Should I learn Metric now? Beginning woodworker help.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Baking needs procedures that are consistent and always work. It will use scientific knowledge when it's helpful, but has no problem with just knowing what works without explanation. That's engineering, not science.

[David Bassett]

... Here's a page from Tolpin's book, by Hand and Eye. Combining dividers with a sector, now that is when things get really crazy because then you don't even have to do the "divide the remainder into three parts" type step. See a general description here: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2017/0...s-or-a-sector/

LAP's latest Instagram post also advertises this book and it shows the divider method when you overshoot:

@lostartpress Using Dividers

[Steve Demuth]

Spot on. The end result is predicated on very precise chemical and physical reactions with baking. Any serious baker has a digital scale right there on the counter because of this.

I would be careful with such generalizations. I have been priviliged to have world class bread to eat, courtesy of my wife, who bakes all of our bread at home. When I die, if they bury me with a couple of loaves of her sourdough olive and a tub of fresh butter, I'll have a happy journey across the Styx. I've never seen her measure ingredients for bread, let alone weigh them.

She also makes muffins and scones to die for. Those she does use measuring cups for, although rather carelessly compared to what I see some people doing.

[Halgeir Wold]

You are looking at this metric stuff from the wrong end, - and that makes things a lot more complicated than they actually are...... Metric is not only about length, - it covers length, area, volume, weight, velocity, - everything, - and all is about factors of ten..... Metrics came about in an attempt to unify or fing common grounds for scientific and commersial work, in contrary to the more or less chaos that existed up until the 1700s.. various units was not only causing confusion, but also downright fraud. AS for the confusion, - here in Scandinavia there were several definision of "thumbs", which is the local name ( tumal in old norse). This actually relates to the roman "uncia", which was the width of the thumb at the first joint. Uncia is also the origin of "inch". However - failing to find an agreement on which of the existing systems or units to use, the Frech Science Academy decided to make a new system which became the metric system.

Millimeters is for medium precision work. I don't go to the lumber yard to buy 3400mm of 2x4s, - I ask for 3,4 meters - or so. For most of everyday work around the house, we use centimeters or meters, - depending on the task or accuracy expected, - all in factors of ten..... easy-peasy! Same goes for weight and volume, - one litre is 1 cubic desimeter ( a cube of 10 cm, - just shy of 4"...) is egual to 1 kilogram, - and the original definition og weight was 1 cubic centimeter of water = 1 gram....
This was the basis for the CGS system ( centimeters- grams- seconds), from which all other units was defined. Later Ampere was added for electrisity, and the system was called the MKSA system, - Meters, Kilograms, Seconds, Amperes, which is again the basis for the SI ( Systeme International) which rules all trades and sciences today, also in the US.....

[Jon Steffen]

Here are a couple of pictures. Lots of vintage dividers floating around, which is what I generally prefer. You can spend a lot on dividers from Starrett if you want. The important thing is that they hold a setting and the tips are sharp and come together properly.

Here's a page from Tolpin's book, by Hand and Eye. Combining dividers with a sector, now that is when things get really crazy because then you don't even have to do the "divide the remainder into three parts" type step. See a general description here: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2017/0...s-or-a-sector/

Attachment 436983Attachment 436984Attachment 436985

Thanks for this. i'll give it a look see.

[Donald G. Burns]

I once owned a metric adjustable wrench needed it for metric nuts, I guess?

[Jon Steffen]

I once owned a metric adjustable wrench needed it for metric nuts, I guess?

Is that like a blinker fluid joke?

What weighs more a pound of metric bolts, or a pound of grade 8 imperial bolts?

Is there such a thing as a metric pound?

[Curt Harms]

Is that like a blinker fluid joke?

What weighs more a pound of metric bolts, or a pound of grade 8 imperial bolts?

Is there such a thing as a metric pound?

Yup, it's called a kilogram. Is there such a thing as a metric ton? Yup, 1000 Kg or 2200 lbs. I've also heard it called a long ton.

[Mark e Kessler]

Awe man, almost got You! Just kidding, I have no idea what u r trying to say here...

I am not falling for that.......... If i were to say that everyone does science, I would get stoned to death.

[David Buchhauser]

I once owned a metric adjustable wrench needed it for metric nuts, I guess?

I've got a matched pair of adjustable wrenches - one metric and one SAE. I purchased these at Sears about 40 years ago.
David

20200719_234327_resized.jpg 20200719_234336_resized.jpg 20200719_234347_resized.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Well...those are the lengths of the tool to indicate size/strength. LOL But think about it...marketing a 16" long tool in a place that folks only use metric might be confusing and vice versa. 400mm and 16" are similar lengths. Out of curiosity, what's on the other side in the way of markings?

[Roger Feeley]

Yep, conversions will kill you

"NASA lost its $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements when exchanging vital data before the craft was launched, space agency officials said Thursday.
A navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet and pounds.

As a result, JPL engineers mistook acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds."

IIRC, The probe crashed before it would have deployed the parachute. Right out of a Road Runner cartoon.

[Mark Hennebury]

They should have used a story stick!

Yep, conversions will kill you

"NASA lost its $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements when exchanging vital data before the craft was launched, space agency officials said Thursday.
A navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet and pounds.

As a result, JPL engineers mistook acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds."

IIRC, The probe crashed before it would have deployed the parachute. Right out of a Road Runner cartoon.

[Rod Sheridan]

I can't believe I'm reading 9 pages and it's turned into the cooking channel.

I guess I need to decide whether I need to start measuring my Sugar Maple in cups or kilograms....

Come on we’re mostly guys here, of course it eventually morphs to topics of food.

So speaking of cups, in the US system, 4 cups make quart, so a cup is 8 fluid ounces.

I guess where I live a cup would be 10 ounces?

No wonder I prefer the metric system😀

[Halgeir Wold]

Yeah..... an ounce, or more correctly, an avoirdupois once, is 28.3 grams, a troy or apothecaries ounce is 31.1 grams.... and then there's the fluid ounce, which is not quite the same in Britain and the US..... there's an s-load og other ounces,too..... and the there were 12 inches to the foot, 12 lines to the inch, 12 scruples to the line.... Thank you folks, for inventing metrics.....