Uhhh... thanks. Me? Grammar? aint finna happen...
Pete, in all fairness to us Americans, we are so elitist that the
standard measuring tape doesn't include metric units, just as our
standard calipers only read in decimal inches (whew! I've gotten thrown
off by thinking the ruler I was using was graduated in fractional
inches when in fact it was decimal).
Metric is more logical, however for me it's a conception issue: I have
a test indicator where one graduation is 0.002mm. That number is
meaningless to me, except to say pretty damn small. It is about equal
to 0.000079 inches, if I remeber correctly, and THAT number means
something to me, since I simply round to 0.0001" and that is abut
1/20th the thickness of a human hair. Rounding is okay at that point,
because it's so accurate that temperature variations will affect the
readings, so to call the ninein that number a sig. fig. is stupid.
I don't give absolute measurements for my sidehops because I don't
carry a measuring tape and also, even when I do, often there's a slight
slope or a crown to the ledge preventing readings more accurate than
1/2" or ~1cm.
Imperial units are great for some obscure uses: As a machinist I use
imperial for measurements partly because I know 0.002" is ~1 human
hair, which is useful. One thou is a great unit because it's generally
accurate enough, yet relatively easy to achieve. For logic circuits in
physics experiments, the foot is nice because 1' is about how far an
electronic signal travells in 1ns. It makes timing your cables much
easier.
--
gerblefranklin
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/Trials-Muni
Nick's main man.
"I love freedom dearly, ideally, in theory, but in reality we're not
there yet--Not nearly."--Cold Duck Complex
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