I don't get it, why is metric better?

[swalker]

Because it wasn't invented here?

[Bob Villa]

This is a pointless discussion (similar to religion or politics). It is wha tever you are comfortable with...whether you're using a dial or veneer cali per, scale or tape measure. If you are in thousandths, you are dealing with 10's anyway! But, if you're not capable of using metric measure...you are in denial of the rest of the world. OMO

[krw]

...and the English system was? (I assume you're not in England, with a newsguy server).

[ads]

I'm aware that this is an old posting, but I still find it amusing that the metric proponents who think their system is "so much better" don't want to admit that their measurement of length and thus volume and everything else is based on an inaccurate measurement of the size of the Earth. Is that inaccurate measurement really so much better than the yard being based on the distance from a King's nose to his thumb? The measurement of time in both systems goes back to some Babylonian who arbitrarily divided the day into units that matched their other measurement bases.

And measuring vehicle fuel consumption in liters/100km has always seemed backwards. Your trips aren't in 100km sections - they're in some unique number of miles or kilometers. Km/liter is much more informative if you know the size of the fuel tank.

[Clare Snyder]

Decimal time is used al;l the time in industry - on timeclocks, and in time management - 10ths of an hour per operation - because it's easier to PRICE things that way since the monetary system is also decimal

Actually it doesn't. Lower fuel consumption - less fuel used for a trip - makes more sence than MPG - where better fuel economy means you go farther on a unit of fuel.

Six of one, half dozen of the other - but the old "imperial" system is definitely NOT BETTER.

With the metric (or decimal) system EVERYTHING is in units of 10. No mote 12 inches to a foot - 3 feet to a yard (or 36 inches) and 5380 ft to a mile - 63360 inches to a mile. Or 16 oz to a lb and 2000 lb to a ton - and the weight of water???8.34 lb to the gallon US - or 62.427 lb per cu ft.

In metric it is 10mm.cm, 100cm or 1000mm per meter, 1000 meters per KM

- just move decimal points.

1000 grams per Kilogram for weight - and one gram per cubic centimeter of water - so 1 kilogram per liter. Dead simple.

Also accuracy in measurement is easier in metric ans 1mm is about .0304 inches .1mm is .003+ inches.

Again - not NECESSARILLY better - but a heck of a lot SIMPLER.

As far as what it was originally based on, it is immaterial because it's all been re-calibrated to atomic measurements. Since the International Yard and Pound Agreement of 1959, one foot is defined as 0.3048 meter exactly.

The basic unit of length in the metric system; it was originally planned so that the circumference of the Earth would be measured at about forty million meters. A meter is 39.37 inches. Today, the meter is defined to be the distance light travels in 1 / 299,792,458 seconds.

The previous definition of the meter was one ten-millionth of the distance from the geographic north pole to the equator, measured over the earth's surface in a circle running through Paris, France.

And is still METRIC but not SI Metric convention.

Easy enough to convert too - all based on the fact that 1L per 100km

-s equal to 100 km/L - so 2 L /100KM is 50 KM per Liter - and 4 L /

100Km is 25 Km per liter. 8 is 12.5 - it's all linear. - so 10 L/100Km is 10 Km per liter

[J. Clarke]

What's so great about 10? Computers don't do well with it. All my SAE wrenches and drill bits and so on are nicely binary--units of one half, one fourth, one eighth, one sixteenth, etc.

Accuracy in measurement is only easier if 1mm is sufficient granularity for you.

It's all arbitrary.

Damned French.

[Clare Snyder]

So you need to do quick calcs in your head to know what the next larger or next smaller wrench size is. - Not so with Metric - which are virtually ALL simple whole numbers

And actually computers have no problem dealing with decimal calculations

No, tenths, hundredths and thousandths of a MM are commonly used for fine measurements. The micron - 1 1/millionth of ameter is .0004 of an inch. - Also known as a MicroMetre

Actually no it is not. As noted below

You like the Italians (romans) better???

[J. Clarke]

The next larger wrench is the one that is next to the one I am using. The next smaller is the one next to it on the other side. I don't generally care about what marking is on the wrench, just that it fits.

OK, what is the binary representation of 0.1?

So, 2^-1, 2^-1, etc work equally well and computers can calculate them exactly.

Yes, it is. Somebody decided that "this is a meter". There's no law of nature that requires it to have that value.

Hell yeah.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Does not really matter what is is based on, it works.

Most of the people against it just don't want to change what they already knwo. I've worked with both and it is easier to work in 1os. No bothering to add 47/64th to 23/32nds.

No one has ever convinced anyone to change from one to the other either. Like arguing religion or politics, my way is the best way.

[Bob D]

Take up a different hobby where metric is the only standard and it all makes sense - Cycling is an example.

[Clare Snyder]

Pretty well anywhere outside of the Confused States of America metric is "normal" and has been for decades, at the minimum.

[DerbyDad03]

0.0001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011 001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011...

At least that's what my dual-system tape measure says. ;-)

[DerbyDad03]

The average male likes metric better.

12.95 is a more impressive than 5.1

;-)

[krw]

No, if time were decimal, there would be ten hours in a day and ten days in a week, ten weeks in a month, ten months in a year, and ten years in a decade. Oh, wait...

With the advent of the computer, such things don't matter.

It doesn't matter.

You have too many significant digits.

So what?

Not all that much.

By definition, one inch is 2.54CM, exactly. The rest drops out of that.

[krw]

Your tape measure lies. You have too many significant digits. ;-)

[krw]

When I work on stuff I just pick the resolution I need (32nds, or

64ths, whatever) and stick with it. Then I just remember the numerator. It doesn't matter what the base is, then.

It's even sillier than that.

[krw]

But 91-83-91 isn't nearly as impressive. ;-)

[gray_wolf]

Why come nautical navigation is most always done in knots?

[dpb]

'Cuz it does knot make sense to do in naughts or nots...

[J. Clarke]

Sailors are traditionalists.