Please explain what click means? military term..

B

Big philly 1

Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
327
Hello. Im sure theres some one here that could help explain to me what click means....

What i mean is The military term. Like Im 1 click north of the lz, or im 3 clicks west...half a click till were at the meeting place....

Could sumone explain how this is used? thanks in advance
 
Why do American soldiers use kilometres and not miles? Seems funny since being Canadian, I have difficulty calculating in miles but seem to estimate well in kms.
 
The Last Confederate said:
Because the metric system is what NATO uses.
Click to expand...


Also military maps
Military grid reference system, grids on the map are 1 square kilometer


is kind of a weak question
 
The Military uses kilometers because they know the "English System" is so outmoded that even the English don't use it anymore.

I lived in the US for 33 of my 40 years and I still have no real concept of the mile. If you asked me to walk 1 click and stop I'd probably be within 50 meters. Mac
 
pict said:
The Military uses kilometers because they know the "English System" is so outmoded that even the English don't use it anymore.
Click to expand...

Our road signs are in Miles and MPH, as are our car speedometer/ odometers

Our milk comes in pints, as does our beer

We measure ourselves in feet and inches, our weight in stones and pounds

:)

I grew up after the so called metrification but I have little concept of a kilometer, except that its too small to measure walking distances conveniently in...

I know a liter is too much to drink, but a pint is just right if I'm thirsty

I know im 6ft tall, whats that in mm ? 1828mm? how is that a more convenient way to measure my height?

I weigh 13st 2lbs I know thats not fat, maybe I could lose 1 or 2 lbs. I dont know what that is in kgs

I know a pound bag of flour is a reasonable handful, whats a kg of flour? 2.2 times that? I dont find that a very convenient measure

I know a yard is about 1 step, a meter is a bit more than 1 step but much less than 2 steps... not very convenient

I know a yard is split into 3 feet, which are very convenient to measure mid size distances in, a meter is split into 100cm which are so small I have to use more than one to measure the width of my little finger!

In the real world we use imperial measures because they relate to real life, thats where they came from, rather than metric which originated in a science lab.

What I do know is a long list of conversions to convert things that are in metric back into a measure thats meaningful!

1.6km in a mile, 26mm in an inch, 3.3 ft in a meter, 2.2 lbs in a kg, 30cm in a ft, 568ml in a pint...
 
Sorry, just going by what I heard. I stand corrected on the English.

I live metric here in Brazil and I think it is much easier in may ways. Meters, Centimeters, and Kilometers make sense to me and are very useful measurements. I find myself using the cm side of the tape measure more often than the inch side.

Grams and Kilograms are easy to picture for me. I know exactly how much 300 grams of lunchmeat is. I can't picture that in ounces.

I like liters and can very easily picture a 2-liter, 1-liter, and half-liter bottles. The average coconut contains 400 ml of water. How many ounces of water get sucked up in a 60 ml syringe? I don't know but you have to fill it about 20x to fill a one quart US Army canteen.

Where I break down is in describing people. Six foot/193lbs makes sense to me whereas 183cm/87kg does not. This does not seem to deter the Brazilians they all get it just fine.

Likewise temp are hard to live with when you've been around degrees F all your life. Still, using the boiling and freezing point of water as a reference does make sense. I still have to relate temps to F to understand, 16C = 61F, 23C = 73F, 40C = 104F.

I think the Km is very easy to understand. My pace is 1.5 meters long (I'm six foot tall). That's 66 paces for every 100 meters, and 666 paces for every Km, which is kind of scary since that is the biblical number of the anti-christ. Jesus said that if we are forced to carry someones pack for a mile we should go an extra mile. It would be far easier to obey this if we used Km, but would we then be serving the anti-christ? It's a tough call. Mac
 
Armac, Horned Toad, thatmguy, you people are the reason I don't enjoy this site much. A person asks a simple honest question and you turn it into an insult fest. What school teaches military lingo? You three should be ashamed of youselves. What's next, cyber dog piles? You are nothing but school yard bullies.

