All for one and one for all! denomitators that is.

[sebastian phillips]

Then you would even have to say "sixteenths" and everything would be more efficient.

"Hey Jim, where you at? 22 and 9? Can you skootch it over a bit...I'm a couple short. Can you go 22 and B? "

Exactly.

This "technique" of measuring and COMMUNICATING has it's place. It is one measurement "tool" amongst many, same as we would use a bevel, combination, or framing square depending on circumstance.

I can look at the same "mark" on a tape and simultaneously see 12-6, 12 3/8, or 12.375; I will use what is appropriate for the task at hand.

To divide panel's evenly in a space, I would use fractions.

[Ole Anderson]

I have a FastCap Lefty-Righty tape that reads out sixteenths that I find really useful. I see a lot of merit in using the system the OP is promoting. Personally I am starting to use the system more often when the measurement isn't a multiple of a quarter inch. When I make a measurement and then carry it back to the board to be cut I just have to read and remember 21-7 and a half instead of 21 and 15/32. Maybe I am a bit dyslexic, but to look at a normally divided tape and automatically see the sixteenth mark just past the 5/8 tic as 11/16 doesn't always happen. Edit: I normally read the top of the tape, not the bottom, so I think they were trying to solve a common problem with the lefty-righty tape, but got it backwards. Hey, another poll, do you read the top or bottom of the tape?

[andy photenas]

politics never was my thing but ill take my 7 percent that listened to my lecture!
most ppl compared metric to fractional but my point was to just use fractional and call it a different name to eliminate math while ur measuring Ill need to work on clarity on things like this!
Last think i agree that ppl need to know what others use for numbers too i just teach it in a different order 4/16 oh that 1/4 the math starts to show it self when u look at a tape and is a very hands on way for ppl to learn. i find many ppl that are amazing with working with there hands are not great with math i would hate to scare away a future woodworking master! Again Ty for all the imput i love this group of ppl on here

[Mark Ashmeade]

I use both Imperial and Metric, I am of the generation that grew up with both. Whichever is the most appropriate for the task. The maths of it are absolutely elementary, whichever system one uses, whether fractional or decimal. The one thing I find is that scales on US made equipment (or made for the US market) tends to be Imperial only, which mostly settles the issue of which system to use.

The one thing I dislike is people assuming that "standard" or "regular" is one thing rather than another. For example, in Canada, it's Metric. In the US it's Imperial. Neither are any more right, normal or standard than the other system, they just are what they are.

[Mel Fulks]

Mark, congress has taken a number of actions to make metric official. They have stopped short of force, but you are free to lobby for that. July 4 is official ,metric is official . One is widely accepted the other is not.

[Mark Ashmeade]

Mark, congress has taken a number of actions to make metric official. They have stopped short of force, but you are free to lobby for that. July 4 is official ,metric is official . One is widely accepted the other is not.

Mel, you've just proved my point. Imperial measurement is widely accepted in the US. July 4th is specific to the US.

I'm not lobbying either way, as I said, I grew up with both. I used metric exclusively in the Army, and pretty much use Imperial in my shop. "Normal" and such terms would get you something different in most of the rest of the world. One man's normal is another man's highly unusual.

[Pat Barry]

The long and brutal winter has everyone stir crazy. Just like groundhog day, the metric vs correct discussion takes place every year about this time.