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Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> The imperial system was not developed to make calculations easier but
> people's lives easier. If you have been brought up with it you will know
> how it describes the external world in a way that relates to human
> scales. I use both at work and at home and I much prefer inches and feet
> to centimetres and meters. It also has a sense of poetry to it.
> So if it makes you think how many feet to a mile (5280) is that a bad thing?
It doesn't matter which measurement system is used: If you have grown up
using it, it will feel "most natural" to you. To a person who has grown
up using the metric system it feels the most natural.
The thing is, the metric system is much more practical. It can easily be
used to measure very small and very large quantities and, what's more
important, converting between quantities is a lot easier.
How many millimeters are there in a meter? How many grams are there in a
kilogram? You don't have to actually make any calculations whatsoever.
You just shift the decimal point.
And you can go to very small scales, even ridiculously small scales,
without having to resort to awkward amounts.
--
- Warp
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