Displaying fractions of inches

[elevmike]

Planck time. 10^-43 sec.

Playing triva with internet access lacks a certian degree of challange...

 

[Mark_H]

Never forget it was good old inches that saved the Hubbell telescope.

Recall when the space shuttle went up to retrieve it a while back for needed repairs.

They were going to use the fancy arm to grip the telescope, but they could not manage to get it. Plan two was have a guy stand up and grab it.

You would think that NASA with all it's politically correct pushing of the metric system would of used metrics to save the Hubbell. Not a chance, the metric system was too risky to use.

When the astronaut captured the Hubbell he was instructed to move it this way and that way, in inches.

And the telescope was saved.

 

[MikeW]

Sorry for the delay in chiming in, but, like Willie Nelson, "I'm on the Road Again..."

The "USA" is already going metric - many global US companies are using it in their products to minimize global variation, documentation,etc. How many nuts and bolts on the newer cars are "English" threaded? Most I have seen require a mm wrench to remove correctly. (Cresent wrenches are a universal tool!)

btw, what difference does it really matter if you get philosophical? "A rose by any other name..." A "shade tree mechanic" will probably still use vise grips and ruin the hex head anyway.

 

[PhilipW]

I haven't been following this thread until just now, although when I read the original comment about "going metric" right back at the beginning, I thought the better of posting because anything I might say from outside the USA going to be hard not to sound self-righteous at the least. And before anyone wants to rip into me for being "anti-American" please bear in mind that I am one of the rabid "pro-AB guys" in this forum.

It is an interesting subject though. The question of the USA converting to metric was a live topic during the Reagan Administration, and as I recall the program was well advanced before the White House nixed it. Seemed a shame at the time, and with the passage of time, the lack of gumption to carry the conversion forward looks even sillier.

The metric system is NOT a British thing. It originated out of Europe, with the French leading the way; which is why its' official name is Systeme Internationale (SI). In fact the USA is now the ONLY significant economy in the world that does not use SI. As time goes by this will only continue to erode the position of the American economy in the world. Even if one cannot attribute a direct monetary cost to this, to a whole new generation of engineers and technical people who have grown up in a global economy, and who have only ever known metric, they look at American instrangience on this matter with bafflement and some disdain. As time goes by the US position just looks plain "out of date".

Here in New Zealand, one day in 1967 we did a "cold turkey" conversion of our official units AND currency to decimal in one hit. Prior to that we used the old British "Imperial" system and Pounds, Shillings and Pence; after it was SI and Dollars. Conversion happened smoothly enough and although many items tooks years to change (eg our topo maps had height contours in feet for decades after) the whole thing was pretty much a non-event in terms of cost and disruption. Is there any real reason why a larger country like the USA would encounter obstacles to conversion that it's correspondingly larger resources could not solve?

 

[Rick Densing]

People act like converting back and forth is hard.

It certainly costs a lot more to translate languages, but I don't see many countries changing their official language to english.

 

[kennyb]

sorry, back to paintballs -

paul, if, as is quite likely, it is a damp or wet day, the ammo has a tendency to burst at the muzzle exit. if it is cold and dry that's when the real pain starts. most places the rules say a hit which bounces off doesn't count - yay!?
no! it just means you receive a severe hosing down until you are "officially" dead.
some marshals are known to keep ammo in the freezer for use on habitual rulebreakers.

also, the smallest unit of time is colloquially known as the "weekend"

more triv: what is a mil (one L) and is it imperial or metric?
have fun.

 

[PLucas]

Kenny

We had our 'team-building' paintball day out yesterday..

I can't say I was looking forward to it, but I had great fun!

The weather was dry and not too cold, the paintball arena's were awash with mud. The mud and 'paint' washes off, so not a problem..

I have numerous bruises all over my body.... the rules were only torso shots count and then if they burst.

I had a tendency to 'cheat' a little yesterday, if I did take a 'killing' body shot, I would ignore it until I received a 'hosing down' and the pain got too much, then the only way to stop the onslaught was to admit the kill.

The pains were washed away with a few pints in the pub afterwards!

Not a bad days work really!

Paul (or you can call me Rambo now )

 

[Beryl]

The smallest unit of time according to the radio trivia was a yacko 10^-24. I wonder where they got their info cause 10^-24 is a yocto?

I missed the trivia anyway I was going with the infinite answer. However, I agree with kennyb that it is definitely a weekend.

 

[bernie_carlton]

Then I guess the longest unit of time is the time until the next weekend? I remember as a child it was the time until Christmas. Or for a preganat woman, the time until delivery.

 

[rsdoran]

more triv: what is a mil (one L) and is it imperial or metric?

English units its used to represent 1/1000 of an inch.
It could mean millimeter.
It can mean 10km in some countries.
NATO uses it to represent 1/6400 of a full circle.
mil can mean millions

 

[Rod]

1/6400 of a circle?

What the heck is 1/6400 of a circle used for? I can't find any valid relationship to degrees of arc, or radians, or fractions of the Earth's circumference???

And, what is the value of PI in metric equivalents?

Inquiring minds need to know!

Rod (The CNC dude)

 

[Steve Bailey]

And, what is the value of PI in metric equivalents?

3.14159.....

PI is dimensionless, being the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, both of which have units of length.

 

[bernie_carlton]

Oh - you mean about 3 and 9/64 ths.

 

[Steve Bailey]

Closer to 3 and 1/7

or

3 and 99/700

or

3 and 991/7000

or

3 and 9912/70000

 

[bernie_carlton]

I was making a cute reference to the post which started this whole thread.