Understanding Metrology Measurement Units - Inch & Metric

In this metrology training episode, we are going to teach you how to speak like a measurement professional. We are often dealing with small numbers in this business - tolerances - errors - deviations - uncertainties - most of the measuring values that are important to us in dimensional measurements are smaller than the thickness of your hair. These little numbers have multiple zeros after the decimal point, which makes speaking them difficult. In both inch and metric units, our industry has its own language - and some of it is unwritten and unofficial slang terms such as the micron - but those special terms can be quite useful in every day conversations.
Use the following link to download the Units and Conversions Technical Bulletin:
www.mitutoyo.com/webfoo/wp-con...
#Mitutoyo #Metrology #MetrologyTrainging

[@travisjarrett2355]

One of the best videos on this subject. Have shared it with several people. Great work Dr. Salsbury!

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Wow, thank you!

[@WeldNotes]

Great video! Thanks for making these available to everyone!

[@sourceindustrialsupplysis9014]

Thank you for posting such instructive videos !

[@nirv]

This is great stuff. Thanks for the videos!

[@yt66228]

About time someone posted a great video on Metrology. THANK YOU!

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Thanks Paul!

[@mindhunter8772]

Is Metrology a good career?

[@tabacsr]

Explained perfectly

[@MatthewRulla]

The word "micrometer", when referring to the tool comes from the Greek, meaning small measure. Long before the Metric system was established.

[@nickp4793]

Correct! (I'm Greek:))

[@israelbarrios1549]

Excellent thank you

[@GH-oi2jf]

Excellent presentation. This is the way units of measurement should be discussed - engineering and machinist’s practice without the politics.

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Thank you.

[@chrisstephens6673]

If you use the spelling of the unit as metre, like the rest of the world😅, then there is a distinction between a micrometer(meter being a measuring device) and a micrometre(metre being a unit of length).

[@swaraj1501]

Great its very helpful...Thanks from INDIA 🇮🇳

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Glad it was helpful!

[@LukeA_55]

Wow this answered a lot of random questions that bug me every now and then. One of those was that I could never seem to fathom what 1 micron was, now I've got a much better understanding of it Great video!

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@billshiff2060]

AH!, well, 1 fathom is about 1,829,000 microns.

[@erikmc6385]

This worked for me thank you

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

You're welcome!

[@john90430]

The measuring tool is a micrometer, like a tool that measures speed is a speedometer, and a tool that measures temperature is a thermometer. That's the difference in pronunciation between a measuring tool and the 0.001 mm micrometer. Easy.

[@chrisstephens6673]

Also outside the US the distance measurement unit is a Metre not a Meter, so a micrometer( pronounced mic-rometer) is a small measurement instrument but the small measurement is a micrometre (micro-metre) although micron is still more popular amongst old hands. When you get the oldies talking about Mills they mean thousandth of an inch but to a metric mind that means a millimetre, confusing or what?

[@ehhhhhhhhhh]

I don't know what I was expecting, but I'm laughing to myself that the video series on metrology is extremely high quality. Of course it is, that's what you specialize in. Haha!

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@darkmatter3538]

My old Job instead of using the word "Thou" for 1/1000 of an inch, they would use the word "mil" where "5 mils" would mean 5/1000 of an inch. and "mil" for 1/1000 of an inch is not to be confused with "mil" as in shortening the word "millimeter".

[@bmwn5238]

is there a metric digital caliper with resolution 0,001? . for example to mesure 49.094 mm

[@risalkusuma0184]

🔥👏👏

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Thank you.

[@maximolopezsr9399]

Jim , can you speak about torque wrench use and Calibration and how often ,must be calibres

[@mscscambodia]

Torque wrenches need regular calibration and that is usually determined by the amount of use or if the tool has been damage or dropped.

[@Mirandorl]

Please could you recommend a book of measurement techniques for various situations and applications? It seems to be extremely hard to find resources for basic measurement techniques. I am a homeshop machinist.

[@davidflack6430]

Try NPLs good practice guides. www.npl.co.uk

[@Mirandorl]

@@davidflack6430 Thank you!

[@JeSsSe66]

Lol this guy is great

[@jeffmarden9502]

Wonderful video... except... The information in the video is wonderful and presented beautifully, but the reference to the Technical Bulletin on this topic that can be "easily found" in the on-demand section of the website is not accurate. Can't find it, even when clicking on the link in the description. Just takes me to the website, where I searched, but never found, the bulletin.

