On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>
>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>> digit?
>> .....<snip>........
>>>
>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>
>>
>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>
> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>
> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>
> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".

Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide". Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no confusion.

In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>
>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>> digit?
>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>
>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>
>>>
>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>
>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>
>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>
>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>
> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
> confusion.

The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
would be measured thicknesses of paper.

We (in the US) use "guage" for wire and sheet metal. We also use "guage"
for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.

Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
door or installing a countertop?

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:30:20 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:

> In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>>> digit?
>>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>>
>>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>>
>>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>>
>>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>>
>>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>>
>> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
>> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
>> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
>> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
>> confusion.
>
> The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
> whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
> would be measured thicknesses of paper.
>
> We (in the US) use "guage" for wire

Isn't that really hard to work out? We use cross sectional area in mm. Which is really easy to imagine. With the added bonus that a higher number is thicker. It's also pretty handy as a rough guide that 1 square mm carries 10 amps.

> and sheet metal.

Seriously? Wow. Why would you nbot measure a thickness in a unit of distance?

> We also use "guage"
> for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
> a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.

We use microns.

> Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
> 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
> door or installing a countertop?

Depends if something else is in the way. I'd always try to use round numbers.

On 2020-07-16, Cydrome Leader <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:
> In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>>> digit?
>>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>>
>>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>>
>>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>>
>>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>>
>>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>>
>> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
>> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
>> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
>> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
>> confusion.
>
> The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
> whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
> would be measured thicknesses of paper.
>
> We (in the US) use "guage" for wire and sheet metal. We also use "guage"
> for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
> a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.

sheet metal in mm (1.6mm, 0.65mm etc...)
plastic sheet in microns 40um etc.
electric wire in square mm.
fencing wire in mm diameter.

> Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
> 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
> door or installing a countertop?

Yes, if that is the right size. buildings are usually specified in
multiples of 100mm. often multiples of 300mm or 1000mm
furniture usually in multiples of 25mm

Factory door sizes are 620mm + multiples of 50mm, but not all openings
are the right size for the factory door.

Timber sizes for dressed finger-jointed framing timber are accurate to
withion 0.5mm are are certain preferred multiples of 5mm eg: 70x35 used
mainly for non-structual walls. 90x45 used mainly for structural walls.

The stud spacing and top-plate height will typically be some multiple
of 50mm So a lot of the cutting for studs, and blocking is at multiples
of 5mm. that's if you're not using pre-fabricated framing.

Carpenters use millimeteres. they say centimeters
are for tailors, and inches are for cobblers.

--
Jasen.

In sci.electronics.basics Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:30:20 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
>
>> In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>>> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>>>> digit?
>>>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>>>
>>>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>>>
>>>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>>>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>>>
>>>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>>>
>>> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
>>> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
>>> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
>>> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
>>> confusion.
>>
>> The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
>> whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
>> would be measured thicknesses of paper.
>>
>> We (in the US) use "guage" for wire
>
> Isn't that really hard to work out? We use cross sectional area in mm. Which is really easy to imagine. With the added bonus that a higher number is thicker. It's also pretty handy as a rough guide that 1 square mm carries 10 amps.

Not really. If you can only count with your fingers you probably aren't
building anything impressive to start with. The entire fallacy of "metric
is easy, base 10, duh" is just bullshit. Check dimensions of anything
designed by people that don't know what fractions are. There are tons of
weird numbers like 13.1mm and so forth. It's no different than 1-1/8th
inches.
>> and sheet metal.
>
> Seriously? Wow. Why would you nbot measure a thickness in a unit of distance?

The guage for sheet metal is sort of obnoxious. It will vary by type of
metal as well, if that makes any sense.

>> We also use "guage"
>> for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
>> a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.
>
> We use microns.

how many microns thick is your plastic trash bag? The last ones I got were
speced on the box as "0.7 mil" There's no false sense of precision there,
like with the 610mm countertop or whatever it was.
>> Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
>> 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
>> door or installing a countertop?
>
> Depends if something else is in the way. I'd always try to use round numbers.

