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[Closed] Imperial measurements - when are they still used

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minus 40 is quite cold but the same in C and F.


 
Posted : 12/02/2020 11:10 pm
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cruising altitude 35000 feet


 
Posted : 12/02/2020 11:16 pm
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threads per inch, tpi


 
Posted : 12/02/2020 11:16 pm
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Cockney theft is measure in half inches.


 
Posted : 12/02/2020 11:18 pm
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acres


 
Posted : 12/02/2020 11:19 pm
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teeth per inch , saws


 
Posted : 12/02/2020 11:24 pm
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Brake pipes of machinery ..regularly run into 13mm too small 14mm too big...its 5/8!!! Imperial tools are still neccisary as a lot of Chinese or Japanese vehicles use imperial on brakes and abs systems..umm..ran into a Hyundai with a 5/16 drain plug(not rusted to 5/16) I think this was a mistake and probably replaced..

But yes its highly impractical having to use both imperial and metric together.. worst was a 11mm union on one end and a 5/8 on the other ..I remember one spanner fit both but would round the metric one if used..CONFUSING..especially when your doing 12 connections not all the the same time and your scanners are not stamped with the marking particularly well..


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 2:32 pm
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minus 40 is quite cold but the same in C and F.

Minus 32 is where it's the same.


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 3:10 pm
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Probably still time to edit that cougar...


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 3:14 pm
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There’s an apocryphal tale about why railway gauges are related to the size of a horses’ arse, culminating in it being a limiting factor in the design of the Space Shuttle’s engines. How true any or all of it is I’ve mo idea.

The story about Roman chariots and railway gauge is kind of half true but not for the reasons given in the popular internet legend.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/railroad-gauge-chariots/


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 6:40 pm
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Unicol audiovisual equipment stands. Made in Britain.


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 8:23 pm
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There is poetry in imperial measurements. Metric is dull

An inch, a foot, a yard, a rod , perch or pole, a chain, a furlong, a mile ( with a surveyors pole fitting in somewhere odd)

An acre being a chain by a furlong

A fathom being 2 yards but only for water depth

Much better than all this multiples of ten nonsense in sizes that mean nothing


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 11:29 pm
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Pipework and fittings in the water industry are mainly imperial.

Can be an absolute nightmare when chopping a bit of PVC pipe on a chemical dosing system or other system and assuming its imperial only to discover its a metric equivalent after your imperial fitting wont fit!, 32mm I'm looking at you!

Normally happens when a plant is shutdown for maintenance so quite critical to have all the correct bits to complete the job

Thank god for metric to imperial fittings!


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 11:38 pm
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For some reason Occupational Therapists measure everything in inches. I did ask why once but I've forgotten the answer!


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 11:42 pm
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( with a surveyors pole fitting in somewhere odd)

Story  of my life


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 11:45 pm
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An acre being a chain by a furlong

One's yoke of oxen can plough that in a day.
(the traditional Middle Ages definition of an acre).

a furlong

Short for "one furrow long", the distance an ox can plough without resting.


 
Posted : 14/02/2020 11:59 pm
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Games Workshop games

@Northwind Not necessarily. I used to play a bit of 40k, and there was a French bloke in the uni club all of whose rulebooks were in metric.


 
Posted : 15/02/2020 12:01 am
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Current project, cost must be well into the tens of billions of dollars. Equipment datasheets are in imperial feet and inches for internal components, but metric for the outer stuff (e.g. a tank is 30150mm high, but the high liquid level is 90ft3inches). Then plot plans are metric. Then the calculation sheets have distances in ft. I've got a post-it note on my desk to convert ft and inches into decimals. The chemistry is in lbmol too, flowrates are in lb mol, ft3, and barrels, all it needs is someone to specify something in scuffs and we've got the full set of measurements no one can visualise.


 
Posted : 15/02/2020 12:30 am
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For some reason Occupational Therapists measure everything in inches. I did ask why once but I’ve forgotten the answer!

Its used for measuring attention span


 
Posted : 15/02/2020 10:38 am
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All my students (16-18 yr olds) know their height in feet/inches and weight in stones/llbs. Only a few also know them in metric too.

Interestingly they struggle to then estimate the length of an inch or a foot but they can hold their fingers up for a cm. Rulers I guess?


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 12:13 am
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It's cos everyone else discusses height and weight in imperial, but they learn metric in school for all their measurement based maths and science.

There is poetry in imperial measurements. Metric is dull

What bollocks. This isn't poetry, it needs to be accurate, easy to work with and mistake-free. Save the sentimentalism for something else!


