A Call For Humor!

[mhardy6647]

Puts me in mind of another boggy waterway: A Slough - a slow-moving, often shallow body of water, or type of waterway characterized by being a slow-moving or stagnant channel, frequently found in marshy areas. They're typically very shallow and can be a remnant of a river or a tidal channel.

Here in Washington State, the former is more often true: a remnant of a river. You see many of them driving the various East/West highways like 90 and 82.

We became familiar with sloughs when we lived in the "Bay Area" (Silicon Valley, to be more accurate).
Not a term one much encounters back East (in the US).

 

[mhardy6647]

Metric...

Here in Canada we are a bi-lingual country.

The hardware store still sells 2x4s. Common pipe is called 1/2". The actual product is the closest metric equivalent. New pipe adapters don't quit fit old 1/2" pipe.
We measure our body weight, and produce in pounds. Our height... mostly feet/inches.
But mostly we buy stuff in metric.

We have gotten used to doing the mental arithmetic. We can even learn some French from reading product labels

tires (or even tyres, if one prefers) are the best.
Both of our cars ride on 225R-17 tires. (aspect ratio 55%)
225 mm tread width and 17-inch wheel rims.
oy.

 

[lucian]

 

[lucian]

 

[lucian]

 

[Jimi Floyd]

I am in Italy. We here commonly use inches for piping. 1/4", 1/2" and so on... I think this is an (unusual) example of imperial units still in use in continental Europe.

https://irrigazioneshop.com/prodott...-RWs41IbuGcUAzH9v-eCFSC-mYyi7ON14m7sFQgJFxtcp

 

[Salt]

And we won't change this as new fittings have to fit on old fittings ...

 

[respice finem]

I am in Italy. We here commonly use inches for piping. 1/4", 1/2" and so on... I think this is an (unusual) example of imperial units still in use in continental Europe.

https://irrigazioneshop.com/prodott...-RWs41IbuGcUAzH9v-eCFSC-mYyi7ON14m7sFQgJFxtcp

There are more such cases, screen sizes in inch, munition calibers (one metric, the other one not...), nautical units...

 

[lucian]

 

[respice finem]

And we won't change this as new fittings have to fit on old fittings ...

BTW: One of the craziest ideas IMHO was to try and change "century old" blood pressure units from mmHg to Pascal, leading to 5 digit figures no one could work with.

 

[mhardy6647]

And we won't change this as new fittings have to fit on old fittings ...

Ideally, yes... close enough may not cut it, especially in high pressure applications -- and/or, e.g., something like chlorine gas.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

 

[lucian]

 

[lucian]

 

[Jimi Floyd]

BTW: One of the craziest ideas IMHO was to try and change "century old" blood pressure units from mmHg to Pascal, leading to 5 digit figures no one could work with.

Pressure is peculiar. Pascal is the official MKSA unit, but mmHg, torr, atmospheres, bar, millibar, pounds/square inch, Kg/cm^2 etc. are common

 

[respice finem]

Pressure is peculiar. Pascal is the official MKSA unit, but mmHg, torr, atmospheres, bar, millibar, pounds/square inch, Kg/cm^2 etc. are common

It's hard to change what's "grown" for centuries. And sometimes the established metric is more practical, like the blood pressure values in mmHg.
Sometimes less, like the "gazillion" 9 mm calibers, chaotic as hell, described with two inch measures LOL... (some .38 are .36, or was it the other way round?)
The metric system is relatively "young".

And, last but not least, the media add ti the chaos, describing areas with football fields, or volumes with bathtubs, etc.

 

[Timcognito]

In medical catheters we have a "French" scale 1 French =1/3 of mm. R&D engineers and research clinicians had hole gauges to figure out what it was they had in their hand.

 

[thewas]

 

[Robin L]

 

[Multicore]

Puts me in mind of another boggy waterway: A Slough - a slow-moving, often shallow body of water, or type of waterway characterized by being a slow-moving or stagnant channel, frequently found in marshy areas. They're typically very shallow and can be a remnant of a river or a tidal channel.

Here in Washington State, the former is more often true: a remnant of a river. You see many of them driving the various East/West highways like 90 and 82.

And the town in Berkshire, a popular way stop for progressing pilgrims in the 17c., is called Slough of Despond. I lived in an adjacent town for some months when I was young.