Metric system

“Bars make a lot of sense”

They do, especially at the end of a long, hard day.
However, I prefer to bring my own (Johnny Walker Black), rather than pay inflated drink prices at bars.

That was what you meant–right?

;-))

Docnick"Bars make a lot of sense, but some countries use kilopascals.
Bars and kPa are used interchangeably in Europe. 1 bar = 100 kPa. (1 Pascal (Pa) = 1 Newton/meter²)

So the 225 kPa factory recommended air pressure would simply convert to 2.25 bars (or 32.6 psi for the Luddites).

Any opinions on Witworth?

To my knowledge, the Whitworth thread was a British screw thread that was gradually phased out as the industry went metric. It was very popular in the car business there. At that time we had here Unified National Coarse (UNC) and Unified National Fine (UNF). Europe had metric D.I.N., originally from Germany.

Metric has both coarse and fine thread, plus several grades in between.

For example, there is 14x1.0, 14x1.25, 14x1.5 and 14x2.0.

There’s nothing in either the metric system or the English system that sets limits on things.

Take the bolts and nuts issue brought up above. In the English system, the pitch is specified in “threads per inch”. There are standards, but that doesn’t preclude anyone from making something off standard. In fact, there are places where an adjustment screw has used an ultra fine thread that isn’t part of the standard (as in UNC and UNF).

The same for metric - but in this case they specify the pitch as the distance between threads. There are standard thread pitches, but there is nothing that prevents someone from using an unusual pitch.

Whitworth mostly died out with the T Series MGs. It was a pain in the posterior while it lasted.

A million microphones is not a phone. It’s a million microphones.
A microphone is not a millionth of a phone. It’s a device to convert sound waves into electrical impulses, generally piezoelectric or inductive.
A megaphone is not a million million phones. Or a trillion microphones, or a peta-microphone. It’s a device for amplifying speech.

Have we lost our minds here?

And a millipede is a military grade centipede…

the same mountainbike:
Have we lost our minds here?

No, but one of us has apparently lost his soul.

Naw, my soul is safe and happy. As is my admittedly unique sense of humor.
But people get easily confused with metrics. Good Lord, would this thread cause them consternation!

The metric system is still greatly distrusted. Not sure what their present attitude is, but the American Rodeo Cowboys Association told the world it was a Communist plot to overthrow the USA. Never mind it was Napoleon who introduced it in the early 1800s, and the Russian Revolution who, with most of the developed world, adopted it.

On the other hand, calling a quarter horse a “396 meter horse” needs some selling.

If it was…we won!

Honestly, as long as everybody understands whatever the unit of measuer is, what difference does it make?
But I still can’t figure out how the tire industry settled on a mix of the two.

“But people get easily confused with metrics.” Of course that only happens if they were taught the silly English system based on length of the King’s arm.

I was confused with the metric system when I entered high-school. I was taught nothing but SAE prior. But I learned quickly how much easier working with metric measurements is then SAE. Everything in Metric is a factor of 10. When you start doing physics problems it becomes abundantly clear how much easier doing calculations in Metric is so much easier.

Hey, everything is based on something!

The meter was based on one minute of arc on the surface of the earth…as best it could be determined in 1670. So basically it was based on something logical but not at the time accurately determinable.

The meter was based on one minute of arc on the surface of the earth......as best it could be determined in 1670.

There was a philosopher back in the 1600’s that was able to determine circumference of the earth by having two people 100 miles apart hold up a stick at exactly noon and then measure the length of the shadow. The difference in lengths of the shadows and he was able to determine the circumference of the earth with amazing accuracy. Saw it on Nova a few years ago. Amazing what people (geniuses NOT me) come with so little resources when they have to.

My favorite is the reason the US gallon is different than the ‘Imperial’ gallon - one’s based on the size of a wine barrel, the other’s based on the size of a beer barrel, way back when. Those are units I can enjoy!

I haven’t been able to take the metric system completely seriously since I first saw this back in the late 60s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VWQ9LSN-3A

I’m a big fan of the Megalithic Yard.