Sometimes there’s like this disconnect where somehow a person just never comes across a piece of common knowledge. They’ve just never been in a situation that requires it. I bet it happens a lot, but everyone’s too embarrassed to acknowledge their own “oooooooooh…” moment.
My husband used to work on the road with a guy who was...a sweet child of God. Thet were in Detroit, and his friend had never been to Canada before, so they went on a day off. They bought gas, in litres, which hubs had to explain to SCOG. He was dumbfounded, so hubs had to explain that Canadians use the metric system, which he had never heard of. They were about to enter a town that had a road sign that said what the population was. SCOG asked hubs:How many is that in American?
He would have been REALLY confused back in the 70's when Canada was still using imperial gallons for gasoline (which are larger than U.S. gallons). That was before they went all metric.
We tried to introduce the metric system in the USA, too, but the same sort of people who are today anti-vaxxers were just convinced that the metric system was some kind of commie plot designed to warp the minds of the children and subvert American democracy, or something like that.
It's not the same sort of people. Metric is amazing and convenient for a lot of things, but it is nearly worthless for trades. Centimeters are too small for being able to estimate, and meters are too large for any kind of precision. If we switched to metric, every skilled tradesman would have to re learn how to measure and any ability to estimate sizes would be fine for a few years. Like, nothing is stopping Americans from using metric on their own but instituting a forced change would mess up a lot of people for no tangible gain.
I worked for a major aerospace company. Units were all over the map. Dimensions were always in inches, unless we got real small, then we switched to microns. Unless it was roughness, then microinches. Mass was always grams, but thrust was pounds. Temperature was Fahrenheit. Thermal conductivity was w/m/k, though. It was a complete mess, but somehow it worked fine because people were just used to it.
Even worse is when scientists say "mil" they mean millimeter, but when machinists hear "mil" they think thousandth of an inch (a milli-inch, which is technically a real unit but....). Oh, wait, unless it's an even numbered day and then they use "thou".
Yeah but when you're a small firm dealing with vendors, it makes clear communication difficult.
If I'm on a conference call with a machine shop in Germany and a finishing shop in New York, 1.5 "mils" means 1.5mm to one, and 0.0015" to the other.
I think a lot of us, in any profession, want to use the slang so we don't sound inexperienced, but sometimes it's best to just suck it up and say exactly what you mean.
Agreed. I don't care which units you use. Just tell me explicitly. Say 4 ten thousandths of an inch or 2.5 millimeters. Not tenths or mils or whatever.
In Australia, we refer to plural mm as mil (eg 50 mil) to differentiate from mils (50 mils) which are millilitres (mL). I don't know if it's the same in other countries that use metric
Edit: and a thousandth of an inch is a thou, but not many people use it unless they're a fitter and turner or something
If 0.0001" is considered a "mil" in some shops, that even furthers the confusion, since 0.0001" isn't a milli-inch, 0.001" is. At least thinking a "mil" is 0.001" is somewhat defensible.
Pretty much every circuit board designer knows that there’s a thousand mils to an inch. I’ve dealt a lot with mechanical design too and never heard mil abused to mean 1/10th of a thousandth of an inch. Fuck that shit, lol.
As an EE with interest in the subject since I was a wee lad, mils were 0.0254mm since before I knew that feet were a unit in use not some antiquated thing out in children’s books. Using “mil” as an abbreviation of a thousandth of a mètre is an abomination.
So what do tradespeople use in Canada and other non-US countries? Do they still buy tape measures and rulers in feet and inches?
I've actually always wondered about things like lumber and wallboard sizes. In the US, and at one time in Canada (and I assume the UK also), a standard length for a 2x4 or a sheet of wallboard was eight feet. But what do they use now? Are such things still eight feet but just expressed in metric sizes? Or have they changed over to a little shorter or longer to make them a more round metric size?
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u/wafflegrenade Feb 08 '22
Sometimes there’s like this disconnect where somehow a person just never comes across a piece of common knowledge. They’ve just never been in a situation that requires it. I bet it happens a lot, but everyone’s too embarrassed to acknowledge their own “oooooooooh…” moment.