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Bill S. Bill S. is offline
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Default American machine screw types

In article -
media.com, says...
And of course, it goes without saying that the obstinacy of my fellow
Americans, clinging absurdly to a ridiculously clumsy system of
measurement, is pathetic.


It should have gone without saying. But let me turn that on its head:

While the rest of the world clings pathetically to the idea of forcing
a single tyrannical system on everyone, Americans have freely embraced
the idea of duality. We have plenty of legacy equipment that still
works perfectly well and needs support, and when making new we can
choose whatever fits best. There are a few "clingers", but most of
us just saw the metric system as additional options to use at will,
not as a mandatory replacement. Mechanics have tools for both systems
and not only switch freely between them, but take extra advantage from
the wider range. A couple examples: a 12mm wrench will probably work
on that 1/2" bolt head that's partly rusted away; a 1/4" bolt will
probably fit that 6mm hole you just stripped out.

The bottom line: not only are Americans now fully fluent with metric
and decimal measurements, but we are also still fluent with fractions
and SAE, *and also* familiar with conversions and inter-relationships
between the systems. We have the best of both worlds and then some.