Re: NEC-LIST: US metrics question

At 05:14 PM 2/28/2003 -0500, Jacob Schanker wrote:
>Arie:
>
>I haven't seen any replies to your question, so let me try to answer it.
>
>I think you are safe using decimal feet, like your example of 12.345 foot.
>Industry here tends to use this form, unless they are enlightened enough to
>be using metric measure. The building trades and other crafts tend to use
>feet-inches-fractions, so a ten meter long wall might be shown as 32'
>9-11/16"

I'd suggest decimal inches... Very, very few tape measures, except, perhaps
those used by surveyors, have decimal fractions of a foot on them.

>What will you do for wire element diameters? Decimal inches would be more
>appropriate than feet.
>
>I try to use metric measure when I do NEC simulations, but I agree it's best
>to allow feet-inches.
>
>The feet-inch measure is sometimes called "English", sometimes "Imperial"
>but seldom "US Customary".

Although people use Imperial, it's incorrect, I believe. Perhaps
Avoirdupois? I think "US Customary" is the "official name"

>I am sure the feet-inches will be helpful to numerical electromagnetic
>modelers in Myanmar and Liberia, as well as in the USA.

I think Sierra Leone also uses customary units.

As a practical matter, they also still use a lot of feet/inches in England
(at least my wife's relatives do, but then, they aren't building antennas)

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