We had a guy we called "10/16" (ten sixteenths) because he was told to grab some 5/8" (0.625" or 16mm) steel plate, but he couldn't find any he could only find 10/16" and 12/16".

People will count the little lines on the tape and not remember if they are 1/32, 1/16, or 1/8.

I think metric would help this.

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh OK - that does make a bit more sense. Still not exactly Nobel prize material, but fucking up the fractions at least makes more sense than not knowing how to read numbers and count lines lol

Metric would help with everything lol. I dream of the day we finally make the switch

[–] Case@unilem.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I fear it.

I'm sure I could adapt, I just don't want to.

However, if there was a transition period it would be fine.

Teach it in schools, post signs for both for a while, a couple generations and boom, fully metric.

Just don't tell me the speed limit is 30 kilometers an hour, I have no frame of reference for that really.

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

There would for sure a transition period, otherwise it would be total chaos, not just at a personal level, but an industrial one. And I don't doubt that somepeople will continue using inches and cups until the day they die.

As for the speed limit comment, that's a almost a non-issue - practically every car on the road today either has a setting to switch from MPH to KMPH (for digital speedometers) or for analogue speedometers it will generally tend to show both. At that point you don't need a frame of reference, just make the number on your dashboard <= the number on the sign. That's it. Though as you say, it would almost certainly be a case of both units being on all the signs for a long while.

It wouldn't even take a couple generations IMO. Maybe a decade or two for official stuff to move over. I have absolutely no doubt that plenty of stubborn people will completely refuse to move over to metric for their personal lives, but that's fine tbh. No one cares in Billy over in Idaho wants to keep measuring his ingredients in tablespoons/cups/pints/etc or say it's a 20 mile drive instead of a 30km one. As long as professionals can all rely on things being in metric in professional settings

[–] instamat@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, fractions are dumb. Or I’m dumb and fractions are easy, but why don’t we split the difference and switch to metric?

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Why don't we split the difference and make a meter equal a yard? I will concede to a longer yard.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I worked with a girl who would say "4 and 3 ticks!" meaning 1/8ths. We laughed at her enough that she tried to improve and started saying "4 point 3!" that lead to a discussion about decimal inches. I really blew her mind when I showed her the scale in 12ths on carpenter squares.

[–] nslatz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I worked on a site with two carpenters once, and one would measure and the other cut. One guy would call out "inch and a quarter strong" or " inch and a quarter weak" etc. Meaning 1 inch and 3/8 or one inch and 1/8. Perfect cuts every time.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I like this

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't strong or weak mean where the cut needs to be on the line? Since the blade is usually 1/8", weak means that the cut is made before the line, removing the thickness of the blade on the measurement (1 1/2" becomes 1 3/8") and strong means that the cut is made after the line, leaving the actual measurement. This is how I was thought, but I am not in the construction industry.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Depends on the crews tolerances? I've used + or - to refer to 16ths and only call out 1/8ths. 1 1/2" would be "One and four" 1 7/16ths would be "One and three plus"

In old timey boat building they denoted feet°inches°eighths°plus so 58 5/16ths would get written as 4°10°2+