• Zerush@lemmy.mlOP
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    9 months ago

    Human scale? Not yours or mines, measures of the ffoot, thumbs and random desires of a dead British King in the far past. No problem in metrics, at least if I don’t build a hut in the wood with an axe, then maybe using parts of the body for measures are usefull. Not the first furniture I made, also working in metal. Also in mathematic and physic the metric system is way better (Even NASA now uses the metric system since 2 probes crashed on Marte due to calculation errors in the imperial system)

    • Shareni@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      Just wait for an American to tell you how it’s easier to use fractions with imperial. I’ve legit seen them say shit like 3/8 of an inch is easier to think about than 9.5mm.

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          9 months ago

          2/3 is not a valid fraction of inches.

          Valid denominators are 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32. Technically, 64, 128, and 256 are also acceptable, but they are never actually used. For precision greater than 1/32nd, we switch to thousandths, or tenths of thousandths.

          3/8 + 5/16 is 11/16ths.

        • toffi@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          ~3.2mm. I can’t think of any real world application which needs fraction of a millimeter which doesn’t include ah calculator and some damn exact measuring tools.

        • Shareni@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          Quick off the top of your head, why would I use fractions of a cm instead of mm? It’s a workaround for a shit system

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            Well I’m building a table right now, and it was pretty easy to choose a size for a mortise and tenon in my 3/4" stock, a third of 3/4" is 1/4". If I wanted half its width, that’s 3/8". Mental math is a lot easier than “What’s a third of 19mm.” In the wood shop, I rarely have to divide things by five or ten. I have to divide things by two, three and four a lot.

            • Shareni@programming.dev
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              9 months ago

              I rarely have to divide things by five or ten. I have to divide things by two, three and four a lot.

              I don’t know anything about carpentry, so I’ll take your word on it.

              My best guess is that the standards are different. For example 2cm stock instead of 1.9. Then only the 1/3 is problematic.

              • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                I’m building a shaker table out of white oak. I milled all my stock to 3/4" thickness.

                Just today, I resawed a board to 3/8", or half its original thickness. I glued two boards together to make 3/2" (1 1/2") thick table legs, and I cut mortises 1/3 the thickness of the stock, or a nice even 1/4".

                I’m familiar with the metric system, I learned chemistry and physics in metric. I prefer woodworking in fractional inches because metric seems like a bigger pain in the ass

                • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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                  9 months ago

                  The fact you are working in fractions is more important than whether it’s SAE or metric. You can do the same with a cm instead of an inch.

            • rutellthesinful@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              okay then my answer to the hypothetical is 9.5/3, which is every bit as easy to find on any measurement device, or to use for any practical purpose, as 1/24th

              • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                Well I’m not the person who initially asked you that, I’m just someone who recognizes how easy it is to work with fractions.

                Also I have a ruler with 1/12s graduations and while it’s not 24ths, my neighbor has one marked like that.

                E: my drafting ruler has a short 24ths scale

                • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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                  9 months ago

                  You know what really gets me about these threads? Everybody being like “Can you believe Americans are stupid enough to comprehend fractions? I’m too smart to comprehend fractions.”

                  • rutellthesinful@kbin.social
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                    9 months ago

                    thinking that knowing that 1/3 * 1/8 = 1/24 is something that anybody wouldn’t know is stupid

                    the point is the impracticality of the result being essentially equivalent to 95/3

                  • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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                    9 months ago

                    And the typical USian self-importance, “I can use fractions, so I’m not switching.” Fractions work with SAE and metric. Conversions are a pain in the ass.

                    As someone who was forced to memorize and use unit conversions regularly, needless conversions tend to overcomplicate tasks and result in more mistakes.

                    Mistakes can result in death and needless loss. Ask NASA about that one.

                  • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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                    9 months ago

                    No, like I said in my edit, my drafting ruler has a three or four inch long 24ths scale.

                    Even if it didn’t, having to mark the halfway point between graduations is hardly helpless.

                    18ths would need two divisions by three, but thankfully dividing a known measured length by three is easy with a piece of string.

                    There’s a reason millennia of our ancestors used fractional divisions of standard lengths and weights. They can be measured, calculated and double checked (this one is doubly important for stuff that really pisses off metroids like the hogshead/tun) using cheap, universally available tools and deceptively simple mathematics that have been the foundation of what constituted a good education for centuries.

    • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      I doubt it had much to do with kings, as they didn’t do handicrafts or have to measure things like grocers/traders do.

      That image is really stupid, too much wrong with it to go thru.