.3937201 or 0.03937201

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395
I'll bet some of you are asking, "What's with the weird numbers already?" :confused:
Simple really if you have trouble envisioning such things as 75 cm. long or 750 mm. long, they are the same number in the metric system only one is in centimeters and the other millimeters.
If you take .3937201 X 75 you will get 29.529 inches or if you round it off roughly about 29-1/2 inches.
And of course if you take 0.03937201 X 750 you will get the exact same answer.:rolleyes: ;)
I used this as an example but however you see a length or width stated in the metric system you will be able to convert it to inches.:thumbup: Just something left from the old days I spent in a machine shop that I thought may be helpful to y'all.:) :o
 
What I could really use is an easy way to convert from imperial to metric(a much more sensable system if you ask me).
 
I'm a big fan of the metric system... its just much more logical IMO... I try to force myself to use the metric system as much as possible... at first it was kinda tough visualizing the sizes and whatnot. but its gotten better with practice

thanks for the handy conversion!
 
Simplest way is to calculate directly in the system in wich you want your answer and avoid all conversions.

Or use a computer to calculate.
 
I like the metric system. I am used to the American way because I live here. But I had two large projects in Japan, and one in Singapore using the metric system. I used a tape measure with both number values on the ruler. It didn't take but a couple of weeks and I was using the metric numbers exclusively. Everything in "10's", is pretty easy to get used to. :)
 
way back when i was a project engineer in alabama, we built a chemical plant for amoco (it made polyester precursors), my company did the plant, another did the tank farm outside our assigned area, with a piping run of about 100yds connecting them. skipping over the tornado that neatly dis-assembled part of the construction, when the pipes met they were about 3 feet out, we'd worked in imperial units, they worked in metric. it turned into an unplanned expansion bend.

p.s. - the US adopted the metric system way back in the post-revolutionary honeymoon period with france. it's the only legalised system in the US, it's just that no-one uses it much. over here in the UK they are still a bit mixed, car speedo's, road signs etc. are in miles per hour, parts are metric, old plumbing is imperial, new is all metric. stores MUST sell stuff in kilograms, some butchers have gone to jail for selling meat in pounds and ounces since the EU made it illegal. (454 grams of beef just doesn't sound the same as gimme a pound of steak). petrol (gasoline) is sold in litres. mileage is calculated in MPG, not kilometers per litre.

and unless you are a math freak or building a space shuttle for nasa, 4 significant digits in the conversion are probably still overkill......if you are a math freak, you should be working in binary anyway....
 
For a real easy way to convert between cm and inches use google!
Go to www.google.com and type in what you want, for example:
30cm in inches
or
12inches in cm

That thing can convert a whole bunch of stuff!
Cheers!
 
65535 said:
So much more sensical than Standard System.
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Yes, But much of the central and western US is laid out using standard measurements - hard to change now.

Roads are on one mile grids (or multiples thereof).
Standard gravel road right of way is one chain wide.
Standard quarter section is 160 rods x 160 rods (1/2 mile x 1/2 mile).
Rectangular parcels of land that extend to the mid-section line are equal in acreage to their opposite side road frontage in rods (half section, 320 acres, is 320 rods x 160 rods).
After a lifetime of using 43,560 square feet = 1 acre it is hard to think in terms of hectares or how many would fit within your fencelines.:confused:
Lloyd
 
westfork said:
Yes, But much of the central and western US is laid out
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Honestly, that is IMO the only reason why the Imperial system still exists. It would be to hard (read expensive) to change it. I learned in the metric system, but older folks (even my dad) would have a lot of difficulties to change. In engineering, the Imperial system is mainly used, but our teachers use the metric system in the classes. So when you get to the industry, you have to take a few weeks to adapt the Imperial system.

Surprisingly, we still use the imperial system for some things. I know I'm 5'10 130 pounds but I don't know it in metric.
 
Duodecimal. :)

Decimal is no more logical than any other system for mathematical notation. It is simpler to calculate in, which is something entirely different. If the insufficiently logical creators of the metric system had used base 12, they would have had as simple a system to calculate within, with more factors available. That would have been logically superior.

