And then along came a math teacher
Why are SAE sockets formatted in fractions?
- Thread starter Crash Bandicoot
- Start date
Cause SAE is based in 'murica and they don't hassle with no metric system. It's all English system because 'murica.
Except that approach (using just 16ths) violates several math rules.
Further, there are /32 sizes, I have both 9/32 and 11/32 in my sets, so you would need quite a few more sizes and you would probably be asking why so many “sizes” were skipped.
I feel sorry for those who can’t do the math necessary to figure out relative sizes with fractions. Clearly their teachers, and parents, failed them.
Carpenters and wood workers use fractional sizes all the time.
Pick up a tape measure, yep, fractions. It’s easy.
After reading this thread I'll need a buttload of wine to get over it because a hogshead won't do.
butt (unit)
butt (unit)
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Remember when Burger King introduced the 1/3-lb. burger to compete with McD's 1/4-Pounder?
It failed miserably because 1/3 lb. is smaller than 1/4-lb.
no, that's literally the reason it failed... people thought it was a smaller burger, 'cuz 3 is smaller than 4...
This says it was A&W, back in the early 80's... but i swear i remember BK doing it more recently with the same result....
https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions
This chart by Starrett is one you should print out and hang on the wall. Makes you look "serious" and has a lot of good info.
Consider the possibility of sarcasm and/or dry humor.
I have a mechanical engineering degree. The person cutting my hair once tried to "explain" the sizes of the guards and she had no idea what the numbers meant except "1" is shorter than "2" which is shorter than "3" and so on. When I said a #4 is 1/2", she looked at me like I was just making up numbers.
On a related note, here is what some IKEA instructions had. Obviously "converted" by someone and hey, they tried:
I purposely bought a tape measure that has imperial and metric units (and will use the metric units just as often as imperial) so it wasn't a big deal.
Don't Canadian carpenters use fractional?
yall ought to be glad the British Whitworth size structure disappeared.. it was also fractional..
my opinion why it is the way it is, just is to go back to the beginning of the industrial revolution and then the necessity of training large amounts of agricultural workers to be factory workers... they might not have had much in the way of schooling but someone could teach them to read a ruler... the decimal equivalents came later when those same farmers working in factories had children who became machinists and such.
my opinion why it is the way it is, just is to go back to the beginning of the industrial revolution and then the necessity of training large amounts of agricultural workers to be factory workers... they might not have had much in the way of schooling but someone could teach them to read a ruler... the decimal equivalents came later when those same farmers working in factories had children who became machinists and such.
Easiest to get a clearly readable result when stamping the sizes in. A point or comma could get lost. Never mind if they bget rusty or dirty.
I getya I spent 40+ year working on machinery that was either legacy machinery in SAE format or had attachments of International Standard machinery to the legacy machinery, as well as totally SI machinery... so I became fluent converting in my head when necessary..
really boils down to remembering 2 numbers... 254 and 3937 and knowing what to do with them and where to place the decimal..
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
I know they talk 2x4‘s and SF in home sizes …
Now Red Green can manage it either way !
Over a few summers while I was in college studying math, I worked in a pipefitters shop. They'd assign me different guys depending on the work that needed done. One guy could not read a tape measure. He'd measure the length of pipe needed with a tape measure, he'd keep his thumb tight on the mark, and then I'd have to get the pipe out and hold the end of the tape measure so that he could stretch it out and mark the length. I tried to teach him but he didn't want to learn from the college kid and he didn't see all that much wrong with the way that he did it.
MolaKule
Staff member
I still have some x/32" tools from my grandfather and father-in-laws tool chests.I know most of the 32nds in fractions, too. Handy for measuring holes with calipers and immediately knowing what that translates to.
Oh and friends don't let friends use calipers with a fractional readout. That's like clip-on ties or velcro shoes
Because that's what size they make the bolt heads.
Then we have the engineering tape measure divided into 10ths.
This is part of the reason why all my vehicles are imports... one set of tools. [Actually I do have SAE, it's not like I'm going to throw them away. But I rarely use them.]
Not sure why I prefer metric on my car yet do all my PCB work in mils. Get too used to doing things one way I guess. Thankfully EDA tools can instantly flip between units (although they aren't immune to rounding errors).
I used to have a thing for Raleigh 3 speed bikes. Thankfully an all-sixteenths wrench can handle Whitworth too.
I still think that when they converted highways from next exit signs to ones based on the miles from the start of the highway, that they should have just used km instead of miles. Before it was all but a random number, now people could have started thinking in terms of what a km was (or just treated it like a random number). Also that if we had just gone metric in the 80's... I would have grown up in metric. Just kicking that can down the road.
Wife bought me a tape measure that measures in both units. Sometimes it's just nicer to use mm. There's probably a reason why I didn't become a carpenter.
Not sure why I prefer metric on my car yet do all my PCB work in mils. Get too used to doing things one way I guess. Thankfully EDA tools can instantly flip between units (although they aren't immune to rounding errors).
I used to have a thing for Raleigh 3 speed bikes. Thankfully an all-sixteenths wrench can handle Whitworth too.
I still think that when they converted highways from next exit signs to ones based on the miles from the start of the highway, that they should have just used km instead of miles. Before it was all but a random number, now people could have started thinking in terms of what a km was (or just treated it like a random number). Also that if we had just gone metric in the 80's... I would have grown up in metric. Just kicking that can down the road.
Wife bought me a tape measure that measures in both units. Sometimes it's just nicer to use mm. There's probably a reason why I didn't become a carpenter.
