i was wondering what units are used in other parts of the world.
in europe it is used the meter, centimeter, millimeter.....
in usa?
in uk/australia?
in japan?
i would convert it. some might understand metric. some might not. when doing work over seas, we always converted to metric. we never wanted our drawings to misinterpreted.
you got the point, i've always been fascinated by all those fraction, expecially the 5/8...... i guess it means that i have to divede 5 inches by 8.... is that correct?
It’s a strange statement to say that converting to metric would confuse Americans. Of course dividing numbers by 8 or 12 (imperial) is much easier than dividing numbers by 10 (as per metric) I don’t think.
Americans don’t even use the same imperial system as ‘Empire’ imperial.
You’re on your own as usual. As they used to say on Sesame St.
One of these kids is doing his own thing.
One of these kids is not the same.
Americans do not understand metric. But you can use a scale also. Like in maps. You need not think your project in inches if it is only for a competition.
Some Americans understand metric. Usually anyone who was elementary-school aged in the early to mid 1970s (i.e. people who are currently in their mid 30s to early 40s) were taught to use metric interchangeably with feet and inches. In those days in school were always told that the US was in the process of switching to metric and that by the time we were adults everyone would use metric. In fact as a child I think I heard that even more frequently than that by the time we grew up everyone would need to know how to use a computer, and to me as a child the metric issue seemed far more plausible than a near future in which computers would play much of a role.
I'm not sure what happened to derail that goal. It just seems that by the late 70s/early 80s people weren't saying this anymore and the schools had largely given up on true integration of metric - instead relegating this to a 1-week "study unit" in 4th grade math books for gifted kids.
I did some projects using the imperial system, while in the U.S.
My opinion: It's INTERESTING on an intellectual level, it's CRAP to work with.
The interesting aspects are:
- the relation to your own body: i.e the foot
(le corbusier invented the Modulor to reconnect the metric to the human scale, of course adding a more harmonic ratio...)
- then you can divide a foot easily into 2 and 4 and 3!!! parts because one foot is twelve inches. using metric you end up having odd numbers as 3.3333 if you want to divide 10 cm into three parts.
- in metric subdivisions are endless: m,dm,cm,mm,...(-10*n)
in the imperial system subdivisions are more easily to grasp, because they allways interrelate to one inch:
one inch, half an inch, 1/4", 1/8" (1/2*n)
OK that's the intelectual thing
the (un)practical thing is:
our 'metric' European brains have a really hard time drawing to scale in th imperial system.
Because you have to relate something you draw in inches to something that represents feet. (BUT: 1' = 12" !!!!!)
So if you try to draw in a 3/32 scale, meaning that 3/32 of an inch in your drawing are one foot in real, your brain (or at least mine) is not able to do the math.....
anyway good luck with your comp., if in feet or meters.
If an american can understand money then they can understand the metric system. For example, when a cashier hands you change, does the person say: 63 cents change, or 5/8 dollar change?
In my case, I'd rather fork over an extra 12 cents and tell them to gimme three quarters instead. Um, 12 cents is roughly 1/8 of a dollar for those looking for their calculator, and even though that works out to 6/8 or 2/3 of a dollar I'm actually getting more because it's 3/4 of a dollar!
I was educated in the UK, and never did understand Imperial measurements (nor really metric weight nor liquid volume). I'm now moving to practice as an intern in the US for a year and a half. Shit.
What can I do to get up to speed with these inches and feet that seem so intimidating and troublesome to me?? I'm actually very worried that I'll get some straightforward task such as building a model - which will suddenly be very, very difficult. Scale seems very strange too.
from my own experience;
get a tape measure and practice measuring things. it is really important to have visual reference, lets say, how long is 10 feet etc.., in your brain. after a while you won't be translating and will be thinking in imperial.
i read somewhere, long back that an inch is derived from the distance between each line on your fingers...the average anyhow...
and a foot is a big guy's foot
i just use that to relate
i have worked in both, having grown up in USA and I did metric on a project in school for shits and giggles to see if I could. It was easier than I thought to convert and begin to think in metric. however, I do think it would be harder to go the other way - Sorry Euros.
Abra - that is good advice for any of us - to measure stuff every once in a while. I have done this periodically. Last week in fact I taped off a 10' wide space in my living room and "hung out" in it for a while as one client insist on a 10' wide corridor (where I propose an 8' wide is perfect). I pretended to lean against a wall and made my husband walk by to see if he invaded my personal space.
The imperial system is nice because the units are related to the body like mentioned above. The foot, or feet especially, since the metric doesn't really have an equivilent. Rooms are measured most often thought of in feet. It is awkward to think of things in meters and fractions of meters.
matteo - feet aren't really expressed in fractions, inches are. If you hear or see 5/8 - that means that the inch is thought of as breaking down into 8 parts (look at an imperial ruler and you will see 8 marks inside the inches) - and 5/8 means 5 of those 8 parts. 5/8" is like the thickness of a sheet good - plywood or wall board for example.
