Re:Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in Ame...
by kps on Saturday August 09, 2014 @10:59AM
(#8157003)
Consider, in 1725, reliably dividing a measured distance into 100 segments. Repeated bisection is practical.
Re:Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in Ame...
by dalke on Saturday August 09, 2014 @02:02PM
(#8157523)
I find that extremely difficult to believe without some sort of external verification. Consider that the Rømer scale from 1701 had 60 degrees between freezing brine and the boiling point of water.
Any technology which can find 60 divisions can find 100 divisions.
For that matter, Pierre Vernier invented his calipers nearly a century earlier, and William Gascoigne the micrometer in the mid-1600s, so I doubt that 100 divisions was a hard thing by 1725.
(To be certain, 64 divisions is easier than 100, but I believe it was reliably possible to do the latter in the early 1700s.)
Re:Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in Ame...
by andmarios on Saturday August 09, 2014 @11:12AM
(#8157043)
I thought the purpose of the OP was to justify using Fahrenheit in 2014, not in 1725. :)
But even in 1725 I think that people who could build a thermometer would probably be able to grade it properly.
Instead with Celsius at 0°C water freezes, at 100°C water boils. Thus Celsius makes more sense because the main range (0-100) covers both very cold and very hot temperatures from a human perspective.
Furthemore it has a straightforward conversion to Kelvin.