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cdspk1-Visitor
1-Visitor
September 21, 2010
Question

Units

  • September 21, 2010
  • 34 replies
  • 5619 views

I'm used to seeing feet, inches and pounds usedin this forum but had kind of assumed it was a legacy thing, I was quite surprised to learn that (as one of the last three countries with Burma and Liberia) the US still has imperial units as its official measurement system.

From a professional point of view it would be useful to know whether US college engineering students are taughtat all inSI units aswe're starting to see a lot more US graduates here in the UK,

Cheers, Sean

    34 replies

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    ptc-1699471-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 21, 2010
    Hi all,

    Because we are still on 32 bit machines, many users have had to enable the 3 gig switch to get a little more out of their systems. This has resulted in display isseus for some of us, but usually a driver update takes care of it.
    One user, when adding the path multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional with /3GB" /3GB to the boot.ini gets an error when booting up that reads
    <windows root=">\system32\hal.dll cannot be found. Computer boots up fine when not enabling the switch.

    Any ideas? In the meantime I told him to do a windows live update.

    Thanks,
    Stefan
    M
    MikePhillips12-Amethyst
    12-Amethyst
    September 22, 2010
    I have seen graphics card issues related to the 3GB switch before. You
    might try adding an additional switch (/userva=2900) along with the 3GB
    switch. You can read about this option (and others) using the link below.
    This solved the issue we had at my previous employer.




    K
    kimndave91-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 22, 2010
    I'm fine with the units - English, metric, whatever. I would like the
    slug to make a winning run at overtaking the pound mass.

    What irritates me is First angle projection.

    OK - I'm just messing with the Europeans on this. It's just fun to try
    to describe the difference to people who don't draft, but want to know
    why there is so much complaining about the imported (into the country,
    not into Pro/E) drawings.

    I recall the following as true - removing some fasteners on an engine
    had metric threads but imperial heads. I guess the taps were metric and
    the serviceability was for the American market. Either that or they were
    very out-of-spec bolt heads.

    Dave S.

    J
    jnanesh.sajjan1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 22, 2010
    I agree with Dave. It is somewhat troublesome when somebody looks at the
    drawing (without looking at the angle of projection), he might draw some
    conclusion about the part based on his "angle of projection" working
    style. Of course, it is not advised to study the drawing w/o knowing
    which AOP is used. However humans are prone to make mistakes!!



    Jnanesha KS


    M
    merrill.rosenow1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 22, 2010
    The transition in the US to metric is slow, but progressing. As far as I have been told, NASA, air ports and hospitals in the US all use metric exclusively.Thedeepest sticking point would be to get all the manufacturers to switch. Sadly we are deeply entrentched in the Imperial system. We have even bastardized it to get by, hence the decimal form of the inch.
    M
    mbraaten10-Marble
    10-Marble
    September 22, 2010
    Slightly off topic, but very interesting from Mental Floss (had to
    share). Six Unit Conversion Disasters...



    D
    dgallup1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 22, 2010

    Who says the US has not adopted the metric system? Do not use Wikipedia for anything more important than wrapping fish. I have been designing in SI units for over 25 years in good ole South Carolina USA. Vendors who insist in redrawing in imperial units get dumped. Here is a short summary of the US laws making SI units the preferred measurement system:

    The Education Amendments of 1974 (Public Law 92-380) encouraged educational agencies and institutions to prepare students to use the metric system of measurement as part of the regular educational program.

    The Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-168) passed by Congress. The Metric Act established the U.S. Metric Board to coordinate and plan the increasing use and voluntary conversion to the metric system. However, the Metric Act was devoid of any target dates for metric conversion.

    The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-418) amended and strengthened the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, designating the metric system as the preferred measurement system, and requiring each federal agency to be metric by the end of fiscal year 1992.

    President George H. W. Bush signed Executive Order 12770, Metric Usage in Federal Government Programs directing all executive departments and federal agencies implement the use of the metric system. The Executive Order is also available as an appendix to: Interpretation of the SI for the United States and Federal Government Metric Conversion Policy

    P
    pfariello1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 22, 2010
    I must say that it is hard to find any issues with the imperial pint when drinking beer.

    Patrick Fariello

    J
    JWayman1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    September 22, 2010
    But is that the 16 fluid oz. US Imperial pint, or the 20 fluid oz. UK
    Imperial pint? 🐵
    R
    rreifsnyder15-Moonstone
    15-Moonstone
    September 22, 2010
    This happened in the late 70's and early 80's when Detroit was trying to start their switchover to metric. They changed their tooling, but the mechanics all had English tools, thus the metric threads with English heads.

    It's actually less about what manufacturers work in, or the government, it's how the people insist how the labels are marked. They can deal with a 2 liter bottle of soda, but the standard individual serving is 12 oz. cans or bottles.

    BTW, the 1866 law simply allowed the metric system to be used, it did not make the metric system the U.S. standard.


    Rob Reifsnyder
    Mechanical Design Engineer/ Pro/E Librarian
    L
    Mission Systems & Sensors (MS2)
    497 Electronics Parkway
    Liverpool, NY 13088
    EP5-Quad2, Cube 281
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