Does metric drive you mad or does imperial drive you insane? If you ruled the engineering world which system would you enforce? Please cast your vote and use this thread to discuss!
OK - I went for metric as I grew up with it.... although we have this weird thing going on here in the UK where we have mixed units everywhere - e.g. roadsigns in miles, but petrol measured in litres etc. I can't fathom most imperial measurements (pounds/stone etc), and I have no idea what "thou" is (some engineers over 45 still use that term here)
The whole mixed unit thing is a fine example of the British sense of humour: Millimetres, centimetres, metres, miles... I feel it keeps people on their toes! At least we know how to pronounce Aluminium (not Aloominum) correctly!
I recognize that in the US the vast majority of organizations still cling to the use of the Imperial measurement system. Working in the international arena with European and Russian counterparts since 1987, I have learned to embrace the metric system and currently do virtually all my design in metric instead of Imperial. Because of standardization I still find that I must use Imperial or as we say in the USA SAE fasteners I tend to design to sizes that can easily be changed over to metric fasteners. Yes, I wind up dual dimensioning just about all my drawings because local machine shops still prefer to use and have machines that are still based on imperial measurements even though most could easily be change over with a simple programing change. Niel
I've been a jeweler, and an industrial designer, so I've used both. I agree with the last poster. I find the imperial system to be more human centered, and easier for generalizations, but when it comes to math, metric rules. I guess since I grew up with the imperial system, and I am the optimum size for it,(I'm 6ft.tall, size 12 feet) I am more comfortable with it over all...but my Taiwanese friend is just as comfortable with metric.
Although I prefer metric, as a consultancy we need to use both. To avoid any confusion, we always use dual dimensions on drawings whether they are going to Asian suppliers or not. It makes the drawings busier, but we haven't had any problems with unit misinterpretation since starting this.