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

We are happy to hear that you like the video overall. Thank you for bringing up the fact that the link originally provided was no longer taking viewers to the correct page on our website. In the time that this video has been out, we have updated our website, and the bulletin is located in our brand-new recourse section of the new website. But based on the original link now not sending viewers to the correct location on our website, we just update the description to this video and the link for the bulletin is now listed below the video description for one to download the bulletin. You can also use this link to find the bulletin as well: www.mitutoyo.com/webfoo/wp-content/uploads/EDU15001A.pdf

[@patrickdezeeuw4154]

If you were going to write the of .0005” in slang would it be five ten th’s?

[@SpeedofCheeseRacing]

Yes. And you wouldn't keep adding the zero before the decimal point like in the video. Redundant number is redundant.

[@dr.jimsalsbury695]

@@SpeedofCheeseRacing Point well taken. However, I'm still a fan of using the zero before the decimal point to eliminate potential confusion.

[@mscscambodia]

Slang is not to be used, its like a teacher teaching slang to their language students, why would you teach slang? With more than 27 years of teaching I use only the proper terms no slang, no misunderstanding of what the terms mean.@@dr.jimsalsbury695

[@mscscambodia]

You don't need a leading zero, its just like CNC programming no leading zero needed, as machinist we understand this and so should a metrologist.@@dr.jimsalsbury695

[@psywiped]

You might want to go back and check the auto generated closed captioning.

[@gamemeister27]

It's auto generated....

[@go5582]

Hi handsome. Thank you for time.

[@jeremykemp3782]

so if 3 ten thousandths of an inch are said like 3 tenths, how do you actually say 3 tenths then?

[@mscscambodia]

Its .300 thousand of an inch in a micrometer reading, this is not high school math. .100 thousands ten times is one inch. so 6 tenths in fractional terms is .600 thousands of an inch in decimal terms , again very simple for a machinist, but maybe not for a high school education, fractions and decimals are stated different in the real world of machining.

[@mrd.808]

Gonna rupture some mathematicians' cranium 😂

[@daviddefeo4470]

Is 5 tenths of a thousand and 10 microns the same ?

[@MitutoyoAmerica]

Thanks for the question. They are not the same, but for gages that read in both inch/metric, the resolution is almost always .0005" in inches, and 0.01mm (10 micron) in metric. Since the values are relatively close, these resolutions make senes. Based on the fact that 1" = 25.4mm, then .0005" actually equals 12.7 microns, and 10 microns equals about .0003937".

[@michaeldavis2531]

What about "mil" which is 1/1000 of an inch? "mil" comes from the Latin word "mille" meaning "One Thousand." You Know? - 1 Millennium = 1000 years. - Mile (Mille Passus) = 1000 paces. - 1 mm = .001 m ... 1 m = 1000 mm. - 1 mL = .001 L... 1 L = 1000 mL - 1 ms = .001 s.... 1 s = 1000 ms. - 1 mil = .001"... 1" = 1000 mils.

[@MatthewRulla]

Inch world here: "mil" is not used by most machinists, we work in Thou or Tenths. Some of us work in "Millionths", but that is usually lab work. "Mil" often refers to measurements of sheet goods (plastic film, etc.).

[@GH-oi2jf]

The “mil” is used in printed circuit board design. Same as a “thou,” just a different convention.

[@annakquinn7084]

We love MIL and MILFS as well

[@nickp4793]

Electrical engineers use "mill" in all inch designed circuit boards. Its .001", same as 1 "thou" that a machinist uses. All their software has units called "mill". When working in mm, EE's use micron for PCB circuit design.

[@highlandermachineworks5795]

Thou isn't a word. I despise it. Secondly, 1 thousandths. 1 is singular. And a tenth is .1 My biggest gripe with this is when you're communicating with customers who don't know the slang. It gets confusing. And micron is used in the filter industry. Its said and written all the time.

[@davidflack6430]

Micrometer, the unit is micrometre!

[@dr.jimsalsbury695]

How did we get to this point - UK vs US English? micrometer vs. micrometre, gage vs. gauge, football vs soccer. At least we use the same µm symbol!

[@kristiangjerstorff8212]

@@dr.jimsalsbury695 hehe, Im from denmark and I had issues deciding if it was gage or gauge, guess both are right. Thanks.

[@GH-oi2jf]

US spelling differs from British. That particular difference goes back to Noah Webster.

