Posted by Peter Ceresole on September 16, 2004 at 18:46:25 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Ghastly Mess (was A Ransome Moment) posted by RichardG on September 16, 2004 at 18:01:35:
They may have been a pain if you wanted to add them up or divide them by ten, but imperial units were generally based on some natural unit of measurement
Sure, but that was absolutely no use when you actually needed to use them. What use is knowing that the unit was the length of the king's foot when you actually needed to measure something? Once you were out of the middle ages, no use at all. Same goes for all the volume and area measurements; they are a farago of arbitrarily related bits and pieces. And there's nothing instinctive about them; I've got as good a feel for a metre or a kilo as I have for a foot or a pound.
And have you ever tried to do business in Imperial? Tons, quarters, hundredweights (112 pounds of course, not 100, that would be too easy) and pounds. And, God help me, ounces... I have. It's a total mess.
And nobody bring up the famous divisibility of Imperial units. In practice metric units are much easier to handle in mental arithmetic, because they work just like numbers, not some weird clunky accumulations of 12 and 16 and 112 and 4840.
The horror, the horror...
The metric units are simple, easy to handle by moving decimal points. They were one of the best innovations of recent history; in it, we have a lot for which to thank the French revolution.
As for 360 degrees yes; they are anomalous and a nuisance, but most people don't need to think about them. Professionals can handle them; at least they're better than the confusing and complicated points of the compass.