USA bolt sizes - Withworth - Metric

johnbuckley said:
Whoa Crankster,:) Isn't it true a Mars Orbiter failed because one engineering department was using "English" measurements and one was using metric??!!
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People make mistakes, if that's what your point is. Scientists convert from different measurement standards all the time, it isn't cause for comment.

Unless somebody &$@s up, of course. Aircraft for example, generally measure fuel in pounds (weight), not gallons. Woe to the aircrew who plugs in the wrong units to determine range or perform a fuel consumption check. This has happened, with disastrous results.
 
Crankster said:
That's not really true, America uses the metric system for anything that really matters, in science and industry, and has for a long time. Complaining about this is a kind of virtue signaling with some I've noticed, oftentimes the same sort that likes to claim "Science!" when they aren't really very scientific about too many things. If they were, they'd know this. It is true that Americans still use statute miles, yards and feet. Having used different standards it turns out that the "English" system of measurement is actually very well suited for human sized measurements.

Interestingly spark plugs have been Metric for almost as long as they've been around iirc. There were some other early Ford parts - maybe in the differential? That have always been metric. In a (sort of) similar vein, iirc American firearm ammunition cartridges were/are Berdan primed - a European invention, while European ammunition cartridges are all Boxer primed, an American invention. Hm.
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Hmmm, part metric, part imperial. Now that is odd!
One imperial gallon is defined as the volume of 10 lb of water at STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure). Anybody got any idea where the US gallon came from/how is it defined and why the change? (No, really, I'd like to know)
Q: How many lb in a ton? A: Depends whether you are in the US or anywhere else that used to use the imperial system.
No need to say any more on this subject so I won't.
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
Johnbuckley is right, as that's exactly what the news reported was the cause.
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I didn't say he was wrong. Different measurement standards are used in science all the time, and converted back and forth. Failure to allow for that - is something else.

It isn't some sort of vestigial, backward hick rube thing from flyover Jesusland as some people seem to imply.

And after all - there are two kinds of countries - those who use the Metric system, and those who have landed on the Moon. ;)
 
Even the oh-so-sophisticated Frogs screwed this up. France, it will be recalled, at one time forced not only the Metric system, but (for a while) a completely new calendar, days of the week, and I think had designs on the 24 hour clock system as well. They wanted to decimilize everything - 10 months in a year, 10 hour days in 100 decimal minutes, etc.

That part didn't catch. My point is that we've converted to the metric system where it matters, and not bothered for silly dumb stuff like quarts of beer or gallons of milk. Or the 100 yard line.

Can you imagine Bobby Bare singing "I'm 804.672 Kilometers From Home"? It just doesn't have the same ring to it, ya know?




"France's state-owned rail network RFF just ordered 2,000 brand new trains as part of an effort to modernize the country's transit network. There's just one problem: the new trains are too wide for most of the country's train platforms.

How did this happen? EU rules required France to split ownership of its railways and the trains that use them. Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) owns and operates the country's rail infrastructure, while Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF) operates the actual trains.

Unfortunately, the two separate state-owned firms don't seem to know how to talk to one another. SNCF was in charge of ordering the new trains, but it relied on RFF for specs of the stations the trains would be servicing. RFF supplied dimensions for new stations, though most of France's stations are older and, therefore, a different size. The upshot of all of this: those new trains won't fit in more than half of the country's stations, so France is now working to widen old platforms to accommodate the ordering error-repairs which have already cost more than $100 million."


http://www.the-american-interest.co...ew-french-trains-wont-fit-in-french-stations/
 
Crankster said:
...Can you imagine Bobby Bare singing "I'm 804.672 Kilometers From Home"? It just doesn't have the same ring to it, ya know?
...
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It can take several decades but eventually the whole world will go for km's and metric.
 
Crankster said:
Even the oh-so-sophisticated Frogs screwed this up. France, it will be recalled, at one time forced not only the Metric system, but (for a while) a completely new calendar, days of the week, and I think had designs on the 24 hour clock system as well. They wanted to decimilize everything - 10 months in a year, 10 hour days in 100 decimal minutes, etc.
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I go for the decimal system ;
-only one day instead of seven : SUNDAY, and only that one day per month.
-only one month instead of twelve : AUGUST
and everyones birthday is on the same day = celebrate all year long...untill I'm ...euh... 36500 years/days old.
 
Crankster said:
You think they'll rename the song do ya?
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No, but it may make as much sense as Sumer Is Icumen In Lhu-de Sing Cuc-cu which is eminently sing-able still even though it is C13! ;). Enough of this . Let us move on to fresh and worthwhile topics.... What oil do you use?
 
Oh, come on guys. This is fun.

Go out and buy a beautiful British racing green 1955 MG-TF 1500, and then wonder why none of your tools fit. Or, a spiffy black 1961 XK-150S Jaguar drop-head coupe. Besides having ****** British-Leland wiring, they were neat cars except for the heaters. I always carried a bottle of Southern Comfort between the seats, and whenever a date would ask me to turn on the heater, I hand her the bottle of heater juice. She either demanded to be taken home or we had a blast.

Mike
 
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