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Please convince me that lack of native support for division by 3 is a feature.

throw0101d 3y ago
> Please convince me that lack of native support for division by 3 is a feature. Please convince me that adding 3/8" and 3/16" is easier than adding 9mm and 5mm.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
majormajor 3y ago
I think you're focusing just on the "multiply by powers of 10" part that the author is largely considering the "red herring" compared to other advantages. But even so... for dividing by 3, sure, the 12 inch -> 1 foot jump is neatly divisible. And obviously 3 feet -> 1 yard. But you don't get much help going smaller than an inch on any measuring tape or rule I've used. 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16... 3ish-mm inside of 10mm is no worse. Or dividing a cup into 3 equal amounts of ounces, or even a gallon into thirds. So I'm not sure there are many consistent, coherent features for all the random different scales for how things like liquids vs distances work. Heck, 10 feet, 100 feet, 1000 feet are all common enough things to hear, taking us back to powers of ten, because nobody bothers trying to stick with furlongs... (Which takes us exactly to the author's point about "just one unit" being a better way to do things, since at some points you do need to take your feet and your fractional amounts of miles and do some conversions that few people have quick practice at, vs "how many meters are in 1.25Km?") I have a soft spot for Fahrenheit temperatures because they're more granular at human scale but most of the rest of the system is pretty junky and even the convenience of 1/2, 1/4, etc quickly gets lost when you're in the land of adding an 1/8th to a 1/16th and subtracting 3/4...
defrost 3y ago
In six decades of using metric for carpentry, plumbing, geophysics, global resources transit modelling, instrumentation, etc. it's never been a problem. The advantage of metric is coherence and orthogonal dimensionality. As a rough guide, if you're working in a wood | metal shop then just use millimeters (mm) for everthing and a third of a metre is 333 mm and a bit - how much you want to fuss on that depends on the required precision but honestly ... one third isn't the problem you're making it out to be.
downvotetruth 3y ago
The binary god cannot be divided into three parts. Because there are three in Heaven that testify – the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit – and these three are one.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  if 3==1 then obviously everything in Heaven must be calculated mod 2.
- throwup238 3y ago
  Welcome back Terry!
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
volemo 3y ago
I think you’re fighting the wrong enemy: it’s not the system of measurement’s fault, it’s numeral system‘s. If you want clean division by 3, I suggest you to advocate for dozenal.

> Please convince me that lack of native support for division by 3 is a feature. Please convince me that adding 3/8" and 3/16" is easier than adding 9mm and 5mm.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

majormajor 3y ago

I think you're focusing just on the "multiply by powers of 10" part that the author is largely considering the "red herring" compared to other advantages. But even so... for dividing by 3, sure, the 12 inch -> 1 foot jump is neatly divisible. And obviously 3 feet -> 1 yard. But you don't get much help going smaller than an inch on any measuring tape or rule I've used. 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16... 3ish-mm inside of 10mm is no worse. Or dividing a cup into 3 equal amounts of ounces, or even a gallon into thirds. So I'm not sure there are many consistent, coherent features for all the random different scales for how things like liquids vs distances work. Heck, 10 feet, 100 feet, 1000 feet are all common enough things to hear, taking us back to powers of ten, because nobody bothers trying to stick with furlongs... (Which takes us exactly to the author's point about "just one unit" being a better way to do things, since at some points you do need to take your feet and your fractional amounts of miles and do some conversions that few people have quick practice at, vs "how many meters are in 1.25Km?") I have a soft spot for Fahrenheit temperatures because they're more granular at human scale but most of the rest of the system is pretty junky and even the convenience of 1/2, 1/4, etc quickly gets lost when you're in the land of adding an 1/8th to a 1/16th and subtracting 3/4...

defrost 3y ago

In six decades of using metric for carpentry, plumbing, geophysics, global resources transit modelling, instrumentation, etc. it's never been a problem. The advantage of metric is coherence and orthogonal dimensionality. As a rough guide, if you're working in a wood | metal shop then just use millimeters (mm) for everthing and a third of a metre is 333 mm and a bit - how much you want to fuss on that depends on the required precision but honestly ... one third isn't the problem you're making it out to be.

downvotetruth 3y ago

The binary god cannot be divided into three parts. Because there are three in Heaven that testify – the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit – and these three are one.

082349872349872 3y ago
if 3==1 then obviously everything in Heaven must be calculated mod 2.
throwup238 3y ago
Welcome back Terry!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

volemo 3y ago

I think you’re fighting the wrong enemy: it’s not the system of measurement’s fault, it’s numeral system‘s. If you want clean division by 3, I suggest you to advocate for dozenal.