why fps ? why not meters ?

usemyillusion12 · 10-07-2009 6:23pm #1

hey ,

i was just curious as to why people seem to quote the speed of their shots in feet per second as opposed to meters as joules are measured in meters not feet. Is there any advantage to using feet instead ?

I see some sites quote in both however feet per second seems the most popular yet they then use joules also.

Reminds me of when the distance for the road signs were in km and we measured speed in miles per hour.

kdouglas · 10-07-2009 6:33pm

Same reason that people measured speed in miles when roadsigns were in kilometres, old habits die hard.
But yes, metres or ideally, Joules should really be used rather than fps. Some models of chronograph only measure in fps however, but that's less of a problem with most newer models.

usemyillusion12 · 10-07-2009 6:38pm

so it is just an old habit ? there is no adavntage at all ?

( i suppose it makes you look beter with a bigger number lol )

Masada · 10-07-2009 7:04pm

Its not just old habbit, its done because a lot of the countries where airsoft is far more extablished, they use the imperial system so it makes sense because chrono's would have been made to the spec of the bigger markets. I prefer to use FPS as aposed to MPS because the smaller units mean more accurate measurements without going into decimal points.

usemyillusion12 · 10-07-2009 7:06pm

Masada wrote: »

Its not just old habbit, its done because a lot of the countries where airsoft is far more extablished, they use the imperial system so it makes sense because chrono's would have been made to the spec of the bigger markets. I prefer to use FPS as aposed to MPS because the smaller units mean more accurate measurements without going into decimal points.

yes , very good point , with the accuracy.

do othe countries not have a cap on the joule limit ? and if so are they in the same boat as us ?

OzCam · 10-07-2009 7:07pm

Yes, it's an old habit, coupled with many Chinese websites using fps because their biggest market is America and most of them can't cope with newfangled measurements - especially those designed by the French and agreed by everyone else in the world.

BTW, fps has no legal validity in this country, and hasn't had ever since we joined the EU (EEC as it was then). And that's all the way back to 1973.

Puding · 10-07-2009 7:17pm

the fps thing does makes issues well so does m/s, joule is used in the Irish law and should be used in my opinion as its a measurement of mass and speed, i lost count of the number of times people have got the wrong end of the stick and are under the miss conception that using heaver bbs will bring an aeg under a joule as there only looking to get bellow the 328fps

Masada · 10-07-2009 7:50pm

OzCam wrote: »

BTW, fps has no legal validity in this country, and hasn't had ever since we joined the EU (EEC as it was then). And that's all the way back to 1973.

In the same breath though, neither does metric. Since the law only refers to the measurement of energy as aposed to speed/weight of projectile

OzCam · 10-07-2009 8:07pm

You slightly misunderstand me

I meant in a wider sense than just airsoft.

All energy is measured in joules, which affects us specifically. The CJA2006 defines the limit as energy. All other velocities, in all other laws, are either m/s or km/h, and have been so since the 70's.

The speed limits were a sort of exception in that they were legally defined in km/h, but displayed in mph. We just never bothered to replace the old black-and-white roadsigns in miles until we got the Germans to pay for it. We're a bunch of hypocrites sometimes.

Anyway, we're way off topic now. Sorry about that. fps=oldhabitsdiehard

why fps ? why not meters ?

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