this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
792 points (96.4% liked)

Memes

8027 readers
815 users here now

Post memes here.

A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, but you still have work tool measurements in 5/8, 7/32, and 13/64 or whatever the fuck dumbass measurements.

I say this as an American that hates the way tools use measurments here.

[–] Kecessa 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Depends what kind of work you do, mechanics work in metric only, construction is in Imperial...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Mechanics work in metric mostly. You still come across some imperial sizes occasionally. Though recently that's been getting standardized a lot better.

[–] Kecessa 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Recently?

Metric has been standard in cars for decades...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Then there's planes, and trains and also ships. Ships can have parts and systems from god knows when

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, that might be true, but I work on a lot of shit that's right around 20 years old. It's mostly metric. But I keep a set of standard sockets around that I've had to pull out once or twice. Sometimes it's been because of swollen bolts but sometimes I'm pretty damn sure that's a 5/16.

[–] Kecessa 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I can guarantee it's either someone that put the wrong bolt there or it's due to rust.

All American cars have been fully metric since the 90s (with a push during the Carter years as well), Japanese cars since the 60s... Maybe you've had to work on a x.5mm bolt but that's extremely rare.

[–] captain_aggravated -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I specifically prefer woodworking in fractional inches. I've had this argument on Lemmy before and it basically goes:

"But inches bad! Metric good! Fractions bad! Powers of ten good!"

"I mean yeah okay but I nearly never have to divide by ten in the wood shop, I do have to divide by two or three or four, and since we mill stock to finished dimensions that are usually 3/2*x inches, most commonly 3/4" or 3/2" it's trivial to do. Cutting mortise one third the board's width in 3/4" stock ends up being exactly 1/4" wide. Easy. The metric world usually mills boards to 19mm, which is pretty close to 3/4" so it's suitable for the same applications. Show me the line on a metric tape measure that indicates one third of 19mm."

"But Americans use inches so it must be dumb and bad!"

I use metric for quite a lot of things, I learned chemistry and physics in metric in school, I vastly prefer doing mechanical and engineering things in metric. I learned carpentry (structure building) in inches but I could cope with metric there, I learned how to fly in mostly US customary units (distances in nautical miles, speeds in nautical miles per hour aka knots, altitude and runway lengths in feet, pressures in PSI, temperature in °C) I could cope with different units there. I'm not giving up inches in the furniture shop though, because working in fractions works to well.

But yeah the faster we can erase fractional inch wrenches from the world the better. "What's one size louder than 3/4?" "Ah shit 6/8...12/16, plus 1...13/16."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Except there's an easy way to mark thirds: if you have a, let's say, 27 cm wide board you take the measuring by skewing a little the tape and measuring 30 cm. You mark 10 cm and 20 cm and there you have it: a third of the wide. You don't even need the precise measure. If you have something with proportional marks you just use it and you get a third no matter the width. It's like a center finder but with thirds (or fourths or...)

[–] captain_aggravated 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That will likely work for the length or width of boards, but what about thickness? Mark out a mortise and tenon on a 19mm thick board with that technique and tell me how it goes.

This is the kind of shit I'm talking about. You see these kinds of "Nuh uh, it's not a problem, you just learn all these hacky workarounds" excuses out of the inch-ounce crowd, where you "just have different measuring cups for that" or "our butter packaging has tablespoon markings on it" but in the wood shop it's the other way around because the physical tasks are inherently easier to express as fractions rather than decimals, so I'm the one saying "I just measure it with my tape measure or combo square or ruler and it's right." and the metric crowd keep going "Nuh uh, it's not a problem, you just learn all these hacky workarounds."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or you can do a division and that's it.

[–] captain_aggravated 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

19mm / 3 = 6.3333mm. Come on over here and show me the six point three three three three millimeter line on my metric tape measure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

2" / 3 = 0.666666666 Show me that point in you tape measure 😜

And both cases can be fixed by just skewing a little the tape (19 mm -> 21 mm and 2" -> 2.1". Close to 20°)

[–] captain_aggravated 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

2 inches isn't a common size for stock. 1.5 inches is though.

And you want to come show me 2.1" on my standard tape measure?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh, right, inches are not divided by a sane number😉

[–] captain_aggravated 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

TIL that is better having 2.0625" and 2.125" than having 2.1" 😜

[–] captain_aggravated 1 points 2 months ago

Those numbers are inconvenient only if you insist on working in base 10.