I think everyone uses metric except the US. The Imperial system has its roots in a pre-industrial, agrarian past, when precision of measurement wasn't quite so necessary. So there was a standard foot, but everyone understood more or less what a foot was in relation to their own. Likewise, the inch in relation to the thumb.
Here's some easy ones, they work out if you are an average sized male.
4 inches , span of palm of hand
6 inches, tip of thumb to tip of index finger
8 inches (standard brick size), span of hand
That way you can take measurements without resorting to tape measures.
A mile is 5,280 feet, which seems ridiculous, but it actually was a very good measurement for surveying, back in the day.
And as for the whole Celsius system, its totally ridiculous. Why live in a watercentric universe. Here, below 0 means its "f*&king cold, and above 100 means its damn hot. If I'm ever in a 100 degree celsius environment, I'm dead, so why should I care that I'm at precisely 100.
i was taught metrics in elementary school with imperial units (the name, btw, has been changed to US units). mm, centimeters, meters, and kilometers are all pretty easy. we also pretty much only used metrics in chemistry and physics. i definetly understand metrics for volume far better than our own system, which still confuses me. some places in the US that have a large foriegn tourist population (such as some places in colorado) post speed limits in km adjacent to mph. they have proposed doing this throughout michigan before, but nobody wanted to pay for it.
probably if we were going to convert to metrics, volume and weight would be the best places to start. i could see that jump being made fairly quickly actually. private companies could phase out their own gallon jugs. i would say for distance it would take much longer (think of all the public money it would take to change our interstate highway signage).
overall i think to change would be good, as long as football fields remain the same size and beer still comes in pints. is there an equivalent to the 4x8 plywood sheet or the 8"x8"x16" CMU block in metrics?
THe funniest thing is that in Canada we use both systems. Equal number of projects in metric as imperial. The last project I did, the developer wanted the drawings in Metric but all the stats in imperial. ahhhhhhh. Painfull.
Download: UNIT CONVERTER PRO from www.download.com it will save your life. I have it on all the time.
what measure unit u use?
i was wondering what units are used in other parts of the world.
in europe it is used the meter, centimeter, millimeter.....
in usa?
in uk/australia?
in japan?
metric all the way!
points and pixels.
For as-builts, I go with the inch.
i was wondering it, because i would like to participate in a competiotion in usa and all the measures are given in inches....
since i use the metric system, would it mean that i have to convert my measures in inches ?
(usa understands the metric system?)
i would convert it. some might understand metric. some might not. when doing work over seas, we always converted to metric. we never wanted our drawings to misinterpreted.
metric + pixels
Metric vs Imperial
you got the point, i've always been fascinated by all those fraction, expecially the 5/8...... i guess it means that i have to divede 5 inches by 8.... is that correct?
It’s a strange statement to say that converting to metric would confuse Americans. Of course dividing numbers by 8 or 12 (imperial) is much easier than dividing numbers by 10 (as per metric) I don’t think.
Americans don’t even use the same imperial system as ‘Empire’ imperial.
You’re on your own as usual. As they used to say on Sesame St.
One of these kids is doing his own thing.
One of these kids is not the same.
Cubits.
furlongs
Americans do not understand metric. But you can use a scale also. Like in maps. You need not think your project in inches if it is only for a competition.
Some Americans understand metric. Usually anyone who was elementary-school aged in the early to mid 1970s (i.e. people who are currently in their mid 30s to early 40s) were taught to use metric interchangeably with feet and inches. In those days in school were always told that the US was in the process of switching to metric and that by the time we were adults everyone would use metric. In fact as a child I think I heard that even more frequently than that by the time we grew up everyone would need to know how to use a computer, and to me as a child the metric issue seemed far more plausible than a near future in which computers would play much of a role.
I'm not sure what happened to derail that goal. It just seems that by the late 70s/early 80s people weren't saying this anymore and the schools had largely given up on true integration of metric - instead relegating this to a 1-week "study unit" in 4th grade math books for gifted kids.
: matteo
I did some projects using the imperial system, while in the U.S.
My opinion: It's INTERESTING on an intellectual level, it's CRAP to work with.
The interesting aspects are:
- the relation to your own body: i.e the foot
(le corbusier invented the Modulor to reconnect the metric to the human scale, of course adding a more harmonic ratio...)
- then you can divide a foot easily into 2 and 4 and 3!!! parts because one foot is twelve inches. using metric you end up having odd numbers as 3.3333 if you want to divide 10 cm into three parts.
- in metric subdivisions are endless: m,dm,cm,mm,...(-10*n)
in the imperial system subdivisions are more easily to grasp, because they allways interrelate to one inch:
one inch, half an inch, 1/4", 1/8" (1/2*n)
OK that's the intelectual thing
the (un)practical thing is:
our 'metric' European brains have a really hard time drawing to scale in th imperial system.
Because you have to relate something you draw in inches to something that represents feet. (BUT: 1' = 12" !!!!!)
