The designer of a kit has to be more accurate than the builder concerning
decimals.
On the other hand you have to give lots of tollerances so that even less
skilled people can handle the kit and get a good result. So when you design
a model you should know that most people can´t cut a piece of paper with
less tolerances than about 0,1-0,2 millimeters, which is roughly the same as
the paper thickness. It is very seldom that you as a paper model builder
need more accuracy than that. Or, better said, it is not nice designer
behaviour to bring out models that demand higher accuracy.
The model designer though must be more accurate. When two small parts
should have the same length, it is frustrating if one part is 0,05 mm bigger
or smaller. Even if your hands cannot cut it, your eyes can see it.
Actually you have to think rationally when deciding the accuracy of
constructive measures. If you deal with very small parts, houndreds of mm
(0,01) could be nessecary. But when dealing with a 30cm long part it would
be just stupid to be more exact than 1 unfractioned mm).
So my answer would be: It all depends.
Best wishes
Gunnar
----- Original Message -----
From: "DougT" <[email protected]>
To: "Papermodels II" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 3:08 PM
Subject: [Papermodels II 41994] Re: Question to American modellers
That brings up a question that has been gnawing at me for a while.
How accurate do you use the metric system in everyday life? For
example if I convert 9-1/8" or 9.125" to mm it comes out as 231.775 mm
or 23.1775 cm. Do inherent users of the metric system round it out to
the nearest unit so it would be 232mm or 23cm (or in the case of using
cm round it to 23.2cm)? I tend to round to the next highest
convenient whole unit when dealing with material for constructing
something since it is a lot easier to trim off a little bit of extra
material than it is to add a little bit. Of course I imagine that
inherent users of the metric system would not even be thinking in
terms of something being 9-1/8", I am just wondering about how a
fraction of a milimeter is dealt with.
Since most calculators use decimal notation I usually go to three
decimal places when dealing with dimensions in the imperial system but
sometimes four decimal places are needed since 1/16" accuracy or
0.0625" is called for in most cases. You could go to five decimal
places if you want to go to 1/32" or 0.01325" accuracy. I do have
some specialty calculators that have fractional displays that are
helpful when dealing with the imperial system.
Most tape measures sold in the USA are marked in 1/32" increments.
The tape measures I use now have both imperial and metric markings. I
even have an engineers tape measure that is marked in 1/100ths of a
foot.
I agree that the fractional notation would be more meaningful than the
decimal notation because of the way the measuring instruments are
marked.
:^)
On Feb 25, 4:22 pm, cyana <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear modeller mates,
in my paper model kit, I want to give the instruction to cut a 48 mm x
27 mm sized rectangle from tissue paper. My question is - is it still
common in US and CAN to give such an instruction with Imperial
dimensions (inch ?). And if yes, is it more common to say, the size of
the rectangle should be 1.9" x 1.1" (approx.) or 1-7/8" x 1-1/16" ?
many thanks in advance !
Cyana from MicroArtwork
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Papermodels II" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/papermodels?hl=en.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2711 - Release Date: 02/26/10
08:34:00
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Papermodels II" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/papermodels?hl=en.
