Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by twelvechairs on Monday September 05, 2022 @07:30AM
(#32723149)
Also the metre is a weird unit to use as a base. It is based on an incorrect 17th C estimation of the circumfrence of the earth and is now standardised as some weird fraction of the distance light travels in a vacuum in a second (a second itself being based on a weird fraction of transitions in a stable form of Cesium atom)
A foot is at least something very closely aligned across many cultures (from ancient Egypt to Japan) because of because of its clear and useful relationship to human scale and building products
Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
by iggldiggl on Monday September 05, 2022 @10:33AM
(#32724739)
> A foot is at least something very closely aligned
Hmm, the largest historic European foot listed on the corresponding Wikipedia page is almost 30 % larger than the smallest foot. So while they indeed all are somewhere roughly 30 cm-ish long, after a few feet those differences will still add up considerably…
First: The DIN paper standards aren't a part of the metric system. They are a use of the metric system.
Second, the important part: what makes A series paper cool (truly one of my favorite standards) is a ratio, these are by definition independent of metric.
One can imagine a paper standard based on 36 inches, rather than 1 meter, which would have all of the good properties of A and B series paper.
The third reason is that the imperial measurement system is also an application of the metric system. But others have covered that already.
It's an ongoing source of amusement to me that people fluent in just one system of measurement look down on a continent of hundreds of millions whose educated class is fluent in both.