English vs metric

[John Bartley]

I guess I'd probably use the metric system more but I didn't learn it until I was almost 30 and then in the career I chose (power equipment service) everything we used for a reference (torque specs clearances etc) were all historical and mostly of U.S. origin, so they were all S.A.E.. As a result, because the most profitable route for me was to stick with S.A.E., I did and it's pretty deeply stuck into my routines.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

I guess I'd probably use the metric system more but I didn't learn it until I was almost 30 and then in the career I chose (power equipment service) everything we used for a reference (torque specs clearances etc) were all historical and mostly of U.S. origin, so they were all S.A.E.. As a result, because the most profitable route for me was to stick with S.A.E., I did and it's pretty deeply stuck into my routines.

I'm in a similar boat. Imperial measurements are so ingrained in me that even though I know metric is easier and more straightforward, I still think in imperial, so that's what I use in the shop. When I was a construction inspector, pretty much everything was in inches and feet, although surveying-type work tended to be in decimal feet.

 

[Don Baer]

all of which leads up to the question what is a cubit...lol

 

[Ed Thomas]

Don't they still measure horses in "hands"?

 

[Jay Caughron]

Formative years were all imperial, then came an academic switch to Metric (MKS) followed by UK adopting the Metric (SI) (subtle difference in unit definitions etc.).

Working for some time for USAF, I found metrication of supplies had quite an impact on repair and replace.

Sheet material stock arrived under the same NSN 13 digit number as original build, but from a modern production source that was rolling to metric dimensions not AWG.
How come? NSN Stock number tolerances had been adjusted to accommodate the minor variations, presumably to accommodate best price tendering, structurally insignificant but practically a pain in something like an Aircraft Skin repair.

Likewise, Imperial Pipework modern replacements made to metric standards having subtle wall thickness differences, try marrying them up with compression fittings and sleeve couplings.

Back when I was working as an A&P for a commuter Airlines we were one of the first Co to start using the 30 place SABB it used both imperial and metric. That was fun the first time we done an inspection we could hardly get the screws out of the panels. Come to find out they were a metric Phillips head and took a special bit to get them out without stripping the heads. We replaced a lot of rivenuts due to installing the wrong screws. Nice AC but what a pain

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Back when I was working as an A&P for a commuter Airlines we were one of the first Co to start using the 30 place SABB it used both imperial and metric. That was fun the first time we done an inspection we could hardly get the screws out of the panels. Come to find out they were a metric Phillips head and took a special bit to get them out without stripping the heads...

Reed & Prince? Kinda like a pointy Phillips with a different taper.

 

[Paul Douglass]

The only time I used Metric was when building the organ. But the plans were part metric and part inches. I enjoy the metric, would not mind if America switched, but at 80 years old, I'm not sure I could learn it. In my mind I can picture a foot or inches, not so with metric.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I'm not sure I could learn it.

Eh, you can count to 10, I think you'd do ok

 

[Chuck Ellis]

It's been a few years so I'm getting rusty at the conversions, but the logistics world uses both metric and imperial in figuring cargo.... the airlines offered cargo rates in US cents per pound or for volume in pounds per cubic inches... the ocean lines usually rated in metric tonnes per volume... now I have to look it up to make the conversion.