inches plus coins equals metric system

TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 771 points –
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Fractional inches can suck my nuts.

Decimal inches can lick my ass.

Fractional metric can wear a skirt and give me a reach around šŸ˜

Almost afraid to ask but whatā€™s a reach around

where you reach around from behind and touch their front bottom

Why wouldnā€™t I just do it from the front though

because you are preoccupied with their rear bottom in other activities

Ok, but how am I supposed to deal with the front top then?

Use your third arm, duh.

Thatā€™s the one Iā€™m using for the front bottom, itā€™s convenient too since itā€™s lower than the other two

Yeah, honestly I'm usually so tired of the imperial VS metric debate (I know metric is better and I wish the US used it, it's just a low priority), but drill bit sizes are so stupid.

"Yeah gimme that 15/64ths bit" unhinged behavior.

I like inches, I like the size of 1/8th" it's suitable to my needs. I like the scale on the ruler, my eyes can instantly tell what I'm measuring because each tick is a different length. It works for me, it jives with my tools, I will not buy new rulers.

I would happily throw out all my drill bits and switch to numbered ones or metric, I don't care. Fractions for hole size is dumb. I'll also happily throw out all my imperial sockets and wrenches and switch to one kind of nut. Having two standards of the same tool just sells more socket sets. Which was probably the point.

If only they'd made a metre equal a yard, then everyone would be bilingual and we wouldn't have to fight. You could use the one that was appropriate for the job.

You know if they changed a meter to equal a yard, they would have to change what an amp is. Americans use amps. So it just bites us in the ass anyway.

Edit: I just remembered my definition of amp is out of date. I mean, it might still change, but not as directly as I thought.

Carful what you wish for they made my nuts suck after striping them.

Physics is also important. Coins are usually made of softer metal so a wrench can crush it if a bolt is too tight.

I don't know... I've tried to drill holes in quarters when I couldn't find a washer. Canadian quarters are as hard as woodpecker lips.

Since 2000, they've used all-American steel vs. our quarters, which are copper at the core. PS: I don't really know if the Canadian quarter's steel is all-American, I just like the ambiguity of the statement.

The damn imperial system and its weird 1/16 measurements. Why do you people hate 10 step counting?

You actually can't be mad about this one. This is effectively binary which you use all the time without knowing it. And even worse, proper SI notation has jacked up binary hardcore.

1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32... You won't find a 1/12 or some other number.

Maybe that's why I couldn't tell if a gigabyte has 1000 megabytes or 1024. People keep telling me one or the other. Others keep telling me that there's 1024 mebibytes in 1 gibibyte, but those names absolutely suck.

Mega is 10^6 , Mebi is 2^20 aka 1024^2 bytes

Edit:

The confusion comes from the fact that Microsoft in Windows calls 1024 bytes a kilobyte, which makes no sense whatsoever, since that word has a meaning and that ain't it.

When MS first launched MS-DOS maybe made sense (maybe), but right now it's only creating confusion. Calling kilobyte a kibibyte is around a 2% error, but with terabyte it's more than 9%, which is a pretty big deal when you buy a 1TB disk and only shows up as 900 and something GB

The confusion comes from the fact that Microsoft in Windows calls 1024 bytes a kilobyte

And storage... and networking... This isn't actually a MS spawned problem, and it existed in media before MS put their hands in it. But it is probably fair to say that MS emboldened storage and networking companies to not change their stance. It doesn't help that it's in their benefit as they're providing actually less product because of the confusion.

Afaik for storage it's exactly what it says on the tin: a 1GB drive is exactly 1,000,000,000 Bytes. Then you put it in the computer and Windows, who thinks that 1GB = 1,073,741,824 Bytes says, well that's a 0.93 GB drive, aka 930MB. So you start asking yourself where those 70MB went, while in reality windows is telling you that the drive is 930MiB, which is equal to 1GB.

As for networking, last I checked we use Megabits and Gigabits for that, which are a whole different can of worms and use a small b instead of a big B. 8 Mb = 1 MB

I've never seen anyone use Mebibit, if it exists, which I'm not sure it does.

And as for benefit, I'm not sure whose benefit it is to create this confusion. In my opinion, no one's, as the drive makers get accused of false marketing while at the same time Windows gets accused of being a broken OS (fair)

Afaik for storage itā€™s exactly what it says on the tin

Right... the problem is the discrepancy from RAM and CPU where GB is 1024. There's a disjoint between hardware where most hardware is base 2... then some other parts just aren't. That's my point. HDD/SSD manufacturers benefit from not getting onboard since they're able to offer less and still be "technically" correct.

Iā€™ve never seen anyone use Mebibit, if it exists, which Iā€™m not sure it does.

