Metric dimensions please

autostaretx

Erratic Member
Well, we don't want to interrupt trade with those two other economic powerhouses that use SAE/Imperial measurements: Liberia and Myanmar. Along with the USA, that makes 3 countries in the entire world that don't use metric as the official measurement system.
In the UK, speed limit signs (and speedometers) are still in MPH.

--dick
 
If North America adopted the kilometer, they would probably come up with their own value for it like the US inch and US gallon :)
 
In the UK, speed limit signs (and speedometers) are still in MPH.

--dick
That's true, although some vehicles have metric speedometers which is perfectly legal.
I'm always fighting with my settings in my NCV3 to give me just metric, but it defaults to Imperialistics on reset.
Also, it's impossible to buy a steel rule with just metric which is yet another bugbear
 

lindenengineering

Well-known member
When I was building my bed in my Sprinter camper van conversion, I spent hours online and on the phone trying to find a metal stockist who had or could get 50x50mm 'L' section aluminium.
I was forced to give up in the end and use 2"X2". My only other option was to import from Germany.
Well at 25.42mm to an inch (1.00") then 2 inch sections would be 50,82mm.
Hence the imperial width is (0,83mm) or 0.3 of an inch. "Difference".
Now I can understand if you were an MOD contractor making beds for the RN malott's below decks on that new aircraft carrier we can hardly afford but building a bed in a Sprinter van using metric section angle is going a bit bloody far!
Dennis
 
An Inch can be either 25.400051mm or 25.4mm or a twelfth of a barleycorn depending on its historical context.
lindenengineering, I think you make my point very well. 2" would be 50.84mm by your version of an inch, not 50.82mm
Wasn't the reason a space shuttle's ceramic tiles failed as a result of these disparities?
I appreciate that my NCV3 isn't going into orbit any time soon, but as a matter of engineering principle, I don't want to sully my European van with arbitary dimensions.
We all of us as engineers have to take a stand on this and leave the mess which was imperial behind us.
 

bladerunner

Well-known member
Also, it's impossible to buy a steel rule with just metric which is yet another bugbear
Well Tekno you jogged my few memory cells left and I went to my workshop and checked out an item I have had hanging on the wall above the work bench for at least methinks for the last 10 to 15 years which I bought at a garage sale (not sure if you Guys have them in your neck of the woods).

Anyways the item is in pristine condition and was still in its original plastic sleeve.

Might be of interest to somebody: Made in England and all the measurements are metric.
 

Attachments

surlyoldbill

Well-known member
An Inch can be either 25.400051mm or 25.4mm or a twelfth of a barleycorn depending on its historical context.
lindenengineering, I think you make my point very well. 2" would be 50.84mm by your version of an inch, not 50.82mm
Wasn't the reason a space shuttle's ceramic tiles failed as a result of these disparities?
I appreciate that my NCV3 isn't going into orbit any time soon, but as a matter of engineering principle, I don't want to sully my European van with arbitary dimensions.
We all of us as engineers have to take a stand on this and leave the mess which was imperial behind us.
One of my clients was the head of the NASA ceramics department at the time of the crash; the SAE/Metric disparity is new to me, I'll have to ask her about that!
 

Eka

New member
When I was building my bed in my Sprinter camper van conversion, I spent hours online and on the phone trying to find a metal stockist who had or could get 50x50mm 'L' section aluminium.
I was forced to give up in the end and use 2"X2". My only other option was to import from Germany.
It's has gotten better here in the US. I can now get metric sized metal in the Heartland. Just 5 years ago it was hard. I still have to pay a premium for it, but the difference is much less now.

If North America adopted the kilometer, they would probably come up with their own value for it like the US inch and US gallon :)
We had out own because at the time nobody thought to use international standards. Even across Europe there were different standards.

Yeah, seriously. I wanted to use metric rules because I like the system better. Couldn't get any pure metric ones here in the USA until the past decade. If you did find one it was likely the text was in a foreign language. Back in the early '90s I did get a set of French ones given to me by a friend from Switzerland. Sadly they are worn out.

Using CAD programs has really changed things. I'll admit I'm a luddite with CAD. I start with paper. To get me to go 100% cad would take an easily portable display/computer of roughly A4 size with 100+ pixels per cm resolution that I can use a pen like mouse directly on the screen. We're getting there, if it hasn't already showed up and I missed it. My current 7" diagonal tablet has too low of resolution, and it's screen is to small. There are drawing tables with built in displays, but they aren't portable.
 

Eric Experience

Well-known member
Thanks to those who can see the light. It is good to see that the space program has converted to the metric system. The recent space mission just completed with astonishing precision involved all continents tracking the space craft working with the metric system, A joy to behold. Eric.
 

CJPJ

2008 3500 170 EXTD 3.0 V6 OM642.993 4.182
Space mission! Remembering the Hubble telescope mirror. The reflective surface was created using the wrong unit of measure.
I believe it was Polished here in Richmond, .. polished to a never befor achieved smoothness. They compaired the mirror surface too .. if the Earth was polished to the same compaired ratio, all of the earths mountains/ imperfections would be ground down, reduced to a surface height of 3 inches.

:2cents:
 

CJPJ

2008 3500 170 EXTD 3.0 V6 OM642.993 4.182
^
Eric l would've never thunk that you are one of those flat earthar types

:smilewink:
: I believe the mirror surface needed to be polished to a accuracy of a small fraction of lights wavelength. As a "ruler" they used red laser light; its divisions are the light's wavelength — about 630 nanometers — and it can be read to about one hundredth of a division.
____________________________________________________________

Space exploration has had some serious setbacks. One of the most often mentioned is the Hubble Space Telescope.
The drama of that fiasco is a human and organizational tapestry perhaps more complex than the technology involved. The account that follows is excerpted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning series.

http://people.tamu.edu/~v-buenger/658/Hubble.pdf

Golly!
 
Last edited:

Top Bottom