Greg Erskine wrote:
"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
news:hsndo1$oaa$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...
Moved to UserChat from Support
"Tilmann Reh" wrote
James Morrison schrieb:
I highly recommend never using the term "mil"--it is too ambiguous.
...
If you 1/1000 of an inch then we use the term "thou".
Sorry, but in my eyes "thou" is exactly as ambiguous as "mil". :-\
It could mean a thousandth of about /everything/.
Maybe it's from my european background, but additionally I have never
heard "thou" before, except for Olin's post and yours - but "mil" is
pretty common and (for me) unambiguous for tens of years... I never
would have imagined someone could misinterpret it - one more evidence of
small differences in language that can be dangerous...
Tilmann
This is a great coffee break discussion.
As with any language, interpretation lies in the context.
Additionally the context is affected by the history of a country, its
culture.
Within a culture colloquialisms and phrase shortening occurs. This was
acceptable in days of old where your interaction tended to be quite local
and the risks of using the same sounding word to express something
entirely
different was low . Now days with the global community the risks and
costs
of misinterpretation are high so we need to ensure clarity for the
receiver.
Here in New Zealand, being an English Commonwealth country, my schooling
involved the imperial measure. Small measurements below about 1/64 inch
were
done in thousands of and inch (Thou). It was handy to know that the
thickness of a hacksaw blade was 25 thou., a handy size for setting spark
plug gaps and engine tappets. In those years most product came from
England
or USA. Eventually we metricated and tape measures and rulers had both
measures along their edges and imported product can be of either measure
but predominately metric these days. Now when I measure ,say, a table I
use millimetres but as I remember it I say 'mils' as the shortening of the
word millimetre. Likely I am saying 'mill-s' but it sounds the same. In
my
context, to me, I know what I mean. If I quoted the phrase 15mils to most
people in this country they would interpret it as meaning 1.5 centimetres
and not 15 milli-inches. To someone here in the PCB trade the
interpretation
would be 15 milliinches so long as the surrounding conversation supported
that context but because of our history they would likely ask for
confirmation. Currently any conversation with an engineering trade using
'Thou' would be understood. In the future, if the entire world goes
metric,
thou will disappear from common use here just as yards have.
Personally I have not heard 'thou' used in any other way.
'Milli' immediately conveys 1/1000 to me.
'mil' and 'mils' I know as 1/1000 inch but I need to confirm everytime
it's
not a shortening of millimetre.
mil used with inch appears to be a mix of metric qualifier with an
imperial
measure, I could be wrong about this.
Hope you enjoyed your coffee.
Warren
How big is your coffee cup? 275 mls
27.5 table spoons? SCNR 
Anyhow, this mils business has cost a pretty penny once at a company. We
had hired several UK engineers and they thought of mils as millimeters.
While our machine shop thought it was ... and made the part "to order".
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/
"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
Greg Erskine wrote:
"Warren Brayshaw" <warrenbrayshaw@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
news:hsndo1$oaa$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...
Moved to UserChat from Support
"Tilmann Reh" wrote
James Morrison schrieb:
I highly recommend never using the term "mil"--it is too ambiguous.
...
If you 1/1000 of an inch then we use the term "thou".
Sorry, but in my eyes "thou" is exactly as ambiguous as "mil". :-\
It could mean a thousandth of about /everything/.
Maybe it's from my european background, but additionally I have never
heard "thou" before, except for Olin's post and yours - but "mil" is
pretty common and (for me) unambiguous for tens of years... I never
would have imagined someone could misinterpret it - one more evidence of
small differences in language that can be dangerous...
Tilmann
This is a great coffee break discussion.
As with any language, interpretation lies in the context.
Additionally the context is affected by the history of a country, its
culture.
Within a culture colloquialisms and phrase shortening occurs. This was
acceptable in days of old where your interaction tended to be quite local
and the risks of using the same sounding word to express something
entirely
different was low . Now days with the global community the risks and
costs
of misinterpretation are high so we need to ensure clarity for the
receiver.
Here in New Zealand, being an English Commonwealth country, my schooling
involved the imperial measure. Small measurements below about 1/64 inch
were
done in thousands of and inch (Thou). It was handy to know that the
thickness of a hacksaw blade was 25 thou., a handy size for setting spark
plug gaps and engine tappets. In those years most product came from
England
or USA. Eventually we metricated and tape measures and rulers had both
measures along their edges and imported product can be of either measure
but predominately metric these days. Now when I measure ,say, a table I
use millimetres but as I remember it I say 'mils' as the shortening of the
word millimetre. Likely I am saying 'mill-s' but it sounds the same. In
my
context, to me, I know what I mean. If I quoted the phrase 15mils to most
people in this country they would interpret it as meaning 1.5 centimetres
and not 15 milli-inches. To someone here in the PCB trade the
interpretation
would be 15 milliinches so long as the surrounding conversation supported
that context but because of our history they would likely ask for
confirmation. Currently any conversation with an engineering trade using
'Thou' would be understood. In the future, if the entire world goes
metric,
thou will disappear from common use here just as yards have.
Personally I have not heard 'thou' used in any other way.
'Milli' immediately conveys 1/1000 to me.
'mil' and 'mils' I know as 1/1000 inch but I need to confirm everytime
it's
not a shortening of millimetre.
mil used with inch appears to be a mix of metric qualifier with an
imperial
measure, I could be wrong about this.
Hope you enjoyed your coffee.
Warren
How big is your coffee cup? 275 mls
27.5 table spoons? SCNR
Anyhow, this mils business has cost a pretty penny once at a company. We
had hired several UK engineers and they thought of mils as millimeters.
While our machine shop thought it was ... and made the part "to order".
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/
"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
