[Closed] Giving dimensions

prefer YY:MM:DD as more in keeping with how numbers in general work, reading from left to right.

This is ISO 8601.

Date formats are crazy. It's the only measurement I can think of which is little-endian. We criticise the US for using month-date but they're actually right, they just put the year in the wrong place.

A kilo is 2.2lbs. For approximation, halve or double. 50 kilos ~= 100 pounds. (You can even do this accurately pretty trivially, shift the decimal point and add them together; 100 + 10 = 110lbs. 9kg = 18+1.8 = 19.8lbs.)

A yard is 3″ short of a metre, for most practical purposes “100 yards away” and “100 metres away” is the same thing.

I remember the government propaganda rhymes at the time we allegedly went metric:

"A metre measures three foot three, it's longer than a yard, you see"

"A litre of water's a pint and three-quarters"

"Two and a quarter pounds of jam weigh about a kilogram"

Easy!

Another industry that refuses to go metric on certain things is the height plates inside trucks, they're all in imperial. Fine when most bridges have signs that show both, although the road signs beforehand seem to mainly be in imperial. What makes it properly annoying is that most petrol stations have the height of their roofs in metric!

I am 43, and I was taught the metric system from day one of my education. Everyone else of my generation was too.

I can work in feet and inches, but my ‘default’ is cm, m etc.

I'm 47, entirely schooled in metric. For actual measurement of stuff, I use metric. For estimation, I use imperial ("I reckon that's about 30feet away", "I need a piece of wood about a foot long"). For height, I use imperial (I'm 6'1"). For weight I use metric (I'm 83kg)

For riding, I use km for distance and feet for ascent, cos it's more, innit? 🙂

People, eh?

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8×4 sheet of OSB.

2440 x 1220

Try working with Americans – oh, how we laughed when they’d wrongly translated our metric dimensions into inches and made the tooling the wrong size.

Aircraft manufacture. Anything american and drawings are imperial.

I had both of these come together at the same time. Still have flashbacks to my manager looking a little peeved.
Thankfully not my mistake.

phil5556
If it’s critical I’d always label each

W100 x H250 x L75896

Just to make sure.

It's important to get Putin's desk right.

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8×4 sheet of OSB.

are the sheets 12mm or 18mm thick?

😉

I have half a memory that unlike most of the rest of the US, NASA works in Metric and has to be really mindful to convert construction plans etc when dealing with domestic contracts.

Am I right in thinking that Imperial timber measurements are for freshly cut wood? So a length of say 2x4 is actually less than 2"x4" due to shrinkage as it dries out?

Also, don't they mix units? Eg, 2"x4"x2m?

Or have I made both of those 'facts' up at some point?

Only work in mm on site work but often measure in inches (if tape measure is knackered or it’s a bit dark ) remember still being taught in imperial then metric ever since 1971? Recommend me fully metric tape measure with large text
61 tomorrow! Eye test this afternoon 😵

Double post again

Thought timber measurements were before planing etc.

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8×4 sheet of OSB.

Looking at Wickes and B&Q for sheet stock all the measurements are metric. That's what I've always used, I had no idea how many yards or furlongs or whatever it is.

My grandad was a farmer though and he used chains for measuring distance.

Me: "How far is it to that tree Grandad?"
Him: "About 6 chain, laddy"
Me: ????????

Sort of relevant, I very much enjoy this quote.

In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go **** yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.

Number of comments dissing Imperial tickles me

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in " Imperial " ( possibly without even realising it)

Thought timber measurements were before planing etc.

When you buy timber form a sawmill, oak boards for example. They come in 1" (and 2,3 etc)

1" actually measures 30mm. So you can plane down to 1". No idea why, thats just how you order timber in those sizes. 2" is like 60mm, but i think 3"(cant usually afford 3" oak) it is 80mm

Number of comments dissing Imperial tickles me

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in ” Imperial ” ( possibly without even realising it)

Wheel and frame sizes are essentially a naming convention for sizing, not a measurement.

