As a scientist (microbiologist) I can’t help but wonder why shapers/glassers, pro and amateur alike, don’t convert to all metric units when talking resin,chemicals, and board measurements.
It really would be so much easier. It allows you to work in units of 10 and allows you to control your ratios more precisely.
Anyway, from now on, I’m speaking metric since I already do this at work.
In life, I understand English, a little Chinese, a touch of Spanish, know a few Japanese terms, even less French.
Wish I was born Dutch, where they mostly speak 6 languages.
Why be Hitler and impose YOUR standards, why don’t you just adapt to current standards?
Shaping is an art, who needs precise measurements?
Joshmosh,
I do agree with you but then I am French, so it’s not that difficult for me to use metrics… Hey, the funny thing is, here in France most shapers and would be shapers use feet, inches and ounces. I suspect it’s just some kind of “snobism”, you know, like: “Look, I use anglo-saxon measurements, so I really know what I’m talking about” whereas most of them could not make one single sentence in English.
I must say I don’t mind feet and inches as far as surfboard length is concerned. It’s harder when it comes to width: I find it hard to visualize what 19" 3/4 really means. Don’t even talk about thicknesses in 16 th of an inch… But I try to satisfy everybody, usually writing on my boards both measurements.
Which I think is the key: feet and inches may not be that practical but they are actually part of the surfing scene. Besides, who knows what clothes sizes, for instance, stand for? Or shoes sizes?
Let’s respect each other. I’d like to have more American people speaking French and I’d like to have more French people speaking English. I wouldn’t want to have any one of those languages disappear. The same goes for measurements…
Joshmosh,
Couldn’t agree more - My favorite is when we start combining the two systems: Use 24oz of resin, with 12cc of catylist.
Best,
HerbB
Funny, I’ve got measuring cups with all sorts of marks on 'em, but as long as I can divide the number by 2, I’m happy (for mixing epoxy). I think Drams are my favorite… I just looked up “dram” today and found out it’s 1/8 oz. Who’d a thunk?
Honestly, I like measuring in inches. I’ve grown up American, so it’s engraved in my skull how much 1/16" of an inch is. BUT, I have to say that measuring in feet-inches is a real pain in the ass. I think it would be much easier as a fabricator to measure strictly in inches. Our tape measures are in continuous inches, from 0 to 25’. Yeah, I know they’re highlighted every foot, but I still end up dividing/multiplying by 12 and adding remainders to get a good honest length in pure inches. Maybe we should just make a foot 10 inches…?
while in theory that might be easier, where I live we still buy resin and catalyst by the gallon, cloth is discussed (and sold) by “ounces per” and sold in yards. I can’t just switch to cloth by the meter, resin by the liter, and calling 6 ounce cloth “170.0971386 gram cloth”… I would confuse people.
Heck, I even work in a yard. Can’t metrify that, what would I call it…
It’s just an idea, really, and we’re all pretty free thinkers here, right? I’m not saying everyone has to switch, but I’m going to make the switch to make things easier for myself.
It is possible to switch over time though. All the sciences (chemistry, biology, physics, math, etc.) were able to make the switch and they deal with complex ideas and units.
Well, i’m spanish, so obviously for me is easier to measure in meters, liters, etc., as must be easier for you measure in inches, gallons, etc.
But i must agree with Joshmosh, that dividing by 10, must be the easiest for everyone.
Anyway here in Spain, every single surfer and every single shaper knows the dimensions of his boards in inches…
God waves!
When I was in 5th grade, 36 years ago, some of us were pulled out of class and sent to “Terrible Tom” to learn metric measurement. He told us by the time we graduated from high school the country would be using the metric system. Of course, we use it in science. It’s simpler. Like measuring money. I’m with LeeDD on surfboards. I don’t care about that much precision. Mike
Combine english with metric. Leave the first measuremnet in english, and then if there is any fraction, then convert those to a decimal system based on 10
So for instance a 9 foot 6 inch board would be a 9.5. Or a 7 foot 4 inch board would be a 7.3
OR a width of 23 and 7/8 inches would convert to 23.875"
That should make us all happy and confused all at the same time!!!
Drew
Combine english with metric. Leave the first measuremnet in english, and then if there is any fraction, then convert those to a decimal system based on 10So for instance a 9 foot 6 inch board would be a 9.5. Or a 7 foot 4 inch board would be a 7.3
OR a width of 23 and 7/8 inches would convert to 23.875"
That should make us all happy and confused all at the same time!!!
Drew
yeah, i try to use decimals whenever possible.
I’m hotcoating today.
What did you think of the board?
Coque,
Thanks - that was actaully a question I had (how other countries measure boards).
The standard of measuring things suchs surfboards is probably dictated by mass usage, suppliers and probably some traditions.
I Wakeboard on a 142cm board but surf a 6’6" surfboard.
HerbB
In the 70’s there was this great big national push to convert the US to metric. Speed limits were in km’s we were drinking 355ml sodas…Never got off the ground, complete failure. At best most of the liquid measurments now have dual equivalents. I think the metric system is by far a better system for accuracy, nothing sucks in wood working, or extremely close tollerance work worse than having to add up something like 15/64 & 7/16 or 43/64 but were stuck with it, never going to change. Could you imagine a big ol Cat 3116 diesel engine with a bunch of metric bolts. World Wars were started for less than that.
