We are somewhat resistant to change, aren’t we.

[953 nut 60,353]

 

 

Metric System Day takes place on April 7 every year. Now often used as a synonym for the International System of Units (or S.I.), the metric system is a system of measurement used in most countries of the world except the United States and a few other countries. The metric system was introduced by France in 1799 and it’s an original, decimal-based (based on powers of 10) measurement format based on meters and kilograms. Base units in the metric system include kilograms, meters, and liters. The metric system also uses the Kelvin scale (or the Celsius scale) to measure the temperature. The decimal-based prefixes in the metric system in

clude milli, centi, deci, and kilo. However, these prefixes are not used with the temperature degree.

 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 28,594]

 

And... There's a very good reason 10 mm sockets aren't easy to find in your toolbox... they ain't welcome there by the SAE tribe... 

[WHX?? 51,912]

1 hour ago, 953 nut said:

The metric system also uses the Kevin scale on how many 10 mm sockets are lost.... 

 

There fixed that ... 

[ri702bill 9,534]

Maybe Kevin should consider rounding up the 10MM sockets he has left and store them in an old Band Aid tin....

[oliver2-44 10,781]

I'm so tired of every new thing being half SAE and half Metric. 

[wallfish 18,242]

We should have changed to the metric system a LOOOOONG time ago, back when they were teaching it to us in school as young kids. I learned back in 1972 as a third grader.

[ri702bill 9,534]

39 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

being half SAE and half Metric. 

Reminds me of GM cars back in the 1980's. They went "soft metric" first - took existing fractional designs (blocks, cylinder heads, etc) and just replaced the bolts with the closest metric size. Newer designs were done "hard metric" - metric bolts on metric spacing...

 

Did a job once for an automotive Tier II supplier that made brake and clutch master cylinder reservoirs. They already had an Italian machine to do this; that company closed & we got the task of duplicating the entire machine due to increased product demand. They insisted that the tooling be identical - hard metric - that really increased the material costs!!

Edited April 7 by ri702bill

[953 nut 60,353]

1 hour ago, oliver2-44 said:

I'm so tired of every new thing being half SAE and half Metric. 

The second nuclear power plant I worked at was built during the Carter Administration and he was a staunch advocate for conversion to metrics. About half of our instrumentation read in metric units and half was good old English standard units. All of the metric gauges had conversion charts next to them so we could record accurate useable readings. 

Metric conversions are so much simpler than English but as the title said, We are somewhat resistant to change.

 

[adsm08 3,338]

11 hours ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

 

And... There's a very good reason 10 mm sockets aren't easy to find in your toolbox... they ain't welcome there by the SAE tribe... 

 

Huh, I don't usually have problems finding my 10mms. But then my tool box is all metric, except one group of SAW 1/4" sockets that came in a set, a 7/16 wrench (because the guy didn't have the 11mm, but did have the 7/16) and my 3/8 "header wrench" that was bought specifically for one header bolt on my truck.

 

 

 

FWIW I prefer metric for most things, especially tooling. It's a lot easier to remember 19, 20, 21, 22 than it is 3/4, 13/16, 7/8.

Edited April 7 by adsm08

[wallfish 18,242]

16 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

But then my tool box is all metric

With a 3/8 and 1/2" drive ?

[adsm08 3,338]

19 minutes ago, wallfish said:

With a 3/8 and 1/2" drive ?

 

Hey, I don't make the tools, I just use them.

 

Also I prefer to think of them as 10 and 13 mm-ish drive.

[c-series don 10,146]

3 hours ago, wallfish said:

We should have changed to the metric system a LOOOOONG time ago, back when they were teaching it to us in school as young kids. I learned back in 1972 as a third grader.

In 1978 when I was a third grader I remember the teacher telling us that the whole world was switching to the metric system. 47 years later, still waiting for that to happen!! 🤣🤣

[Wayne0 1,226]

21 hours ago, adsm08 said:

 

Huh, I don't usually have problems finding my 10mms. But then my tool box is all metric, except one group of SAW 1/4" sockets that came in a set, a 7/16 wrench (because the guy didn't have the 11mm, but did have the 7/16) and my 3/8 "header wrench" that was bought specifically for one header bolt on my truck.

 

 

 

FWIW I prefer metric for most things, especially tooling. It's a lot easier to remember 19, 20, 21, 22 than it is 3/4, 13/16, 7/8.

Don't get me started on British Standard Whitworth!

 

[Mickwhitt 5,138]

BA threads, British association. Model makers use them over here. 

 

Whitworth are still popular for old machinery.

 

BSF, UNF, UNC, BSP, ACME, and many many more lol.

 

I stick to metric for my work as it's just easier to have one set of threadingvtools and a stock of fasteners.

 

I measure in imperial  or metric. Sometimes both, 4 feet and 3cm lol. 

[adsm08 3,338]

22 hours ago, c-series don said:

In 1978 when I was a third grader I remember the teacher telling us that the whole world was switching to the metric system. 47 years later, still waiting for that to happen!! 🤣🤣

 

We are the last holdout though.

 

3 hours ago, Mickwhitt said:

I measure in imperial  or metric. Sometimes both, 4 feet and 3cm lol. 

 

In the southern areas of Canadia they have something they call CTBS, Close to the Border Syndrome, where people do stuff like that.

[bc_gold 114]

Ops, mistake made converting imperial to metric. The Captain of this plane a hero.