5 ms·
The advantage is that all of those divisions are clearly marked on the ruler, so it’s easy to align your line/cut with it. In contrast, cutting a 10cm thing in
by mattkrause 6y ago
The advantage is that all of those divisions are clearly marked on the ruler, so it’s easy to align your line/cut with it.
In contrast, cutting a 10cm thing in thirds or quarters requires estimating the point 0.33 or 0.25 of the way between marks, which is perceptually harder.
- boudin 6y agoBut then everything has to be based on those fractions, instead of just using the lower unit directly. I guess it's just a different approach.
- ZiiS 6y agoIn the phisical world you much more often want to fit three things in a space/cut material into four equal bits.
- boudin 6y agoI never had issues with cm/mm honestly. And half a milimeter is always a precision hard to reach with home hand tools, so the need to have 0.33 milimeters on a ruler is not there. Tools that reach that precision are in micrometers.
- mattkrause 6y agoIn a similar vein, degrees are conceptually a bit weird, but make it easy to spread things around a circle in many commonly-used configurations.
- overkalix 6y agoAnd cutting 3.93701 inches in thirds is somehow easier? Even with 4in, you end up with 1.33 inches. Not very different from 3.33cm is it? You're just taking arbitrary numbers that are easier to operate with using the imperial system. The metric system is superior because most numbers are easier to operate and measures in fractions of ten.
- mattkrause 6y agoBut that's exactly the point--historically, you wouldn't cut 3.93701 inches. You don't have the precision to do it nor do you have any real reason not to stick with "round" numbers or close enough. Rough carpentry (e.g., framing a house) is often only accurate to a 1/2" or so; very fine furniture might go down to a 1/32rd. Note that machinists, who do want that sort of precision and can achieve it, mostly work in metric or metric-lite ('mils'=1/1000s of an inch).