this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
517 points (95.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
29244 readers
971 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Posts must be original/unique
- Be good to others - no bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'll tell you something I do as a woodworker a lot that metric isn't great for: divide by powers of two, three or four. I've got some boards milled up 3/4" thick. I'm going to join them with a bridle joint, that means cutting the middle third out of one and the outer two thirds from the other. So each of the remaining "tongues" are each 1/4" thick. 3/4" is approximately 20mm. That's a nice metric number, a multiple of 10. Let's cut that same bridle joint in 20mm stock. What's a third of 20mm? Can you come point to 6.6666mm on my metric tape measure here?
Don't pretend base ten doesn't do stupid things too.
Yes: For woodworkers, it's identical to 6.5mm, accurately eyeballed at between 6 and 5mm. Don't pretend you're a machinist. Does your tape measure even have a vernier scale. Does it make satisfying clicks when measuring. If you have a slip instead of interference fit just dump one piece in water for a second it'll be fine.
To be more precise, it should be rounded as 6.7 cm, accurately eyeballed at between 6.6 cm and 6.7 cm.