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6pOriginal said:
Very cool! Am I the only person that thinks the metric system makes more sense?
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Not by any means. Most people who have been brainwashed in school agree with you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
So where does this power of ten thing come from? Just because we learned to count using base ten (decimal). Life would be easier if we used a base that was a power of two. Like the octal or hexadecimal system.
Our brains naturally like powers of two, or factors of two. I'll bet the fuel gauge in your car doesn't show tenths of a tank. It shows 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc. This is binary (factors of two), pure and simple. It explains why we can cut a pizza into 8 equal pieces more easily than we can cut it metrically into ten equal pieces. I could give many more examples, but I'm saving that until I write a book. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Everyone, including engineers, encounter units of measurement casually in everyday life more often than they perform elaborate calculations. Using metric means using big words, often abbreviated into absurdity, instead of small words. Kilometer instead of mile, millimeters instead of inches, kilograms instead of pounds, etc.
I've read countless news stories of police confiscating kilos of cocaine. Kilos? Perhaps they meant kilometers, like if the cocaine was put in a thin white line, it would stretch for kilometers. By the way, if this country hasn't gone metric, why don't police confiscate pounds of cocaine, or would that make life too simple?
I'm ready to be convinced though. Let's see. What is it that we measure the most often, and the most precisely? I'll bet they didn't teach you that in school. Hint, many of us have a measuring instrument strapped to our wrists. Yeah, time it is. Once you convince me of the beauty of measuring time metrically (powers of ten), the rest should be easy. Would we use millidays instead of minutes, or maybe megaseconds instead of days? I never could get the hang of this metric thing.
With gasoline prices getting high, I'm curious what kind of kilometerage you get in city driving? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I guess I didn't pay attention in school because I don't know if the invention of the metric system is a great milestone in mankind's history, or if it is a great 1.0609 kilometer stone in mankind's history.
Yeah, I know I'm a wiseguy, but the life of us contrarians ain't easy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
There is at least one other fellow that agrees with me.
http://www.aps.org/apsnews/1001/100111.cfm