english and metric

[uethanian]

i though this would be most suitable for luthiers...

where do u stand on the english/metric debate for instruments?

i personally never use english. i love millimeters, they're so easy to work with on a calculator. so why do u all use english? just the way u were brought up? my observation is that the younger people are, the more and more they have a preference towards metric. i guess u do actually learn something useful in elementary school...

[SDB Guitars]

I can't do metric conversions to relative size in my head to save my life, and all of my rulers, yardsticks and measuring tapes are in English.

Most American kids are only taught the most basic of metric conversions, because English is the standard measurement in the US. What's weird is that I'm so close to Canada that my TV station';s local weather forecast displays in Celcius as well as Farenheit, for all the Canadian viewers out there, but I can only tell you metric conversions for miles/kilometers and gallons/liters...

[Greenman]

I'm old so I'm comfortable with both. Although metric is all based on ten.

[dinghy]

Metric system is superior to the English system... I don't really see any reason to use it anymore, besides that other people use it.

[SDB Guitars]

In the States, we use it mostly because "it's what we've always done"...

The metric system *is* superior, I suppose, in that it is all based on factors of 10, and therefore easier to multiply or divide lengths, increase the scale of measurements, etc. It's just not something that they were really teaching in school when I was a kid, so I never learned it.

I worked in construction for a while hears ago, and all those fractions that the English system uses just come so naturally to me that I don't even think about it anymore, and I can very easily convert them to decimals in my head.

[blizzard]

I much prefer the metric over the English system. The English system seem too haphazard for me. I also prefer using SI units over Foot/Pounds etc. though thats basically the same argument.

[SDB Guitars]

most countries other than the USA (pretty much all of them?) teach their kids the metric system at a young age. Here in the states, we only briefly touch on it, with the exception of areas like chemistry, where it allows for more precise/finite measurement

[eleonn]

Here english sistem is not even taught at school. The only thing that they taught us is that 1 inch is more or less 2.5cm so my first aproach to english ssytem was when I start with my project. When I was reading Hiscocks book and get to the part about measures I foundnd that is easy to use for metric system (whch what we use here) for some things and english (or imperial as Hiscocks refers to) for some other things and it will depend on the number I get. If I get for example for a nut a 4.5 I use it in metric but if I get a 1.8 inches I use it in english.

[Son of Magni]

Originally Posted by SDB Guitars

...The metric system *is* superior, I suppose, in that it is all based on factors of 10, and therefore easier to multiply or divide lengths, increase the scale of measurements, etc...

One thing often not noticed in these discussions is that base 12 and base 36 both give integer results when dividing by 3. Something that can't be said for base 10.

[UncleBalsamic]

I use mainly metric, but I more often than not measure stuff in feet and inches. I also tend to use miles rather than kilometers when describing things and I'm like Blizzard in that I prefer to use Imperial units for weights.

[synaesthesia]

When I grew up it was the imperial system of measure, as a preteen. As a young pubescent teenager, I was asked by a classmate "When a man penetrates a woman does the whole thing go in or does in go in 1 centimetre?"

I knew my world of inches had gone metric then.

[Eublet]

I think the Metric system beats the Imperial system by about an inch.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Originally Posted by Son of Magni

One thing often not noticed in these discussions is that base 12 and base 36 both give integer results when dividing by 3. Something that can't be said for base 10.

I suppose you mean that the base is divisible by 3 into an integer but I don't really see the advantage. You can't divide 36 or 12 by 5 and get an integer, but you can with 10. Is there some reason that 3 is particularly important?

[Son of Magni]

Originally Posted by Geoff St. Germaine

I suppose you mean that the base is divisible by 3 into an integer but I don't really see the advantage. You can't divide 36 or 12 by 5 and get an integer, but you can with 10. Is there some reason that 3 is particularly important?

Yeah actually I mentioned the wrong point. The benefit is that it results in a real number. But every system has it's good and bad side. Personally I'd rather work in hex most of the time. Much easier to do certain types of math when the base is a power of 2. But for woodworking I mostly use inches and thousandths. So I guess it wouldn't make any difference to use metric except that 86.36cm scale

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Son of Magni

Yeah actually I mentioned the wrong point. The benefit is that it results in a real number. But every system has it's good and bad side. Personally I'd rather work in hex most of the time. Much easier to do certain types of math when the base is a power of 2. But for woodworking I mostly use inches and thousandths. So I guess it wouldn't make any difference to use metric except that 86.36cm scale

Hex is base 16.

[Bryan316]

My gripe with the metric system, is that it makes doing fractional calculations very very complex to do in your head. I know what 13/16 plus 5/8 equals without needing a calculator. But if I'm given a meter-long piece of wood and want to cut it up into 8 equal pieces, not many people can look at that metric tape measure and think, "Oh, that's at 125mm, 250mm, 375mm, 500mm, 625, 750 875...." It's not too easy to take 1/4 of something and split that into quarters, and keep those numbers in your head sorted out. Heck, ask anyone to take a 32nd of something, that'll melt their brains trying to do decimal equivalents!

Anyways, metric has it's place. Especially when doing CNC programming or machine layouts.

[Son of Magni]

Originally Posted by Eublet

Hex is base 16.

Yes, and 16 is a power of two last time I checked

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Bryan316

My gripe with the metric system, is that it makes doing fractional calculations very very complex to do in your head. I know what 13/16 plus 5/8 equals without needing a calculator. But if I'm given a meter-long piece of wood and want to cut it up into 8 equal pieces, not many people can look at that metric tape measure and think, "Oh, that's at 125mm, 250mm, 375mm, 500mm, 625, 750 875...." It's not too easy to take 1/4 of something and split that into quarters, and keep those numbers in your head sorted out. Heck, ask anyone to take a 32nd of something, that'll melt their brains trying to do decimal equivalents!

Anyways, metric has it's place. Especially when doing CNC programming or machine layouts.

Yeah, I can see that a bit if someone is used to it. Coming from a family that is heavily steeped in construction, carpentry and masonry, I am pretty good with measurements and such. But the benefit of metric is that you don't have to deal with fractions per se in the first place. There is no "quarter centimeter". The imperial system is faulty in that it requires that you typicall express a measurement in relation to another whole unit. Half a cup, quarter mile, half pound. It's tiresome to me in that regard, and I've grown up using it.

[eleonn]

Originally Posted by Son of Magni

Personally I'd rather work in hex most of the time.

Why do you do that to yourself???

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Son of Magni

Yes, and 16 is a power of two last time I checked

AH!!! You said whose "base is a power of two." details, details... I missed that part...