-Jay
josh,
board looked good. I dug the floered design.Bet your neighbors love the smell of resin.
thanks again for picking up the gallon-o-lam resin for me.
In the 70’s there was this great big national push to convert the US to metric. Speed limits were in km’s we were drinking 355ml sodas…Never got off the ground,
There must have been a revival, because I remember one of these when I was a kid… and I wasn’t born till 77’. I was in gradeschool, and I think Regan was in office… must have been early to mid 80’s. Same thing, they swore that by the time I graduated High School it would be universal. Same thing, never got off the ground. It seems that both standards are tough more in school now, which will help in the future to build a society that is familiar with both… then maybe we can switch over. I think in the past, your looking at a large percentage of the older folk (who we all know vote more than everyone else) who are scared of the change. Reality is, two years down the line you wouldn’t even remember how many inches wide your tail is suppose to be. Granted I’m an enginner, so I’m biased… then again, who better to judge a number system than someone who uses it every day. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a scientist who would argue the english system (what, used in 3 countries around the world? And I don’t think much is coming out of Iceland these days) is supperior in any way. “Hmmmm… lets make 7 Pikes to a Pokel, 12 Pokels to Puket, and 4 Pukets to a Pickle… sounds good”. How many Pikes in a Pickle again?
Well, all I know is that my shortboard is 18.75 hands tall.
Heee… I remember a couple of those pushes to go metric.
For the non US folks, a little digression: here in the US we have what’s called Madison Avenue, the advertising business, and when they get behind something ( as they were paid to do with those ‘lets go metric’ campaigns) then it’s generally hokey, generally something that the people who do work with numbers will immediately distrust. For good reason; most of the time, what they are pushing is junk, lies and nonsense of no value except to sell worthless goods.
Is the metric system a helluva sight easier to use? Oh yeah. Calculating the buoyancy of something like a boat ( or a board) in the foot/inch/pounds system, you need to get an answer for volume in cubic feet ( cubic inches divided by 12 x 12 x 12 ) , multiply by 60-something ( depends on specific gravity of the water, salt or fresh ) and eventually you get there. Maybe.
And if you come up with an answer that’s waaaay wrong, got the maths wrong someplace, it’s not immediately apparent, due to all the oddball numbers involved. In the metric system, that’s relatively hard to do. If you get an answer that’s maybe wrong, call it a buoyancy of 2160 kg rather than 21.6, it jumps right out at you.
How many fluid ounces in a cubic inch? Dunno, have to look it up. How many milliliters in a cubic centimeter? That’s pretty easy.
There’s a lot of weird survivals of older or different systems. Booze was sold in 4/5 of a quart bottles ( now, thankfully, 750 ml ) - why that is I don’t know, as they are 4/5 of a US quart, not an Imperial quart, which would make more sense as 4/5 of an Imperial quart is a US quart… Troy ounces, grains ( still found in the firearms world - calculating what a bullet will do gets kinda complex) , karats, ells, rods. Those of us who owned British sports cars way back when may remember Whitworth wrenches.
There’s a few adaptations like the British Thermal Unit or BTU - it’s the very metric-like formulation for heat energy, a BTU is by definition the heat needed to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. Heating systems are rated in BTUs in the US. On the other hand, refrigeration systems are rated in pounds. Don’t ask me why, or what the pounds refer to.
For what it’s worth, Thomas Jefferson ( circa 1802 ) tried to switch the US over to metric measurements. It’s a shame he didn’t succeed at that.
Funny thing, Cat diesels are rated in metric measurements ( kW) these days, weighed in kg and displacement measured in liters with an alternative pounds-feet-inches-horsepower rating in parentheses. They are trying to sell outside the US, so they have to. I own some tools with bolts in 'em that have metric threads and fractional inch cap sizes - try replacing those at the corner hardware store.
Me, I keep one of the little pocket references by my calculator, lots of nice conversion tables. It’ll do for the moment.
doc…
It’s kind of like the macho Hawaiian wave sizing system. Six foot mainland equates to about, flat, by Island standards.
Now I could say my own “personal measurements” are precisely 15cm, or, I could be macho and say, “Nah, bruddah, I’m only about six inches!”
I remember when we in the US were going to go metric. I think it was Ray gun. Well the only people that jump on that and stayed was the booze people. They could sell what look like a qt. but was really a liter at the same price as a qt. They made out but we lost .0537 of a qt. I think that right isn’t it? 1 liter = .9463 qts. We could go to surveyors chain measurements. Where 7.92 inches = 1 link. so a 10 foot board would be 15.1515 links. That would work.
actually, Bagman, you’ve been missing out on a good thing: 1 liter = 1.056688 quarts*. Call it a shot glass full more per liter bottle.
For those who want to go old-school in a big way, the measurement of choice might be the cubit, as used by Noah and others for the construction of marine craft. This is based on the distance from the point of the elbow to the end of the middle finger.
Demonstrations of the length of the cubit ( vertical ) are seen often in heavy traffic, especially Southern California, usually out a car window. That’s right, you thought it was somebody flipping you the bird, no, it was a demonstration of a cubit. Possibly to express a sentiment something like "Okay, buddy, you gained a cubit on the rest of us and at the same time ticked off about 200 other drivers. "
The British, for some reason ( consider Imperial quarts and pints) measure the cubit in a slightly different way, using the average of the distance from the spread middle and index fingers to the point of the elbow.
doc…
*source: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 71st edition ( 1990-1991 )