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As you've illustrated, we've come to value precision over intuition. The reason people using metric don't feel like they're missing something without organic un
by jwecker 12y ago
As you've illustrated, we've come to value precision over intuition. The reason people using metric don't feel like they're missing something without organic units is because people who use the relics of those organic units don't use them in the fuzzy organic sense either anymore. When someone tells me "1 foot long" I expect exactly 12 standardized inches- not something roughly as big as my foot (even though, in my case, my foot is almost exactly 12 inches).
In modern times when we want a more organic measure we find ourselves dropping standard units (whether metric or imperial) and using random analogous items instead- like number of empire-state-buildings or 10-paces then turn left, or (more often perhaps but slightly different)- about 3 blocks away.
The moment people started caring about whether it was Henry I's nose-to-thumb length or some multiple of grains of barley dry it stopped mattering. I'm very average sized and my pace is almost exactly one yard per step (or, as you pointed out, more or less a meter as well). I would be fine using the term 'yard' in the intuitive or organic sense- but when you're using it to tell me exactly where my property line is I suddenly need precision, agreed on standards, and at that point the question of inches vs centimeters is strictly a question of familiarity (or I suppose, as the article mentions, politics).
- XorNot 12y agoAlso because using the metric system you simply take shorthands. 1 inch? About 2.4 cm as far as anyone cares in a casual sense. A meter is about the length of your shoulder to your hand, or a slightly stretch stride. It's actually easier for me to eyeball a centimeter then an inch because I see and use the centimeter all the time. The idea that the units themselves matter is absurd - when you're eyeballing it, you're eyeballing it.
- jeroen 12y agoIt seems more logical to me to go with 2.5 cm. It is closer to the truth (2.54 cm) and easier to calculate with.
- XorNot 12y agoDon't know why I wrote 2.4 - I was reading a bunch of other things up the page, but you're right.
- ghshephard 12y agoBut - that was actually a great (though perhaps unintentional) example of the dangers of having two systems and switching back and forth between them.
- xxs 12y agoMetric users generally do not use organic units to describe extraordinarily large objects. That's it stuff like xx Olympic swimming pools or xx football fields (american nontheless) doesn't sound natural at all. It's all in meters/kilometers, etc.
- bowlofpetunias 12y agoNah, "soccer fields" is a very common way to reference size/length in various European cultures.
- ajuc 12y agoWhich ones? I've never heard it.
- loup-vaillant 12y agoMine. I'm French. We often use soccer fields as a unit of surface.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoThe British press regularly measure things in football (soccer) pitches, London double-decker buses, Eiffel towers, blue whales and Wales. The Register regularly does piss-take articles about this and even provides a handy conversion calculator. http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-conve... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/vulture_central_standards/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/vulture_central_stan...
- xxs 12y agoI was under the impression El Reg does it as a joke to the US.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoNah, it is a common habit the world over, no matter what the local official system of measurement happens to be. http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2010/may/17/mind-your-language-david-marsh http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2010/may... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measur... I like the one suggested in the book Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, of measuring faith in Alps.