Would round be 320mm and 430mm instead of 317 and 429? Do you split in 5mm
increments too? I'm really curious about this.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2020 13:15:24 +0100, Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:

> On 2020-07-16, Cydrome Leader <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:
>> In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>>> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>>>> digit?
>>>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>>>
>>>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>>>
>>>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>>>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>>>
>>>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>>>
>>> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
>>> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
>>> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
>>> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
>>> confusion.
>>
>> The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
>> whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
>> would be measured thicknesses of paper.
>>
>> We (in the US) use "guage" for wire and sheet metal. We also use "guage"
>> for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
>> a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.
>
> sheet metal in mm (1.6mm, 0.65mm etc...)
> plastic sheet in microns 40um etc.
> electric wire in square mm.
> fencing wire in mm diameter.

Much more sensible. Guage is meaningless and is the wrong way round, higher numbers are smaller!

>> Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
>> 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
>> door or installing a countertop?
>
> Yes, if that is the right size. buildings are usually specified in
> multiples of 100mm. often multiples of 300mm or 1000mm
> furniture usually in multiples of 25mm
>
> Factory door sizes are 620mm + multiples of 50mm, but not all openings
> are the right size for the factory door.

There seems to be no standard for doors. You can order about 15 different sizes in the UK, but never anywhere near the one you need.

> Timber sizes for dressed finger-jointed framing timber are accurate to
> withion 0.5mm are are certain preferred multiples of 5mm eg: 70x35 used
> mainly for non-structual walls. 90x45 used mainly for structural walls.
>
> The stud spacing and top-plate height will typically be some multiple
> of 50mm So a lot of the cutting for studs, and blocking is at multiples
> of 5mm. that's if you're not using pre-fabricated framing.
>
> Carpenters use millimeteres. they say centimeters
> are for tailors, and inches are for cobblers.

I use the most sensible denomination for the job. I won't say 600mm when I could say 60cm. And I weigh myself in stone, not pounds.

On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 02:13:56 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:

> In sci.electronics.basics Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>> On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:30:20 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>>>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>>>>> digit?
>>>>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>>>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>>>>
>>>>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>>>>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>>>>
>>>>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>>>>
>>>> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
>>>> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
>>>> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
>>>> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
>>>> confusion.
>>>
>>> The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
>>> whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
>>> would be measured thicknesses of paper.
>>>
>>> We (in the US) use "guage" for wire
>>
>> Isn't that really hard to work out? We use cross sectional area in mm. Which is really easy to imagine. With the added bonus that a higher number is thicker. It's also pretty handy as a rough guide that 1 square mm carries 10 amps.
>
> Not really. If you can only count with your fingers you probably aren't
> building anything impressive to start with. The entire fallacy of "metric
> is easy, base 10, duh" is just bullshit. Check dimensions of anything
> designed by people that don't know what fractions are. There are tons of
> weird numbers like 13.1mm and so forth. It's no different than 1-1/8th
> inches.

Yes it ism because the number system works in 10s. So if the measurements do too, it's simpler to calculate, especially when you get 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 inches. What's 1/4 inch + 1/16? And even worse, how many feet in 197 inches?

>>> and sheet metal.
>>
>> Seriously? Wow. Why would you not measure a thickness in a unit of distance?
>
> The guage for sheet metal is sort of obnoxious. It will vary by type of
> metal as well, if that makes any sense.

It's daft for wiring aswell. I can immediately visualise what a 6mm^2 cross section of wire is like, and know how much current it will take.

>>> We also use "guage"
>>> for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
>>> a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.
>>
>> We use microns.
>
> how many microns thick is your plastic trash bag?

Not enough. They've now made them so thin that everybody ends up tearing them or using two or three layers to stop stuff going through them. Fucking environmentalists.

> The last ones I got were
> speced on the box as "0.7 mil" There's no false sense of precision there,

Mil what? Millimeters? Thousands of an inch?

> like with the 610mm countertop or whatever it was.

