"Luddite", "Progressionist" or "Double-agent"?

darth sidious

darth sidious

New Member
A reply on the 4 cylinder board by our esteemed and knowledgeable Harvey got me thinking.

Are you a "Luddite" as in do you prefer imperial (inches, feet, pints, gallons... etc), or...

Are you a "Progressionist" as in do you prefer metric (millimetres, metres, millilitres, litres... etc) , or..

Are you a "Double-agent" as in you have no overall preference over one or the other?
 
double agent - lets face it if you want a half inch 13mm isnt always accurate enough - It's not much closer to 13 than it is to 12. Using the wrong standard just leads to inaccuracy.

Rich
 
darth sidious said:
Are you a "Luddite" as in do you prefer imperial (inches, feet, pints, gallons... etc),
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I would say in general I probably am, but in the case you're referring to I would prefer to see it as being "Traditionalist"
Bloody Metric, coming over here and taking our feet and inches, take it back to France where it belongs.......
 
Served my apprenticeship being trained on metric and imperial systems, so I suspect I swing both ways :shock:
I have been known to use the bit of string method on larger items.
 
NickDunning said:
Maybe it's got something to do with when you were born, but I think in feet, inches..and gallons. :)
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I do too Nick but when I'm working with a micrometer/vernier/steel rule etc I tend to use mm. Never use cm, too imprecise.

Personally I think we should go back to chain's, poles, perches and cubits :wink:

Dave
 
Definately a double agent, I often switch units from one dimension to the next, depending on which number is most convenient. People look at you daft when you say "it's 2.1 metres by 3 foot 6" :LOL:
 
I tend to think in imperial to this day.

I work out fuel consumption in mpg not L/100Km, drove 15 miles (not 24 kilometers) to a pub earlier and had a pint - not 568ml, set points and plugs to 'thou', think in feet and inches, etc.

Funnily enough though, I was using 185 tyres on my P6 back in the 70s but my metric sockets still fit my 1.2" drive?

I'll be a traditionalist as well 8)

Richard
 
webmaster said:
Definately a double agent, I often switch units from one dimension to the next, depending on which number is most convenient. People look at you daft when you say "it's 2.1 metres by 3 foot 6" :LOL:
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:D I remember going to a timber merchant many years ago, but after we went metric and asked how much their 4 x 2 was. He replied, rather too condescendingly, that they didn't sell 4 x 2, but could supply some 100 x 50 :shock:

I asked how much that was and was told it was 42p a foot. :roll:

Richard
 
Double agent. I grew up reading old English and American car mags so I always think in terms of mpg, inches and pounds for general car stuff, but if I need to do anything accurate I will be using metric, especially for things like metalwork 'cos it's damn near impossible to add and subtract fractions.
One thing that always pisses me off is that NZ Classic car magazine has an annoying of translating all the specs of the cars they feature into metric for us. I really don't give a crap how many Kilowatts a Morris Minor has! It's just wrong!!
 
Wow, a lot of responses in a short-ish amount of time.

LMAO at Harvey's comment about sending metric back to France! :LOL:

Richard Quattro's "we don't sell 4 x 2 anymore, we sell 100 x 50, but we sell it at 42p a foot" was quite amusing too! :p

Seems to be a bias more in favour of imperial, so keeping it British (or American!) is the flavour here!

Thanks all.
 
I'd call myself bilingual, as my tool kit has to contain both due to the crossover on the later classics :roll:

My daughter is 100% metric, however she measured her pictures in inches as it seemed easier when going to buy frames in Ikea :?
 
GrimV8 said:
I'd call myself bilingual, as my tool kit has to contain both due to the crossover on the later classics :roll:

My daughter is 100% metric, however she measured her pictures in inches as it seemed easier when going to buy frames in Ikea :?
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That's a bit ironic; Ikea are a European firm, founded in Sweden, and now headed in Holland! The irony of life! :shock: :LOL:
 
"Inches" ? :shock:
"Feet" ? :shock:
"Pints" ? :shock:
"Gallons" ? :shock:
"Imperial" ? Double :shock:


"... whassad :?: :?: :?: "

:)

Even the electrics are WRONG - "Positive earth" ? ...
 
Absolutely 100% imperial. always feet and inches, gallons, pint, etc. still get funny looks when buying my copper tube and asking for half inch tube, three quarter tube etc. Im too old or too lazy to change.
 
To me there's an obvious distinction in that metric is great for scientific calculations. Imperial units are practical measurements....

Stone is better for bodyweight than kg but calculation of scientific formulas becomes hideous pretty quickly in imperial....
 
I served my apprenticiship in Imperial, but gradually changed to Metric as things seemed to be going that way. Now I'm more than happy to work in both or either. I do remember my Dad coming home from work though crying with laughter 'cos he'd asked one of the lads for a measurement in Imperial and the lad said "six eighths of an inch" rather than "three quarters"! :LOL: ..you just wouldn't get that kind of comedy value from metric haha
 
webmaster said:
Definately a double agent, I often switch units from one dimension to the next, depending on which number is most convenient. People look at you daft when you say "it's 2.1 metres by 3 foot 6" :LOL:
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Isn't that what caused the Mars lander to crash? Someone pogrammed it in imperial when it should've been metric, or vice versa :roll:

Dave
 
Yep - iirc it went between teams on different eurpoe and america and the difference meant it smashed to smithereens pretty much. ( I do like the word smithereens!) :)
 
Definitely bisexual.
I work on American helicopters with French and American engines.
I drive a Honda and own a P6 and used to have a Mini and I ride a Moto Guzzi and hopefully soon, an Aprilia.

Although South Africa was firmly Metric when I was born, Dad was old school and I cut my mechanical teeth on Fordson, Massey Ferguson, David Brown and Lister. It was a bit of a shock going to my first woodwork class and discovering a metric ruler
 
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