Pedantic question about standardisation

[Sirius Glass]

Maybe it comes from the Printing Trade? I noticed that all the paper sizes in my US references are quoted with the shortest dimension first.

Yes, that is the standard in the printing industry.

 

[Leigh B]

I noticed that all the paper sizes in my US references are quoted with the shortest dimension first.

The sizing nomenclature comes from printing, not just the printing trade.

The narrow dimension of the paper defines the minimum size of the machine needed to process it.

Take a look at your computer printer. It can print 8.5" x 11", or 8.5" x 14", or 8.5" high banner of arbitrary length.

But it can't print B-size (11" x 17"). That requires a different machine.

- Leigh

 

[lxdude]

Although we do know that a car does not wear a boot or a bonnet and we correctly refer to them as a trunk and a hood.

And our cars don't have wings either! British cars don't even fly worth a damn anyway.

And the head is part of the engine instead of being the roof, though we screw it up by referring to the material on the inside of the car under the roof as being the headliner.

And we shorten "gasoline" to "gas", though it's not a gas, and in UK they call it "petrol", even though it's not petroleum, just made from it, which is like calling a pork chop, "pig".

Well, enough of this. I'm getting tyred.

 

[Leigh B]

Well, enough of this. I'm getting tyred.

Going round and round to no purpose.

- Leigh

 

[Gerald C Koch]

To those who are so enamoured of the metric system I say try building a house using a meter stick. The metric system makes sense for scientific use but the englsh system is based on common practical units used in everyday life.

Perhaps if the english hadn't been so intent on cozying up to europe and prove that the english were europeans too they would also still be using the english system.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Leigh;

I print 13 x 19 on my printer.

PE

 

[lxdude]

Actually Americans follow common sense spelling and the use of Latin based words; while the British prefer to use the more archaic "whilst", insert unpronounced letters in words, and use Anglo-Saxon four letter functionals instead of the more literate use of Latin root words.

Ah, but those four-letter functionals are so perfectly concise in their monosyllabicity!

On the other hand Americans are not adverse to using Elizabethan past tense forms such as "thunk" for the past tense of think [drink, drank, drunk].

"Gotten" instead of "got" is another example.

Both recently have taken to brutalizing the adverbs by hacking off the "-ly" and doing it quite badly.

True, but in your cited example we just transferred it, as in "I feel badly today".

 

[Photo Engineer]

But it is so fun to say "my bad".

BTW, by the time I get to Drunk, I have been drinkulating!

PE

 

[Leigh B]

I print 13 x 19 on my printer

So do I (on one of them).

But it won't print 19 x 13 (disregarding rotating the source image).

- Leigh

 

[lxdude]

Going round and round to no purpose.

- Leigh

Time for a brake.

 

[Bill Burk]

The exception is 6cm film. Since there are so many formats using that film, the 6 is usually given first (6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x17, etc).

- Leigh

Good catch! Forgot all about 645.

 

[MattKing]

The metric system makes sense for scientific use but the englsh system is based on common practical units used in everyday life.

My God Gerald, how big are your feet!?

 

[lxdude]

My God Gerald, how big are your feet!?

I don't even want to think about his rod...
And he must have a really small yard...

 

[ambaker]

It's 4x5 and 8x10, no matter which way you turn them. I'm six feet tall, even when lying down.

It's color, not colour. My iPad even knows this. I had to override the autocorrect to spell it the other way. Saving up all those little extra "U"s, is what got us to the moon first.

 

[Dali]

To those who are so enamoured of the metric system I say try building a house using a meter stick. The metric system makes sense for scientific use but the englsh system is based on common practical units used in everyday life.

Perhaps if the english hadn't been so intent on cozying up to europe and prove that the english were europeans too they would also still be using the english system.

I don't see why using the metric system can be a disadvantage. In fact, I can't see any disadvantage at all as calculation is much easier.

Take care.

 

[Maris]

It's a curious fact that customary units in the USA are actually defined within the metric system. For example the length of the US yard is exactly 3600/3937 metres and the pound is exactly 0.453 592 4277 Kilograms. The change happened in the Mendenhall Order of 1893. An inch may be a convenient unit but you have to ask the metric system to be sure how long it is!

 

[Steve Smith]

Here's a clue as to who is right and who is wrong.... It's called English!!!


Steve.

 

[Steve Smith]

Perhaps if the english hadn't been so intent on cozying up to europe and prove that the english were europeans too they would also still be using the English system.

