Metric anyone?

[dondiego]

You use the metric system every day in your money. How would you like to be making change in farthings, shillings, or pence? The metric system is easier to use and convert accurately. How many miles are in 14376 yards? You would need a calculator. With the metric system you just move the decimal. Easy. It is based on water. One cubic centimeter of water weighs one gram and is equal to one millimeter. Length, weight, and volume. The US made a huge mistake by not converting when the rest of the world did. Even Great Britain, who invented the Imperial system based on certain characteristics of whomever was king at the time converted to the metric system.

[44man]

You use the metric system every day in your money. How would you like to be making change in farthings, shillings, or pence? The metric system is easier to use and convert accurately. How many miles are in 14376 yards? You would need a calculator. With the metric system you just move the decimal. Easy. It is based on water. One cubic centimeter of water weighs one gram and is equal to one millimeter. Length, weight, and volume. The US made a huge mistake by not converting when the rest of the world did. Even Great Britain, who invented the Imperial system based on certain characteristics of whomever was king at the time converted to the metric system.

That is true. it was the conversion that killed it here.

[frnkeore]

My last 2 trucks were Metric And Standard depending on which part you were working on.

The METRIC ENGINEERS being True Communists are constantly inventing NEW SIZES. Where the hell did 18mm come from, we already had 17mm and 19mm. Now they are inventing Half Sizes. WHY have a 4.5mm Hex wrench? We should have nipped this in the bud and outlawed metrics.

Metric is a communist plot and should be Systematically Eliminated.

Metric have sparked your car, almost since there have been cars. From the 1930's to before 1955 almost all cars had 14mm spark plugs and to answer the question "Where the hell did 18mm come from", Ford started using 18mm spark plugs in 1955.

That said, I'm NOT a "metric guy", I think in inches, gallons and grains. I'm a retired machinist and to some extent, I've dealt with metric's all my working life, most ball and roller bearing are metric and I've probably machined thousands of holes for them to fit into. BUT, I do not think metric and will not ever!!! That's the key to using the Metric System, you really need to think it.

Early on, I learned 25.4 (25.4mm = 1") and have never forgotten it. It's made my life so much easier. Grains are a lot more accurate than grams and so, it can make handloading safer.

Frank

[dondiego]

"Grains are a lot more accurate than grams and so, it can make handloading safer. "

......................so that should make milligrams even more safe??????

[frnkeore]

"Grains are a lot more accurate than grams and so, it can make handloading safer. "

......................so that should make milligrams even more safe??????

You have to get to milligrams to even come close to our .1 grain meaurement. I could not direct anyone to a affordable milligram scale, either a ballance or digital.

Regarding millimeters, it's NOT based on CC's or water weight, it's based on the approximate distance from the North Pole to the Equator along the Paris meridian. 1/10,000,000 of that distance. It's been refined since then and is now based on the speed of light.

You use the metric system every day in your money.

Our monetary system is based on the Decimal System, not the Metric System. I've always been comfortable with the Decimal System. I can divide 1" by .001, .0001 and .00001 (10 millionths).

Frank

[GLL]

"Grains are a lot more accurate than grams and ................. "

Someone needs to explain this to me ! I may have to dump a few balances !

Jerry

[Ken in Iowa]

Boy this thread may be on the road to a padlock.

All I can say is that if the U.S. Had adopted the metric system in its infancy, we would all be better off today.

[country gent]

For many years the US was the dominating force in manufacturing and other areas in the world. I have seen the ISO standards in the manufacturering and other really neat sopunding ideas including metric. The ISO is supposedly so that what I measure as 1/2" is the same 1/2" anywhere else in the world. When we were the dominating force in manufacturering why would we want to switgh to another system. WHat we were doing worked for us and was effective. SOme say metrics are more accurate but most dont go beyond 1/32" let alone 1/64" or 1/128". Why confuse everything changing or converting. Metric drawings in shops with standard machines cost alot of time and money as the first thing is the tradesman has to sit down and convert the print to standard so he can make it. Same with reloading sitting to convert data to metric is time consuming.

[frnkeore]

"Grains are a lot more accurate than grams and ................. "

Someone needs to explain this to me ! I may have to dump a few balances !

Jerry

Jerry,
The premise for that statement, is that 1 grain is 1/15.43 of a gram. No matter how many times that you divide both, equally, the grain will always be a smaller unit, thus more accurate by a ratio of 15.43 to 1.

All I can say is that if the U.S. Had adopted the metric system in its infancy, we would all be better off today.

Ken,
I agree but, it's to late for me. My mind will never be able to distort distance from inch, feet and mile. I can not tell you how many K it is to the store (with out dividing miles X .621) but, I can definity tell you that it's 5 miles.

