It's time to clarify units of measurement

[spacesailor]

We will see if the car drivers will make the next metric change as easily.I. can imagine some drivers forgetting even weeks after the change to right hand driving. thinking it.s all a bad dream

 

I just add up shillings then remove the hundreds as each hundred makes five pounds. We all learnt th twelve times table. So no problems there.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[spacesailor]

Why do they (you) say "imperial",

 

I don't say "republic" measurements, when referring to the French republic measurements (SI) "system de international Paris France".

 

The English system went away after the war, BA & Whitworth.

 

American (AF) or European (metric)

 

Lets start saying AMERICAN when not wanting a metric spanner.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[old man emu]

AF is a means of measuring the size of the hexagonal heads of imperial sized bolts and nuts for the purpose of indicating the size spanner to use. It means "Across the Flats". The origin of the SAE standard comes from the English, or Imperial, system, which is based on inches and the fractions thereof. SAE, which stands for the Society of Automotive Engineers, was used as the standard primarily on U.S.-made cars and trucks through the 1970s. SAE sockets are sized in inches and fractions of inches, based on multiples, or the fractions, of 1/8th of an inch.

 

It is wrong to call for an "American" spanner or socket as AF is the term normally used.

 

 

[spacesailor]

We only called, ALL the American surplus war tools, "yankee" as it was an American brand name, same as "hoover" vacuum cleaner's.

 

American fine thread as opposed to BA or Whitworth.

 

Made in America would not take :Imperial: Whitworth replacement nuts & bolts.

 

This is taken from Google.

 

"Metric measurements are gradually being forced on the UK,"

 

",so little manufacturing takes place in the UK now that most of what you buy is made abroad anyway."

 

It's one way to get the upper hand in the manufacturing world.

 

How long before the UK are FORCED to drive on the WRONG side of the road.

 

Then it will be our turn, to be FORCED into submission.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[old man emu]

This table shows the relationship between the diameter of AN, MS and NAS bolt shafts and the AF spanner/socket that will fit the head of the bolt, or the nuts that go with them.

 

[ATTACH]49711._xfImport[/ATTACH]

 

[spacesailor]

Doesn't work in MY garage, as I routinely file ruined bolt-heads down to the next spanner size.

 

Works well & save's manufacturing more OLD sized bolts of any thread configuration.

 

Must admit I have never, until getting into Hummel Aviation, using a bolt call AN.

 

I still have my BA, Whitworth & gas, taps and dies, now of course forced to purchase the French Metric SI, ( lost my only German metric, DIN (equipment

 

to a lone out for a "mate" with a Merc, (Daimler-Benz)).

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Bruce]

If we had 8 fingers and not ten, we might have invented computers sooner.

 

What about time? if a day is 24 hours exactly, then the second must be changing as years go by.

 

If the second is held constant, then 12 noon will drift and become earlier in the day as the planet slows its rotation.

 

 

[octave]

If we had 8 fingers and not ten, we might have invented computers sooner.What about time? if a day is 24 hours exactly, then the second must be changing as years go by.

 

If the second is held constant, then 12 noon will drift and become earlier in the day as the planet slows its rotation.

Also, variations due to the wobble of the earth on its axis hence the need for the occasional "leap second" Leap second - Wikipedia

 

 

[nomadpete]

Eight fingers?

 

I'm pretty sure Computer logic only needs two fingers.

 

Wait up! Make that 'only one finger'.

 

It's all just one's and zero's!

 

 

[Bruce]

My first computer was an 8 bit machine... 8 bits = 1 byte . A bit is a 1 or zero.

 

Thanks, I didn't know they had leap seconds and stuff, I only know that wind and tidal energy comes from the rotation of the earth and so the earth must be slowing down.

 

Maybe I should have known from engineering school, but all I remember that a solar day is different to a star day. You need that stuff like books of tables written by government astronomers to do surveying on a big scale if you don't have a GPS, and you also need a radio to get the time signals. All useless knowledge these days.

