Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> I don't think it really matters that things are 
> specifically multiples of 10 until you start getting into figuring out 
> ranges of numbers where exponents come into play.

  I don't really agree with that. The metric system makes it trivial to
switch between units as needed without the need of any calculations
whatsoever.

  For example, a person can be 180 cm tall, or 1.8 meters tall, or 1 meter
80 cm tall. All three of these are completely and trivially exchangeable
with each other without the need to do any kind of mental calculations
whatsoever.

  This makes it much more intuitive and easy to quickly get a grip on
everyday measurements, as compared to familiar measurements (such as
your own height). For example, if someone tells you "the stick is 160 cm
long", then you immediately get a mental image of how long it is if you
yourself are 180 cm tall: It's something like a head less than you.

  If someone told something like "it's 2 meters tall", then once again
you can immediately grasp how much it is, compared to yourself: You know
that you are 1.8 meters tall, so 2 meters is a bit more, something like
a head taller.

  Note that two different units were used here, centimeters in the first
case and meters in the second, yet the amount of mental work to get a
notion of the length of the stick was exactly the same. No additional
mental work whatsoever was needed because two different units were used
in the two examples.

  In some cases it may be handier to use centimeters if you need that kind
of accuracy, while in other cases it's more practice to use meters because
you are not intending to be that accurate. The great thing is that in either
case it's equally easy to understand what kind of measurements we are talking
about without having to do any mental math.

  The same goes for most of the other everyday units. For example it's
easy to grasp that "516 grams" is about as heavy as a half litre of
water (because 516 grams is close to half a kilogram). Again, no mental
calculations neeed. And so on.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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