Paul P

SilkTone
That is because in the metric system you don't typically write fractions as 1/2, 1/4 etc, but as decimal fractions like 0.5, 0.25 etc. So woodworkers that use the metric system will simply use decimal fractions of m, cm and mm.

You quickly get into unwieldy decimals which you can't do anything with intuitively.  It's like looking at a clock with hands or a clock with digits.  Imperial you can do with your eyes (fractions) and in your head, metric you need a calculator.
 
And with a 12" foot, as Bristol Jonesey points out, you can quickly divide into quarters, thirds, halves, sixths by eye.  Try doing that with 10 or 30 cm.

Quarters: 2.5 and 7.5 cm
Thirds: 3.33 cm and 10 cm
Halves: 5 and 15 cm
Sixths (why?): 1.7 and 5 cm
 
With the US system, the few times you do get lucky where it is easy to convert is far outweighed by the many issues with its unit conversions in general.
 
Also, you only converted a full unit of foot or inch. Try to convert something like 7 5/8" into quarters, thirds, halves, sixths by eye. It gets equally unwieldy.
 
With the metric system, there is just one unit of length: meter. Based on that you get km, cm, mm, nm etc. All are very easily converted from one into the other by simply moving the decimal point. There is a reason that the metric system is used in science.
 
As an example, we all know how seconds and ms relate wrt to latency. Can you imagine if instead we used some unrelated units for time ranges less that one second? It would be much more difficult.
 
And to keep the post on topic, I'd like to suggest that Sonar move to the metric system

jerrydf
Well, we're all musicians (a slight exaggeration of my own abilities there ...), and nobody uses 10 beats to the bar, its usually 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 of quarter or eight notes. Irish slip-jigs go to 9/8 time, but that's just a jig in waltz time, sort of. Maybe Dave Brubeck and Roger Waters can stretch music maths to 5 or 7; but that's the exception.

But that doesn't have anything to do with the imperial vs metric system. You are simply using the decimal system to describe something that falls on specific intervals.

Paul P
 
...I appreciate inches being divisible into halfs, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, etc. ...I tried going metric but it's really weird in this context.  Whoever invented the metric system wasn't a woodworker.

 
Or a musician!  It just wouldn't seem right if we had to change 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. notes to 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625 notes...
 
Walt 
 

WallyG

Paul P
 
...I appreciate inches being divisible into halfs, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, etc. ...I tried going metric but it's really weird in this context.  Whoever invented the metric system wasn't a woodworker.

 
Or a musician!  It just wouldn't seem right if we had to change 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. notes to 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625 notes...
 
Walt

That also doesn't have anything to do with imperial vs metric system. In you example, you are simply showing the difference between the decimal and fraction representation of numbers. In both the imperial and metric system you can display a number in either format.
 
Where did the idea came from that you can't use fraction representation in the metric system?

soens
Personally I think we should all go back to Hectares, Cubits, Shekels, and Furlongs!

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!

SilkTone
Where did the idea came from that you can't use fraction representation in the metric system?

But why would you ?  What point is there to imagine 1/3 of 100mm ?
 
Yards, feet and inches with their fractions are chunks with certain properies that can be useful in one's work.  Metric only supports relations based on 10.  It's very easy to divide a measurement by 10 in the metric system, much easier than imperial, but only for 10 and it's multiples.  Imperial has built in 2,3,4,6,8,12,16,32,...
 
There is probably a reason why the imperial system came about in the form it did.  It was useful for people without calculators.

Metric is a beautiful thing - that hurts my brain.  :)
 
Circling back to the premise of the thread, I DO hope for some kind of content thing for February, as there is not much left in the way of February for such a thing to take place.  I am rooting for content, or a video, or a coupon, or a coffee mug, or a coffee mug, or a new feature, or a coffee mug.
 
Bob Bone
 

jerrydfIrish slip-jigs go to 9/8 time, but that's just a jig in waltz time

British slip jigs I think you mean (they are found in England and Scotland as well, the traditional music borders of the three countries have always been very porous with the differences amounting at least as much to style as content) :-)

Not remotely like waltzes either,
 
As for none-even number based time signatures, 7/8 and similar are found in eastern European traditional music and Asian and African time signatures can be very varied (if they easily fit into the western European time signatures at all).

WallyG

Paul P
 
...I appreciate inches being divisible into halfs, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, etc. ...I tried going metric but it's really weird in this context.  Whoever invented the metric system wasn't a woodworker.

 
Or a musician!  It just wouldn't seem right if we had to change 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. notes to 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625 notes...
 
Walt 
 

In the code it is right.

robert_e_bone
Metric is a beautiful thing - that hurts my brain :-)

Being born in 1961 the switch to metric currency and the increasing use of metric measurement systems cut across my junior school years. The result is I can largely think in both, but prefer thousandths of an inch to fractions of a millimetre for small distances and miles to kilometres for long ones.

Anyway, the US currency is metric and always has been. What I can't get my head around is a pint that contains other than 20 fluid ounces. When anyone from the US talks in terms of pints, quarts or gallons my internal measurement conversion system has a tendency to freeze. And yes, I am aware that the US fluid pint is the pre-1800s British pint. :-)