** Caution: EXTERNAL Sender ** While the computer industry might be sloppy in the use of kilo, mega and giga, I found it useful to explain these terms when describing the specifications of her new mobile phone to her. (She is somewhat of a technophobe who has still to understand the difference between “WORD” and “WINDOWS”).
Martin From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of TechGuy YouTube Channel Sent: 31 October 2022 16:21 To: USMA List Server <[email protected]>; Michael Payne <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA 1932] Re: USW of metric in USA ** Caution: EXTERNAL Sender ** Eyeglasses All frame data is in mm even in the US For example 53-17-135mm (lens width, bridge, temple length Diopter is also metric (-4 means person sees sharp at 1/4 m) IT industry is a mess We all know about old 3.5" floppy disk which is actually 90mm<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjdebp.info%2FFGA%2Ffloppy-discs-are-90mm-not-3-and-a-half-inches.html&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476193930683%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eLkzNcU3GjKyjCv6zLiGnNSLekxrhyVH2OOccPXhsic%3D&reserved=0> while 3.5" HDD looks to be a random unit<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmembers.snia.org%2Fdocument%2Fdl%2F25862&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476193930683%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=TQc7dO9B0%2FY8z1kUxTC5oxro8GCewpYW6asgbvhcoFE%3D&reserved=0>, 2.5" SSDs are nice 70 x 100 x 7 mm Modern NVMe drives are properly called by their W+H in mm<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.appuals.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F12%2Fm.2-ssd-sizes.jpg.webp&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476193930683%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tmdXA1NV0OeQOXZDhvWeY0c5fOzZphx3Rddj84k38SU%3D&reserved=0> Most things in PCs use metric M3 screws but UNC screws are still used in a few places Motherboards ATX standard specifications seems to be defined inches, but mounting holes don't line up with round number for either, Standoffs for those are again M3 with height in mm Computer fans are millimeter sizes<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvoltcave.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F05%2Fcase-fan-sizes-e1654804812734.webp&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476194086915%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XTAnJNyS52C1u3w2z7fI3tGidn9wJ75OG0idAsbCsOM%3D&reserved=0> We still use computer screen sizes<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDisplay_aspect_ratio&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476194086915%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=pHhg%2FEkB69dgVr6%2Fe2ZpDLpYCxgaeJcOJBfGiLIyf88%3D&reserved=0> in inches, but those make no sense after the world moved away from the fixed 4:3 aspect ratio, so 27" monitor means nothing anymore since 27" can be in 16:9, 16:10, 3:2, 4:3, 21:9, 32:9. (phone/tablet sizes in inches make even less sense). At least the curvature of the new curved displays is radius in mm: 1000R, 1500R, 1800R. And as John mentioned, VESA mounts for those are mm. And of course, storage size uses metric prefixes Kilo, Mega, Giga… Unless you are Microsoft and didn't get a memo from the 90s yet and still think 1kb is 1024b https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTimeline_of_binary_prefixes&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476194086915%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wpCt4I7t4GT%2Bt5w8akyVCF2d2Gux5VvlotPNn5iKws8%3D&reserved=0<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTimeline_of_binary_prefixes&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476194086915%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wpCt4I7t4GT%2Bt5w8akyVCF2d2Gux5VvlotPNn5iKws8%3D&reserved=0> so it might not be good to mention the IT industry as US schools are stuck in the past and still teach binary instead of metric prefixes. Everything 3D printing related is in mm, filament thickness, weight, nozzle size, layer height, build volume... Game engines use metric - Unity metres, Unreal centimeters (good luck making any physics work in feet, or you'll end up with physics of Matrix movie) and all games I've seen use metres as distances to one's goal. On Mon, Oct 31, 2022 at 3:41 AM Michael Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: ** Caution: EXTERNAL Sender ** Please add other examples of who uses metric in their work in the USA to add to my list which I’ll send to various news organizations like PBS. Do Americans "largely use units like inches, yards, pounds and gallons?”. Certainly, but it’s the media that demotes or removes metric units in their publications. So who does use metric? If you work on cars yourself you use millimeters, all nuts and bolts are metric. All vehicle manuals have the torque in Newton meters. Which leads to the question, why do mechanics have to purchase inch and metric wrenches and sockets? They must not realize all nuts and bolts are metric! US vehicles prior to 1975 are not metric, but that’s almost 50 years ago, how many people work on US made vehicles over 50 years old? If you take your car to a garage they use millimeter wrenches and sockets. All cars built in the USA and overseas are designed and built to millimeter specifications with metric nuts and bolts. This includes GM, Ford, Chrysler (Stellanis), Tesla, etc. If you are a farmer, or work on construction equipment and own a John Deere or Caterpillar you use millimetres, all nuts and bolts on John Deere and Caterpillar are metric. Even the steel in Caterpillar equipment is purchased in hard millimeter dimensions. They have to sell these products worldwide so metric is standard. If you’re a doctor or work in hospital you use Celsius, kilograms, grams, milligrams etc. It’s necessary to know your mass in kilograms to calculate the drug dose, converting errors would double or halve the required dose. All newborn babies in the USA are weighed in grams which is converted to pounds and ounces for the parents. If you are an Air traffic controller you use Celsius even in the USA because all airports give the air temperature in Celsius (listen +1 703 661 2990). All upper air temperature and pressure is in Celsius and kilopascals. If you are a Pilot in the USA all airport temperature and dew point temperature are in Celsius, all aircraft performance data is in Celsius. If you fly outside the USA you will then have to deal with visibility in metres and pressure in hectopascals. If you work for the National Weather Service you are exposed to metric units all day every day. The pressure inside hurricanes is measured in mb by the NWS which is millibars, a deprecated unit known worldwide as a hectopascal. If you are a scientist you only use metric. The news media will change it to what they think the public wants. People who work at JPL and NASA use metric which are changed to US customary for public consumption. If you work at Space X all units used even for launch data, are all metric. If you are an architect or civil engineer you will need to know metric if you want to work outside the USA. I could go on but it’s a sizable percentage of the US population. So it appears the only people in the USA not using metric is the US news media. One reason I subscribe to Deutsche Welle News in English instead of the NY Times or Washington Post. I cancelled my National Geographic subscription in 1990 because they cancelled their policy of including metric units. Mike Payne _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma -- youtube.com/c/TechGuy1<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2Fc%2FTechGuy1&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C2449e4310b62406c848008dabb84c6b4%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638028476194086915%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=asWtyp%2FTRyO2TO3dfTjr7P7d0xr6IBiudkt%2FzoV83JI%3D&reserved=0>
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