3 ms·

> “You never place piles or piers closer than three pier diameters apart. These are 36 feet so they should be nine feet apart and they’re, what? — five feet or

> “You never place piles or piers closer than three pier diameters apart. These are 36 feet so they should be nine feet apart and they’re, what? — five feet or something. I don’t get this - the piers are 36 feet (engineers using feet?!) in diameter so should be 9 feet apart, but that’s not 3x 36. What do they mean?

woofyman 5y ago
It’s a typo. They’re 3 feet in diameter.
chiragmed 5y ago
They meant 36 inches.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  Wow. Maybe that’s why it’s falling down. Why aren’t engineers using metric?
  - titzer 5y ago
    America. I had to mentally switch to metric when I moved to Europe and now I have to switch back. Ugh.
  - hollerith 5y ago
    Arithmetic continues to work even if you don't use metric units.
    - chrisseaton 5y ago
      The arithmetic doesn’t work though - that was my point.
      - Johnny555 5y ago
        The arithmetic works, but the units were wrong, that can happen in the metric system too.
        chrisseaton 5y ago
        Almost impossible I'd say to confuse 1 m with 1 km or 1 mm, but easy to confuse feet with inches as they're much closer in value - the same order of magnitude even. As you can see - since it happened in this article.
        Johnny555 5y ago
        I don't think an engineer would confuse inches with feet, and it's a stretch to assume that a newspaper reporter wouldn't confuse m with km. And what about mm and cm? They are only a factor of 10 apart while inches and feet are 12X apart.
        krsdcbl 5y ago
        Simply put: i doubt the linked article was written by the engineers responsible.
  - throwawayboise 5y ago
    Construction and civil engineering (in the USA) is still done in feet and inches. All construction materials are sold this way. It would just introduce error to try to plan a building in metric dimensions.
    - coding123 5y ago
      Even in the UK you end up with construction materials at those same sizes. Click the link and tell me how large the following sheet size in feet? https://www.forestrallshop.co.uk/plywood-london/birch-plywood https://www.forestrallshop.co.uk/plywood-london/birch-plywoo... Comically they apparently also imported our lumber price fiasco.
  - Johnny555 5y ago
    If the piers are sold in inches, then using metric to describe them is another level of indirection, so might make the chance of error worse. Would you feel safer if he said "The piers are 91.4cm"? It's amusing to see newspaper stories where they report high precision numbers that are obviously metric conversions like "He drove 62.14 miles to work every day" when the original source said "100km".
  - irrational 5y ago
    The construction tradespeople only use imperial. The engineers could use metric, but then they would have to convert everything. It’s easier to just use imperial from beginning to end. Besides, all construction materials are in imperial. It is so much simpler for the engineers to use imperial. Plus, if they grew up in the USA, the engineers are as comfortable using imperial as you are using Metric.
  - dang 5y ago
    "Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
adventured 5y ago
> engineers using feet?! Architects for example almost exclusively work in feet in the US. The US construction field is almost entirely imperial. The highest rates of metric use in the US are in cases where there is a possibility of international crossing/exchange, or if the field is distinctly metric-based. If you work for NASA, it makes sense to use global measurement standards. If you're building a house in Cincinnati, it largely does not matter. If you're a German working in a store in Würzburg, you're far more likely to speak in German throughout your day. If you're a German working in programming with a bunch of US programmers, you're more likely to be using English when communicating with them. Why don't Germans speak English all the time? Because they don't want to and don't need to.
Ozzie_osman 5y ago
No way the piles are 36 feet in diameter. I don't think piles that big exist or are feasible, you're usually looking at a couple meters max.
irrational 5y ago
In the USA the construction trade is all done using imperial measurements. If you go into any big box hardware store, the only thing you can find in metric is a few specialty bolts.

woofyman 5y ago

It’s a typo. They’re 3 feet in diameter.

chiragmed 5y ago

They meant 36 inches.

chrisseaton 5y ago
Wow. Maybe that’s why it’s falling down. Why aren’t engineers using metric?
- titzer 5y ago
  America. I had to mentally switch to metric when I moved to Europe and now I have to switch back. Ugh.
- hollerith 5y ago
  Arithmetic continues to work even if you don't use metric units.
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    The arithmetic doesn’t work though - that was my point.
    - Johnny555 5y ago
      The arithmetic works, but the units were wrong, that can happen in the metric system too.
      - chrisseaton 5y ago
        Almost impossible I'd say to confuse 1 m with 1 km or 1 mm, but easy to confuse feet with inches as they're much closer in value - the same order of magnitude even. As you can see - since it happened in this article.
        Johnny555 5y ago
        I don't think an engineer would confuse inches with feet, and it's a stretch to assume that a newspaper reporter wouldn't confuse m with km. And what about mm and cm? They are only a factor of 10 apart while inches and feet are 12X apart.
        krsdcbl 5y ago
        Simply put: i doubt the linked article was written by the engineers responsible.
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  Construction and civil engineering (in the USA) is still done in feet and inches. All construction materials are sold this way. It would just introduce error to try to plan a building in metric dimensions.
  - coding123 5y ago
    Even in the UK you end up with construction materials at those same sizes. Click the link and tell me how large the following sheet size in feet? https://www.forestrallshop.co.uk/plywood-london/birch-plywood https://www.forestrallshop.co.uk/plywood-london/birch-plywoo... Comically they apparently also imported our lumber price fiasco.
- Johnny555 5y ago
  If the piers are sold in inches, then using metric to describe them is another level of indirection, so might make the chance of error worse. Would you feel safer if he said "The piers are 91.4cm"? It's amusing to see newspaper stories where they report high precision numbers that are obviously metric conversions like "He drove 62.14 miles to work every day" when the original source said "100km".
- irrational 5y ago
  The construction tradespeople only use imperial. The engineers could use metric, but then they would have to convert everything. It’s easier to just use imperial from beginning to end. Besides, all construction materials are in imperial. It is so much simpler for the engineers to use imperial. Plus, if they grew up in the USA, the engineers are as comfortable using imperial as you are using Metric.
- dang 5y ago
  "Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

adventured 5y ago

> engineers using feet?! Architects for example almost exclusively work in feet in the US. The US construction field is almost entirely imperial. The highest rates of metric use in the US are in cases where there is a possibility of international crossing/exchange, or if the field is distinctly metric-based. If you work for NASA, it makes sense to use global measurement standards. If you're building a house in Cincinnati, it largely does not matter. If you're a German working in a store in Würzburg, you're far more likely to speak in German throughout your day. If you're a German working in programming with a bunch of US programmers, you're more likely to be using English when communicating with them. Why don't Germans speak English all the time? Because they don't want to and don't need to.

Ozzie_osman 5y ago

No way the piles are 36 feet in diameter. I don't think piles that big exist or are feasible, you're usually looking at a couple meters max.

irrational 5y ago

In the USA the construction trade is all done using imperial measurements. If you go into any big box hardware store, the only thing you can find in metric is a few specialty bolts.