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> millions of Americans use imperial measurements There are two types of countries: those using 'metric' units, and those who have been to the Moon. There's a
by wtbob 10y ago
> millions of Americans use imperial measurements
There are two types of countries: those using 'metric' units, and those who have been to the Moon.
There's absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong with standard units (indeed, they are better for concrete manipulation). One can do science and engineering just as well with grains as with grams, with cups as with litres, with inches as with centimetres. They could do with a bit more regularisation (e.g. to make a fluid ounce a cube exactly 1, 1¼, sqrt(2) or 2 inches — each has advantages — and adjust the ounce accordingly), but they're each completely acceptable for their purpose.
The advantage of the standard units is that they are easy to physically convert: cutting a yard into feet or a foot into inches is each (⅓ in one case; ⅓, ½, ½ in the other); dividing a gallon into cups is easy (½ × 4); dividing a pound into ounces is easy (½ x 4).
The number of times a person converts between barleycorns and parsecs in a lifetime is approximately zero, while the number of times he takes one physical quantity of a unit and breaks it into smaller quantities is pretty common; optimising for the former is IMHO kinda foolish.
- jimktrains2 10y ago> There are two types of countries: those using 'metric' units, and those who have been to the Moon. What about Liberia and Myanmar?
- devishard 10y agoThis would be entirely missing the point of my argument.
- sevenless 10y agoI hope you realized NASA using imperial caused the loss of a Mars rover.
- kej 10y agoMixing units caused the loss. All-imperial would have worked just as well as all-metric.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hexane360 10y agoBut I think the standard unit system is one of many reasons engineers rely on formulas for 100% of their calculations. When you have that many conversion factors just to get between energy, force, distance, power, etc., you lose out on the universality of physics. At that point you find someone who has already done all the unit conversions and isolated it in a nice factor out front. Also, IMO stuff in decimal is almost always easier to compare than fractional. When someone asks me for a size up from an 8mm wrench, I know to grab the 9mm. When someone asks me for a size up from 5/16", it'll take me a bit to get to 11/32".
- wtbob 10y ago> Also, IMO stuff in decimal is almost always easier to compare than fractional. When someone asks me for a size up from an 8mm wrench, I know to grab the 9mm. When someone asks me for a size up from 5/16", it'll take me a bit to get to 11/32". A lot of that is just due to how we teach fractions — but decimal notation really is nice. I wish that we used duodecimal instead: all the advantages of decimal, but with a far better base.