XPost: sci.electronics.equipment   
   From: CFKinsey@military.org.jp   
      
   On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:30:20 +0100, Cydrome Leader    
   wrote:   
      
   > In sci.electronics.equipment Commander Kinsey    
   wrote:   
   >> On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 20:21:10 +0100, Tom Gardner    
   wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 12/07/20 19:01, Pimpom wrote:   
   >>>> On 7/12/2020 11:15 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:   
   >>>>> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:23:31 +0100, Cydrome Leader    
   >>>>> wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> In sci.electronics.equipment Pimpom  wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>>> My mechanical slide caliper has a resolution of 0.001 inch. This   
   >>>>>>> means that it can display measurements with a precision of 1 mil,   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> What if your caliper had a resolution of 1 mil +/- 3 counts on the last   
   >>>>>> digit?   
   >>>> .............   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> In America, what is a "mill"?  In the UK, it used to mean a thousandth   
   of an   
   >>>>> inch, but people use it to mean a millimetre nowadays.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> It's not a mill. It's mil - single l. It means, and has always meant, a   
   >>>> thousandth of an inch. It's not an Americanism.   
   >>>   
   >>> In the UK "mill" means millilitre.   
   >>>   
   >>> If you want to refer to fractions of an inch, then   
   >>> it is /always/ "thou", i.e. thousandths of an inch.   
   >>>   
   >>> In the UK "mil/mill" /never/ means 0.001".   
   >>   
   >> Yes it does.  My neighbour's a tradesman (in Scotland) and says   
   >> "mill/mil" (I don't know which as they sound the same in speech) as   
   >> shorthand for millimetre.  As in "that kitchen unit is 600 mill wide".   
   >> Since we don't use inches for such things in the UK, there's no   
   >> confusion.   
   >   
   > The context there is key too. While I'd not measure a countertop or   
   > whatever in millimeters, it would make no sense that anything in a kitchen   
   > would be measured thicknesses of paper.   
   >   
   > We (in the US) use "guage" for wire   
      
   Isn't that really hard to work out?  We use cross sectional area in mm.  Which   
   is really easy to imagine.  With the added bonus that a higher number is   
   thicker.  It's also pretty handy as a rough guide that 1 square mm carries 10   
   amps.   
      
   > and sheet metal.   
      
   Seriously?  Wow.  Why would you nbot measure a thickness in a unit of distance?   
      
   > We also use "guage"   
   > for measuring really thin stuff like plastic films. In the last case, it's   
   > a completly different unit, but with proper context won't confuse anybody.   
      
   We use microns.   
      
   > Question for the metric woodworkers. Does anybody cut a piece of wood to   
   > 317mm or 429mm or other off numbers when building a house or handing a   
   > door or installing a countertop?   
      
   Depends if something else is in the way.  I'd always try to use round numbers.   
      
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