Posted on 09/29/2009 7:01:04 PM PDT by CedarDave
I was making a point too. Culture is important. Besides, we live in a computer age. How hard is it to calculate differing measurements?
Thanks!
The English system evolved for practical, not scientific use. I say let the scientists use whatever makes them happy, but when I'm calculating rafter pitch, I want my English system.
It's five shillings (how hard is that?) and how much change the nice man got would depend on the price of whatever I sold him.
The old British monetary system had the same advantage as the English system of linear measurement -- practical flexibility. It's divisible by 6 and 12 in all sorts of ways, which is easier math to do in your head. And like any other system, you get accustomed to it. I lived in Britain one summer, and it took me about a week to figure it out.
Besides, how could you expect American GIs to be able to strike up a conversation with a pretty local girl without being able to stand outside a shop staring at a coin and then ask her "how many shillings are there in this?"
a half crown, a florin, a sixpence, and a farthing
Funny, when I lived in England, they hadn't used any of that old currency in a very long time.
It's VERY difficult when you're standing next to your sawhorse with a pencil in one hand and a metal tape rule in the other, to drop everything and go find a computer to figure out how to divide 85.4 centimeters into 6 equal parts.
That's because the metric system is preferable for currency, among many other things.
How would you divide 33 5/8 inches into six equal parts without a calculator? Maybe I need more coffee.
Trust me that this works -- I've been a framing carpenter for years!
But, seriously, the great thing about English linear measurements is that you CAN do it in your head. My chemist husband who came along in the slide rule days emphasizes the importance of estimating before you calculate, so you know you're not an order of magnitude off.
The solution to the carpentry problem is metric building materials.
Instead of 16” centers, you do 400mm centers and your metric drywall is 1200mm wide. Voila.
Your 2x4’s aren’t 2” x 4” anyway.
The NIBS “Construction Metrication” newsletter mentioned this kind of problem - people trying to figure out how to fit 1219.2mm drywall on 406.4mm centers. Ridiculous.
Here’s the NIBS publications on the subject: https://www.nibs.org/index.php/nibs/resources/constructionmetrication
I’m still half-joking... I’m know very well why the old currency was abandoned.
I see all that stuff was published in the 90s, and it hasn't caught on in the intervening years, certainly not around here. I'm a charter subscriber to Fine Homebuilding, which is one of the best design/build magazines around and despite their expertise rather 'green' and 'touchy feely' countercultural, and THEY don't mention it, which means it hasn't caught on even with the true believers.
The "nominal" dimensioned framing lumber has been around for years, we've all learned to deal with it - since it's slightly smaller than true dimension it doesn't really cause a problem in framing. If you have to stack or sister on near a wall you do have to measure (but you should be measuring anyway!)
Where the problems REALLY get interesting is when you're working on an old house (pre-WWI) and find that you have to integrate nominal dimension framing with the old "true" dimension stuff. That will give you gray hair (if you don't tear it out first). Also, if you're using hardwoods the nominal dimensions are different, but that's for finish carpenters who are a breed apart from us "rough carpenters" -- i.e. 'good on rough work, and rough on good work.'
Someone here in Merrimack NH a couple of years back harvested some pine trees, rented an enormous bandsaw, and cut his own 2”x4” 2x4’s for a restoration project. Looked like a hell of a lot of fun.
I hope to goodness he seasoned it before he installed it -- my father as a young man once built a cabin out of green pine, and of course it shrank as it dried and you could throw a baseball (well, a ping pong ball) through the walls almost anywhere.
New Hampshire and Vermont were the home base of Fine Homebuilding when it first began. I think they're in Connecticut now.
bales? Yes back in the day over 25 years ago been clean since 86 we use to get 50 pound bales of reefer from Columbia the old chocolate chip c-bo.
When is this expected? My husband and I are arriving in San Diego on Friday and staying at Pacific Beach.
last night
Yea, I should have read a little more before I posted.
Yeah, for small businesses, I admit there are some hassles. But for the people who want to push for metrics, they are being used by the “Nations without borders crowd.”
Why is there not an equally zealous drive to make time metric? Because the world would hate it.
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