Actually, I prefer base 64 for compactness of notation. :p
 
If you take .3937201 X 75 you will get 29.529 inches or if you round it off roughly about 29-1/2 inches.
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That's OK for a machine shop, but sitting around trying to figure out the length of a knife blade given in mm, a rounded conversion factor works fine, and most of them can be done on the fly.

In fact, .4 is less than 2% off .3937201, so .4 x 75 gets you 30 inches instead of roughly 29 -1/2 inches.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
That's OK for a machine shop, but sitting around trying to figure out the length of a knife blade given in mm, a rounded conversion factor works fine, and most of them can be done on the fly.

In fact, .4 is less than 2% off .3937201, so .4 x 75 gets you 30 inches instead of roughly 29 -1/2 inches.
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I agree Esav but I'm a stickler for accuracy after spending all of those years in a machine shop.;) :p :D

I used to hold + or - 0.0002 inch on the Tornos Swiss Automatic Screw Machines I used to run but they were set up for extreme accuracy. The sometimes very old, for a precision machine tool, American automatic screw machines I ran would hold plus or minus .001 in a pinch.:eek: :cool: :D

These are some pics of a Tornos Swiss Automatic Screw Machine. Machines such as this are what watch parts are made on as well as other very small to very tiny precise parts.
One Swiss Automatic Shop in Redlands CA had 19 Swiss Automatics all set up to make the small precise brass piece that holds the ball in Bic ballpoint pens. It was a neat setup with all machines set around a circle.
286184b.jpg


286184c.jpg


286184d.jpg
 
I remember after my grandfather died, we were looking at his old micrometer. It was like a piece of jewelry itself, so bright, so beautiful. But ... I'm more mathematics than engineering so rounding to significant decimal places has its own imperative.

It wouldn't be hard for someone interested in metrification to put together ratios for conversion of in to mm, mi to km, oz to gm. Probably a half-dozen easily memorized tricks to flip between systems and you'd be ready to play with the numbers anytime.

It's great that computers and calculators give us access to all this, but do you pull out your laptop on the highway to work out how many MPH is 100 kph? (3:5 ... 100 / 5 * 3 is 60 :))
 
Kronkchew, did I understand you to say butchers have gone *to jail*???? What the bleep!! I mean, if the customer knows what he's getting, and the butcher delivers it honestly, why should the EU or anyone else care what units they use? Why not just require scales to show both measures and let the customers do as they please?
Esav, you're right about base-12 being a handier system. Our system of timekeeping and geometry is arguably base-12, and the 12-inch foot would be a good'un if only the English had been consistent with it. 5280 feet to a mile, I mean really, what were they thinking?
 
wato said:
Esav, you're right about base-12 being a handier system. Our system of timekeeping and geometry is arguably base-12, and the 12-inch foot would be a good'un if only the English had been consistent with it. 5280 feet to a mile, I mean really, what were they thinking?
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It's funny how you stumble on these things. We never learned about base 12 in school, as a working system. Then I picked up a book about Esperanto, of all things, and they had a section on the Esperanto version of duodecimal numerals. It kind of reminds me of the remark I read once that people who are interested in Esperanto usually have something else wrong with them, too. :)

The original Roman mile meant 1000, milia. The Roman army counted distance by milia passuum, thousands of paces, a pace being the distance from one right foot strike to the next. Not an illogical or difficult way to lay our a line of march. But everybody who borrowed the term changed the meaning.

Consistent counting by 12 with higher-level bundles of 60 gives you a lot of compact accuracy, if you can devise a workable notation, and factors dripping out of it everywhere. :D
 
American kids are so handicapped by the English system when dealing with folks in other countries that I take a whole week out of every first term biology class to cover metric conversions. They may not take home much biology, but they can do conversions in their sleep at the end of twelve weeks. Just my two cents........
 
sams said:
. . . I used a tape measure with both number values on the ruler. It didn't take but a couple of weeks and I was using the metric numbers exclusively . . .
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A dual-scale tape measure is one of the handiest conversion devices you can own if a calculator isn't available.

Another handy conversion device for speed is your vehicle's speedometer. Very useful when driving in Canada for calculating distance.

Great tips, Yvsa!

Noah
 
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