What are 1 2 3 blocks?

[Kermit]

How about big numbers?

Mega 1 Million = Number with 6 zero
Giga 1 Milliards = Number with 9 zeros
Tera 1 billion = Number with 12 zeros
Peta 1 billiard = Number with 15 zeros
Exa 1 Trillion = Number with 18 zeros

Well how do you write a Billion or Trillion in English ??

This has to be a joke of some kind. Please explain to the newbie...

 

[Kludge]

A lot of peoples use of them is as precision packings or parallels but why do they have to be 1-2-3 ? Does anyone ever measure off them? I suppose some must do.

I would imagine they are the minimum practical size someone lost to antiquity came up with to manage myriad tasks without having to have a special jig for each. The ones I've seen have had evenly spaced holes along each surface and some have a few holes of those holes that are tapped. If nothing else, this means you can set up something at right angles to something else with a minimum of fuss & bother. It wouldn't take a whole lot of magic to create T-slot adapters to lock them down to a milling deck or a cross slide that has T-slots in it.

I guess it comes down to them being whatever the you want them to be and this being a decent size to accomplish that task.

Just my opinion, of course, which has a street value something less than dirt.

BEst regards,

Kludge

 

[Hilmar]

Kermit,

No joke,
The ways things measured or counted in one country is not necessarily so in another country.
In the English language the billion has 9 zeros and the Trillion has 12 and in the German and I am pretty sure in other languages also the billion has 12 and the trillion has 18 zeros.

Merry Christmas to all.
Hilmar

 

[shred]

One of my favorite 1-2-3 uses is two bolted together at right angles to make a perpendicular that's more useful in many situations than an ordinary square. I confess I also rarely make use of the dimensional measurements.

Another good one is aligning lathe tools-- trap one between the chuck face and toolpost to square up the parting tool and the like.

 

[rleete]

No one has mentioned it, but shred touched on it, so I'll tell you one thing I was taught to use them for.

Bolt 2 together, they form a nice right angle. Sort of a large V-block. Clamp a round piece to it, and indicate the height after zeroing on one of the faces. This gives you the diameter. You halve that, and can now scribe a line across the face of the round. Flip the whole thing over 90 degrees, and scribe another line. Volia, centerlines at right angles. Perfect for laying out a hole pattern.