 

Sometimes I think Captain Cook would weep at the sight of a GPS, he was the only sea captain who could work out his longitude using lunar-star angles. That was before any time-signals.

 

And space, DIN stands for Deutch Industrie Normale , which is their standards lot.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Eight fingers?I'm pretty sure Computer logic only needs two fingers.

 

Wait up! Make that 'only one finger'.

 

It's all just one's and zero's!

Yep. If you count on your fingers the decimal system will get you to ten

 

The digital system will get you to one thousand and twenty four.

 

 

[spacesailor]

WHEN using the THUMB to count the segments of each finger, = 12, YES you count twelve on each hand.

 

Not taught in my English school !.

 

Enough of Bundesrepublik Deutschland . it's not taught at schools any more, Same with Esperanto,

 

I have a problem with AN as it's either 1/32 or it's 1/16 when measuring their bolts. I just get mixed up which fraction to use at the time I need it.

 

Where to get metric solid rivets from ?.

 

spaesailor

 

spacesailor

 

 

[nomadpete]

It's a long time (in technoyears) since I had an eight bit computer.

 

Now I'd need 64 fingers to equate to my 64 bit computer. But I'm now confused. Do our 64 bit computers still process 8 bit bytes?

 

And my school didn't share that cunning method of counting to 12 on each hand. Imagine counting to twenty-four without taking my shoes off!

 

 

[Marty_d]

How long before the UK are FORCED to drive on the WRONG side of the road.

 

Then it will be our turn, to be FORCED into submission.

 

spacesailor

We already fly from the wrong side of the aeroplane, so maybe it'll be easier for pilots to adapt...

 

 

[Bruce]

Everybody has their price, space. If we could get the same car $3000 cheaper if we changed to LHD, would you be tempted?

 

When in the US, I was too scared to drive myself because I thought that in an emergency, my instincts would be all wrong. A big cost of any change will be the accidents.

 

The buggy here at the farm is LHD, ( as is the Jabiru, as Marty points out.) The tractors and bikes are center-drive, and I doubt that they make the controls different for the RHD countries. But every time I drive an EU car, I continually operate the windscreen wiper instead of the indicators and I don't like these cars.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I doubt we'll be forced to change over; many countries drive on the left, including one of the main car-builders: Japan.

 

Throughout human history an apparently relentless trend is often interrupted by something from left field. Within a few years cars may not even have steering wheels and computers might be clever enough to adapt to local road rules.

 

 

[old man emu]

It's not really our place to make the decision to go LHD. It will be, as always, the decision of the Millennials. You have to admit that our times are coming to an end, and the Future is theirs to manipulate.

 

 

[facthunter]

Probably we should all go to left hand drive. As Marty said we do it in a plane. Standard circuits are left hand also. Nev

 

 

[nomadpete]

Bring back the cubit.

 

It was good enough for the design spec of an ark,.

 

 

[octave]

[ATTACH]49714._xfImport[/ATTACH]

[spacesailor]

Bike rider's going from UK to the other side, have lots of accidents by Not keeping to the Right hand rule.

 

Especially turning corners in the city.

 

I KNOW.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[spacesailor]

Even the French rode on the left at one time, but changed to the right after the Long war with their neighbor. then the silly POMS went to their aid after the Huns took over them.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[facthunter]

Clearly with kilometers you will save on food

 

 

[Bruce]

Don't forget the stadia.. but nobody knows just how long a stadia is . I think the distance from Alexandria to Syrena was 300 stadia.

 

This was wrong but it caused Columbus etc to underestimate the size of the planet. Surprising that we don't know better just how long a stadia was supposed to be.

 

 

[old man emu]

"Stadia" is the plural of "stadion", a unit of length in Ancient Greece. According to Herodotus, one stadion was equal to 600 Greek feet (podes). If you divide the circumference of the earth 40,000,000 meters between 216,000 (60 degrees x 60 minutes x 60 seconds), the result is the measure of a stadion, 185 meters. Due to variation in the lenght of a Greek pode, the exact length of a stadion is uncertain. The value of a stadion seems to be 185 metres plus or minus 15 metres.