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While I agree that in many ways imperial is better than metric in the way that you mention. It is absolutely atrocious when it comes to weight and volume. A gal
by zjaffee 8y ago
While I agree that in many ways imperial is better than metric in the way that you mention. It is absolutely atrocious when it comes to weight and volume. A gallon is still a base 10 unit of measure of water (10 pounds of water). Then only after that, is it in base 8 rather than maintaining that base 12 consistency.
Then if you look at imperial units of weight, it deviates away from base 12 again. It counts upwards from a pound using base 14 with stone and ton. And then when counting downwards it uses base 16 for a little bit with ounces, followed by out of nowhere throwing in a 1/7000 for a grain unit.
Even ignoring the scientific applications, none of this is easier for visualization purposes than grams or kilograms, nor is it all that useful for volumetric units either with maybe the exception of using cups instead of milliliters for cooking.
- sib 8y ago>> "A gallon is still a base 10 unit of measure of water (10 pounds of water)." Not sure what you are getting at here. A gallon is about 8.3 lbs (3.8kg). A gallon is 128 oz, a nice base-2 number.
- Symbiote 8y agoYou are arguing the difference between an imperial gallon and a US gallon. Further evidence of how stupid these measurements are.
- Cd00d 8y agoA gallon is NOT 10 pounds of water. Rough conversions: 1.1, 2.2, 3.3 for volume (quart to L), weight (pound to kg), length (foot to m). One gallon is: 4 quarts * (1 L / 1.1 quarts) * (1 kg / L) * (2.2 pounds / kg) = 4 * 2.2 / 1.1, so a gallon is roughly 8 pounds.