dually drooler

Diesel daze--yes sir that's my tool, won't fit, wait a minute I got a bigger hammer!!!!
Hey having been other places with uncle sam I can tell you that any place that don't use the US greenback as currency uses the metric nuts and bolts. So you just have to have a fits-all! The crescent company makes a nice set! 4",6",8",10",12" and a couple of big boys 15" & 18".

BoostdCTD

Hmm, I find this one hard to agree with. I guess I find it easier to count from 13 to 14 than from 1/2" to 9/16".

Well to make the 212°F sound even more brilliant this number is 180° different than 32°F because a 180° turn is a complete change in direction. Quite a basis for a system, huh!? Also measuring the kings foot then dividing that by 12, can't be a simple 10, but instead 12....

To the person who mentioned Kelvin, it's significance is that it is the coldest temperature theoretically possible. I believe we have gotten within 5 K from this absolute zero point, now explain to me how many °F absolute zero is without doing a conversion. I can tell you it is -273°C or 0 K. Not even Rankine factor in absolute zero, freezing, or boiling point like Celsius does.

IMO the SAE system should be dumped and we should just go to metric like everyone else.

FWIW, I wasted an hour today on the roads trying to get a metric hydraulic hose built. Nobody around here has the tooling to touch it, but they can all build up SAE hoses.

Begle1

The metric system's glaring flaw is that it is not intended for ease of use.

A foot is an easily estimatable measurement. In metric, you got centimeters, which are too small, and meters, which are too big. Nothing in between. (Well, nothing commonly used in between.) That is as annyoing as all get out, and really guts the metric system.

The same thing to lesser degrees is also true with grams and other measurements. You got a unit too small, a unit too big, and not one just right. Goldilocks HATES the metric system. And that's reason enough for me to as well.

We also refuse to accept the metric system as we are Americans and we are not going to copy something that the French thought up during their revolution. The origin of the metric system was a bunch of Frenchmen that decided that denominations of 12 were too religious, and religion scared them. So they went with tens instead.

They also divided up the months differently too. Yes, it would be certainly nice if we were all on the old French system where each month has exactly 30 days, as I would never have to reset my pocket watch. But it just DOESN'Y WORK THAT WAY.

The day America adopts a French system for anything I'm going to bomb something. And don't go citing all kinds of precedents or the history of the Diesel engine itself either.

greenworks

I think is it what ever you grew up with that makes the most sense to each person, I was raised on metric therefore when I had an early cabinet maker job and the boss hit the roof on a 1/64 miss It drove me nuts that is less then a 1/4 of a saw blade, don't even get me started trying to figure what a barrel or rod or chain is, the way I see it is a barrel holds water, a rod can be used to poke the dog when sleeping in the sun, and a chain is what I use to pull fords from the ditch.

I just wish the everyone would do the same and eliminate the problems boostctd had trying to get a metric threaded hose in a remote area

SoTexRattler

This'll keep you reading for a while!
http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/index.htm
Especially check out some of the other links to ancient systems..
Look how they derived their units...
Interesting...

Keith

SoTexRattler

I got a kick out of the reference to a modern unit of a "Metric Foot" which the writer correctly called a truly useless unit of measure for either system! It is supposedly a British term.

K.

joel

OK, I realize no one's ever going to change your mind. Ever.

Still, the saying the metric system is flawed because it's not easy to use is so far off the mark I just had to chime in.

A foot is an easily measureable unit of measurement only if you are familiar with it. If you are not, it's totally strange concept and unrelated to anything. Then, there's 12 sub-units. 12. Where in the hell did we come up with a system of 12s?? And in what possible way could this be easier than a system of 10s? Would you like your currency to be in units of 12? That is, 12 cents to a dime? 12 dimes to a dollar? Then a 12 dollar bill? Or should we just have the 10 dollar bill and have change in fractions? then you'd have half pennies, quarter pennies, 16th pennies and such. I mean, England has half pence coins. OK, so I'm exaggerating here to make a point.

The smallest unit of measure in the SAE system is the inch. Then you go into fraction of inches. Half inch, quarter inch etc. In the metric system, you have smaller units of measure. The standard is the meter. There are intervening units between a meter and a centimenter: the decimeter, which is 1/10 of a meter. Then the centementer. Then a millimeter. and smaller and smaller. How hard is it to get used to a meter as the base unit instead of an inch - remember, a foot is 12 inches, not a unit by itself, technically. Again, it's just what you're used to.

Let's see... 12 inches in a foot. 5280 in a mile. That's 1760 yards or 8 furlongs (the length of a traditional Saxon furrow plowed by oxen; or 40 rods, each rod is 5.5 yards or 16.5 feet). Confused yet? Oh, don't forget the fathom (6') or the Cubit or the Hand or.... ***??

As opposed to 1 meter. 1000 meters is a kilometer. .01 meter is 1 centimeter.

As for not having the right size unit, you're more likely to find that in SAE units. If I want 3 grams, that's easier to determine than a .105 oz. Or if I want 4 grams, it's easier to work with than .14 oz. At least for me to calculate on the fly. Also gives you smaller units that are easier to work with. 1 gram or .035 oz? Yikes!!

We refuse to accept it because we're hard headed and stubborn. Period. Has nothing to do with being American, French or anything else. Business doesn't want the costs of relabeling things. People in general just don't like change. It's a better system and ultimately, it'll creep in and replace SAE. But don't worry, it'll be long after we're both gone before it takes over comepletely.

If you want to see just how screwed up our system is, look here: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/custom.html

As for the shuttle boosters and rail gauge width, look here: http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

Whitmore

So why is it that a metric socket set still has 3/8" of 1'2" drive

Bloomin Idiots

tool

because everyone allready has a 3/8" or 1/2" drive and then you don't have to buy a new ratche to use a different socket...........

Pretty straightforward I'd say.

Geico266

My head hurts now!

SoTexRattler

I picked up a cool looking "speed wrench" at a mil surplus store once..
It sure LOOKED like a 1/4" drive...
I got it home and decided to try it out. It was METRIC! Totally useless!

K.

greenworks

1 meter = 100 centimeters = 1000 milimeters

BoostdCTD

I just seen Metric Ton the other day, how stupid. They couldn't just go with tons or kgs but instead came up with a third system even more useless than the SAE system. But that's JMO.

SoTexRattler

Because my employer ships to foreign countries, they ship using the metric ton or as it is spelled, TONNE. We pronounce it "Tunny" to make sure no one gets confuzzled.
Conveniently, "1 tonne"= 2200lbs or 1000kg!
We can handle it. We've got conversion tables/factors when needed...(fingers, toes, abacus & roman numerals. )
Our site's process flowmeters are scaled in lbs per hour(PPH) and gallons per minute(GPM), but temperatures are measured in DegC. Go figure!!!
All our piping&equipment is still built using "inches".

K

bmoeller

I have a 24" one, also.