Why the Inch system is superior to the metric system for fine measurement

yzfr1pwr · Sep 6, 2020

Once years ago in conversation with a German I explained that I used both systems but I felt the Inch system was better for measuring the finer things in life, his reply was that it was just because I was used to it.

Maybe, maybe not.

Recently a grade school kid expressed to me that the metric system was better, easier etc.. Or so his teachers would have him believe.

So I feel I should defend in a small way what I know to be true.

I like and use both systems and there are pros and cons to both.

Given that the smallest increment in the metric system before going to decimals is the millimeter. And the Inch is the smallest before decimals.

The inch is bigger and is higher resolution.

.001mm=

.00003937"

2 extra decimal places of resolution.

Of course anyone can take any arbitrary or not, standard of measure and divide it however they please, but the way it is officially done with these 2 systems, in my opinion makes the inch superior for fine measurement.

Or maybe I'm wrong and am just "used to it" ?

Yan Wo · Sep 6, 2020

yzfr1pwr said:
Once years ago in conversation with a German I explained that I used both systems but I felt the Inch system was better for measuring the finer things in life, his reply was that it was just because I was used to it.

Maybe, maybe not.

Recently a grade school kid expressed to me that the metric system was better, easier etc.. Or so his teachers would have him believe.

So I feel I should defend in a small way what I know to be true.

I like and use both systems and there are pros and cons to both.

Given that the smallest increment in the metric system before going to decimals is the millimeter. And the Inch is the smallest before decimals.

The inch is bigger and is higher resolution.

.001mm=

.00003937"

2 extra decimal places of resolution.

Of course anyone can take any arbitrary or not, standard of measure and divide it however they please, but the way it is officially done with these 2 systems, in my opinion makes the inch superior for fine measurement.

Or maybe I'm wrong and am just "used to it" ?

You are on the right track, but Furlongs is actually the superior system.

0.001 mm = 0.000000049709597 Furlongs. FIVE more places of resolution.

EmGo · Sep 6, 2020

Oh boy .... everything about the metric system sucks the big ten inch but the argument is unwinnable, ignorance has overcome sanity, it's like old age, nothing you can do about it but be happy we didn't have to put up with that garbage in our youth.

And while we're at it, you kids get outta them damn trees or I'll go get the shotgun ...

as9100d · Sep 6, 2020

Only two kinda of countries in the world....

1) those that use the metric system
2) those that have been to the moon

So which one is better?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

CalG · Sep 6, 2020

Our Canadien friends up Nord have adopted the MKS system ...

But when the call comes in to the RCMP. The description of the perp is always
"about 6 feet tall, and 180 pounds"

Just the way it is!

I work in any system, but I detest confusing Decimals with UNITS.

juergenwt · Sep 6, 2020

as9100d said:
Only two kinda of countries in the world....

1) those that use the metric system
2) those that have been to the moon

So which one is better?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Which one is better? Werher von Brauns team and his rocket with all the calculations done in metric. Needed massive help to convert all to imperial so US industry could produce the hardware needed. I am sure you know what happened to the Navy Rocket Program.

MrStretch · Sep 6, 2020

The op's 'given' is completely false.
A millimeter is .001 meters, that's what the milli means. Makes perfect sense. No stupid fractions or base 12 bs. How many millimeters in a kilometer?

yzfr1pwr · Sep 6, 2020

Yeah, because machinists use kilometers to measure parts with. My mistake.

NewGunPlumber · Sep 6, 2020

Inch or metric for fine measurement below one whole unit doesnt make much difference

Where the imperial system is stupid is where you combine, whole, fractions and decimals . . . .

Like saying I want something 4 meters, 2/3 of a meter, 1cm and .0126mm long. And then I want to divide that length by 3 and drill mounting holes in it. . . FMD.

There are reasons countries have progressed FROM imperial TO metric :-)

MattiJ · Sep 6, 2020

MrStretch said:
The op's 'given' is completely false.
A millimeter is .001 meters, that's what the milli means. Makes perfect sense. No stupid fractions or base 12 bs. How many millimeters in a kilometer?

I thought it was a joke but I'm not sure anymore.

Millimetres in kilometre? hmmm let me think, was it 1680.. nah must be 63360 or was it 63360000 :crazy:

thermite · Sep 6, 2020

MrStretch said:
The op's 'given' is completely false.
A millimeter is .001 meters, that's what the milli means. Makes perfect sense. No stupid fractions or base 12 bs. How many millimeters in a kilometer?

F**k's sake... who gives a s**t when kilometers aren't used for distance marking anyway?

That's a job for statute miles ashore, nautical miles aloft or at sea!

Leave the metric system to Third-World countries and those who are on the suicidal course to downgrade to that level.

It is a key part of the handicap that insures they remain "third world" off the back of the built-in disadvantages to it! Works so well the most of them need 20-percent-plus VAT just to fund the damned foolishness and waste, so there's ANOTHER economic win for the side of free-enterprise enlightenment over the socialized run for more cockroach-hiding darkness.

Traffic doesn't REALLY flow any faster, nations don't REALLY grow any larger when kilometers need inflated numbers for the same actual velocity in miles-per-hour over the same actual distance in miles.

That's all part of the same metric con game as weaker fasteners that never quite fit any give need but a prettier place on a printed list to make a clerk's job easier without having to be able to do even grocery-store arithmetic!

