Not Another Metric Thread

[cautery]

How many school busses long is your neck?

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/15/world/dinosaur-with-record-long-neck-scn/index.html

My neck is 0.0093 to 0.0119 school buses long depending on the school bus used.

If we use the "standard" "short bus", my neck is 0.0167 to 0.0208 short school buses.

Or ALMOST 1 full toy school bus that the neighbor kid leaves laying around in the front yard.

(I was bored.)

 

[cls]

For some things, Lego 2x4 bricks ought to be the scale. Works by weight and by volume.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Jim Gaffigan has a funny bit about doctors comparing tumor sizes to fruit.
"The surgeon looked at me and thought 'well, this guy's not going to understand centimeters...'"

 

[OzHybrid]

For some things, Lego 2x4 bricks ought to be the scale. Works by weight and by volume.

That would also be useful for a pain scale. You stubbed your toe? Is it a double 4x2 or a triple?

 

[Cape Byron]

 

[dr wogz]

View attachment 569714

is that end-to-end? or side-by-side?

 

[jd2cylman]

View attachment 569714

is that end-to-end? or side-by-side?

I’m not sure, but the timing sounds about right…

 

[smstachwick]

 

[NateB]

This is an older internet argument, but valid still. Electrons have mass, so how much does the internet weigh?



The same as a strawberry. (Full disclosure, the UK based publication does say the electrons might weight 50g in the last sentence.)


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2057018/amp/Internet-weighs-strawberry.html

 

[mbeels]

Looks the same as the article in post #1, but they updated the unit of measure:

 

[smstachwick]

Looks the same as the article in post #1, but they updated the unit of measure:

View attachment 571134

There’s no way stuff like this is real. Somebody has to be making these to yank our chains

 

[Cape Byron]

If I'm honest, I find America's rejection of the Metric System a mild occasional irritation at most. But these things are funny and a can't help myself. Yes, I already know the British didn't develop the Metric System...

 

[user 30299]

When I worked in Europe, with US millwrights, they called Euros "metric money".
We would ask each other if they had "metric money" on hand before we went
out to eat. One guy always called is "metric dollars".

 

[John Kemker]

Americans won't switch to the metric system because they have a foot fetish.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Americans won't switch to the metric system because they have a foot fetish.

Somehow this thread just keeps inching along!

 

[Cape Byron]

Americans won't switch to the metric system because they have a foot fetish.

 

[Cape Byron]

 

[smstachwick]

 

[dr wogz]

Ahh yes, teh american measuring of standards:

wood
a 2x4 is actually 1.5" x 3.5", and so on..
https://www.thespruce.com/dimensional-lumber-definition-1821735
Steel pipes are labeled as a measurement, but are far from that particular number:
https://www.pitpipe.com/pipe-schedule-chart.html
Sheet metal is in some coded thickenss:
https://www.ryerson.com/resource/the-gauge/steel-gauge-the-why-and-how
Screws are also in a 'number':
https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/hardware/about-machine-screws-and-nuts-sizes-and-key-dimensions/
temperature based on being 180 units apart for boiling & freezing water (and has no relevance to weight or, energy required, etc..)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit


metric just uses the actual number of the 'thing'..

 

[Blast it Tom!]

....

temperature based on being 180 units apart for boiling & freezing water (and has no relevance to weight or, energy required, etc..)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit


metric just uses the actual number of the 'thing'..

Holy smokes, we had that EXACT thermometer outside our kitchen window for years! The nubs on the top and bottom were for the bracket...

 

[boatgeek]

View attachment 572015

View attachment 572016

I would like to point out that if there is grass growing between the planes, it's not a desert. Carry on with unitary mockery.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Ahh yes, teh american measuring of standards:

wood
a 2x4 is actually 1.5" x 3.5", and so on..
https://www.thespruce.com/dimensional-lumber-definition-1821735
Steel pipes are labeled as a measurement, but are far from that particular number:
https://www.pitpipe.com/pipe-schedule-chart.html
Sheet metal is in some coded thickenss:
https://www.ryerson.com/resource/the-gauge/steel-gauge-the-why-and-how
Screws are also in a 'number':
https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/hardware/about-machine-screws-and-nuts-sizes-and-key-dimensions/
temperature based on being 180 units apart for boiling & freezing water (and has no relevance to weight or, energy required, etc..)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit


metric just uses the actual number of the 'thing'..

