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The article uses "Anyway, we have calculators now" as an argument for decimalization, but I see it as an argument against it. The less people do math on paper (
by raldi 12y ago
The article uses "Anyway, we have calculators now" as an argument for decimalization, but I see it as an argument against it. The less people do math on paper (or in their head), the less need we have to tie our system of measurement to the number of fingers the human hand happens to have; calculators divide by 12 as easily as 10.
- yen223 12y agoThe nice thing about the metric system is that the base is consistent - it's always some multiple of 10. With the imperial system, it gets tricky remembering whether you have to multiply by 12 or 16 or 5280 or whatnot.
- raldi 12y agoThat objection is growing obsolete, too: Nobody these days divides by 5280; they go to Google and type "1/4 mile in feet"
- matymador 12y agoDon't you feel handicapped having to use a computer to express basic distances? In the metric system, you have to have some sort of low IQ not to be able to convert from meters to kilomethers on the fly. Hours to seconds is trickier, and would be much improved by decimal notation.