Likewise, thousandths of an inch are simply convenient to work in. Its easy to work in 'whole' thousandths, i.e., mils. It works well for mechanical tolerances, and for pcb work. Just about the only time you have to go to decimal fractions of a mil is when you're trying to match some metric equivalent. GC -----Original Message----- From: Sean H. Breheny [mailto:shb7@CORNELL.EDU] Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 1:07 PM To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: [OT]: US and Metric System (was: Making PCBs...) One of the reasons why I use both systems is that I find a foot to be a very convenient measure for everyday applications. For example, as I look around me in the room, most objects that I might handle are approximately 1 foot in largest dimension, like books, the phone, an umbrella, sheets of paper, etc. A meter is just a little too big for typical objects. Likewise, a centimeter is just a little too small. I can say a pen is about 6 inches long, rather than having to say 15 centimeters. For objects that fit in your hand, but aren't very small, the dimension in inches would be in the single digits, whereas the dimension in centimeters would span the range from the single digits up to two digits. I think this comes from the fact (AFAIK) that the English or imperial system of feet, inches, etc., is based on human dimensions and the linear measure of the metric system is based on the dimensions of the earth (originally), so it has less direct bearing on human everyday use. It would have been nice, I think, if the metric system had used the foot (or some similar unit, perhaps a third or a half of the present meter) as the basis unit and THEN used powers of ten to derive other units from it. As for the other units, like gallons vs. liters, I don't think there would be any disadvantage to the metric system in these, as long as we don't have to pay the same for a liter of gas as we now do for a gallon, like you Europeans ;-) Sean At 11:40 AM 3/7/02 -0800, you wrote: >On Thu, 7 Mar 2002 12:33:45 -0600, Dale Botkin wrote: > > >On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Vit wrote: > > > >> Can somebody tell me if the US is planning to gradually switch to the > metric > >> system? I mean, it must be pretty confusing for the scientists at NASA to > >> use both systems. > > > >Yes, from school I do remember we are plannning to switch to the metric > >system. I believe we're supposed to be done some time in the late > >1970s... > > > >Yep, we're inching toward it but we've got miles to go. :=) > > >Regards, Bob > >-- >http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList >mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu ---------------------------------------------------- Sign Up for NetZero Platinum Today Only $9.95 per month! http://my.netzero.net/s/signup?r=platinum&refcd=PT97 -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu