stupid question, what size wrench for oil drainplug?
01-05-2020, 07:13 PM
#32
I'm a mathematician, physicist, and sometime programmer. I also travel internationally quite often. Just got back from a foreign country yesterday.
I don't find that there's ANY DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER in the "ease" of using either system, in most cases. It generally boils down to, whatever you're most used to, or comfortable with.
That said, if you were a merchant in the Dark Ages and had a big pile of something (let's say, corn, flour, firewood, aromatic natural organic fertilizer, … you pick the commodity) or maybe a big jug of some precious fluid (cauldron, keg, barrel, flask, … of whisky, beer, known disease-free water, honey, sperm whale oil, …) and you wanted to sell some of it to a customer, how would you go about dividing it? THIMK: would you divide it into 10 equal parts and sell 3.76 of them? No. Not no, HELL NO. You'd divide it in HALF, then in HALF again, then in HALF again, and so on, until you had a small enough increment; then you'd add up some of those bigger and smaller ½s, and that's what you'd sell.
So for example: you could start out with a bushel, and divide it in half (peck); divide in half again (gallon); divide in half again, then another half (quart); divide in half (pint); in half (cup); in half, then again, then again (ounces); and so on, down to tablespoons and teaspoons. IN HALF each time, which is EEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZY to see and to avoid fraud in the real world.
Sixteenths work the same way. Once you know what an inch is, you can divide it in half (half inches, duh); half again (quarter inches), in half again (eighths); half again (sixteenths); and so on. Pounds, likewise; divide in half repeatedly until you get to 16ths (ounces). Doesn't get much easier.
Any programmers here? What do we call a system that divides by halves and multiplies by 2s? Isn't that BINARY? How modern is that?
Ever try to take a pile of something, let's say sand or flour or coal, and divide it into tenths, WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS?
That's the shining virtue of the Imperial system. (well, most of it, anyway) It's SOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPER EEEEEEEEEEEZZZZY to use WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS because it relies on dividing by half.
Some of our other systems (time w 12 or 24 hrs, degrees w 360, feet w 12 inches, etc.) are based on the ancient Babylonian number system using 12. Or, miles based on 1000 Roman paces (5280 modern "feet"). Historically sensible and "backward compatible" into DEEP antiquity, but clumsy. Unless you're dealing with railroad gauges.
Frankly, I'm comfortable, in 2019 WITH INSTRUMENTS, with using either system. And the °C (base 10) or °F (base 12... 180°, the difference between freezing and boiling, is 12 × 15) systems as well. In 2019, I don't feel like either one is "superior" to the other; any more than if I have a pile of gold, that it takes $1 US to buy it, or £0.7576 UK, or ¥108 Japan,or €0.896 EU, or whatever. It's all the same in the end.
I don't find that there's ANY DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER in the "ease" of using either system, in most cases. It generally boils down to, whatever you're most used to, or comfortable with.
That said, if you were a merchant in the Dark Ages and had a big pile of something (let's say, corn, flour, firewood, aromatic natural organic fertilizer, … you pick the commodity) or maybe a big jug of some precious fluid (cauldron, keg, barrel, flask, … of whisky, beer, known disease-free water, honey, sperm whale oil, …) and you wanted to sell some of it to a customer, how would you go about dividing it? THIMK: would you divide it into 10 equal parts and sell 3.76 of them? No. Not no, HELL NO. You'd divide it in HALF, then in HALF again, then in HALF again, and so on, until you had a small enough increment; then you'd add up some of those bigger and smaller ½s, and that's what you'd sell.
So for example: you could start out with a bushel, and divide it in half (peck); divide in half again (gallon); divide in half again, then another half (quart); divide in half (pint); in half (cup); in half, then again, then again (ounces); and so on, down to tablespoons and teaspoons. IN HALF each time, which is EEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZY to see and to avoid fraud in the real world.
Sixteenths work the same way. Once you know what an inch is, you can divide it in half (half inches, duh); half again (quarter inches), in half again (eighths); half again (sixteenths); and so on. Pounds, likewise; divide in half repeatedly until you get to 16ths (ounces). Doesn't get much easier.
Any programmers here? What do we call a system that divides by halves and multiplies by 2s? Isn't that BINARY? How modern is that?
Ever try to take a pile of something, let's say sand or flour or coal, and divide it into tenths, WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS?
That's the shining virtue of the Imperial system. (well, most of it, anyway) It's SOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPER EEEEEEEEEEEZZZZY to use WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS because it relies on dividing by half.
Some of our other systems (time w 12 or 24 hrs, degrees w 360, feet w 12 inches, etc.) are based on the ancient Babylonian number system using 12. Or, miles based on 1000 Roman paces (5280 modern "feet"). Historically sensible and "backward compatible" into DEEP antiquity, but clumsy. Unless you're dealing with railroad gauges.
Frankly, I'm comfortable, in 2019 WITH INSTRUMENTS, with using either system. And the °C (base 10) or °F (base 12... 180°, the difference between freezing and boiling, is 12 × 15) systems as well. In 2019, I don't feel like either one is "superior" to the other; any more than if I have a pile of gold, that it takes $1 US to buy it, or £0.7576 UK, or ¥108 Japan,or €0.896 EU, or whatever. It's all the same in the end.
Last edited by RB04Av; 01-05-2020 at 07:35 PM.
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1redta (01-06-2020)
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00pooterSS (01-10-2020)
01-06-2020, 09:43 PM
#37
TECH Junkie
4 pages and ten years over a drain plug size. Maybe I need to go do something useful like drink another beer instead of read this **** 
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arthursc2 (01-07-2020)
01-07-2020, 05:27 PM
#40
TECH Junkie
Yep post 32 was informative. **** I can be as lazy as anybody (ask my wife) but get under the damn truck with some tools dude...WTF lol?