Metric system?

Eutectic

Active Member
It's just what you grew up with and are comfortable using. Inches, meters, doesn't make any difference.
I think Keith is correct.... I hated the metric system years back! But I hated the computer too! Chevron made sure I was versed in both before I retired.
The last plant I (we) built was a polyethylene gas phase reactor unit...a pair of them... Plenty of French and German equipment! I knew metric pretty good when I retired.... Even knew some German! We (They) have two huge Werner Pfeiderer extruders..... 8000HP motors on each. Well we had a major damage to one very early on Saturday. Gherhart (sp) our factory rep was in New Jersey but not home! I have German prints in front of me and I called Stuttgart. A German answered and transferred me to another guy. We couldn't talk together either. I was getting nervous by the fourth! But we got the message together some and he called another guy to the phone that was smart and spoke English. I ordered what parts we needed from him as we looked at the same prints together thousands of miles apart! I would say the part in German off the print. As I finished I asked him if he understood my German well enough to place the order safely......."Yah" he says.... Then adds, "But your accent is very strong!" The air freight alone was $55,000 dollars but we had a truck at Intercontinental Sunday morning to pick the 'goodies' up!

Pete
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I admit, metric is lots easier to work with as far as dividing things up and doing the math than fractions. I figured that out when we were homeschooling and I got to learn the metric system with the kids. But, as others have so rightly pointed out, I can't get the hang of looking at a board or bolt and estimating it in millimeters. It's what you grow up with.

Ever read Ned Roberts, Franklin Mann or Pope and have to try to think in rods? 16.5 feet or 1/320 of a mile IIRC! Oddly enough, my electronet sheep fence comes in 164 foot lengths. If I undid the knotting that secures the polywire to the posts, I think it would be just about another foot longer or 10 rods! And I think it's made in Asia, so try and figure that one out. Why 164 feet and not 150? 165 feet is just over 50 meters, but it's dead on in rods. Weird.