilometer

There now, that's easy as pi

[Irelands child]

Originally Posted by evolvo

Again, that is why the metric system is the way to go, or the way we should have gone. It's all based on tens, just like our money. Look at it this way.
$1 = 1 mm.
Each mm is broken into 100 parts as $1 has 100 pennies.
So $.25 equals .25mm, $.89 = .89mm and so forth.
10mm = $10
100mm = $100
1000mm = $1000 and 1000mm = 1 meter
1000 meters = 1 kilometer

There now, that's easy as pi

Unfortunately we now have >310,000,000 people that just WILL NOT (can not?) learn that system. We could be like the Brits with their cars - measure distance in miles but buy petrol in litres. I mostly understand the system, but still have trouble visualizing the relationship to real life. For instance, the wheelbase for my '31 is 103.5 inches but in mm it's 2628.9 (103.5x25.4). How many folks would have the same problem. Then you get into acres vs hectares on how many millions of property deeds which some politician would make into law on property transfer would be required to be converted to the decimal system. This translates into costs to people as well as state, and local offices as well as banks/lenders - and it goes on and on and on.

[poncho62]

Should have changed it when we did Dave (late 60s-early 70s)....By now, half the people that didn't or wouldn't understand would be dead......in 30 more years, the rest of us will go.......Yippee, we are half way there........

[Irelands child]

Originally Posted by poncho62

Should have changed it when we did Dave (late 60s-early 70s)....By now, half the people that didn't or wouldn't understand would be dead......in 30 more years, the rest of us will go.......Yippee, we are half way there........

Yeah I know. Even NY tried it on the interstates Km, Kph and MPH on the speed and distance signs - and finally gave up as too confusing tho mileage (and even some Franglish) has stayed posted for the Quebecois on I-87 North of Exit 30/31 .

Dave W

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by poncho62

Should have changed it when we did Dave (late 60s-early 70s)....By now, half the people that didn't or wouldn't understand would be dead......in 30 more years, the rest of us will go.......Yippee, we are half way there........

Yep we were shooting to change at that time here in California at least, it may have been a nationwide movement I don't know as I was just a kid. But I remember it well the teacher talking about how we were going to change and that was all there was to it. As kids we didn't think a thing of it, just going right along with it. Now, at 52 it is much harder. I used the metric system every day measuring car bodies and frames as that is what all the specs are in. I can do that all day long with a measuring tape or tram gauge yet still if I sit and try to convert or add large numbers I get all goofed up.

Brian

[evolvo]

Originally Posted by Irelands child

Unfortunately we now have >310,000,000 people that just WILL NOT (can not?) learn that system. We could be like the Brits with their cars - measure distance in miles but buy petrol in litres. I mostly understand the system, but still have trouble visualizing the relationship to real life. For instance, the wheelbase for my '31 is 103.5 inches but in mm it's 2628.9 (103.5x25.4). How many folks would have the same problem. Then you get into acres vs hectares on how many millions of property deeds which some politician would make into law on property transfer would be required to be converted to the decimal system. This translates into costs to people as well as state, and local offices as well as banks/lenders - and it goes on and on and on.

Can not or will not? I was trying to point out that we ALL use the metric system every day. Our MONEY is METRIC. Imagine if we bought gas by using fractions, would it cost $3 & 7/16 per gallon? So if it took 17 gallons that would be how much? 17 X 3 7/16 = ?
My first real exposure to the metric system was years ago when I was a deck hand on a tug boat. The other deck hand was a Belgian who had only been in the states a short time. He had been a captain in europe but his english wasn't good enough for him to pass his coast guard tests. He always spoke of distances in yards. Like the barge had 15 yards of space left to load. I finally figured out that yards are the closet to meters and that's how he converted in his head. I do the opposite now!

[JohnnyK81]

Originally Posted by poncho62

It's been about 30 years since we did it......I have almost got it figured out.......


Temperature and speeds are not too bad....but this litres/100 km thing instead of miles/gallon ......makes no sense to me.

Wait, so you have more of a problem with a measurement system where everything is based on the base 10 numbering system, moreso than the crazy imperial system where it's all based on things such as the length of the kings footprint, and the length of a gnat's eye?!?

[poncho62]

Originally Posted by JohnnyK81

Wait, so you have more of a problem with a measurement system where everything is based on the base 10 numbering system, moreso than the crazy imperial system where it's all based on things such as the length of the kings footprint, and the length of a gnat's eye?!?

Yep, guess I am just a stupid old man......Point is, that its hard to change what you have learned over the years, no matter how weird it is......They say that the English language is one of the hardest to learn because there are so many weird idiosyncrasies to it, but we seem to have it down pat. For a foreigner whos language has a set pattern to it, it is hell.

Another thing I have noticed about this subject...It started as a debate on 1/10s of inches and evolved into a debate on the metric system because, I guess on the base 10 aspect of it.........Not the same thing guys......

[JohnnyK81]

Shhhh.. We'll switch him over to metric and he won't even know it!

[Bowles8742]

Lets just say you work with what you got and conversion is not required. That really simplifies things for me.

[bentwings]

Yeah, well there are more women than men in the U.S.A. and no woman wants to have a rear end that's a 1000 mm or larger so it is ANSI for us.. haha

[cobalt327]

I think someone earlier is confusing "metric" w/"decimal" (aka "base 10"). Our currency isn't metric.

Until the Euro, English currency was all fubar'd, as well as many other currencies worldwide. Compared to some of them, US currency is down right simple.

Developmentally, we humans go through a phase where language and such is easily learned. Once past that stage, it is far more difficult to learn/retain language. Maybe it's the same w/learning some math concepts like the metric and "other".