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The more I encounter metric zealots, the more I want to start using rods and hogheads for calculating my mileage.
Metric is not inherently better than Standard with regards to its units.
Mass and volume being derived from the properties of water of unnatural purity at a temperature and pressure that doesn't commonly occur...
Just as arbitrary as where Standard numbers are derived from.
I won't even start on how the meter's, original, definition was pulled out of someone's ass.
Where metric supposedly shines is the easy conversion of units... Except it's not a conversion. It's the same units!
For mass you're using grams. A kilogram isn't a different unit, it's just a notation for moving the decimal place.
It IS simple, but...
Well, did you really have any trouble learning 16 ounces to a pound?
Standard isn't really that bad, it's not hard to learn and once learned it's simple to use.
It's just not quite as simple as metric because it's based on a natural human tendency to use fractions.
Despite the ten fingers, we are geared to run on fractions, not decimals.
We'd probably be better off converting to base 12.
Neither system is difficult, really. You just need to learn them.
I worry, though, that learning in metric prevents your brain from getting some essential exercise early on. Nobody, as far as I know, has studied this.
Oh, one thing that is certain. The United States used the metric system to get to the moon. The displays were graduated standard for the crews because they didn't think in it.
I've used both in my daily life and got to the point of thinking in them with either.
It doesn't take too long to adjust from pints to 0.5 L beers (you get just a little more beer in a half liter, just sayin').
I've watched people estimate range with wild inaccuracy so many times that I don't think that anyone can put a claim in that yards or meters is superior once you get past about 100 of them.
The one place where I prefer one system over the other is temperature.
Celsius is just too coarse.
Oh, and for you kids scoring at home, Fahrenheit is also based on water's behavior. Sea water. The units were defined by guessing the average human body temperature was 90° and making the boiling point of (regular) water two body temperatures from regular water freezing...
I suspect metric has its roots in the French Revolution's desire to tear down and remake everything possible. For instance today is 27 Thermidor year 231.
ReplyDeleteIt was very much all about getting rid of the Old (the aristocracy) and bringing in the New.
DeleteWhat nobody talks about is Metric is based on observations and discussions done in France only, so everyone else can just sod off.
And if That isn't enough,, a BTU, yes, BRITISH Thermal Unit is
ReplyDeleteThe energy required to raise the temperature of one quart of water one degree Fahrenheit.. How did That happen?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Delete"A BTU was originally defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 avoirdupois pound of liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit at a constant pressure of one atmospheric unit."
DeleteThat'd be a pint, not a quart.
If the Anon commenter had signed their work, you would have been informed of that more abrasively.
One vote here for furlongs per fortnight.
ReplyDelete