With last year’s more liberal build rules, the option to go metric finally surfaced for real.
I was wondering how many teams were planning on going metric this year?
I am personally still on the fence. While the supply of most metric hardware is much better and the expense has dropped dramatically, I’m not sure that we’re totally ready to go all the way.
Uh… remember those two ill-fated Mars probes almost two years ago? It may not be the best idea in the world.
We went metric last year and have no plans on turning back.
We standardized with M5 or M3 screws as a rule in 2003. Of course, we had a few exceptions, but we tried to stick to this as much as possible. I strongly feel that this “standard fastener” rule helped us win the 2003 Midwest Regional. We had quicker repair time, less tools to deal with, and less overall confusion.
As an equipment designer for Delphi, I have been directed to design with metric fasteners for the past 10 years. Within the past 3-4 years, I have seen that metric fasteners are just as easy to get as english fasteners. Even local hardware stores will carry metric machine screws these days.
Andy B.
Uh… remember those two ill-fated Mars probes almost two years ago? It may not be the best idea in the world.
Actually using the two systems at once is not the best idea in the world.
http://www.metricsucks.com/metric_land.html
(just to stir up controversy)
Seriously though, the site does bring up advantages of the imperial system that I never realized before, one of the best examples being the description of the Fahrenheit scale and how easy it was to create a thermometer back then:
And for thermometers, it seems that is precisely what Fahrenheit was
up to. Fahrenheit was playing around and playing around and finally
set ice water at 32, and body temperature at 96, so that there were
64 divisions between the two. That way, no matter where you are in
the world, you can re-generate his thermometer. You stick the
thermometer in ice water, and mark it there. Then you stick it
under your tounge, and mark it there. Then you get a string, and
fold it in half 6 times, and you have the 64 divisions between 32
and 96!
Note: Body temperature was corrected to 98.6 after Fahrenheit had died
Remember Dean’s quote from kickoff two years ago: “We’re going metric, inch by inch”
We have always used both and plan to keep it that way. See, my team is coordinated at such a high level that we can handle these types of things.
Anyway though, consider this:
At my local hardware store, a bag of 20 M5 washers is %3.49. A bag of 50 1/4" washers is $3.79. They are almost exactly the same size too.
I believe this subject has been discussed in a topic a while ago, but I’m too lazy to search for it. 
Metric is the standard in Brazil and we use it as much as we can. Of course, there are pneumatics and IFI stuff to deal with. 
I disagree with the above statement that using both is good. Not only it can lead to confusion - ask Mr. Lavery about that - , that’s twice more tools to work with. Sure doesn’t help in keeping the room organized.
No time from now USA will be the only country to be fully using Imperial - even it’s founder, the Britains, are being forced by the European Union to switch to Metric. 