metric disapproval (was metric to english conversion)

[John Carri]

>I grew up outside the US, with the metric system, and I can't believe 
>how hard we make life for ourselves here in the USA by sticking to 
>the English system, which even the English don't use any more!
>
> -John Carri
________________________________________________

>Given all of the bureaucratic nonsense that ISO has come up with, I'm 
>just as glad for us to have a system of units that is insulated from 
>idiotic French bureaucracy and "world" politics!!  IMO , USS, SAE, 
>and NPT thread standards are generally better designs that ALL of the 
>various DIN, JIS, French, and Italian metric thread junk. Also, the 
>inch (and both numerical and decimal fractions thereof) are VERY much 
>more practical scale units for machine work and tolerancing than mms. 
>ever will be, thank you very much.
>Regards, Greg
_______________________________________________

>I can give you a lot of good reasons not to use the French System in 
>an essay I have on hand if you give me your email address : )
>
>Charlie Springer
_______________________________________________

Well, obviously there are still strong feelings on the subject! 
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, you're welcome to yours, but 
here's mine.

I don't know enough about thread standards to make an informed 
comment, but consider that here in America a "half-inch" water pipe 
has neither an inner diameter, nor an outer diameter, that is anywhere 
near half of an inch.  Consider that there are drills sized by inch 
fractions, others sized by alphabets, and the two sets overlap in some 
completely illogical way. Consider that tire sizes are specified with 
a width in millimetres, an inner diameter in inches, and an 
aspect-ratio that is dimensionless. Consider that engine displacements 
are specified in CID, and you mill your heads in thousandths of an 
inch, but for some reason combustion chamber volume is measured in 
cubic centimetres!

I know it is hard to change from what one is used to, after nine years 
in the US I myself have a foot in both camps, for instance I first got 
involved with working on cars in the US so I think of engines in cubic 
inches and would have a hard time converting to litres. But as one who 
has lived with both sets of standards I can tell you that life is much 
simpler,saner, and more logical in the metric world. It's just a lot 
easier to multiply and divide things by powers of ten rather than 
factors like 1728 (cubic inches per cubic foot). Most physics and 
engineering formulae become so much cleaner and easier to understand 
when you remove the magic numerical conversion factors needed to 
permit pounds,slugs,feet,inches,miles,gallons,ounces,and whatever else 
to coexist in the same formula. And I've done machine shop work in 
millimetres & kilograms, and I find it a lot easier and more sensible 
than working alternately in thousandths of an inch, sixty-fourths of 
an inch, feet, pounds, ounces, and so on.

The French don't rule the rest of the world, you know, and certainly 
don't have the power to impose a measurement system on everyone, so if 
every country but the US and Liberia have adopted the metric system, 
there's a good reason for it!  

Whatever, being on this list is all about having fun with EFI, so 
whether you prefer gph, psi and lb/cubic foot or their metric 
equivalents, happy tinkering to you, and you'll hear nothing more from 
me about measurement systems. I'm just thankful there are no "metric 
volts" and "English Volts" to deal with!


-John Carri