And since I had a little time, I'll just leave this here:

Busting Myths about the Metric System

As the NIST notes, we've been in it straight along - but the public (myself included) still likes our feet, inches, gallons, hanks, chains, barleycorns, smidgens, firkins, hogsheads, chains, fathoms. Still, I am derailing. I don't want to be like a window that fell out of one of the planes above (a pane in the grass...).

 

[Rex R]

2 x 4 start out as 2 x 4 then they get surfaced. If you need actual size get rough cut timbers

 

[bjphoenix]

Ahh yes, teh american measuring of standards:

wood
a 2x4 is actually 1.5" x 3.5", and so on..
https://www.thespruce.com/dimensional-lumber-definition-1821735
Steel pipes are labeled as a measurement, but are far from that particular number:
https://www.pitpipe.com/pipe-schedule-chart.html
Sheet metal is in some coded thickenss:
https://www.ryerson.com/resource/the-gauge/steel-gauge-the-why-and-how

There is something in human nature that wants to make things complicated.

It is somewhat easy to understand a 2x4- in much older buildings they were a lot closer to being 2" x 4". I don't completely buy the explanation that they surface them down 1/4" on each side, with any reasonable machinery they should be able to surface down 1/8" or less on each face. I think along the way somebody got greedy and thought they could reduce the size and get more boards out of a tree.

Pipe sizes are somewhat interesting- pipe dimensions seem to relate to the inside diameter which would make sense if you are trying to pick an item to carry fluids. Inside diameters don't match anymore, I don't know if they ever did. This could be lost in history. In my work I deal with pipe sizes. There is a size called "Pipe 3 Std", it is 3.5" outside diameter. Some of my engineers will note on drawings to require a 3.5" pipe, does this mean they want a "Pipe 3.5 Std" which is actually 4" outside diameter, or do they want a pipe that is actually 3.5" outside diameter?

There might be some basis in history for wire gauge and sheet metal gauge, I just don't know. I understand the description of gauge for shotguns and there is a defined system although it doesn't make a lot of sense. Other definitions of cartridge sizes in firearm use are only roughly based on real measurements. Sometimes they have a basis in history.

 

[John Kemker]

One area where Americans use the metric system and the Brits STILL seem to think we're wrong is in blood sugar readings.

Americans and about half of the planet use mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter). The UK, Canada, and the rest of the world use mmol/L (millimoles per liter).

Even when we use metric, we still can't seem to satisfy the Brits.

 

[Cape Byron]

New dinosaur found in Oz. Article has measurements in metric and that other thing.



https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04...LW_ppSUfvuV3yEAAFfqQHDSPmZObIHxcmKWZZGXpfMKRU

 

[Sandy H.]

I would like to point out that if there is grass growing between the planes, it's not a desert. Carry on with unitary mockery.

They did say it was 2000 football fields, so possibly they have really poorly maintained Astroturf?

 

[Donnager]

Ahh yes, teh american measuring of standards:

wood
a 2x4 is actually 1.5" x 3.5", and so on..
https://www.thespruce.com/dimensional-lumber-definition-1821735
Steel pipes are labeled as a measurement, but are far from that particular number:
https://www.pitpipe.com/pipe-schedule-chart.html
Sheet metal is in some coded thickenss:
https://www.ryerson.com/resource/the-gauge/steel-gauge-the-why-and-how
Screws are also in a 'number':
https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/hardware/about-machine-screws-and-nuts-sizes-and-key-dimensions/
temperature based on being 180 units apart for boiling & freezing water (and has no relevance to weight or, energy required, etc..)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit


metric just uses the actual number of the 'thing'..

You may have left out the numbered and lettered drill bits.

But the world you described is what I live in (sheet metal, pipe, screws, etc...).

 

[Cape Byron]

 

[caveduck]

19th century manufacturers used a bewildering variety of gauge numbering systems for wire and sheet metal. Sometimes the system used depended on the wire material. There were the Lancashire and Birmingham systems long before the American and British national standards, and basically none of the early standards were metric, with Browne and Sharpe creating the first crack at a systematic set in 1855.

We got there first