• speckofrust@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 minutes ago

    A system of measurement in which something like 15/16 of an inch is seen as a sensible way to measure a small distance. Not much else to say.

      • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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        2 hours ago

        I wonder, did you feel like “cool” writing this comment? It’s an honest question. Sorry in advance if it sounds like a jerk question.

        • Botzo@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          Hah, is fine. No I didn’t feel “cool.” I’m just the kind of weirdo that was obsessed with guns from a technical point of view as a kid. Think of me more as the kid just slightly on the spectrum who collected data on everything firearm related and then wrote mods for games like rogue spear that tried to adhere to the data. I didn’t shoot more than a .22 rifle or 16 and 12 gauge shotguns until my 20s. This was one of the factoids I still have floating around up there.

          Now in my 40s, I still haven’t owned a gun personally, but have been to the range many times with friends (I buy more ammo than I shoot and drinks after). Heck, a few weeks ago I got to put a hundred rounds or so through a friend’s suppressed FN P90 (a very surreal experience), a very nice .223, and pistols in 4 calibers (.22 and 9mm with suppressors, .45, and .357).

      • LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        17 hours ago

        .40 S&W and 10mm auto are both 10mm rounds!

        I don’t trust you, stranger number man! And the above… well that just proves there’s a conspiracy!

  • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    13 hours ago

    As an American mechanical engineer, i do more unit conversions between metric and standard/ uscs than many people do in a lifetime

    Hell just today I designed a custom spring in both as i need it asap and have to settle for the inch

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      12 hours ago

      We occasionally get engineering diagrams from clients in the US and they’re always going on about screws that are 2/3 of an inch long. It’s not just that you’re not using metric you’re using a weird fraction and not a decimal.

      It’s super confusing when you get into high precision stuff because then they start going on about 128th of an inch. Just tell me how big you want it, stop telling me what fraction of a different measurement it is. Surely there is something below inch that you could use. I still wouldn’t know what you were talking about, but at least it would look less stupid when you wrote it down.

      • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 hours ago

        Every company ive ever worked for has been metric. All American companies. But i do machines and instruments.

        I deal with standard / uscs units because suppliers still do

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          9 hours ago

          The US is the only country that uses non-metric units when doing anything industrial though. I might buy a pint of milk but I’m not going to measure in anything but metres and centimetres.

    • Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      Canadian engineer here. Although we use the metric system in principle, in reality we use feet and inches for everything. There are lots of benefits to using base 12 for measurements.

      The number 12 has six factors, which are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. It is the smallest number to have six factors, the largest number to have at least half of the numbers below it as divisors, and is only slightly larger than 10. (The numbers 18 and 20 also have six factors but are much larger.) Ten, in contrast, only has four factors, which are 1, 2, 5, and 10.

      I get the Europeans hate it though because only the people who live near Chernobyl can count to 12 on their fingers.

      • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        There are lots of benefits to using base 12 for measurements.

        12 is better than 10, I’ll give you that. But 100 is better than 144, and 1000 is way better than 1728.

        And that doesn’t even get to 0.1 versus 1/12, or 0.01 versus 1/144.

        So 12 might be a better standalone number, but it’s a terrible base to work in.

      • yata@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        The thing is that outside of North America people aren’t terrified to death of decimals. We actually use them and find the process simple. So those factors of yours are completely irrelevant to us.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        8 hours ago

        The thing is, we just use whole numbers. If you get under 1, then you move down by one SI prefix et voilà, you have whole numbers again

        I’ve never thought of counting on fingers as a good reason for using it for units. But since our numeric system is base 10 (likely because of having 10 fingers indeed), it’s easier to have our unit systems as base 10 too. If we all learned to think in base 12 from ground up, having base 12 units would make a lot more sense too

      • froh42@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Btw you can count to 12 on your fingers with one hand. Starting from the end of the index finger tap each segment of the “remaining” four fingers with your thumb.

        I heard someone claim that’s how Babylonians invented and used the base 12 system in the first place.

      • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        If you look at your hand when it is wide open and palm up you can use the tip of your thumb to touch any of the 12 (four fingers each with three) sections of your fingers. Counting in 12 might be very intuitive for early humans - or might not. Who knows.

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            It’s projectile weight. The common sizes of 9x19mm ammunition (what we usually mean when we say 9mm), are 115 grain, 124 grain, and 147 grain. NATO standard is 124, but most people shoot 115 at the range because it has less weight and it cheaper.

            Lighter projectiles, all else being equal, will have higher muzzle velocities, but will also slow down more quickly and are more prone to wind shift.

            • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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              18 hours ago

              Mass, like a church? Like like the measures on the façade of the Torre Civica in Assisi?

              /s, #anything but metric

          • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            A grain is just an old system of weight. 1 grain is about 64 mg. I was tested on grain based dosages in school but never saw them used in real life.

  • mastertigurius@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    The Americans could’ve changed to the metric system if they could afford it. However, changing a country’s systems of measurement is a mammoth project of enormous complexity and cost, so I guess no politician want to make space for that in the budget when there are other things to take care of.

      • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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        18 hours ago

        Genuinely, that would be the funniest reason… Maybe we should be inundating Trump with recommendations like this to ‘fix’ his approval ratings.

        … and then hang him anyways after the next Nuremberg trials.

        • mannycalavera@feddit.uk
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          18 hours ago

          … and then hang him anyways after the next Nuremberg trials.

          Don’t be silly, you lot are going to gold plate his pension and that of his family for decades to come. LOL next Nuremberg trials. Who are you kidding?

          • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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            18 hours ago

            So you’re saying the rest of the world is just going to roll over and let the Holocaust 2.0 happen?

            Your lack of faith in everyone non-American is disturbing…

            • yata@sh.itjust.works
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              7 hours ago

              We are not going to go WWII on the US, if that is what you are suggesting. Who would even do that? Russia and China are laughing their asses off about what is happening in the US right now. They never had it better, since the US voluntarily dropped its hegemony and basically joined their side.

              Europe wouldn’t even if it could (which it obviously can’t).

              The US can’t be saved by anyone but their own people. But Americans so far seem to be very easy to bully into submission and accept their country turning fascist.

            • mannycalavera@feddit.uk
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              8 hours ago

              If I’m honest, yes.

              The US is going to protect him and his family for generations. Nobody… and I mean nobody, is going to challenge that. There’ll be no trials, there’ll be no reparations, there’ll be no apologies, there certainly won’t be any hangings. The best we can hope for is a gradual backing down of the extreme “fuck everyone” stance the US is in right now.

              What have you seen to suggest otherwise?

              (Nice star wars reference btw)

            • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              16 hours ago

              As a non American who lives in the country that was responsible for the Holocaust and is now I think second biggest donor of the Zionist project (second after the US), I’m not too sure people learn from history. “Never again” has always been a lie

              • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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                16 hours ago

                It has always been a lie for those who do not view human rights as inalienable rights.

                Conservatives around the world are simply proving that they are absolute trash.

    • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      People just don’t really care enough to. And we already use the metric system in science, engineering, medicine, aerospace, military, and any science class in high school or higher. So what if our road signs and cookbooks are in imperial units.

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        Recipes being imperial is the dumbest thing ever and I always convert mine. “Two cups and one tablespoon flour” statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged. I will defend feet/inches though for very specific cases where you may be dividing something into thirds like sometimes with woodworking