9mo ago

Why still using the imperial system?

There are numerous measurement systems in the world. Why not use a system that will be easily recognized around the world?

You're viewing a single thread.

107 comments

I've read that it is more easily divisible than metric.
Divide a meter by 3 or 4 and get ugly numbers but a foot or yard divide by 3 or 4 quite cleanly. And so on.
Depending on your application this can be very helpful.
- Divide a metre by 4 and you get 0.25 meters or 25cm
  Dived a foot by 4 you get 3 inches.
  Dived a yard by 4 you get 9inches
  Metric here wins in my opinion.
  Now let's go by 3
  1m by 3 is yes 33.3r not great but 1m is 100cm and that's how it is.
  1ft by 3 is 4 inches. Sure looks great now.
  Except size resolution is far greater in metric in simple forms
  Every inch is 2.54 cm obviously they dont round up nicely.
  Once we have to go smaller than an inch we need 15/16s of a inch, smaller then a cm we drop down to mm.
  10mm makes a cm.
  In super practical terms i need a spanner, 16mm is to big, i get the 15 next.
  5/8 is to big what do i get next?
  (I know the answer)
  Also another argument is well whats if you need half a mm etc we just use 0.5m or 0.7mm etc
  Very small sizes for most everyone day to day.
  Sure it's not great breaking it too 0.whatever, but metric does it so much smaller as imperial made that jump to incorporate a size smaller then an inch.
  1/4 inch is just 0.25 inches
  
  Base 12 has factors: 1,2,3,4,6. Dividing by 5 is tricky.
  Base 10 has factors: 1,2,5. Dividing by 3 is tricky.
  
  I think this is it. The 5 factors instead of 3.
  I also think there was something to do with fractions of an inch too. Like that divisibility was also an advantage of imperial.
  
  Even these people who are screeching "decimal for everything!" in the thread still use dozenal for time, months, and cartons of eggs.
  
  Meanwhile I'm bucking trends as an advocate of the dozenal metric system.
  
  I was going to mention the base number issue but couldn't be bothered, i had just only woken up
- Try working in metric for any significant amount of time and you may change your mind.
- Division no is the problem in one unit, inch, feet, etc, because use fraccions instead of decimls, but the problem is the conversion from inch, feet to others (yards, miles), which is the source of a lot of errors, like those from the Mars probes or some catastrophigs breaks of bridges in the past, apart of some problems in physics, because using for weught and mass the same unit. No, imperial are not human measures, never has been since humans count with 10 fingers.
  
  Nothing against metric, but base-10 is a complete train wreck of a numbering system. Mathematics in general, and geometry in particular, are gorgeous and elegant in base 12.
  
  Are you even a mathematician if you don't calculate using the sexagesimal system?
  
  Maybe, but imperial not even this, using absolute random units.
  
  Do you people legit believe people used feet&inches, pounds&ounces for over 2000 years for no reason?
  
  And also ells, rods, cubits, paces, furlongs, oxgangs, lots, batmans... all with subtly different regional definitions (with regions sometimes as small as one village).
  People used loosely defined measurements based on things like their own body parts or how much land they guessed their ox could plow on an average day. Things like mathematical convenience or precision were not all that important; being able to measure (or estimate) without tools was.

107 comments