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This is a disingenuous argument. Do you not see the problems with using application-specific units? They are jargon and don't form a coherent system. When you
by nayuki 4y ago
This is a disingenuous argument. Do you not see the problems with using application-specific units? They are jargon and don't form a coherent system.
When you have a jumble of units, it is hard to relate them. If an acre of land gets an inch of rain, how many gallons of water is that? If you did this in millimetres, metres, and cubic metres, it is easy.
If your car's motor is rated in horsepower but electricity is measured in kilowatts, how do you compare those?
What about fitting copies of a product measured in ounces in a shipping container measured in short tons?
Typesetting measured in points, but paper measured in inches?
Fitting metalwork done in mils but woodwork done in binary-fraction inches in a house measured in feet?
The list goes on and on. It's easy to say "but my domain is special and deserves its own units". It's much harder to resist and say no, there is a perfectly suitable unit with power-of-1000 prefixes to use in your application.
- blix 4y agoThere are an infinite number of possible coherent unit systems, all of them totally arbitrary. Why should any system be preferred over the rest?