When it comes to insulation temperature rating, why do we use celsius?

I don't really see more of a problem with different systems of units, than different fastener types, we have traditionally used robertson or slot, then phillips now there is star bit.
I have adapted many pieces of equipment (threaded hubs) from/to metric threads to NPT.
I have installed metric cable tray in the USA and even metric cables in said metric cable tray. I have used metric cable glands... Not sure why its big deal to not have any metric wire in the NEC. NEC is not a design manual, it should have a table for metric wire (EDIT that is if doesn't I am not that up on the code LOL)
 
Well, there is also that most American cars these days have both imperial and metric nuts and bolts so you need two sets of sockets and wrenches.
 
Wasn't there a case where a Mars lander augured into the red planet because one engineer gave some numbers to another without indicating units where one was using pounds and the other was working in kilos? Oopsie...
 
ggunn said:
Wasn't there a case where a Mars lander augured into the red planet because one engineer gave some numbers to another without indicating units where one was using pounds and the other was working in kilos? Oopsie...
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Similar Oopsies have happened many times.

But the most frustating to me have been when the airport security doesn't understand the difference between ounces of volume versus ounces of weight.
 
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jim dungar said:
Similar Oopsies have happened many times.
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Yeah, but that Mars lander failure was a big one. Can you imagine sitting at a monitor in Mission Control watching Mars get closer and closer and closer...?
 
ggunn said:
Yeah, but that Mars lander failure was a big one. Can you imagine sitting at a monitor in Mission Control watching Mars get closer and closer and closer...?
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Is this the one you are thinking of?
everydayastronaut.com

Metric vs Imperial Units: How NASA lost a 327 Million Dollar Mission to Mars

Imagine a simple conversion error caused a multi-million dollar mission to go puff! We explore how the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in 1999.
everydayastronaut.com everydayastronaut.com

Here are some others.

Four Tragedies Caused by Erroneous Unit Conversion

To many, unit conversion may seem like a simple calculation and innocuous operation that cannot lead to catastrophe. And if you are one of those, you cannot be more wrong. The recent history is marred with an array of multi-million dollars research projects and catastrophes, which emanated from
sites.google.com sites.google.com
 
CoolWill said:
Yes. Lots of people argue about this subject.
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We in the US have been steeped in Imperial units all our lives. If you told me that I am 5'10" tall and weigh 160# I would say that is correct, but if you told me I am 177.8 cm tall and mass 73.7 kg I would have to look up the conversions and do the math. :D
 
ggunn said:
We in the US have been steeped in Imperial units all our lives. If you told me that I am 5'10" tall and weigh 160# I would say that is correct, but if you told me I am 177.8 cm tall and mass 73.7 kg I would have to look up the conversions and do the math. :D
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Even with Imperial, I still need look up conversions. I am pretty bad at picturing how big a .44 Acre lot is.
 
ggunn said:
We in the US have been steeped in Imperial units all our lives. If you told me that I am 5'10" tall and weigh 160# I would say that is correct, but if you told me I am 177.8 cm tall and mass 73.7 kg I would have to look up the conversions and do the math. :D
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I have a pretty good handle on both systems and don't mind using either. I agree that the U.S. Customary system has some extra inconsistent baggage, but it works just fine.
 
Just my take.............
Different units and things. I suppose many of you here I am a Brit and I am ancient just to get a bit of perspective. When I was at school that was mostly Imperial units except the science teacher used CGS (centimetre, gramme, sec). Then I moved on for my engineering degree. Even they were still using some Imperial units but that changed fairy quickly so for me it was metric there after. Actually System International. For me that is sampler. That said I still had quite a few old projects that were Imperial, Sorry, I'm rambling again,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
 
jim dungar said:
Even with Imperial, I still need look up conversions. I am pretty bad at picturing how big a .44 Acre lot is
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Even then what shape is it? It's 19166.4 square feet, but it could be a foot wide and 3.63 miles long. You could move to Montana and be a dental floss tycoon. Yippee ty yo ky yay! :D
 
ggunn said:
but if you told me I am 177.8 cm tall and mass 73.7 kg I would have to look up the conversions and do the math.
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But they'd say "178 cm or 74 kg", same as most people would say they're "a little shy of 220 pounds" (or "half over 15 stone"), not that they're 218.4 pounds.

The fallacy of most units arguments is trying to make them exactly equal and then saying "that's too complicated!!!"
 
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