We’re taught both metric and US customary units in school. I prefer metric for most things, to the point I have a metric-only tape measure among other things.
However, I’ll die on the hill that Fahrenheit is superior for ambient air temperature. 0 degrees to 100 degrees neatly encompasses the range of average surface temperatures seen throughout the year in the contiguous US.
I like using metric for measuring with a tape measure. Feels a bit more accurate and easy to remember as you go.
But wire size I think AWG (American wire gauge) is far superior than metric. Easy to remember, 18 16 14 12 or 10 AWG. Compared to metric which just lists the outside diameter. So those same sizes in metric are 1, 1.5, 2.5, 4, 6 mm²
I’m sure if I used it every day it’d be different. And the larger sizes in AWG are kind of a mess. It’s even numbers til 1 AWG, then there’s technically a 0 AWG, then it goes 1/0 to 4/0, then 250 - 1000 MCM (but also some people call it kcmil?)
Still just “feels” right to me after using it for so long
What is an “outside diameter” supposed to be?
mm² is also not a diameter, radius or circumference, but the area of the wire cross section.
How are AWG defined?
They’re defined like all American measurements. By “feel” of each size
I’ve been doing electrical work for 11 years and I can feel a 12, 14, 16, or 18 awg wire in my hands and tell you the difference.
I mostly don’t like how there’s no rhyme or reason to the metric equivalent. All the numbers are basically random in order of each other so it’s a crapshoot tryin to say something is one or the other. But again, I don’t use it regularly
I’m sure that’s mainly being used to one or the other? 0,5…0,75…1,5…2,5…4mm² are all quite distinct if you work with them a little. Imperials break my head though, can’t do all these fractions and conversions in my head.
I know what you’re sayin but AWG doesn’t use fractions. A good equivalent would be like shirt size. Small, medium, large, extra large. It’s just that size wire and that’s the end of it. You don’t need to know the diameter or cross section of conductor or whatever.
And even fractions are more of a feeling for us I guess. If you work with tools you can spot an inch, quarter inch, foot, etc. It really does come down to a “feeling” in a way that’s difficult to put in words.
I’ll tell you, it’s the opposite of what you think, big number awg is absolutely tiny and 0 or 3/0 is huge. It’s used in the UK sometimes for the thickness of sheet steel, mainly seen it for ducting, it’s just an ass backwards measurement systems. They take the diameter in inch then take the logarithmic of it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge
Fascinating how they would come up with something like that!