3 ms·

It is kind of annoying. In my job we have to use both all the time. Schematics will sometimes use both in a single drawing! Metric may not be ideal -- I appreci

It is kind of annoying. In my job we have to use both all the time. Schematics will sometimes use both in a single drawing! Metric may not be ideal -- I appreciate the English system for it's ease of halving, but it still would be better if there was a single standard.

Agingcoder 5y ago
Why is it easier to halve with the imperial(I assume that's what you mean by 'English') system? Could you give an example?
- leetcrew 5y ago
  imperial distance units are related by 12. 12 inches in a foot. 12 (* 440) feet in a mile. 12 has more integer divisors than 10, so it is more likely that you end up with whole units when you apply simple ratios. it's not a big advantage in the age of digital calculators, but it arguably makes day-to-day calculations easier. but to answer your question, I don't think imperial distance units have an advantage with halving. 1 m / 2 = 50 cm, and 50 cm / 2 = 25 cm. no less straightforward than 1 ft / 2 = 6 in, and 6 in / 2 = 3 in. either way we can't go further without creating a fraction. imperial distance has a clear advantage with thirds. 1 ft / 3 = 4 in, but 1 m / 3 is unrepresentable as a decimal number. of course none of this applies to imperial volume units which are related by various powers of two. these are much easier to halve, but do not have the advantage with thirds.
- zhhsg 5y ago
  Leetcrew is right, but the advantage is greater. Inches are typically divided in powers of two. So you don’t have to represent the 5 digitally when dividing (which you can’t in the binary system). So, if the basic unit you’re designing with is inches, you can scale up easily and add a 3 with the base 12. Or divide using only 2 which helps the computer out
ezequiel-garzon 5y ago
But halving is made easier because people say things like “3/8 of an inch”, no? If that’s all, nothing prevents you from using expressions like “3/8 of a cm”. If, on the other hand, 2 (or say 4) inches equaled 1 foot, 2 feet 1 yard, etc...
- chiph 5y ago
  > nothing prevents you from using expressions like “3/8 of a cm”. I'm going to use that with one of my European colleagues. And watch their eyes cross as they try to make sense of it.
ur-whale 5y ago
It's all nice and swell (you can also cut in 3 fairly easily with imperial) until someone has to calculate the volume of a swimming pool given it's three dimensions (or launch a non-exploding space shuttle).
xwolfi 5y ago
Yeah well in the rest of the non english world we also have to fight with multiple charsets for simple things such as excel exports and you have no idea the amount of time and money this just cost. I think it s better than 200 years ago for sure, but we need to continue merging all standards or we suffer for nothing forever.

Agingcoder 5y ago

Why is it easier to halve with the imperial(I assume that's what you mean by 'English') system? Could you give an example?

leetcrew 5y ago
imperial distance units are related by 12. 12 inches in a foot. 12 (* 440) feet in a mile. 12 has more integer divisors than 10, so it is more likely that you end up with whole units when you apply simple ratios. it's not a big advantage in the age of digital calculators, but it arguably makes day-to-day calculations easier. but to answer your question, I don't think imperial distance units have an advantage with halving. 1 m / 2 = 50 cm, and 50 cm / 2 = 25 cm. no less straightforward than 1 ft / 2 = 6 in, and 6 in / 2 = 3 in. either way we can't go further without creating a fraction. imperial distance has a clear advantage with thirds. 1 ft / 3 = 4 in, but 1 m / 3 is unrepresentable as a decimal number. of course none of this applies to imperial volume units which are related by various powers of two. these are much easier to halve, but do not have the advantage with thirds.
zhhsg 5y ago
Leetcrew is right, but the advantage is greater. Inches are typically divided in powers of two. So you don’t have to represent the 5 digitally when dividing (which you can’t in the binary system). So, if the basic unit you’re designing with is inches, you can scale up easily and add a 3 with the base 12. Or divide using only 2 which helps the computer out

ezequiel-garzon 5y ago

But halving is made easier because people say things like “3/8 of an inch”, no? If that’s all, nothing prevents you from using expressions like “3/8 of a cm”. If, on the other hand, 2 (or say 4) inches equaled 1 foot, 2 feet 1 yard, etc...

chiph 5y ago
> nothing prevents you from using expressions like “3/8 of a cm”. I'm going to use that with one of my European colleagues. And watch their eyes cross as they try to make sense of it.

ur-whale 5y ago

It's all nice and swell (you can also cut in 3 fairly easily with imperial) until someone has to calculate the volume of a swimming pool given it's three dimensions (or launch a non-exploding space shuttle).

xwolfi 5y ago

Yeah well in the rest of the non english world we also have to fight with multiple charsets for simple things such as excel exports and you have no idea the amount of time and money this just cost. I think it s better than 200 years ago for sure, but we need to continue merging all standards or we suffer for nothing forever.