We do. All of our road signs are in yards and miles. People of my age are happy using both systems. I use metric for engineering and imperial for house building.

(English capitalised as it should be),

So my next question would be, when you specify 5x4...

Are you doing it because you are specifying the long dimension first?

Or are you specifying the height first?

In my opinion, it's the long dimension first. The same as specifying x then y on a graph.

The real question is why are your fries called chips, and why are your chips called crisps, and why (in America) if you want fish and fries, you have to order fish and chips?

As ever, because we are right and you are wrong! What you refer to as fries are probably not real French fries as they are traditionally fried twice.

Liter formulas for Europe

Litre.

Metric! Our money is metric

Why do Americans refer to 1/4 as a fourth but refer to a 25 cent coin as a quarter? And whilst I'm thinking about coinage, why do you use the English penny to describe a one cent coin?

But it is so fun to say "my bad"

That one is really annoying (not real annoying as Americans say!). It is not possible to own an adjective.


There. I think I have caught up with everything I missed last night!


Steve.

 

[Curt]

As usual America bastardized the language.

In theory we call a vertical, a 4x5 and a horizontal a 5x4.

Although since most Americans are barely educated even with a college degree, we call an 8x10 (vertical) portrait format, and a 10x8, an 8x10 landscape format.

So a horizontal 10x8 print is called 8x10 landscape even if it's a portrait.

Although we do know that a car does not wear a boot or a bonnet and we correctly refer to them as a trunk and a hood.

Do they climb in the boot or bonnet to make a trunk call?

 

[lxdude]

Because then we would have to admit someone else is right...

Metric! Our money is metric, that's all that is needed.

Our money isn't metric- it's decimal.

 

[Curt]

In architectural drafting, US, a window specified at 4.0 3.0 is four feet wide by three feet high.

 

[Diapositivo]

In Italy I would say that the shorter dimension is always given first.
135 is 24 x 36.
120 roll film can be framed in 4,5x6, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9.
Never heard "nove per sei" or "sette per sei".
4,5x6 is always pronounced "quattroemmezzosei" with one word.

A4 is 21 x 29,7 cm etc.

Building conventions are certainly different as a window cannot be rotated like a piece of paper.

I don't see how or when non-metric measures can be more practical than metric measures. They both are entirely conventional, but the metric convention has the obvious advantage of being decimal. If a window weights 32 kilograms, a container with 1000 windows will weight 32 metric tons.

If your gas station reservoir needs to satisfy 2000 clients for a 40 litres average refill before refilling the reservoir, it needs to have a volume of 80 cubic metres. That's let's say 2 metres high for 4x5 metres of base. Fast and easy.

 

[Steve Smith]

it needs to have a volume of 80 cubic metres. That's let's say 2 metres high for 4x5 metres of base. Fast and easy.

Fast, easy and wrong!

4x5x2 = 40


Steve.

 

[benjiboy]

"We are two country s separated by a common language", for example I once found out to my cost that to " knock someone up" which in the U.K.means to wake somebody up by knocking on their door or window which originated in the Lancashire mill towns where the mills employed " knockerupers" who used a long pole to tap on the mill workers windows to wake them in the morning for the early shift means something completely different in the U.S, I found this out once when in a pub I offered to "knock up" an American friends wife on my way to work the next morning

 

[Roger Cole]

We do. All of our road signs are in yards and miles. People of my age are happy using both systems. I use metric for engineering and imperial for house building.

(English capitalised as it should be),



In my opinion, it's the long dimension first. The same as specifying x then y on a graph.



As ever, because we are right and you are wrong! What you refer to as fries are probably not real French fries as they are traditionally fried twice.



Litre.



Why do Americans refer to 1/4 as a fourth but refer to a 25 cent coin as a quarter? And whilst I'm thinking about coinage, why do you use the English penny to describe a one cent coin?



That one is really annoying (not real annoying as Americans say!). It is not possible to own an adjective.


There. I think I have caught up with everything I missed last night!


Steve.

When I read this I mentally "pronounced" it as "refer to a quarter as a fourth..." then was briefly confused. 1/4 may be called a quarter or a fourth. Some of this is age dependent. I am more likely to call it a quarter and my wife, who is enough younger to have newer speech patterns, is more likely to say "a fourth."

I sometimes reply to people who say "my bad" by asking, "your bad WHAT?"