[@felixf5211]

@@dr.jimsalsbury695 IIRC, it was Teddy Roosevelt who ordered all government correspondence/publications to use his spelling of a given word - eg. color vs colour - hence becoming official and the rest of the country followed.

[@Mainoffender69]

It's micrometer.

[@Tadesan]

Now i want an explanation of why machinists reduce fractions... If i ask for a piece of material 32/64 inches in length you better not give me a piece of material a 1/2 inch long...

[@cecilmicko6828]

Metro city....Metracity...potato?...patatow? Spider....Spee eye der!...(DreamWorks animation, Megamind). Anyone relate?

[@SA-lr1sf]

I wish the manufactures would make this tool with considerations and features that prevented some of the human error. They are the most inaccurate of my tools because the object could be placed.

[@Mainoffender69]

If you don't know how to use one, you shouldn't be using it.

[@alexhunter0815]

Without the metrics system you are lost!

[@danielfelipeariasgomez6816]

Por

[@tonystorcke]

If you are using imperial measuement, you are not professional. I truly enjoyed the metric portions of your talk.

[@mscscambodia]

Both forms of measurements need to be understood to be a world wide professional, so saying you are using the inch method and this does not make you a professional is just not smart as thousands of metrologists and machinists use both. As a professional with over 45 years of experience I know both measurement forms are needed, this is why Jim shows both or is he not a professional?

[@ruadhagainagaidheal9398]

Thank you Dr. Salsbury. That took me back to the mid ‘60s when I was an apprentice toolmaker in the UK - yes, we used imperial measurements back in those happy days before we joined the German Empire (The EU) of which we are now happily free.

[@alexwild1435]

Yeah everyone’s much happier in the UK now… 🤔

[@lnz971]

Only 3 country in the world are not using metric system ...

[@mscscambodia]

Only country in the world who has put a man on the moon, is the USA and it does not use the metric system.

[@FinnMcRiangabra]

Why standardize laziness? That is all it is to "short-cut" discussion of measurements. "One thou" means nothing. "One ten thousandths of an inch," actually means something and is not so hard that you need to be lazy about it. And why be lazy and say a "micron" instead of micrometer? It is not that hard to say micrometer. What is a "mil" is at millionth of something or a thousandth of something? Be specific and ignore this oaf. If you are specific and correct, misunderstanding is not your fault, but you may need to educate your listener so that they don't make a mistake. "unwritten" and "unofficial" slang has no place in any industry that relies on precision.

[@FinnMcRiangabra]

One element of my job is scanning electron microscopic analysis. The scale of features is often in the range of 1 micrometer to 100 micrometers. I have never found it to be useful to be a lazy person and report measurements in "microns." Why be a lazy jerk and write "microns"? Look how easy it was for me to use actual units in the intro.

[@jasonk5251]

The correct answer is to just get rid of the imperial system and never say "thousandths" again.

[@nickp4793]

No, saying thousandth's of an inch is analogous to saying thousand's of a meter, which is a mm. There is nothing wrong with either method. Getting rid of either system would not change or eliminate needing a way to distinguish different levels of "smallness".

[@cornholiothefirst2018]

There is no such thing as an inch

[@epgui]

Using the imperial system in 2023 is silly... Using it when you actually care about precision and accuracy is lunacy.

[@user-rw7xn3fo1t]

The metric system is no more accurate than the imperial system. It’s just a different way of expressing the measurement.

[@mscscambodia]

Both forms of measurements need to be understood to be a world wide professional, so saying you are using the inch method and this does not make you a professional is just not smart as thousands of metrologists and machinists use both. As a professional with over 45 years of experience I know both measurement forms are needed, this is why Jim shows both or is he not able to measure accuracy unless do it your way?

[@epgui]

@@user-rw7xn3fo1t The meter is defined in relation to the frequency of the caesium 137 atom, which is about as precise and unambiguous as it gets. The reference point of the imperial system has always been such a joke that since the middle of the 20th century, they just gave up and started defining imperial units in relation to the metric system. If your imperial system today is as precise as it is, it's because it relies on the metric system lol.

[@epgui]

@@mscscambodia Literally the only justification for using the imperial system is historical. Old people (and Americans) resisting change just for the sake of it.

[@mscscambodia]

LOl, your reasoning is not sounds when the greatest economy in the world uses it and every manufacture of precision tools understands this such as Mitutoyo as you see by this video.@@epgui