# Metric system **URL:** \ **Category:** The Show\ **Created:** [January 14, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450 "2012-01-14T20:21:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![IdiotProof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ea666f/32.png) [@IdiotProof](https://community.cartalk.com/u/IdiotProof)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/1 "2012-01-14T20:21:29Z")
These guys still don’t understand the metric system. A million microphones is a phone, because a microphone is one millionth of a phone. A megaphone would be a million million microphone. That is to say, a trillion microphones, or a peta-microphone. ---
**Author:** ![circuitsmith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/circuitsmith/32/40376_2.png) [@circuitsmith](https://community.cartalk.com/u/circuitsmith)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/2 "2012-01-14T21:29:05Z")
Where does that leave the aquaphone?? ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/3 "2012-01-14T21:51:39Z")
And a grammophone, for that matter. It must be something your grandmother invented. I bought a weather station with an outside transmitter for temperature and air pressure. I like my air pressure in metric rather than inches of Mercury. A standard atmosphere is 1000 millibars, but they now call them “hectopascals”. There was probably a confusion between “millibars” and “minibars”, those expensive little bars found in hotel rooms. ---
**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/4 "2012-01-14T21:53:58Z")
So, I suppose you also need a million microscopes to have a scope? ---
**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/5 "2012-01-14T21:55:06Z")
Docnick–how does a Deutche Grammophone differ from an ordinary grammophone? Are there more or fewer phones? ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/6 "2012-01-14T22:03:34Z")
Deutsche (German) Grammophone AG is an old German firm that was inspired by Edison and became a leading German maker of…grammophones or as we call them “record players”. By the way almost the whole world, except for North America, calls them grammophones. Other German firms were Grundig, Tefunken, Blaupunkt, Dual, Braun, etc. ---
**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/7 "2012-01-14T22:08:38Z")
" A standard atmosphere is 1000 millibars" 1013 millibars at sea level. One atmospere is not the definition of a bar, the fact that it’s close to a bar is pure serendipity. One bar = 1 million dynes per square centimeter. ---
**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/8 "2012-01-14T22:20:07Z")
Docnick–thank you. I thought Deutche Grammophone was a German grandmother’s record player. ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/9 "2012-01-15T00:59:31Z")
BLE; thanks for the clarification. We live 2800 feet above sea level, so we have to adjust the weather station which is made in Lacrosse, WI. 13 out of 1013 is all of 1.28% so for domestic use we don’t really worry. ---
**Author:** ![Rod-Knox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Rod-Knox](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Rod-Knox)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/10 "2012-01-15T02:33:55Z")
There is no adequate defense against idiots. They greatly out number us and seem tireless in their efforts. It’s best just to keep them busy doing something harmless. In Mississippi we elect them to office. ---
**Author:** ![circuitsmith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/circuitsmith/32/40376_2.png) [@circuitsmith](https://community.cartalk.com/u/circuitsmith)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/11 "2012-01-15T02:48:13Z")
A Deutche Grammophone (Grammophon?), like an Imperial gallon, is a little bigger and more pretentious. [heh-heh, he said Tefunken (Telefunken), heh-heh!] ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/12 "2012-01-15T03:48:38Z")
Sorry circuitsmith; I meant to say Telefunken. “Grammophone” has different acceptable spellings, such as Grammophon and Gramophone, according to the New German Dictionnary by Cassels. “Grammophone” is not acceptable. And a Gramophoneplatte is a … record. In another post I related to a summer job I had laying out survey lines for gas pipelines. A surveyor’s tape is in feet, with the last foot calibrated in 1/10s of a foot, since surveyors do not use inches. An old codger got up from hs bench, walked over and asked me: “Hey sonny, it that there one of them tapes with ten inches to the foot?”. ---
**Author:** ![bscar2](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/bscar2/32/2468_2.png) [@bscar2](https://community.cartalk.com/u/bscar2)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/13 "2012-01-15T19:04:16Z")
[http://theoatmeal.com/pl/senior\_year/science](http://theoatmeal.com/pl/senior_year/science) ---
**Author:** ![Mechaniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Mechaniker](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mechaniker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/14 "2012-01-17T01:24:50Z")
The unit of air pressure on mechanical European (German) tire pressure gages is the _bar_, usually from 0 to 4 bars (≈ 60 psi), in increments of 0.1 bar. ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/15 "2012-01-17T02:58:19Z")
Bars make a lot of sense, but some countries use kilopascals. Typically a car might have 225kpa as the factory recommended air pressure. ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/16 "2012-01-17T04:03:29Z")
“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? **;-))** ---
**Author:** ![Mechaniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Mechaniker](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mechaniker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/17 "2012-01-17T08:03:25Z")
> **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). ---
**Author:** ![Rod-Knox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Rod-Knox](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Rod-Knox)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/18 "2012-01-18T00:11:12Z")
Any opinions on Witworth? ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/19 "2012-01-18T00:50:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mechaniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Mechaniker](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mechaniker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450/20 "2012-01-21T09:10:59Z")
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. [Next page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/metric-system/70450.md?page=2)