I do appreciate the military service that I assume you three have performed but it is time to grow up.
 
Having worked extensively in both systems, I can say that everyone is right.

The UK is "supposed" to be metric, but like many things, this hasn't really been enforced outside of bigger business situations.

The US completely botched metric conversion years ago, when instead of teaching it like a system of weights and measures, they introduced is a series of complicated mathematical conversions. If you were in school in the 1970s, you remember this:

(buzzing filmstrip)

Narrator: By 1980, the entire US will be metric.

Boy: But how will I know the temperature?

Narrator: That's easy, Johnny. Take the temperature in Fahrenheit using your backyard thermometer, subtract 32 from it as a conversion value, then multiply it by five-ninths.

Boy: That's easy! So 77 degrees is 22 celsius!

Girl: Five-ninths? What the hell is that? Who can multiply anything by five-ninths in their head? Isn't this too hard?

Narrator: Only if you're a girl.

(buzzing filmstrip clicks off and flips around the reel a few times)

So naturally, as the result of the government helping us learn, nearly all Americans not only don't understand the metric system, they totally resist considering it. Ironically, the US is the *best* candidate to go metric, and I can't think of a bunch of people who would better take to it.

Aside from a few common weights and measures, nearly everything Americans do is already metric:

They talk freely about upgrading their hard drive from 90 megabytes to a 150 gig drive.

Many Americans consider 10 kilowatt generators for home use, as they swig out of a liter-bottle of soda and listen to 99.3 FM on the radio. Lots of people here own 9mm weapons.

They climb into a car which is completely metric in all respects except of course for the speedometer.

Why doesn't this upset them? Because they're *using* these components of the metric system. If you *use* the metric system rather than spend time converting, you adapt very fast.

Just about everyone knows how big a centimeter is. If I showed you an object and said "Estimate how wide this is," you'd say "About 60 centimeters, I'd guess." You be about right.

If I said "How wide is this in inches," you'd say "About 24 inches, I'd guess." You'd be about right.

When you start using it, you tend to like metric a lot. I just need to convince my fellow countrymen to forget everything the government tried to teach them in the 1970s about it!
 
1 click is 1 kilometer. It's also used by Army personel to "pace" the distance they walk. Because the normal distance of a person is 66 steps for 100 meter, soldiers use counting beads to count their paces. By counting the steps they can get a pretty good guestimation how much terrain they crossed on flat surface. Speculation is that the moving of the beads of the kilometerbead makes a "clicking" noise

here is a link

http://images.google.be/imgres?imgu...unting+beads&start=80&svnum=10&hl=nl&lr=&sa=N
 
Click: An inexact distance derived from artillery sightings in which each click of site elevation would move the impact point depending on a number of diverse options. Usually taken to mean either a mile or a kilometer. Used mostly since Vietnam. Another legend has it that when the GP (jeep) vehicle was first introduced the odometer would click every one fifth of a mile and that soldiers soon learned to judge distance by the click so that they could pay attention to road hazards and enemy positions. Take your pick.
Click to expand...

KLICK: Kilometer (slang, chiefly military)
Click to expand...

Klick (sometimes spelled click, but that may also mean one second of arc): is a common military term meaning kilometer (or sometimes kilometers per hour). Its use became popular among soldiers in Vietnam during the 1960s, although veterans of the war recall its usage as early as the 1950s. Its origin is sometimes linked with the Australian Army in Korea.

The term is of unknown origin. It is most likely an example of condensed pronunciation or contraction of the term kilometer or possibly onomatopoetic of the sound of a military compass' bezel ring, although other theories exist.
Click to expand...

Klick: In military terms, a "klick" means a distance of 1000 meters
--
In "military-speak," the term "click" (spelled with a "c" instead of a "k") is used when sighting-in a weapon, such as a rifle. On most weapons, one "click" equals one second of arc, or -- in other words, one inch of distance at one hundred yards.
Click to expand...

