Figuring out slope/grade percent

[mitch504]

Nope, not gonna do it...

No comment.

 

[suladas]

If you can count to ten, you can figure out the metric system

You’d be amazed how many people can’t figure it out......

 

[cuttin edge]

Nope, not gonna do it...

No comment.

Join us. The other kids do it..... it'll make you look cool. I''ll start you off 1000 meters in a Kilometer

 

[crane operator]

A meter is the length of a path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1 second.

I have a foot on the bottom of my leg.

A centimeter is a meter divided by 100

My knuckle is a inch.

Imagine the following conversations:

"Let's just slap some 2x4's on there and call it good"

"We will now install our reinforcing 38mm x 89mm support framing":

My 4x8's of plywood will never be 1220x2440mm's.


And no one will pen a ode to the kilometers they will traverse for their significant other:

I rest my case.

 

[John C.]

The issue is not one of numbers and math. It is of perception. I can picture a ruler in my head and perceive a foot in length. I can look at a bolt head and know that a 3/8", 7/16" or 3/4" will fit on it. I can see a hydraulic system runs at 4,000 PSI and instantly understand the type of hydraulic hoses and fittings I have to use on it. I can read the weight of a heavy component and know how much lifting capacity I'll have to have to pick it up. Don't get me wrong about being averse to the metric system. When I measure an undercarriage on a tracked machine, it's all done in milli meters. It's just more convenient.

I'm just never going to get my head around one inch being about 25 milli meters. I don't have a problem with that. Those that do have a problem with it will either get over it, or not.

 

[AzIron]

The worst part of the metric system and the united states is we have everything manufactured in metric now and then some oddball thing on said machine is in standard and everything that was made before the late 90s is all standard no metric

So we have to have double the tooling to dam near anything

I agree with the post above I am not adverse to it but my mind is already calibrated in standard measurements just like grading using surveyors feet and converting that in my head to inches for concrete to finish floor height I just know it I really dont want to devote more memory to metric conversions as well but this cross bred metric standard thing we do is a royal pain I would be fine if it's one or the other

 

[Welder Dave]

Canada is a bit different than other countries because we can never go full metric as long as the US is imperial. Lumber is still in inches and steel is for the most part too but plate can come in either. It's more with what you're used to but having to use both systems can be a PIA. I've worked in shops where most blueprints were imperial but every once in awhile we'd get thrown metric prints. I hate dual sided tape measures. Another shop I worked in would convert the metric measurements to imperial. I think because most of the older employee's weren't familiar with metric having used imperial all their life. In theory metric is easier but it doesn't always work out that way. Interestingly engines are mostly referred to in litre's now as are tires. It's like a big conspiracy to mess with your head. A 6-1803.4 doesn't have the same ring as a 6-71. Vehicles can have a mix of imperial and metric fasteners that makes no sense at all. Had to put new fuel pumps in a GMC Topkick and the tanks straps and sending unit nuts are metric.

 

[KSSS]

I remember in grade school the president at the time, maybe it was Carter? He mandated that we learn the metric system because the US at the time was going to transition over. Apparently that plan, like many others in DC died on the vine. Anyone else remember that?

 

[mitch504]

I remember in grade school the president at the time, maybe it was Carter? He mandated that we learn the metric system because the US at the time was going to transition over. Apparently that plan, like many others in DC died on the vine. Anyone else remember that?

Yep, that was right about the time we were all gonna die from global cooling....

 

[John Canfield]

When we took the motorhome to Alaska I got really frustrated trying to figure out how many liters of diesel I was going to need (we like to use high volume truck pumps) in Canada. I finally made a spreadsheet so I could roughly correlate gallons to liters. Amazing scenery.

 

[kshansen]

I remember in grade school the president at the time, maybe it was Carter? He mandated that we learn the metric system because the US at the time was going to transition over. Apparently that plan, like many others in DC died on the vine. Anyone else remember that?

I remember when NY started to put up speed limit signs on I-90/ NYState Thruway. I think they managed to install a handful before someone got all up set thinking someone was trying to overthrow the country or some BS of that kind.

Before that I think it was 1967 for my Physics class everything was calculated using the metric system because we were going to be joining the rest of the world at last. I think I learned that the first US citizen to push for converting to the metric system was Ben Franklin and even he could not get anyone to listen!

Well that was over 50 years ago and the rest of the world is "social distancing" by staying 2 meters apart and we are told six feet! Maybe that's why we are still having problems with the virus 2 meters are over 6 inches more than our 6 feet so we are too close!

 

[Willie B]

I remember when NY started to put up speed limit signs on I-90/ NYState Thruway. I think they managed to install a handful before someone got all up set thinking someone was trying to overthrow the country or some BS of that kind.

Before that I think it was 1967 for my Physics class everything was calculated using the metric system because we were going to be joining the rest of the world at last. I think I learned that the first US citizen to push for converting to the metric system was Ben Franklin and even he could not get anyone to listen!

Well that was over 50 years ago and the rest of the world is "social distancing" by staying 2 meters apart and we are told six feet! Maybe that's why we are still having problems with the virus 2 meters are over 6 inches more than our 6 feet so we are too close!

In Vermont we stay 1 cow length apart.

 

[colson04]

In Vermont we stay 1 cow length apart.

Bovine distancing*

 

[DMiller]

I prefer Vine row distancing!! With a Bottle of nice Merlot in Hand!! And that would be 750ml or a fifth. Whichever one prefers as I do not care until Empty!!

Slope angles however do get dicey if one is as bad as I for cutting grade.

 

[kshansen]

And if you want to have some real fun hand someone an engineer's tape measure! Somehow we got one at work many years ago and it caused all kinds of confusion. If you don't know they use 10ths of a foot in place of inches! So a 4X8 sheet of plywood measures just fine but watch out when you measure 2 feet 6 inches that would be 2.5 feet!

 

[DMiller]

Ever done Chains calculating on property surveys? Also tried to explain to a Grand Nephew how to set run and rise with a Carpenter's square, should have been beating his forehead on a concrete wall.

 

[John Canfield]

And if you want to have some real fun hand someone an engineer's tape measure! Somehow we got one at work many years ago and it caused all kinds of confusion. If you don't know they use 10ths of a foot in place of inches! So a 4X8 sheet of plywood measures just fine but watch out when you measure 2 feet 6 inches that would be 2.5 feet!

My 300' tape measure is inches on one side and tenths on the other, I always have to look twice when I use it.

 

[kshansen]

Ever done Chains calculating on property surveys? Also tried to explain to a Grand Nephew how to set run and rise with a Carpenter's square, should have been beating his forehead on a concrete wall.

I had to do that a couple times building my house but would take a refresher course if I had to do it again as it's been at least 15 years!

 

[Willie B]

Ever done Chains calculating on property surveys? Also tried to explain to a Grand Nephew how to set run and rise with a Carpenter's square, should have been beating his forehead on a concrete wall.

Never mind chains, Where in Hell is north? Deeds don't always say magnetic or true north. Then I waste time googling. I've now planted in my head magnetic is @ longitude west from me. To find true, it is right from magnetic. Now which were they using 150 years ago?
My brother in law is a retired surveyor. By chance he surveyed a property for the State of Vermont adjacent to land I now own. I couldn't find a steel stake he placed in 1967. Called him, read the text of the deed. He didn't know magnetic or true. #2 son came, laid out both options. Dug two holes to find the stake 8" down. True North it is!

 

[DMiller]

And the Magnetic N Pole is on the Move still!! Supposed to end up in Siberia or other points AWAY from True N. IIRC all surveys are based on Lat/Long lines True N to True S.