Dumb Engine Size Questions

Gerald J. wrote: In Centigrade there are 100 degrees between ice and steam from distilled water at sea level. In Fahrenheit there are 180 degrees for that range. So the tehmperature change for one degree is smaller in Fahrenheit. Both schemes were devised based on physical constants. Fahrenheit picked 0 as the coldest temperature he could get ice with salt, and 100 as normal human body temperature. He wasn't perfect as today we figure 98.6 F as normal body temperature. Celsius picked the freezing temperature of pure water as zero and the boiling point at sea level pressure as 100. And its now known that freezing of water is 32F and boiling is 212F. The only troubles with these as calibration points is that they are affected by the purity of the water and boiling by the atmospheric pressure so even more by altitude. There are other standards for temperature. At least Reaumur, Kelvin, and Rankine. Gerald J.

Yep.

All of which has precisely nothing to do with "accuracy".

Anyone know the first US President to consider switching to the metric system, but after consideration considered it to be too expensive?



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Thomas Jefferson! True.

JW in MO wrote: I'm just a dumb old farm kid who works in an industry where everything has to be very precise. What confounds me is I deal with cabinets that sometimes can't vary more than 1.5 degrees either way but everything is in celsius, or centigrade as I learned in school. Fahrenheit is a much finer and more accurate measuring system but totally ignored in the medical field. I just play the game by the rules provided. (something I wish I'd learned to do in college)

I understand your rant. But just for fun, can you please tell me how Fahrenheit is "more accurate"?

They use carbs in anything other than small engines nowadays?

Somewhere along that history Allis Chalmers changed to Deutz Allis and the Deutz company that bought the remains of Alllis was European and by that time I think European standards insisted on metric measurements and metric standard hardware for imported equipment. Unfortunately there are multiple metric standards around the world for hardware and they don't always agree on standard sizes and thread pitches.

Imperial as used in the UK is different than inches used in the USA. For bolts and nuts generally the same diameters but different thread pitches. 8mm looks the same diameter as 5/16" to the eye and the micrometer (within 0.0025") but the threads won't mate. 11mm and 7/16 are very close and 19mm and 3/4" are only .0.002" apart. 5/8" and 16mm are .005" apart. Most other common metric dimensions aren't so close.

As I recall, the engine in my '73 Pinto wagon was metric but everything else was fractional hardware.

Gerald J.

Ever notice tire sizes? 285-75 r16 why is the tire in metric but the rim is always standard?

I'm just a dumb old farm kid who works in an industry where everything has to be very precise. What confounds me is I deal with cabinets that sometimes can't vary more than 1.5 degrees either way but everything is in celsius, or centigrade as I learned in school. Fahrenheit is a much finer and more accurate measuring system but totally ignored in the medical field. I just play the game by the rules provided. (something I wish I'd learned to do in college)

So the US built the largest economy ever using fractions.  When the rest of the world figured a way called metric, so they could try to understand  how to keep up, but still couldn't, that we need to dumb down to make things more even.  How has that been working out for our economy?  Looks to me like the dumbing down has been working well.

DougS wrote: Gary Burnett wrote: Changed about the same time AC went belly up BTW,when you're the #1 economy in the World you get to have a lot of things your way. But if you sit on your laurels the rest of the world will pass you by.

True and we've done it for awhile but that's about to change,fortunately for us most of the rest of the World has done worse than we have.

SteveC(NS) wrote: DanD wrote: They changed to metric designation . Do you mean the U.S. of A. changed something to metric  designation? Wow! wonders never cease.

Changed about the same time AC went belly up BTW,when you're the #1 economy in the
World you get to have a lot of things your way.

I hear these terms used all the time. I know what 301's, 426's, 516's, etc. are, but when people say things like 670T, 670I, 649T, Mark II 2900, 3500, and 25000, etc.