Some of our shooting would be skewed, too as 200 meters (approx 220 yd) couldn't be directly compared to 200 yds for accuracy.

Most of the drawing that I've machined parts from in these last 20 years are dimensioned in inches, even though many of the numbers would be mm if multipied by 25.4.

Frank

[smokeywolf]

Although I can switch mm & cm with inch measurements and visa-versa, in my head, in seconds. I do have trouble with volumetric measurements. When it comes to distance or spatial measurements, I've no problem thinking in metric.
Worked in the Motion Picture Industry for 35 years. Not too many people have heard of 1.377 film, but everybody has heard of 35 mm film.

[44man]

Jerry,
The premise for that statement, is that 1 grain is 1/15.43 of a gram. No matter how many times that you divide both, equally, the grain will always be a smaller unit, thus more accurate by a ratio of 15.43 to 1.




Ken,
I agree but, it's to late for me. My mind will never be able to distort distance from inch, feet and mile. I can not tell you how many K it is to the store (with out dividing miles X .621) but, I can definity tell you that it's 5 miles.

Some of our shooting would be skewed, too as 200 meters (approx 220 yd) couldn't be directly compared to 200 yds for accuracy.

Most of the drawing that I've machined parts from in these last 20 years are dimensioned in inches, even though many of the numbers would be mm if divided by 25.4.

Frank

There lies the problem. You need to grow up with metric and we did not.
I measure with a rule and it is so easy to see 1-1/16 or anything for the whole length but what are those thousands of metric marks on the other side?

[gwpercle]

I don't like metric.
My engine is 396 cubic inch v-8 , that sounds a whole lot better than 6.4892 litre.

I'm not going to change, they tried in high school but it didn't work then.

[dondiego]

"Regarding millimeters, it's NOT based on CC's or water "

I misspoke - I meant to say that one cubic centimeter of water will equal one milliliter ​in volume, not one millimeter in length.

[Elkins45]

I would be perfectly happy to scrap the English system, except perhaps for my 1936 South Bend lathe that is graduated in inches...although I rarely make things to the degree of precision where it would matter. And I always use a caliper or micrometer to measure anyway.

As a science teacher one of the best things I ever did was split all of my rulers lengthwise and throw away the half graduated in inches. No more measurement errors after that. I also sanded off the inches from the back of my wooden meter sticks.

[dancingbear41]

For all of my schooling and for all of my professional life I have used the metric system. But left to my own devices I can use either metric or imperial, whichever is most convenient, or both together. My reloading is imperial though.

Simon.

[BattleRife]

Shure would be nice not to have to think in 2 difrent systems between home and work

There is one way to make that a reality, and it is as obvious as it is can be. If the USA switched to metric, avoirduppois units would disappear from the planet. They are the one and only holdout that matters.

I can pretty much guarantee the other 210 or so countries are not going to go the other way.

[prs]

A rose is a rose is a rose. My standard and metric wrenches fit the same bolts as long as I select the correct one of either system. 9/16 and 14mm are the same, 12mm and 1/2", 7/16 and 10mm and most others. My impact sockets are marked both ways, same socket with both sizes printed onto them. Half sizes? Well, we have sockets and wrenches in "standard" system in 32nds, 64ths and even finer demarks. Why? Sell more tools. A grain is a grain is a grain in all current weight systems. There is NO SUCH THING as volumetric grains and I do not care what your stupid black powder measure says.

prs

[kentuckyshooter]

A lot of debate on which system is better but it appears to me that is all aw matter of personal prefrence. I grew up with standard measurements but am gravitating to the metric due to ease of use from work. The one thing that i gave gathered though is pick on and stick with it. Measurment is the piviot point of safety in our hobby and acrite repeatability is esential

[dragon813gt]

A system based on tens is easier to comprehend and perform the math in your head. You do it every day w/ money. The one aspect I don't agree w/ is temperature in Celsius. I know we'd get used to it eventually. But there is marked difference in the Fahrenheit graduations that we can really feel. 26-37C just doesn't seem as hot as 80-100F.

[JeffinNZ]

A system based on tens is easier to comprehend and perform the math in your head.

You know, I used to think the same then one day a US friend pointed out to me that 12 is more evenly divisible than 10. 1,2,3,4 and 6 go evenly into 12. 1,2 and 5 go evenly into 10. Tricky old business isn't it.

My late father was an imperial stalwart. Wouldn't or couldn't try and use metric. Comes down to what you are comfortable with. I'm lucky. Because of dad and my shooting I can work in both imperial and metric. Both have advantages and there is something rather nice and traditional about imperial.