Klick: This term is shorthand/slang for a "kilometer". We found its definition in several on-line glossaries, including this Glossary of Words used by CAP Marines in Vietnam (http://www.capmarine.com/cap/glossary.htm) and this Language of War page from the PBS web site for their "Vietnam Online" program. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/refer/language.html) Finally, it is also worth noting that the book War Slang by Paul Dickson (London: Pocket Books, 1994) indicates that "klick" originated in the Vietnam war, and also gives a second definition as "a short distance."
Click to expand...
..........
;)
 
pict said:
The Military uses kilometers because they know the "English System" is so outmoded that even the English don't use it anymore.

I lived in the US for 33 of my 40 years and I still have no real concept of the mile. If you asked me to walk 1 click and stop I'd probably be within 50 meters. Mac
Click to expand...

All I can say is I've lived in the U.S. for 25 of my 25 years and have used the metric system extensively in high school and college, and if someone asked me to walk 1 click, I would walk a couple hundred yards and ask how much farther. I have absolutely no concept of what distance is in the metric system.

Ask me how to get a liter of water, I could get it within a reasonable amount. Ask me how much something weighs in kilograms I could give a figure as accurate as I could in pounds.

Funny thing is most Canadian's and English I've met have no better concecpt of the mtric system than I do.
 
bladefixation2 said:
Our road signs are in Miles and MPH, as are our car speedometer/ odometers

Our milk comes in pints, as does our beer

We measure ourselves in feet and inches, our weight in stones and pounds

:)

I grew up after the so called metrification but I have little concept of a kilometer, except that its too small to measure walking distances conveniently in...

I know a liter is too much to drink, but a pint is just right if I'm thirsty

I know im 6ft tall, whats that in mm ? 1828mm? how is that a more convenient way to measure my height?

I weigh 13st 2lbs I know thats not fat, maybe I could lose 1 or 2 lbs. I dont know what that is in kgs

I know a pound bag of flour is a reasonable handful, whats a kg of flour? 2.2 times that? I dont find that a very convenient measure

I know a yard is about 1 step, a meter is a bit more than 1 step but much less than 2 steps... not very convenient

I know a yard is split into 3 feet, which are very convenient to measure mid size distances in, a meter is split into 100cm which are so small I have to use more than one to measure the width of my little finger!

In the real world we use imperial measures because they relate to real life, thats where they came from, rather than metric which originated in a science lab.

What I do know is a long list of conversions to convert things that are in metric back into a measure thats meaningful!

1.6km in a mile, 26mm in an inch, 3.3 ft in a meter, 2.2 lbs in a kg, 30cm in a ft, 568ml in a pint...
Click to expand...

Very well put!

I agree, and I prefer the English system because it is more applicable to real world measure. The advantage to the metric system (which is what they teach in school now here in Canada) is that conversions are much easier. Everything is based on 10, and nothing needs to be memorized like with the English system. People up here measure things in inches and feet. Centimetres are too impractical. Meters and kilometers are used more than miles and yards though, and for measures of that size bnoth are generally ok. Acres are still a common unit for area. Nobody measures anything in kilograms, only pounds.

Will
 
Will said:
...Centimetres are too impractical...
Click to expand...
Not sure if that was sarcasm or a wry quote, or not, but centimeters are plenty practical. They offer more precision than an inch.

Two exceptions:

Most technical trades don't use centimeters, but use millimeters. I often wonder if the centimeter is destined to go the way of the decimeter: a less-used reference.

The only place where the Imperial system really rocks is in carpentry and woodworking. It's faster and easier to deal with feet when they're divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6... it's easier to estimate angles on the fly since these numbers easily divide 360 as well. Similarly, working with fractional inches is easier than working with millimeters when doing rule-of-thumb guesses on trimming wood, etc.

Will said:
Nobody measures anything in kilograms, only pounds.
Click to expand...
Interestingly, the kilogram is a measure of mass, not weight! It's interesting to me that people would use the kilogram at all for weight, but I guess it's friendlier than using the newton. Provided you don't leave the earth for microgravity or macrogravity situations, the kilogram can work as well.
 
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