Yep. Old hands in the field, not students in the academy.
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Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 hours agoHuh? In my electical engineering studies almost everything is in metric. Are you thinking of certain holdover generations?
CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
SpraynardKruger@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
I’m a civil engineer in the US, and can confirm that my industry uses US Customary units. I have some mechanical engineer friends, and most also use US Customary units, with certain exceptions. While in school, the intro classes I took used metric more often than not because it allowed for easier understanding of the source material. By the 3rd year, classes started employing more examples and problems in US Customary units. By year 4, it was almost exclusively US Customary units.
Forgive my lack of understanding here, but for electrical engineering, what are the alternatives to metric units? I know BTUs can be used instead of Joules, hp can be used instead of Watts, and AWG can be used instead of… Whatever the metric measurement is. BTUs and hp seem to be mainly used for specific industries and consumer products (let’s be honest nobody likes them anyway). AWG is used because that’s the standard that commonly available wires in the US are measured to.
Temperature and length are obvious. More specifically, I am thinking of volts, amps, and ohms (my understanding caps out at what I learned in my physics classes).
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
I don’t believe there are any (unless you count length and mass measurements for physical component layouts). Perhaps it’s a byproduct of the field having international standardization for units from the outset.
SpraynardKruger@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I think you’re right about the international standardization. Also, I think another important factor is that the average American has a concept of how long a foot is, how hot 70°F is, how much a pound weighs, etc. These are easily to visualize because these measurements are used in everyday life outside of engineering applications. Most people don’t have a concept of the units we use to measure the invisible magic force in our walls.