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They specified the engine in terms of lbf. Why don't they use metric? I realize that imperial units are used colloquially in the US but surely that doesn't ext

They specified the engine in terms of lbf. Why don't they use metric? I realize that imperial units are used colloquially in the US but surely that doesn't extend to actual engineering!

riversflow 6y ago
Disclaimer, not in the mechanical engineering field. That's said, its ironic that you use "actual engineering" as that "actual" bit is why, as I understand it, engineers primarily use imperial units in the US—most people who do the making know imperial. I can't speak for every industry, in fact I know machinists make plenty of things in metric, but that is my understanding from talking with Engineers here.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- monadic2 6y ago
  My point is none of the engineering classes I ever took allowed the use of imperial units because they wanted their students to be employable. Is this a new paradigm or did I just have a very unusual experience?
bumby 6y ago
Mechanical engineers in the US (including aerospace) regularly use freedom units
NikolaeVarius 6y ago
Having worked in Aero, "actual engineering" likes to reduce the ability to screw up converting between units by keeping things the same i.e. keeping things imperial because its been that way for a while. (Part of) The reason Gimli Glider incident happened was because it involved switching units.
- monadic2 6y ago
  Exactly the inspiration for my post! I had thought the take away from that was “use the global standard units” rather than “double down on american-unique units”.
PEJOE 6y ago
Aerospace and Defense engineering in the U.S. is almost exclusively in the standard system (imperial outside the U.S). If you want to know why we STILL have not moved to metric, compare the cost of replacing manufacturing assets calibrated, designed, and manipulated using standard units with training an engineer to use standard units and convert to metric when necessary. Fun fact: U.S. standard units are defined precisely in terms of metric units, and are often different from their British cousins.

They specified the engine in terms of lbf. Why don't they use metric? I realize that imperial units are used colloquially in the US but surely that doesn't extend to actual engineering!

riversflow 6y ago

Disclaimer, not in the mechanical engineering field. That's said, its ironic that you use "actual engineering" as that "actual" bit is why, as I understand it, engineers primarily use imperial units in the US—most people who do the making know imperial. I can't speak for every industry, in fact I know machinists make plenty of things in metric, but that is my understanding from talking with Engineers here.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
monadic2 6y ago
My point is none of the engineering classes I ever took allowed the use of imperial units because they wanted their students to be employable. Is this a new paradigm or did I just have a very unusual experience?

bumby 6y ago

Mechanical engineers in the US (including aerospace) regularly use freedom units

NikolaeVarius 6y ago

Having worked in Aero, "actual engineering" likes to reduce the ability to screw up converting between units by keeping things the same i.e. keeping things imperial because its been that way for a while. (Part of) The reason Gimli Glider incident happened was because it involved switching units.

monadic2 6y ago
Exactly the inspiration for my post! I had thought the take away from that was “use the global standard units” rather than “double down on american-unique units”.

PEJOE 6y ago

Aerospace and Defense engineering in the U.S. is almost exclusively in the standard system (imperial outside the U.S). If you want to know why we STILL have not moved to metric, compare the cost of replacing manufacturing assets calibrated, designed, and manipulated using standard units with training an engineer to use standard units and convert to metric when necessary. Fun fact: U.S. standard units are defined precisely in terms of metric units, and are often different from their British cousins.