4 ms·
The sole advantages of imperial units over metric units is that they are easier and faster to say. 50 miles is a ton less syllables than 50 'kilometers' an inc
by brc 13y ago
The sole advantages of imperial units over metric units is that they are easier and faster to say.
50 miles is a ton less syllables than 50 'kilometers'
an inch is much easier to say than '2 centimetres'
What would immensely improve the metric system would be recognised, single-syllable slang words for every measurement unit. A lot of native-metric-english speakers try, they say 'mil' for millilitres, they say 'kays' for kilometres, but you're still left with either awkward decimal points or excessive syllables.
I am 'one point eight three metres' tall, or 'one hundred and eighty three centimetres'. Or I am 'six feet'. Guess which gets used most?
The curse of the metric is the endless tongue-twisters.
- lmm 13y agoCompare equivalent accuracy. "one hundred and eighty three centimetres" is not noticeably more complex than "five feet seven and a half inches". And you have the option of "eighteen decimeters" if that's the level of accuracy you want - try inventing an intermediate unit on the fly with imperial.
- brc 13y agoBut you wouldn't go down to a half-inch, and there is a shortcut - '5 foot 7'. I'm not referring to accurate measurements, but the sort of day-to-day, rounded off measurements that pepper our daily speech. If I said a decimeter to any of my friends, they would have no idea what I was talking about.
- lmm 13y ago> there is a shortcut - '5 foot 7' You can say "1 meter 83", and people do. > If I said a decimeter to any of my friends, they would have no idea what I was talking about. Well, mine would - and any who didn't could easily figure it out. If you're willing to memorize all the random names the imperial units have, you can afford to remember "deci".