Dumb By Any Metric, Part 4
I am in a city with a fair amount of tourists-in-motorhomes summer traffic. The following conversation, with minor variations, happens more often than I care to think about.
Customer: “Can you help me? I’m looking for a 5/8-inch by four-inch dingus, but all I can find is metric ones.”
I accompany the customer to the dingus aisle and go directly to the bin in question.
Me: “Here you go, sir. 5/8-inch diameter, four-inch-long dinguses.”
Note that sizes are given in both metric and SAE; however, our labelling system uses decimal, not fractional notation, so “5/8” is given as “0.625.”
Customer: “No, those are metric!”
Me: “Oh, sorry, no. Both the SAE and metric sizes are given, but in decimals. 0.625-inch or 15.8-mm.”
Customer: “I don’t want 0.625-inch, I want 5/8-inch!”
Me: “Sir… 0.625 inch is 5/8-inch.”
Customer: “No, it isn’t! It’s in decimals, and decimals are metric!”
Related:
Dumb By Any Metric, Part 3
Dumb By Any Metric, Part 2
Dumb By Any Metric
Question of the Week
What’s the kindest act you’ve ever experienced?