[AT]was Transmission oil, now systems

[CEE VILL]

I have no doubt that text message can be far more interesting to a student 
than systems of fine measurement.  The biggest problem in today's real world 
is the dual standard which prevents a full dedication to either system.  
Probably about 60% of customer supplied drawings for quote or manufacture  
(which I see) now days are metric, with the remainder still in inches.  
Usually the metric are automotive or other international companies.  Even 
with those we sometimes get older prints which have not been converted to 
mm.  Then there are the partial conversions which may have thread sizes, 
knurl pitches, or surface finish in inches with the remainder in mm.  Often 
when I convert dimensions to inches and the entire drawing comes out almost 
exactly to common inch sizes, I can visualize my counterpart on the customer 
end doing the conversion to mm in the first place.  It almost seems like 
moving furniture for the Mrs.  You can work all day and not get much done.

All that being said, it seems that most of the "made in China" items I buy 
have inch size bolts and nuts.  Maybe that is just how Harbor Freight specs 
it out. ?? Dunno

Charlie V.


>From: "Larry D. Goss" <rlgoss at evansville.net>
>Reply-To: Antique tractor email discussion group 
><at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
><at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: RE: [AT] Transmission oil, 90-wt?
>Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 19:44:56 -0500
>
>Back in 1975 when we were "supposed" to make a concentrated effort to
>convert to metric measurements, I gave my college freshmen a test that
>covered both the US customary units and the ISO metric.  Guess what!
>They didn't have a clue about either one of them.  So I figured they
>needed to learn at least one and I tried to teach some fundamental ISO
>measurements for the next 20 years or so.  It was an exercise in
>futility.  What really muddied the waters was when we started working
>with the decimal inch system (standard everywhere except at Home Depot
>and Lowes).  I finally ended up letting the students work with either
>the ISO or the decimal inch.  Those students who insisted on working
>with the fractional inch system abandoned it within a matter of minutes
>when they found that no computer system supported it as a default mode
>of operation.
>
>Bottom line: students know more about how to text message each other
>than they will ever learn about any measurement system.
>
>Larry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of John Hall
>Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 12:31 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: Re: [AT] Transmission oil, 90-wt?
>