Rain in Edmonton

[Elektrishun]

Did that book mention why the USA isn't metric? I don't know all the facts but there was a ship sailing from Europe with some metric standard rods, it either sank or was pirated, the standards were lost. So the USA stayed (mostly) imperial.

Or when the world asked the US why they aren't using metric they told a "the dog ate my homework" story.

 

[JustaDB]

What the heck is a decimeter??

1/10 of a meter. As opposed to a dekameter, which is 10 meters.

 

[combustable herbage]

Tell the girls your wang is 3 decimeters long!!

 

[Elektrishun]

Tell the girls your wang is 3 decimeters long!!

Some girls: "Is that curable?"

 

[mickeyf]

 

[trevj]

Or when the world asked the US why they aren't using metric they told a "the dog ate my homework" story.

View attachment 66359

Alright...

Distance (furlongs) then Distance again (Rods), then Fathoms, which are a measure of depth (6 feet to a fathom, IIRC), a Peck (a measure of Volume, IIRC), a pennyweight (weight, not very much!), cubits (distance, the length of a forearm, essentially wrist to elbow), a Hogshead (a barrel of a particular size).

The guy that wrote these instructions (referencing the last bit in the cartoon) obviously were more concerned with the humor than any accuracy...

 

[Elektrishun]

Meh. I was in school while they tried to obliterate the Imperial measurements system. I was still in school, when News items were starting to point out that despite the Metric System supposedly being superior, they were having to teach Imperial Measurements to College and University students, so that they could understand stuff like that the majority of the prairies was surveyed out in 1 mile, by 2 mile grids, or that (ironically, since they are not actually) houses were built with 2x-dimensional lumber, and if you needed to repair those, you needed to understand the dimensional differences, between Metric and Imperial measure.

The only guys that can live without knowledge of legacy systems, are guys that have no responsibility to go back and fix what they screwed up, yesterday!

I got a call one night, about 1 in the morning, from a Farmer Friend that needed to know if I had a 17mm socket, He had NO Metric tools. Turned out the "special" bolts that GM used to secure his clutch to the flywheel in his "not Metric truck", were Metric...

Reality is, even the Inch, is defined in Law, as being 25.4mm. A pound of meat (a days ration, usually) is 454 grams, or near enough, half a Kilo. A Liter and a Quart are darn near enough to being equal too. As are the breakdowns, with 250 Ml ~= 1 cup. Etc.

A fella could do a lot worse than to simply shrug and get on with understanding both the Legacy systems AND the modern ones.

I wonder how many people over the years got their 2x4's home from the lumber yard, did some measuring, and proclaimed, "Martha, dem sumb****** ripped me off! These suckers are only 1 and a half by three and a half!!!"

 

[trevj]

I wonder how many people over the years got their 2x4's home from the lumber yard, did some measuring, and proclaimed, "Martha, dem sumb****** ripped me off! These suckers are only 1 and a half by three and a half!!!"

Yeah. Except it would change entirely, depending upon when exactly the 'discussion' took place,

A 2 x 4, WAS 2 x 4 at one time, but that changed through the years to mean smaller and smaller dimensions.

Not gonna say it was a good thing, just sayin' it happened...

 

[Susquatch]

I wonder how many people over the years got their 2x4's home from the lumber yard, did some measuring, and proclaimed, "Martha, dem sumb****** ripped me off! These suckers are only 1 and a half by three and a half!!!"

Ya, but you are not getting ripped off. When I was a boy, a 2x4 was a real 2x4. But they were rough sawn and full of slivers. Century homes around here are all built with real 2x4s - often cherry, walnut, oak, and maple. These hardwoods don't shrink much over time.

In the 50s and 60s, they became 1-3/4 x 3-3/4 because people wanted them kiln dried and drying shrank the softwood pine and spruce.

Sometime in the mid 60s, the lumber industry switched to smooth milled and dried 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 2x4s to take both milling and kiln drying into account. Supposedly, they started with full size lumber, but I'd bet they played games with that a little bit to maximize profits. After all, if they can mill just an 1/8th off instead of 1/4, thats quite a few more 2x4s from the tree!