> Screws here go down to 1/32nd or 1/64th of an inch,

Oh god that just reminded me of working on old stuff when I was younger.  OK 
so the 1/2" socket is too small, ermm what comes next, this one looks 
bigger, 5/8", nope too big, hmmm, ummm, 5/8, that's 10/16, ok so let's try 
9/16", ah yes cool that fits.

>> What if you need 5 foot 3 point 85 divided into 2?  Dividing 158.3 cm 
>> into 2 is much easier.
>
> You'd cast everything to inches. That's how construction work is done. 
> Studs are 16 inches apart, for example. I went to the store and bought 
> 20-inch hoses to connect wall to sink.

So the length of a support beam is measured as something like 475 inches? 
Do you have any idea how long something that is 475 inches actually looks 
like?  Or do you have to convert roughly into feet/yards first?

Or like the example you gave earlier, if something is 50 thousand feet away, 
do you know how far that is? Or do you have to do a rough conversion to 
miles first?

In metric it's far easier, you buy a piece of wood that is 1200x600x28, you 
know straight away how big it is without needing to any sums in your head. 
Ditto if something is 50 thousand metres away, I know it's going to take me 
about 30 mins to get there straight away - no tricky conversions needed.

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