Weights & Measures

few that order a pint and get a half liter will complain.

I have a place for both, but I still do not understand why half of my computer screws are metric and the other half are not.

And to further complicate things, there are differences is content from a U.S. Gallon and an Imperial Gallon. Measuring cups/spoons I could not convert to metric.. Ahh we just have a large mess on our hands.
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Janice

I think NASA has promised to go metric in a few years, but I can't remember the exact date. Anyway, all scientific papers, review articles and scientific books use the SI system now.Even microelectronics uses nanometers.
Tullio
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About 25 years ago following a Federal mandate the State of Florida was in the process of converting all state road projects to the metric system. The company that I worked for was caught up in the middle and we began converting our scales to metric and switching to metric units in our CAD programs. The counties and most private clients would not go along with the switch over. then the state went to the Federal Highway Administration to get funding to make the switch and the Feds said no. So the state promptly canned the switch and went back to English units. In civil engineering it is even weirder because they use feet and tenths of feet instead of inches, but on bridge plans they use architectural units which is feet, inches and fractions of inches down to 1/64".
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Bob DeWoody

As a former stock trader I also could decipher 32nds to the exact decimal. Now of course we went away from all that.

The Brits also have added to the muddle --for those of us who owned an "English Bike" in the good old days. You had to deal with the Whitworth system. I even had some wrenches that were Whitworth (spanners for you blokes). My son has a Raleigh now--I think they went Metric--so sad to say.

I do think that we should all preserve the "Proper Pint" of 20 fluid ounces. In Canada I would try to do two of these with Newcastle Brown Ale. Met a British Nurse in Teheran who claimed to ride her motor scooter to lunch each day and had three pints back in London.

In Canada they would bring the shot glass to the table for some odd reason if you ordered a highball--it was 50 ML. Same with the Airline booze bottles.

Still always puzzle over the troy ounce of Gold which is much heavier than an avoirdupois ounce. I think it comes from Apothecary measure--drams etc

Hi Soft :-)

few that order a pint and get a half liter will complain.

1/2 litre = 0.88 pints. If I paid for a pint I WOULD complain !!

In time to come the SI system is likely to be adopted worldwide, as it does seem to be the most popular system, and is on base 10, not 12 or 16, so I suppose logically it will happen. I am just happy with what I grew up with.

Take money, in negotiations to purchase an item, it was often a clincher when a certain amount of pounds sterling were offered, to say "Make it Guineas old boy, and we'll shake on it." Errrmmm, I'll offer you another 100 Euro just doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it .....

ahh the Troy oz.. approx 30 grams vs the typical 28g/oz.
I learned that back in my younger dumberer days.
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Janice

IIRC the troy ounce weighs more because it takes into account impurities in fine metals such as gold and silver.
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Proud member of TSWB.

End terrorism by building a school

Bob, as an apprentice toolmaker in the 1960's, I grew up with 1/32" and 1/64" they are as common to me as the air I breathe.

" A pint's a pound the world around"

Not any more

We in the US never did get a pint. Beer here is sold in 12 oz bottles and cans . You could get a 16 oz can but they were not in the mainstream.

I sold beer at our Pro Football games here in Nashville to raise money for my daughter's travel softball team. Fosters and Heinekens had 25,3 and 26.4 cans if I remember right. We got $9.00 for one of them.