Even the metric measurements aren't that meaningful.
(FWIW i'm probably riding 622x54 tonight.)

I have half a memory that unlike most of the rest of the US, NASA works in Metric and has to be really mindful to convert construction plans etc when dealing with domestic contracts.

Didn't they smash a probe/rover into mars due to that?

exactly one mole of atoms

Come again?

Come again?

A mole is defined as 6.02214076 × 10 to the power of 23 of some chemical unit, be it atoms, molecules, ions, or others.

I assume that clears things up?

I always smile when these sorts of discussions come up. I can use both systems just as well (I’m 45). Neither system is better, saying one system is rubbish just shows your ignorance of how it works.
Watching USA folk use imperial is quite impressive, it’s perfectly normal and it does have some advantages as you can sometimes deal with fractions of inches very swiftly, especially with wood/metal work stuff.

I used to work in builders customers service and was given dimensions in all sorts of mixed standards. Didn’t matter, all it did was confirm the sizes and show them on a tape measure how long it was so they could visualise what they asked for so there wasn’t any confusion. It’s not a big deal and I never got any mistakes.

I worked in a company that used 'metric feet' for its systems.  So 3'-7" would be 3.58 ft. Similarly 1m was 3.28 ft.

Completly mad as the company sold stuff rounded up to the nearest cm.

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in ” Imperial ” ( possibly without even realising it)

700mm on my gravel bike, 650b on my MTB. 😜

Presumably we have 26" (etc) MTB wheels because it's an American standard which made its way here? Calling it 660.2mm would be a bit weird.

Some things just lend themselves to native units, or have legacy baggage which isn't easy to shift. You wouldn't (well, shouldn't) use a 13mm spanner on a half inch bolt. We don't buy 568ml of beer when one pint is a nice round unit, and to metricise that would mean switching to half-litre servings which would cause riots. We measure TV sizes in inches because Marketing, everyone does it because everyone else does it; it's also better for manufacturing as being less accurate it requires a lower tolerance.

Didn’t they smash a probe/rover into mars due to that?

Yeah, I think so, pretty recently too. I nearly said as much but wasn't certain.

I've half a memory that it's not the first time, something to do with NASA converting Imperial to Metric when one of their suppliers had 'helpfully' already converted if for them (this was maybe Space Shuttle era)?

8×4 sheet of OSB.

2440 ish mm x 1220 ish

We don’t buy 568ml of beer

Due to being off work I'm watching trash TV.
They were taking 3 and 3/4 total length out an axle so 1 and 7/8 out of each side. Just an odd way to work but good for numerical skills

8×4 sheet of OSB.

2440 ish mm x 1220 ish

Is that measured or quoted? Because quite often it'll be 2400 x 1200 since that fits nicely with 400mm and 600mm centres.

Neither system is better, saying one system is rubbish just shows your ignorance of how it works.

Maybe better is the wrong word but metric is a lot simpler to convert between values as per tomhowards's example. It's not like you can't have fractions of metric units either.

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in ” Imperial ” ( possibly without even realising it)

Don't even open that Pandora's box or we'll have to explain why a 27 1/4" wheel is larger than 700C, 28" is bigger than 700C unless it's German in which case it's the same size and that there are at least three different 24" standards.

I'm a strong believer in ISO sizing, it keeps things simple and easy to calculate.

Recommend me fully metric tape measure with large text

I believe the solution was to buy them from the continent, Axminster may have one.

I use an Advent Vice Versa, just having both sides metric is a lot easier to work with rather than trying to do things by eye from the wrong side.

For an object that can be viewed from many angles and doesn't have both a "front" and "top", stating dimensions for width, depth and height is not much use.

Is that measured or quoted?

TRhats the imperial 8x4 size in metric units.  Metric sizing is I believe 2400 x 1200

8'x4' = 2440mmx1220mm(approx)