Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote
by pcnix on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:32AM
(#18474896)
That's false, the Imperial system is pretty bad at doubling or halving.
What's double of 3.7 feet? Or half of 1.5? What is 3.7 feet even? Is it 3 feet 7 inches or 3 feet plus 7th of a feet (This last question is a nitpick)
Any of these in metric are super simple, but just harder to do in base-12.
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote
by kiriakasis on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:43AM
(#18474919)
And I would add, it is not immediate to go from 200 inch to 18 feet 2 inches
Re:International System of Units overhauled in historic vote
by afpx on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:59AM
(#18474957)
In practice, as the previous poster pointed out, Imperial numbers are rational, not real. You wouldn’t normally experience ‘3.7’ feet.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not a proponent of the Imperial system (for instance, calculating prices for groceries is painful). I am just pointing out that the metric system doesn’t take into account many Human use cases (Base-10 isn’t great for Humans). It was a system forced upon people by an ‘ivory tower’, and consistent with US philosophy, it makes sense that they rejected it.
Humans are really good at doubling and halving, which the Imperial system excels at.