It does exist, but it's so fucking dumb to say (I always feel like I'm stuttering when I say the words) People probably just do everything they can to skip saying the words outright.

It's 1024 because 1 bit is either a 1 or a 0, and a byte has 8 bits in it.

Hmm, never heard that before. Idk how to link to a specific section of a page, but what I'm talking about is there too, one section down.

An alternate system of nomenclature for the same units (referred to here as the customary convention), in which 1 kilobyte (KB) is equal to 1,024 bytes,[38][39][40] 1 megabyte (MB) is equal to 10242 bytes and 1 gigabyte (GB) is equal to 10243 bytes is mentioned by a 1990s JEDEC standard. Only the first three multiples (up to GB) are mentioned by the JEDEC standard, which makes no mention of TB and larger. The customary convention is used by the Microsoft Windows operating system[41][better source needed] and random-access memory capacity, such as main memory and CPU cache size, and in marketing and billing by telecommunication companies, such as Vodafone,[42] AT&T,[43] Orange[44] and Telstra.[45]

For storage capacity, the customary convention was used by macOS and iOS through Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and iOS 10, after which they switched to units based on powers of 10.[34]

Yes, youā€™re right that 1024 bytes was a kilobyte and in fact it was that way for several decades. However, as the differences between powers of two and powers of ten increase as we see larger sizes, itā€™s become common to differentiate them.

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10 isn't the best base and I'm sick of pretending it is.

Depends for what. Still better than random scales like 3, 12, 1760 and units that don't mean anything like hundredweight, which isn't even one hundred anything, unless it is because you live in another part of the world where the same word means a totally different thing.

Fancy a pint?

12 is much better than 10 and I will die on this hill.

If there was a vote to change everything to base 12 counting I would.

How is 12 not better than 10?

I don't agree. It might sometimes be cool, but with a numerical system in base 10, having a unit system in base 12 becomes really hard to manage. Let's take meters:

1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm VS 1m = 12dm = 144cm = 1728mm

How many mm is 15 dm in each system?

To make a base 12 system work, you'd need to change the numerical system also, by adding two new digits, like we do for hexadecimal numbers, so you'd have ...8-9-A-B-10, where A = 10 and B = 11 (in 10 base), so that 1m = 10dm = 100cm but in base 12.

Anyway, good luck trying to pass that, I've seen people who can barely count on their fingers, let alone understand a new base 12 numerical system. And for what?

1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm VS 1m = 12dm = 144cm = 1728mm

That's obviously not what I'm talking about.

To make a base 12 system work, you'd need to change the numerical system also, by adding two new digits, like we do for hexadecimal numbers, so you'd have ...8-9-A-B-10, where A = 10 and B = 11 (in 10 base), so that 1m = 10dm = 100cm but in base 12.

Yes exactly. It's equally as easy to do both. Counting to base 10 isn't easier than doing it to base 12 or base 6. But 10 is just a kind of shitty number. That's why imperial tends to use 12 because its better. They just changed the wrong thing. Metric should use base 12.

Changing it would be a ball ache. 12 is better than 10 though.

That's obviously not what I'm talking about.

Not really that obvious. The imperial system is not used in base 12. It's used in base 10 like everything else, therefore, if it were consistent with its units (which it isn't) it would be more like 12 -> 144 -> 1728.

Since changing how we count is honestly not realistic, the prospect of having to deal with a system that's not based on 10 is kinda scary.

I would pick base 12. Which would you prefer?

base 60 Babylonian gang where you at

Base 60 has too many symbols for the digits

Base 12 you only need two more symbols to follow 9

Yeah but it doesn't have the same schwag as base 60

I mean base 60 would be cool and all, but it would be unwieldy

skill issue

Indeed. I think you don't want a number system that children can't use

Base twelve already works great in our number names, with eleven and twelve being individually named unlike the teens

Hexadecimal is always best.

It doesn't divide by 3

Granted, but it divides by two multiple times. Take a good, round number like 1024 and you can halve it 10 times in a row.

The metric system handles thirds by just using multiples. Like, you buy a 1200 wide benchtop and then you can fit a three 400 drawers under it.

You could technically do the same in hex and the base numbers are all (x^y + x^(y+1)) which represent well.

Decimal thirds suck. One gets 33c the second gets 33c the third gets 34c

We're just lucky that 1c is negligible

All the bases are 10

12 would have been a better base.

The only thing going for 10 is that's how many fingers you have if you can only count in ones

There are a total of twelve segments on the four fingers of each hand (thumb excluded) making it just as easy to count to 12.

Or you can count in binary, and get to over 1000 on ten fingers

Because a lot of imperial measurements revolved around being able to be divided by 4, and occasionally 3 at times.

