Try explaining this to your wife

[44caliberkid]

That a ball .375 inch in diameter is 36 caliber but a bullet .358 in diameter is a 38.   A .454 diameter ball shooting in a cap and ball pistol is a 44 but the same ball shooting out of a cartridge conversion is a 45.   Her 38-40 is really a 40-38.
   "No wonder you boys love to gun talk." she says.

[Camille Eonich]

Another example of how you never trust the measurements that a man gives you.

[Ornery Orr]

I saw that coming a mile away.

[Lars]

The ancient gauge system never got into those problems, neither does the metric system. Never trust those English colonists!!

Lars

[Dr. Bob]

Lars,

The use of the English inch - foot - yard, mile pre-dates the metric system which came about during the Napoleonic wars.  Besides, if we are in time period, in the US WE were using the English system.  Metrification didn't get very far here in the US.

[Lou Graham]

I remember asking what I thought was a simple question once.......

Why do the rounds get bigger AND the numbers get bigger with rifle and pistol ammo ( .38 is smaller than .45) but it's the opposite with shotgun rounds (12 is now bigger than 20)

That took a week.

[Lars]

Lars,
  Metrification didn't get very far here in the US.

Try working on your car with non-metric tools. You just think metrification has not gotten very far in US -- you are surrounded by it and don't know it. My USA-made cars let me display the temperatures in good old Celcius and the speedometer, etc. shows kms. ALL the tools I need to do repairs around the house are metric -- I live in Colorado.

We never quit using the metric system, even after we moved to USA. All of my formal education in USA used the metric system and it was the only system we used for the 30+ years I worked in USA.

Lars

[Lone Gunman]

Try working on your car with non-metric tools.

Not a problem for me...a hammer's a hammer   


And ladies: The answer is simple...it's the same reason that 'panties' is plural but 'bra' is singular 

[Cyrille]

Explain ta th wife!! Pishaw! evertime Ah try it, it me what gits bamboozled. She don't say nottin jest nods r shake her hed, then comes back a day, week r month later wit her own take on th same question 'r problem Ah thought was settled. wimmen! Bah, humbug!! " Give me land, lots of land and a starry sky above."

[Frenchie]

Long time ago I was into cars and had a great book about restoring old cars, with a big section on automotive tools. I remember there was a British standard for nuts and bolts that wasn't English or metric system, it was its own standard, can't remember what it was called - Whitworth, maybe? 

[Lars]

Not a problem for me...a hammer's a hammer   

George,

You remind me of an old gezer and his old, old car. He too used a hammer on his car. There were a few critical places on the car where a well calibrated and accurate hammer blow had miraculous powers of repair.

Nice to know there are folks and cars like that still around.
Lars

[44caliberkid]

Yes Frenchie, they were Whitworth.  I used to repair motorcycles and BSA's and Triumphs used Whitwoth size wrenches.  The differance is an SAE or metric wrench is sized by the measurement of the nut or bolt head, across two opposite flats.  The Whitworth was sized by the measurement of the lenght of a single flat.  How anybody came up with that is beyond me.  A full set of metric and SAE wrenches would usually get you through, but I also had an old BSA toolkit a buddy gave me in case I couldn't find something to fit.
  If you work on British bikes or cars, you find they do some interesting stuff. Like, "Hey, lets make this rediculously complex just because we're bloody British!"

[Cannon Fodder]

I dont generally post here, but I didnt think I could pass this up!

The last time I tried  to measure anything  of importance (we wont go into that!), it turned out to be 2.476924 Bumols(British unknown measurement of length).

best,

cannon fodder

[Frenchie]

44Cal, old joke from when I was in the National Capital Region Mustang Club (Fords, not horses), and another member and I were also in the same computer club:
What's the difference between British and American computers?
American computers don't leak oil. 

[Brigid Tanner]

Another example of how you never trust the measurements that a man gives you.

Reminds me of a really old, tacky joke....

why was Princess Diana disappointed on her wedding night?

Not all rulers are 12 inches.

[Lou Graham]

One of my favorites:

If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.