3 ms·

It can be more confusing. US date - m/d/y. Distance in miles. If you are in the US military - d/m/y and klicks (km). Was in UK a few weeks ago and rented a car,

It can be more confusing. US date - m/d/y. Distance in miles. If you are in the US military - d/m/y and klicks (km). Was in UK a few weeks ago and rented a car, mph for speed, everything else (except beer) in metric.

dx034 9y ago
The UK is more complicated than that. Most of the signs are in metric but some distances are in yards and heights are in feet. Petrol prices are in litres but consumption is in mpg, even though there's no indication on how many gallons you actually fill up. In stores, everything has to be metric because of EU regulation but packaging for liquids is often in pints (e.g. milk, beer) and then gets translated into litres. Temperatures are usually in Celsius but are shown in F once it gets hot (100 degrees sounds better than 38). Even though I'm a fan of the metric system, being in the US is easier than the UK, at least measurements are consistent...
- wiredfool 9y ago
  And stone for weight of people.
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
  Eh, not everything is consistent. Soda cans are 12 fluid ounces, but bottles are 18 ounces, or 1 or 2 liters. Hard liquor comes in 750ml bottles, but is served in 1.5 oz or 2 oz shots. Beer comes in 12, 16, or 24 oz cans or bottles, milk in gallons, quarts, and pints, etc. British pubs tend to serve beer in imperial pints (20 imperial fluid ounces or about 568ml) instead of US pints (16 US fluid ounces or about 473ml) but other bars serve US pints. There are other oddities and mixed units. Dates are in "drunk endian" with month/day/year format, indoor areas are measured in square feet and outdoor areas in acres... Small units of length are in fractions of an inch unless you're a machinist at which point they're in "thous" or "mills" (same thing, 1/1000 inch) or "tenths" (1/10000 inch). Drill sizes are fractions of an inch for some common sizes and large diameters (27/64 and up are always fractional), but otherwise are numbered starting at 80 and decreasing down to 1 as diameter increases with the spacing between numbers being inconsistent, except for a series starting at 2340 thou and ending at 4130 thou which is lettered with 40 thou between letters (mostly, some inconsistencies here). But you can still get drills in some of the fractional inch sizes that fall between the letters. Seriously, look at a tap drill chart[1]. And of course if you're a machinist you'll also have to deal with metric items imported from the rest of the world or made for sale there so you'll also need all the metric drill and tap sizes. [1]http://www.brokenbolt.com/images/starrett-inch-metric-tap-drill.pdf http://www.brokenbolt.com/images/starrett-inch-metric-tap-dr... Electric systems use SI units, except that PCB designers tend to use thou for trace sizes and spacing. Some components have pin spacing in thou, others in mm. Getting the PCB to look nice with a mix of pin pitches and grid sizes is more of a chore than it should be.
  - photojosh 9y ago
    Oh yes... I design PCBs. <bangs head on desk>

dx034 9y ago

The UK is more complicated than that. Most of the signs are in metric but some distances are in yards and heights are in feet. Petrol prices are in litres but consumption is in mpg, even though there's no indication on how many gallons you actually fill up. In stores, everything has to be metric because of EU regulation but packaging for liquids is often in pints (e.g. milk, beer) and then gets translated into litres. Temperatures are usually in Celsius but are shown in F once it gets hot (100 degrees sounds better than 38). Even though I'm a fan of the metric system, being in the US is easier than the UK, at least measurements are consistent...

wiredfool 9y ago
And stone for weight of people.
SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
Eh, not everything is consistent. Soda cans are 12 fluid ounces, but bottles are 18 ounces, or 1 or 2 liters. Hard liquor comes in 750ml bottles, but is served in 1.5 oz or 2 oz shots. Beer comes in 12, 16, or 24 oz cans or bottles, milk in gallons, quarts, and pints, etc. British pubs tend to serve beer in imperial pints (20 imperial fluid ounces or about 568ml) instead of US pints (16 US fluid ounces or about 473ml) but other bars serve US pints. There are other oddities and mixed units. Dates are in "drunk endian" with month/day/year format, indoor areas are measured in square feet and outdoor areas in acres... Small units of length are in fractions of an inch unless you're a machinist at which point they're in "thous" or "mills" (same thing, 1/1000 inch) or "tenths" (1/10000 inch). Drill sizes are fractions of an inch for some common sizes and large diameters (27/64 and up are always fractional), but otherwise are numbered starting at 80 and decreasing down to 1 as diameter increases with the spacing between numbers being inconsistent, except for a series starting at 2340 thou and ending at 4130 thou which is lettered with 40 thou between letters (mostly, some inconsistencies here). But you can still get drills in some of the fractional inch sizes that fall between the letters. Seriously, look at a tap drill chart[1]. And of course if you're a machinist you'll also have to deal with metric items imported from the rest of the world or made for sale there so you'll also need all the metric drill and tap sizes. [1]http://www.brokenbolt.com/images/starrett-inch-metric-tap-drill.pdf http://www.brokenbolt.com/images/starrett-inch-metric-tap-dr... Electric systems use SI units, except that PCB designers tend to use thou for trace sizes and spacing. Some components have pin spacing in thou, others in mm. Getting the PCB to look nice with a mix of pin pitches and grid sizes is more of a chore than it should be.
- photojosh 9y ago
  Oh yes... I design PCBs. <bangs head on desk>