For instance the cooking unit of measurments are in 4's or base 2 in a way (e.g 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups = 128 ounces)

We still see 4s or 3s irl regardless of measurement system. Doughnuts are often prepared in dozens and virtually never in 10s. Do we walk around claiming why bakers hate 10 step counting?

Time is the example of something designed around 3/4 and didn't change. 60 is divisiable by both 4 (15) and 3 (20) and is not base 10, but people can accept that.

Using 12 and 16 makes for easier maths (pre-calculators). It's easier to divide and get an integer. With easy access to calculators and highly precise measurements (especially digital systems) metric makes more sense and is easier to interpret quickly.

16 is a power of two. Half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth.

The main problem is they reduce the goddamn fraction. Let me have my 8/16th wrench.

Let me have my 8/16th wrench.

If you start a new job in a garage you will absolutely be asked to go get one.

I always liked to send new guys to the parts crib for a spool of flight line. Sometimes they'd come back with safety wire.

Why do you people feel the need to be able to convert between the thickness of a human hair and the distance between cities?

Ah yes, this bolt is .000001 kilometers wide. Thatā€™s a very useful thing you guys did. Definitely need that in every day life.

Yeah, that's why nobody does it that way, but that strawman you got there looks mighty fine...

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Why *metric is important

Ten mil spanner is fuckin ten mil spanner and you have three in your toolbox and only someone who was starved of oxygen at birth uses imperial spanners wtf is this šŸ„²

Car manufacturers in the US like to throw metric and SAE at you. Just to keep you on your toes I guess. Ironically, it's always the wrench you DIDN'T bring with you.

10mm is also .40'.

...Which I know because 10mm auto is the parent cartridge of .40S&W, which was just cut down to be shorter, but still uses the same projectiles.

Can I be that person???

AkShUaLlY An inch is not PrEcIsElY 2.5 cm but is /defined/ to be 2.54 ish cm so 0.4ā€ is in ReAlItY 10.6 mm.

Ok im sorry. Iā€™ll show myself out.

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No one going to mention that it's a Philips head screw as well? So not only could they have used a metric wrench but also a screwdriver.

As the owner of an older Japanese motorcycle: you're better off with a wrench.

You're probably just going to strip it with a screw driver, and that's assuming it's actually Philips and not JIS.

Hexagon socket screws are often used because they are easier to loosen when the screws are very tight. I think in such a case you can't get any further with a Phillips screwdriver.

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Maths is important to get what the frick a 7/16 inch unit is supposed to be and how to calculate just about anything with it.

Maths may be important, but figuring out what's bigger, 7/16 vs 3/8, is a stupid fucking system when metric exists.

Centimeters/millimeters: "6 is bigger than 5 is bigger than 4"

Inches: "I don't fuckin know what's bigger, 5/16 or 3/8? How about 7/32? Fuck you, I'm just making it all up."

Even more ridiculous is that they could have just made everything one fraction. Like 1/10 then 2/10 then 3/10. This crap is over complicated by it's own rules.

What if you need to represent something between 1/10th and 2/10ths without misrepresenting your precision?

Fractional measurements are way better for indicating precision than decimal. With decimal precision can only be increased or decreased by a power of 10, whereas fractional can be any level of precision - just represent the precision in the denominator.

Congrats were still useing fractions for a wrench. That still goes 10x.

It's more it didn't have rules. Decimal standard was used by surveyors and engineers, mechanical types. Fractional was more useful for carpenters and tradesmen, descending halves is more intuitive than descending tens, it just became custom. You can order a "big inch" ruler, ten inches in a foot, inches in tenths down too, or a caliper that displays in thousandths

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Theres 2 pretty good reasons why I only ever have 1 fractional wrench at a time. One so I can just move up the line until one fits and the other reason is that fractional is not used in modern cars. I only ever need to break my imperial set out when I'm working on a antique car.

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Any aerospace mechanics have any comments on this matter?

Certified aircraft repairman here: That's not an aviation bolt, so the correct tool to turn it is a pair of vice grips and a hammer.

I'm not an aerospace mechanic, but I do have some insight.

The formula in the image is incorrect. It depicts 7/16" - 10 cents = 10 mm, not plus. Notice that 7/16" indicates the gap in the wrench, and the dime makes that gap smaller.

Now that that is out of the way, it seems that a dime is 1.35 mm (I love that American currency is specified in metric). So, 7/16" - 10 cents = 9.7625 mm. So, pretty damn close to 10 mm.

Laughs in pliers wrench

Wait... 20h old and nobody picked up un the fact that the thing on the picture is actually screw and you'd need a screwdriver for that?

It has a hex shape, you can use both.

I would say the Philips is for driving in, for speed of assembly, the hex is for when it's seized and needs force to remove.

Like I'm going two weld two dimes into a cross for the screw slot when I have a wrench already.