What's wrong with bags in microns? It's the correct unit of measurement, as it's thinner than a mm. You wouldn't drive 17,000 yards, you'd state it in miles.

>>> Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
>>> 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
>>> door or installing a countertop?
>>
>> Depends if something else is in the way. I'd always try to use round numbers.
>
> Would round be 320mm and 430mm instead of 317 and 429? Do you split in 5mm
> increments too? I'm really curious about this.

Not sure what you're asking here. If I'm designing something, I'll use round numbers. I just built a parrot nestbox. Funnily enough I cut the wood to 30cm, not 25 or 28.

In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 02:13:56 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
>
>> In sci.electronics.basics Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:30:20 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey <CFKinsey@military.org.jp> wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:
>>>>>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This
>>>>>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last
>>>>>>>>> digit?
>>>>>>> .....<snip>........
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In America, what is a "mill"? In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth of an
>>>>>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a
>>>>>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then
>>>>>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes it does. My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says
>>>>> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as
>>>>> shorthand for millimetre. As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".
>>>>> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no
>>>>> confusion.
>>>>
>>>> The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or
>>>> whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen
>>>> would be measured thicknesses of paper.
>>>>
>>>> We (in the US) use "guage" for wire
>>>
>>> Isn't that really hard to work out? We use cross sectional area in mm. Which is really easy to imagine. With the added bonus that a higher number is thicker. It's also pretty handy as a rough guide that 1 square mm carries 10 amps.
>>
>> Not really. If you can only count with your fingers you probably aren't
>> building anything impressive to start with. The entire fallacy of "metric
>> is easy, base 10, duh" is just bullshit. Check dimensions of anything
>> designed by people that don't know what fractions are. There are tons of
>> weird numbers like 13.1mm and so forth. It's no different than 1-1/8th
>> inches.
>
> Yes it ism because the number system works in 10s. So if the
> measurements do too, it's simpler to calculate, especially when you get
> 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 inches. What's 1/4 inch + 1/16? And even
> worse, how many feet in 197 inches?

Is this supposed to be some sort of "hard" challenge? answer 1 is 5/16".
answer 2 is 16'5". No calculator, no pencil and paper and no real
thinking even needed to solve these. Sorry metric slaves can't do basic
match and can only slide commas around between digits.

>>>> and sheet metal.
>>>
>>> Seriously? Wow. Why would you not measure a thickness in a unit of
>>> distance?
>>
>> The guage for sheet metal is sort of obnoxious. It will vary by type of
>> metal as well, if that makes any sense.
>
> It's daft for wiring aswell. I can immediately visualise what a 6mm^2
> cross section of wire is like, and know how much current it will take.

Wow, you're so smart. You think we can't visualize 18 or 6 guage wire and
know how much current it can carry?

>>>> We also use "guage"
>>>> for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's
>>>> a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.
>>>
>>> We use microns.
>>
>> how many microns thick is your plastic trash bag?
>
> Not enough. They've now made them so thin that everybody ends up
> tearing them or using two or three layers to stop stuff going through
> them. Fucking environmentalists.

I have to agree here on most bags.

>> The last ones I got were
>> speced on the box as "0.7 mil" There's no false sense of precision there,
>
> Mil what? Millimeters? Thousands of an inch?
>
>> like with the 610mm countertop or whatever it was.
>
> What's wrong with bags in microns? It's the correct unit of measurement, as it's thinner than a mm. You wouldn't drive 17,000 yards, you'd state it in miles.
>
>>>> Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to
>>>> 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a
>>>> door or installing a countertop?
>>>
>>> Depends if something else is in the way. I'd always try to use round
>>> numbers.
>>
>> Would round be 320mm and 430mm instead of 317 and 429? Do you split in 5mm
>> increments too? I'm really curious about this.
>
> Not sure what you're asking here. If I'm designing something, I'll use
> round numbers. I just built a parrot nestbox. Funnily enough I cut the
> wood to 30cm, not 25 or 28.

quick, what's 30cm + 3.5mm?