8 ms·

Hmm, 100 for human body temperature is good, but 0 for the lowest temperature achievable in a lab 300 years ago is not so good. The Aspden scale has its zero a

• beerandt 5y ago
  >but 0 for the lowest temperature achievable in a lab 300 years ago is not so good. It's approx the temp that sea water freezes at. That's not useless. 212-32= 180 degrees between fresh water freezing and boiling. The metric system has its merits, but US units aren't as arbitrary or pointless as people think. It may not be made for decimalization, but it does feature units that are easily divisible by even numbers and 1/8ths. It's a balance between useful approx characteristic points and convenient divisors. And based on how many people struggle with knowing where to put the decimal (or use the correct prefix) in metric, I'd argue decimalization isn't the great "simplification" it's made out to be. And the fact that people think the decimalization of time would be crazy is proof that it's more about familiarization than simplicity.