Warrington Wolf

I'm sure that I'm not the first to encounter this obstacle.

I'm a child of metric and an engineer by education (no, not a mechanic or washing machine repairer). I've volunteered to help a group construct a footbridge and so I attended a meeting about the preparation and installation last week. God Almighty, it was like being in a time-warp from 1850 - 3/8th this, 5/16th that, 1500 lbs the other, OH WHAT!! In an attempt to disguise my ignorance/disbelief, I asked for the technical specs to be emailed to me - bad move - now its all 'kips', ft-lbs, etc as well.

Does anybody know of a spreadsheet or program which could help me to convert these units from th' olden days into sleek 21st century metric.

(My apologies to any old fogies/Americans but metric is much easier to use)

elfman

have a look here:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

scrubbedexpat099

Bear in mind that the US does not use the 'Imperial' system, some bits are the same as the UK. Others not so.

You may have notrced your pint a bit short. They seem to know what a yard is but rarely use it and stones not a clue.

Still looking for a tape measure that does up to 100mm and then ft and inches.

Lothianlad

We were only taught metric in school.....that's all we used, and everything official is in metric measurements when you need to buy anything. People still say their height in feet and inches or stones but when you go to the doctor or wherever it's all in metres/cms and kgs and the same at the gym or wherever. Apart from feet and inches for height I know nothing about old fashioned measures.

Cheers

scrubbedexpat099

Fuel consumption?

Distance? Miles of Kilometers? Yards? Tons?

Loose goods, pound of apples of Kg? French often do not use metric in the markets and thats 200 years plus!

Shoe and cloting sizing. Not sure about this but going by the Euro sizing seems mor consistant. Do they manufacture using the Euro system and then convert for UK and US? Somtimes not consistantly.

And obviously the pint or gill.

And no doubt loads more.

Not old fashioned, just different.

I blame it on the schools! I was taught both.

fatbrit

I like Google for quickies!

Try: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...0lbs%20in%20kg

Elvira

do you now!

Tell us more!

Roadster280

No doubt I will get slagged for this, but here goes:

One inch = 25.4 mm. 12 inches=1 foot. 3 feet = 1 yard. 1760 yards =1 mile.

That's length and area sorted.

One US gallon = 3.8 Litres. One UK gallon=4.54 Litres (exactly 20% more)

That's capacity.

One pound (lb) = 454g. (note same numbers as UK gallon).

2240lbs in a ton (imperial). One tonne (metric)=1000 kg or 2202lbs

That's mass (or weight at sea level)

The problem is one of maths, not units, I cant help you with fractions. Pay attention in class and put the calculator down.

The other problem is a very practical one. Metric is NOT easier to use here, because no f***er understands it. My advice is to get over it.

When in Rome...use metric. This is a former colony, not Rome.

AdobePinon

Good sites mentioned above. But you might be stuck with pseudo-imperial. After all, all the building materials will still be in feet and inches. I sympathise with you though. I only ever learned metric myself. I do know miles for distance, and feet for mountain tops, but I have no frickin idea what a shilling is.

Elvira

I thought it was a Bob?

elfman

NFL fans will disagree with that

Bob

That's so true...one of my mates his first job when he was over here was redoing all the CAD into metric because everything was in a mix, even within the same drawings, internal measurements were imperial, external pipe diametres in metric...a right mess...and considering a lot of the design were is for 3rd world nations that uses metric, it certainly got interesting

Bob

it's metres in Canada...so gets really confusing

Warrington Wolf

Yeah, thanks

The problem is that everything I learned at University and have used since was using SI units (N, m, s, etc.) and I'm not going to relearn all the design and analysis calculations in imperial/english units. It would just be too time consuming and probably confusing - hence the request for conversions.

Sorry, I don't want to appear grumpy

Roadster280

No offence taken, if anything, I was having a minor dig at the UK education system. SI when "I were a lad" meant Standard Imperial. And I am only 37!

Anyway, my point was that things like 100lb bags of cement are just that. Not 45kg bags. So if you need 50kg, then you would actually need two bags of cement, but waste most of the second. Same with 8' x 4' sheet material. they ARENT 2.4m x 1.2m. Recipe for disaster if turning theoretical calculations (which could be done in ANY units) into reality here in the US.

As an example, try buying a metric tape measure.