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Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by fingerlocks on Friday November 16, 2018 @08:48PM (#18473418)
I challenge you to make a 1/3 cut in meter length wood using a metric ruler. Must be accurate to 1/128 inch (0.2mm), the tolerance used in fine woodworking.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by dyarosla on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:02PM (#18473463)
Not only is it trivial to just cut at 33.33 or what have you, your argument breaks down at cut it into 1/5s.

Good luck with imperial. And has to be accurate to .02mm. In metric? This is a no brainer

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Just_Smith on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:13PM (#18473510)
That doesn't really hurt the argument at all - you're just arguing about factors now, and if you're really going to go there, 12 wins due to having more factors. The mathematical correction you'll have to do to measure 1/5th will be displaced by all the correction you don't have to do for other cases.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by naikrovek on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:29PM (#18473562)
You're bent on the whole number thing. Why?

Whole numbers don't make things easier to measure or cut or reason about. I can measure in thirds or fifths of a meter or a foot or an inch or any unit you want with a compass and a straight edge.

You're arguing that the mark on the tape measure is possible for imperial and impossible for metric, when thirds are involved. Not true.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Just_Smith on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:41PM (#18473602)
Because infinite numbers are not a natural expression of discrete measurements, and when it comes to being price 1/3 = 4 is always going to be easier to put your finger on than 1/3 = 3.333.

I work in software and data analysis in the construction industry. A continuous measurement is good for some things, but it's definitely not good for discrete measurements. Furthermore, a lot of the people who work in the field for construction greatly prefer Imperial for a reason. They have no bias towards systems beyond what works fast and easy.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by atoav on Saturday November 17, 2018 @03:19AM (#18474590)
I work a lot with wood in the metric system and the third thing is bot a problem at all. I never had even remotly any trouble finding 333.33 mm or a 666.66 on a tape measure. For anything that needs extreme accurcay I’d go with my iron ruler with 0.1 mm ruling and beyond that I would go for a caliper.

If you consistently have to use a weird measurement over and over again, you usually end up making a temporary ruler (paper, wood, metal) anyways

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by umanwizard on Saturday November 17, 2018 @01:40AM (#18474324)
What is stopping people from making meter sticks with 3000 lines, i.e. every third of a millimeter is marked?

(The point is, there is nothing any more "infinite" about the rational number 1/3 than 1/4, 1/5, 1/2 or what have you. It just can't be written in the arbitrary base 10 system, just like 1/5 can't be written in base 12)

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Moru on Saturday November 17, 2018 @11:59AM (#18476298)
There is nothing stopping you from writing 1/3 meter.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Zombieball on Friday November 16, 2018 @11:04PM (#18473876)
> and when it comes to being price 1/3 = 4 is always going to be easier to put your finger on than 1/3 = 3.333.

Am I missing something? Wouldn’t it just be putting your finger on the 10 cm mark? This is approx 4”.

I realize this is not exact conversion, but it’s trivial to come up with examples where metric is easier: say you have a piece of wood 7 7/8” long that you want to cut in half. Is it easier to put your finger on 3 15/16” or 10 cm?

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by Just_Smith on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:42PM (#18473607)
"price" is an autocorrection of "precise"
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by pcnix on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:40AM (#18474915)
The factor argument is not really something that stands up, because you need to consider factors for an arbitrary length of something in the world, not a well defined unit of your own making.

How about 1/3rd of a tree? It's likely to be in some ungodly fractional amount of an inch, that's extremely hard to convert into feet, but in metric the decimal system just makes it super easy.

Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by starbeast on Saturday November 17, 2018 @01:26AM (#18474285)
Can I pick the blade thickness?
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by fingerlocks on Saturday November 17, 2018 @04:53AM (#18474820)
Sure, kerf is less important than the thickness of your pencil line in terms of accuracy
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by njarboe on Saturday November 17, 2018 @03:00PM (#18477070)
Place the center of your line at the correct location.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote by starbeast on Saturday November 17, 2018 @07:06AM (#18475196)
wasn't going to use a pencil