Re: I thought you were metric in England


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Posted by Peter Ceresole on September 05, 2003 at 16:37:25 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.

In Reply to: Re: I thought you were metric in England posted by Laurence Monkhouse on September 04, 2003 at 19:57:46:

All these enthusiasts for metrication seem to overlook how easy it is to get an answer that is ten times, or 100 times the correct one but still looks right. With Imperial measurements such errors are usually obvious.

Even with Imperial units, anybody doing quick calulations always does a basic credibility check at the end. It's exactly the same with metric.

It's just that I've done those ghastly Imperial calculations for real, with pounds, hundredweights (charmingly 112 lbs, not 100) quarter and tons, priced in £sd. An utter nightmare, even using handy reference tables (booklets always filthy and greasy from handling). Then there were discounts...

In metric, you just move the decimal point a bit. Divisions are just divisions, multiplications just multiplications. Utter simplicity. Thank God for Napoleon and France.

It was reckoned that British schoolchildren lost a year's schooling understanding how to use the Imperial system as compared to metric. Having been there, I'd say that was about right.


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