TotalyMeow wrote:Actually, English type systems were better for a very long time. If you're measuring out a distance, and you don't have a laser-cut ruler or a precisely spaced tape measure, how do you divide up your base unit of length? You're probably going to just cut it in half, or maybe in thirds, because it's easy to eyeball that. Hence, the English foot was divided into 12 inches with factors of 2, 2, and 3, and the inch divided in halves from there. So much easier than trying to make accurate fifths, which is what you have to do with a meter, which factors into 2, 2, 2, 5, 5, and 5. Even in metric, time is still divided into 60s and 24s.
If you look at the history if weights and measures, real, long lasting standards weren't in effect until about the mid 1800s and there was still a bit of variation until like the 1960s or so when it started to become possible to define units in terms of universal constants. So, don't go mocking older systems just because they are old. They were very effective in their time. The only reason the US hasn't converted is the ridiculous expense of the changes over such a huge country. The road signs alone... we don't even have the funding to upkeep our massive road system let alone replace all that. :/
OMG!
Someone has actually made a rational argument! Must be a witch! Raise your pitchforks, let's burn the witch!
dig until your hands bleed
