God forbid the units used by the average person in everyday life are easily divisible by whole numbers, not resulting in things like infinitely repeating decimals.
Good point. Splitting things in to 3rds is the most common function of everything. Why, just the other day I was building a box. I started by measuring the largest face of the backplate and subtracting the thickness of the side plates so I could figure out the internal volume. Most people would have done a simple equation like x-y but I prefer to do 3((x/3) - (y/3)). It’s a much cleaner method.
The main conversions would be betwren meters and centimeters ot in your case feet and inches. Those happen way more often.
And as soon as you get slightly out of most everyday lives but still quite everyday into the realm of unit conversion betwren different things like volume, speed, power what have you imperial just falls apart.
Yeah I hate when I have to convert temperatures between systems, and then the nice round numbers that represent common values used in everyday life like 0, 20, 30, 40, and 100 become absolutely nonsensical values like 32, 68, 86, 104 and 212
Metric measurements are only decimals in North America because things are fabricated to be round imperial numbers for the American market. When you buy a piece of lumber in Europe it’s cut to 45x95mm which (shockingly) converts to the absolutely nonsensical 1.77165x3.74016 inch two by four
When you buy a piece of lumber in Europe it’s cut to 45x95mm which (shockingly) converts to the absolutely nonsensical 1.77165x3.74016 inch two by four
Ah yes, nice round numbers there as well with metric. Why isn’t it just 50x100mm? And that conversion is not even the imperial measurement of a 2x4, and you clearly don’t understand where the dimensions come from.
There are nominal dimensions, and actual dimensions for lumber. The name 2x4 is the nominal dimension, the rough size before drying and planing. Between the forest and the hardware store, a board loses material twice.
A log goes through a sawmill and gets cut into rough boards. At this point, a 2x4 really is about 2" x 4". Green (freshly cut) wood contains 30% or more moisture.
The boards go into a kiln where hot air drops the moisture content to about 19%, as water leaves the cells, the board shrinks. The dried boards are rough and uneven. A planer shaves all four sides smooth. S4S (Surfaced Four Sides) means all four faces are planed. The planer removes another 1/8" or so from each face.
Result: a board that started at 2" x 4" ends up at a standard measurement of 1-1/2" x 3-1/2".
Now to get back to the metric equivalent… that 45x95mm board… starts with a nominal dimension of 47x100mm. Neither the nominal or actual dimensions are nice round numbers here, although at least the actual dimensions at the end are a multiple of 5. Why some places also refer to these as a 2x4, well they’re the equivalent even though the actual size is completely unrelated. UK example
God forbid the units used by the average person in everyday life are easily divisible by whole numbers, not resulting in things like infinitely repeating decimals.
Yeah, thats why metric is better. Sigfigs are better than fractions and weird conversions.
Ah yes, measuring out anything into thirds is awesome with metric. Nothing ever needs to be split into thirds.
Good point. Splitting things in to 3rds is the most common function of everything. Why, just the other day I was building a box. I started by measuring the largest face of the backplate and subtracting the thickness of the side plates so I could figure out the internal volume. Most people would have done a simple equation like x-y but I prefer to do 3((x/3) - (y/3)). It’s a much cleaner method.
What happens in American customary units if you need to split it into 7ths?
Significant Figures. Things are rarely one third down past 3-4 sigfigs. Maybe 6+ if you’re being really precise or EDMing a part.
God forbid units used by the average person in everyday life are easily converted between, not resulting in things like ‘how many feet are in a mile’.
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The main conversions would be betwren meters and centimeters ot in your case feet and inches. Those happen way more often.
And as soon as you get slightly out of most everyday lives but still quite everyday into the realm of unit conversion betwren different things like volume, speed, power what have you imperial just falls apart.
Yeah I hate when I have to convert temperatures between systems, and then the nice round numbers that represent common values used in everyday life like 0, 20, 30, 40, and 100 become absolutely nonsensical values like 32, 68, 86, 104 and 212
Metric measurements are only decimals in North America because things are fabricated to be round imperial numbers for the American market. When you buy a piece of lumber in Europe it’s cut to 45x95mm which (shockingly) converts to the absolutely nonsensical 1.77165x3.74016 inch two by four
Ah yes, nice round numbers there as well with metric. Why isn’t it just 50x100mm? And that conversion is not even the imperial measurement of a 2x4, and you clearly don’t understand where the dimensions come from.
There are nominal dimensions, and actual dimensions for lumber. The name 2x4 is the nominal dimension, the rough size before drying and planing. Between the forest and the hardware store, a board loses material twice.
A log goes through a sawmill and gets cut into rough boards. At this point, a 2x4 really is about 2" x 4". Green (freshly cut) wood contains 30% or more moisture.
The boards go into a kiln where hot air drops the moisture content to about 19%, as water leaves the cells, the board shrinks. The dried boards are rough and uneven. A planer shaves all four sides smooth. S4S (Surfaced Four Sides) means all four faces are planed. The planer removes another 1/8" or so from each face.
Result: a board that started at 2" x 4" ends up at a standard measurement of 1-1/2" x 3-1/2".
Now to get back to the metric equivalent… that 45x95mm board… starts with a nominal dimension of 47x100mm. Neither the nominal or actual dimensions are nice round numbers here, although at least the actual dimensions at the end are a multiple of 5. Why some places also refer to these as a 2x4, well they’re the equivalent even though the actual size is completely unrelated.
UK example
Not sure why you assumed I didn’t already know that (I did), but thanks for the completely pointless off topic essay I guess