I work in construction

I am often at the central point relaying measurements from site, drawings, ‘professionals’ et al

I get all kinds of dimensions in every format known and unknown

I can guarantee that no matter who I’m speaking to they will have it wrong in some way

And don’t even get me started on the ‘lineal’/’linear’ metre bollocks, those I can assign to ‘shiny suit haven’t got a clue’ brigade without thinking further on the matter

I always get a new tape when I go abroad so I don’t have to suffer from Imperial, however they are always marked off in centimetres and even in my fragile mental state I can read measurements in milimeteres.

I always get a new tape when I go abroad so I don’t have to suffer from Imperial

To save you a trip get the ‘Vise Versa’ tapemesure from Toolstation. Metric on both sides of the scale and on both sides of the tape.

Thanks for the heads up Mac but the 3M tape was only 5€ and the 8M tape only 8€ 50, so not only are they cheaper (and look a bit better qua :Dlity) but gives me the perfect reason to look round the only parts of supermarkets I’m interested in without Mrs. S. 😀

I started my apprenticeship in 1973, and prefer to work in inches and thou’s eg 3/8th of an inch = 375 thou it’s just what you get used to I suppose.
It was the same with the old pre-decimal money, 12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to the pound seems complicated now, but at the time it wasn’t that bad.

Just came across an actuator at work that had its torque settings expressed as da N m. Really? Is it that hard to just print another zero?

ahwiles – Member
CountZero – Member
Is that in dry air or damp?

an excellent question, you are on your way to understanding measurement uncertainty.

want a job? (a half serious question…)
😆
I’m pretty sure my feeble old brain would struggle these days, and I’m really quite happy with the job I’m now doing!
But thanks for the kind suggestion. What line of work, out of curiosity?
I spent most of my working life in print, design and prepress, so used to metric and imperial plus units specific to print/publishing, points, ems and ens. Millimetres was by far the most used, but centimetres got used for sheet and board sizes, and don’t get me started on US versions of international ‘A’ dimensions!