Mess up our advantage? The USA could become as tax ridden impoverished and foolishly governed by socialist idiots as THEY have become!

See Beijing-Joe-Biden & Sputniks.

CalG · Sep 6, 2020

I still use Swedish miles for bike rides.

klicks just go by so quickly.... ;-)

CalG · Sep 6, 2020

My entire career revolved around Nanometers and Angstroms, Torr and Megapascals.

Every once in a while some idiot grad student would only talk in inverse centimeters.

Damn, conversions just take so much time and effort. Until it CLICKS! ;-)

yzfr1pwr · Sep 6, 2020

Let's concentrate on this part of the infinite line of numbers.The area "practical machinists" will largely operate in.
.0mm to .0010 mm and .0" to .000039"
You know, the range and limits our typical tools and instruments operate in. DROs, Micrometers,CNC machinery, etc.

Why would metric be better here?

One can use a God damn tape measure most of the time for feet and meters.I'm not looking for remarks from dopes that can't wrap their head around anything other than units of 10 because that is what decimals are.

So no point in arguing that.

My argument is really the Inch is superior to the millimeter for metal working measurements when you divide them into one thousand to a million divisions. Which is what we do.

pavt · Sep 7, 2020

I have long since concluded that those who bash Imperial measures simply don't know their history.

Start here: A History of Measures

The Egyptians took the Sumerian/Mesopotamian system and codified it and unified it around 3,000 BC. Units of volume were made from units of length, cubed. The Egyptian Foot had 16 digits, unlike the Roman "unciae" which came a couple thousand years later. By the way, the Egyptian foot as 300 mm.

The Pharoah decreed that everything had to be calibrated to the Royal standards upon pain of death. The Egyptians at the time were a world power same as the US is today. The Greeks harmonized their system with the Egyptians, and that is how the Romans got it.

Point being, every part of the system had a definite and easily understood mathematical relation.

The North corner of the Great Pyramid id off true by about 0.602 inch due to an earthquake around 958 AD. And the Babylonian astronomers had protractors with a 40-meter radius.

I see no reason for metric to have ever been invented, except for the French tossing the baby out with the bathwater when they had their Revolution. All because the Aristocracy was abusing the Imperial system to bleed the common people dry.

A couple hours ago, I took 1/7 of a mm for a finishing cut.

thermite · Sep 7, 2020

CalG said:
I still use Swedish miles for bike rides.

klicks just go by so quickly.... ;-)

When I was stll flying, the anachronism was use of degrees F and statutes miles for temps on ground and airport terminal control areas, degrees C and nautical miles aloft.

It was a subtle message actually.

Do NOT try to route IFR through a statute mile zone, even on the best of instruments!

The "tubulent air penetration speed" of those cumulo-nimbus-asphalti/concreti or Mother-compacted-Earth-graveli zones is meant for bulldozer and blasting cap use, not that of eminently compressible airframes!

CalG · Sep 7, 2020

Why would metric be better here?

My argument is really the Inch is superior to the millimeter for metal working measurements when you divide them into one thousand to a million divisions. Which is what we do.[/QUOTE]

Four of one, one of the other. What is a few zeros between friends?

yzfr1pwr · Sep 7, 2020

True, they both get the job done. But I feel the inch has the edge where it counts.
And since everything we make is largely based on these systems. It might be wise to consider.

thermite · Sep 7, 2020

pavt said:
I have long since concluded that those who bash Imperial measures simply don't know their history.

Start here: A History of Measures

The Egyptians took the Sumerian/Mesopotamian system and codified it and unified it around 3,000 BC. Units of volume were made from units of length, cubed. The Egyptian Foot had 16 digits, unlike the Roman "unciae" which came a couple thousand years later. By the way, the Egyptian foot as 300 mm.

The Pharoah decreed that everything had to be calibrated to the Royal standards upon pain of death. The Egyptians at the time were a world power same as the US is today. The Greeks harmonized their system with the Egyptians, and that is how the Romans got it.

Point being, every part of the system had a definite and easily understood mathematical relation.

The North corner of the Great Pyramid id off true by about 0.602 inch due to an earthquake around 958 AD. And the Babylonian astronomers had protractors with a 40-meter radius.

I see no reason for metric to have ever been invented, except for the French tossing the baby out with the bathwater when they had their Revolution. All because the Aristocracy was abusing the Imperial system to bleed the common people dry.

Welllll.. you DID leave out the prevalence of the "tax" cubit supplementary weight and measures with the built in rake-off percentage for the ruling tribe. So nobody had to know the maths nor how to make and keep any written records? Not even on how to cheat, nor whom to bribe.

A couple hours ago, I took 1/7 of a mm for a finishing cut.

And that's the other thing.

Weren't for all that Metric boolsheet, you'd have been able to skim cut directly in standard RCH increments and it would not have needed "a couple of hours".

CalG · Sep 7, 2020

I'm still looking for a tape graduated in plimsols.

That way I can compute tonnage by linear measure...

;-)

Curios though.. wood working "fits" are not dissimilar to the oft heard machinists "thou". A though interference is tight, a thou of slop is just that.

Try to express that physical reality in the MKS system.

IMPERIAL WINS! And I AM an IMPERIALIST! Always have been! 'Born into it.

And I listen to Patsy Cline!

Why the Inch system is superior to the metric system for fine measurement

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