John VanSickle wrote:
> For example, one Watt (unit of power) is equal to one Joule (unit of 
> energy) per second.  One horsepower (imperial unit of power) is equal to 
> some silly number of foot-pounds per second.

Sure. That comes from having only one unit of measurement for each 
fundamental thing you're measuring. On the other hand, you still get some 
arbitrary factors in there, like moles or parsecs.

If I asked you how much power it took to lift what a horse could, or how 
many pounds of force you had to push a foot-long lever with, you'd once 
again have those arbitrary scale factors thrown in. ;-)

I'm not saying metric isn't easier. I'm pointing out that imperial stuff, 
since it's based on people, is very poor at measuring things that aren't 
approximately relevant to people, like the weight of planets or the size of 
atoms.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Quoth the raven:
        Need S'Mores!

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