So if you try to draw in a 3/32 scale, meaning that 3/32 of an inch in your drawing are one foot in real, your brain (or at least mine) is not able to do the math.....
anyway good luck with your comp., if in feet or meters.
If an american can understand money then they can understand the metric system. For example, when a cashier hands you change, does the person say: 63 cents change, or 5/8 dollar change?
In my case, I'd rather fork over an extra 12 cents and tell them to gimme three quarters instead. Um, 12 cents is roughly 1/8 of a dollar for those looking for their calculator, and even though that works out to 6/8 or 2/3 of a dollar I'm actually getting more because it's 3/4 of a dollar!
I was educated in the UK, and never did understand Imperial measurements (nor really metric weight nor liquid volume). I'm now moving to practice as an intern in the US for a year and a half. Shit.
What can I do to get up to speed with these inches and feet that seem so intimidating and troublesome to me?? I'm actually very worried that I'll get some straightforward task such as building a model - which will suddenly be very, very difficult. Scale seems very strange too.
Where can I learn more? Oh my.
from my own experience;
get a tape measure and practice measuring things. it is really important to have visual reference, lets say, how long is 10 feet etc.., in your brain. after a while you won't be translating and will be thinking in imperial.
i read somewhere, long back that an inch is derived from the distance between each line on your fingers...the average anyhow...
and a foot is a big guy's foot
i just use that to relate
I thought it was supposed to be the foot of the King, and the inch was the distance between the tip of his thumb and the thumb knuckle.
i have worked in both, having grown up in USA and I did metric on a project in school for shits and giggles to see if I could. It was easier than I thought to convert and begin to think in metric. however, I do think it would be harder to go the other way - Sorry Euros.
Abra - that is good advice for any of us - to measure stuff every once in a while. I have done this periodically. Last week in fact I taped off a 10' wide space in my living room and "hung out" in it for a while as one client insist on a 10' wide corridor (where I propose an 8' wide is perfect). I pretended to lean against a wall and made my husband walk by to see if he invaded my personal space.
The imperial system is nice because the units are related to the body like mentioned above. The foot, or feet especially, since the metric doesn't really have an equivilent. Rooms are measured most often thought of in feet. It is awkward to think of things in meters and fractions of meters.
matteo - feet aren't really expressed in fractions, inches are. If you hear or see 5/8 - that means that the inch is thought of as breaking down into 8 parts (look at an imperial ruler and you will see 8 marks inside the inches) - and 5/8 means 5 of those 8 parts. 5/8" is like the thickness of a sheet good - plywood or wall board for example.
isn't the "foot" from Julius Ceasar's foot? maybe not, but I thought so.
I think everyone uses metric except the US. The Imperial system has its roots in a pre-industrial, agrarian past, when precision of measurement wasn't quite so necessary. So there was a standard foot, but everyone understood more or less what a foot was in relation to their own. Likewise, the inch in relation to the thumb.
Here's some easy ones, they work out if you are an average sized male.
4 inches , span of palm of hand
6 inches, tip of thumb to tip of index finger
8 inches (standard brick size), span of hand
That way you can take measurements without resorting to tape measures.
A mile is 5,280 feet, which seems ridiculous, but it actually was a very good measurement for surveying, back in the day.
And as for the whole Celsius system, its totally ridiculous. Why live in a watercentric universe. Here, below 0 means its "f*&king cold, and above 100 means its damn hot. If I'm ever in a 100 degree celsius environment, I'm dead, so why should I care that I'm at precisely 100.
i was taught metrics in elementary school with imperial units (the name, btw, has been changed to US units). mm, centimeters, meters, and kilometers are all pretty easy. we also pretty much only used metrics in chemistry and physics. i definetly understand metrics for volume far better than our own system, which still confuses me. some places in the US that have a large foriegn tourist population (such as some places in colorado) post speed limits in km adjacent to mph. they have proposed doing this throughout michigan before, but nobody wanted to pay for it.
probably if we were going to convert to metrics, volume and weight would be the best places to start. i could see that jump being made fairly quickly actually. private companies could phase out their own gallon jugs. i would say for distance it would take much longer (think of all the public money it would take to change our interstate highway signage).
overall i think to change would be good, as long as football fields remain the same size and beer still comes in pints. is there an equivalent to the 4x8 plywood sheet or the 8"x8"x16" CMU block in metrics?
Modulars
Bossman - I won't complain about imperial as far as beer is measured. 16 Fluid Ounces is a nice measure.
yeah, like i said
just like 100 is good measure for hot and 0 for cold
and around 10" for a nice, plump penis
THe funniest thing is that in Canada we use both systems. Equal number of projects in metric as imperial. The last project I did, the developer wanted the drawings in Metric but all the stats in imperial. ahhhhhhh. Painfull.
Download: UNIT CONVERTER PRO from www.download.com it will save your life. I have it on all the time.
Le B - I don't know about 10" plump penis', however a ladies vital statistics always mean more given in inches.
Marilyn Monroe 35-22-35
90-60-90 sounds better for me.
(in centimetres of course)
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