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 8:36 am
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Penis length. "I have a 12 inch penis"

Edit: I've just realised this is why I never had any luck with the European girls when I was younger. They are metric - we will be physically incompatible! I would need some kind of adaptor I guess which would ruin the mood somewhat. Nothing to do with my shit personality...


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 12:54 pm
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Someone said railways are "just about clinging on" to imperial measurements. They're far from just clinging on - most operational measurements on railways in GB are based on miles, chains, yards and inches.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 1:59 pm
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@thisisnotaspoon That sounds like a potential human factors fail?

@cheburashka I thought some railways were based on metric? Certainly motorways are measured in km from a reference point (though all the signposted distances are obviously in miles).

It’s cos everyone else discusses height and weight in imperial

Aye, I often need height & weight at work. If it’s been filled in on the paperwork in imperial, it almost always means it wasn’t actually measured...


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:08 pm
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The only railway where metric is used routinely in GB is probably HS1. Everywhere else is almost exclusively based on imperial. The only measurements I'm aware of that are based on kilometres on the 'normal' GB network are the identification plates on recent overhead electrification masts - top two letters are route ID for electrification purposes*, middle two numbers are km along that route, lower numbers are structure number within that km. All older electrification ID plates are still in miles though as they were when constructed.

*These line of route IDs for electrification are different from the engineer's line references (ELR) which are used for pretty much everything else. If you look at one of those emergency bridge plates with the phone number on a rail-over-road bridge you'll see the ELR, structure number and possibly its measured mileage in miles and chains. Never km/metres.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:19 pm
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That sounds like a potential human factors fail?

Probably, i think ive just been spoilt that ive not had to deal with any particulalry awkward units for a a few years. My heads calibrated for Nm3/h and kPa's!


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:23 pm
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What bollocks

now in think of it, is a ‘baw hair’ metric or imperial?


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:28 pm
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I was working on a Bollywood movie last year and being issued with drawings that mixed metric and imperial on the same object.

I haven’t owned a tape measure with inches on for about ten years


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:33 pm
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Probably, i think ive just been spoilt that ive not had to deal with any particulalry awkward units for a a few years. My heads calibrated for Nm3/h and kPa’s!

I shall take your awkward units and raise you dyn.s.cm-5


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:35 pm
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My heads calibrated for Nm3/h and kPa’s!

must make buying a hat a bit of a headache


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 2:41 pm
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A couple of folk mentioned collar size for shirts. Is it just me that thinks this is an utterly mental measurement (in isolation anyway)?

I'm a skinny wretch but am relatively broad-necked (I blame years of Jilly's Rock World). A comfortable collar fitting gives me a shirt that's more marquee surplus. Thank gods for Charles Tyrwhitt's skinny fits.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 3:18 pm
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now in think of it, is a ‘baw hair’ metric or imperial?

Imperial. One bawhair is five gnatscocks, and a gnatscock is three midgesdicks.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 3:21 pm
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An area the size of Wales usually used in disaster measurements. Always liked the concept of acre feet (hectare metres metric equivalent?)never used either
Have used a real actual chain for survey work it was a metric one I'm not that old


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 3:38 pm
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There is poetry in imperial measurements. Metric is dull

the exception would be the Metric **** Ton. Which is made up of huners of Shit Loads.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 3:44 pm
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A couple of folk mentioned collar size for shirts. Is it just me that thinks this is an utterly mental measurement (in isolation anyway)?

Yes and no. I mean I normally have to get my shirts tailored to make them fit properly. That said the most important thing about a shirt is that the collar closes properly so collar size or any that daft. Also it’s no worse than the sizing used for women’s clothing.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 3:58 pm
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If you drive an old school Mustang or own a Shelby Cobra you will brag about your inches to the power of 3

Ain’t no substitute for cubic inches!
Although, newer performance V8’s are all in litres, usually 6.2ltr.


 
Posted : 16/02/2020 9:33 pm
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To answer the OP question

Yes they bloody are.

Trying to replace the pull chord/starter rope on my Hayter petrol mower (with Briggs and Stratton american engine), a quick youtube vid showed it as an easy DIY job.

But not if you only have metric sockets.... Grrrr

Can anyone recommend a cheap socket set that will have imperial sockets.

ta


 
Posted : 18/02/2020 9:27 am
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MOlgrips -Imperial gives such nice numbers tho. Base 12 in particular is good for subdivision.

I mean inch to mile maps at 1: 63360 are so much more fun than metric maps at 2cm to a km or 1:50000 😉


 
Posted : 18/02/2020 9:36 am
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Though 1:50000 is much clearer (more to do with the design of map than scale).


 
Posted : 18/02/2020 4:38 pm
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