I raised the issue of mils myself some time ago, and most respondents seem to think that I was unusual in preferring to use 'thou'. I'm uncomfortable using 'mil' because it is confusable with 'millimetre' (I know British engineers with sufficient experience will tend to ask for clarification).
In reply to Dan, yes, a lot of people do still use traditional measurements in Britain (there was a similar, but shorter and now long forgotten argument over currency decimalisation). However, they *are* mostly of Roman origin, so it's not ridiculous to call them Roman. They were already use by other European countries long before Britain and other European countries became imperial powers and spread the system to countries not touched by the Roman empire. You might as well call them German, since they used to use feet and inches too (foot == Fuß, inch == Zoll). However, it's been official British government policy to switch to metric for 40 years (which says a lot about our government). That's why I was taught metric and only metric at school. Until Andy defined it, I didn't actually know how many pounds there were in a stone, not that I really care because I never use stones to weigh anything. I've always weighed myself in kg, as it's simpler than using stones and pounds. I would dispute that traditional units are better because they relate to human beings since my foot is 25cm long, making it theoretically useful for measuring in metric, but completely useless for measuring in traditional units. As for Fahrenheit, my English central heating system dates back to the 70's and the thermostat is calibrated in Celsius (or deg centigrade, as it was back then). I've never found it in any way awkward to use. There is no more need to refer to room temperature accurate to half a degree Celsius than there is to refer to the temperature accurate to one degree Fahrenheit. In fact, the thermostat is marked in 5 Celsius divisions, and since the knob fell off it one day and could be replaced in a multitude of positions, it neither resolves nor is accurate to half a degree. Personally I no more want to use traditional units than I want to play music using a wax cylinder, or to travel around the country hauled by Stevenson's Rocket, or to drive a car where I have to manually adjust the ignition advance. To me they are all awkward, clunky, and obsolete. If others want to stand still, fine, but please don't hold the rest of us back. kicad needs to move with the times. Regards, Robert. Chris wrote: > You hit the nail on the head > > ............'In the United States'........... > > I have always used thousandth or thou, and I grew up in England. where the > dimension was probably first used. > > However, it's kind of ironic, that in the US, the prefix 'mil' is used, > since the _preferred_ SI units are all magnitudes of three... and hence why > milli is used more often than deci or centi. > > > Chris > > On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 7:14 PM, Dan <dan...@wolstenholme.net> wrote: > >> >> No, the correct terminology for 1/1000 of an inch is "mil". There's >> countless PCB manufacturers who agree with me on this, so I'll take their >> word on it. >> >> Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_(length) >> >> According to this, "mil" is the older term, and was only replaced in some >> places by "thou" when the SI system came about, because of possible >> confusion with millimeters. But "mil" is still in widespread use. From the >> article: "In the United States, the mil/thou is still in use extensively in >> certain industries such as in the manufacture of printed circuit boards >> (PCBs) and for tolerance specifications on hydraulic cylinders." Apparently, >> the PCB industry hasn't adopted "thou", since every time I look at some >> Chinese PCB maker's website, they use mils. >> >> Dan >> >> --- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com <kicad-users%40yahoogroups.com>, Chris >> <fj1...@...> wrote: >>> Actually, the correct terminology is Imperial units, not English. >>> >>> And mils is actually a unit of angle. >>> >>> the correct terminology for 1/1000 of an inch is thousandth or thou. >> >> > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.387 / Virus Database: 270.13.8/2227 - Release Date: 07/09/09 > 05:55:00 >
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