scott wrote:
> Like what? mm, cm, m and km pretty much cover most things in terms of 
> distance.

A cm is about right. You need something about a foot, tho. Otherwise you 
get things like "he was 197 cm tall". Note that people really rarely use 
"yards" as a measure here. It's feet and miles, unless you're measuring 
something that's particularly sold by the yard, like cloth.

Kilograms are too heavy and grams are too light. Liters are too big and 
centiliters are too small. Basically, the factor of 1000 in common units 
is the problem. :-)

> And having numbers that often go over 100 for everyday 
> temperatures doesn't seem too convenient.

Having numbers that go below zero for everyday temperatures seems less 
convenient.

>> and because 10 isn't really divisible by many numbers.
> But everyone knows how to divide by 10, which I think is more useful.

Not if you're constructing something. Then you want to be able to take a 
third of it, for example. Using a duodecimal number system probably 
would have been a better idea.

And powers of 10 work almost as poorly as powers of 12 for computers. ;-)

> It also makes physics equations easier, with no ugly scale factors.  

No question it works better in science than everyday life. And certainly 
my opinions carry no weight beyond my own opinion.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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