Imperial Or Metric?

[kryszcztov]

What about "13 kay" ?

NOTE : In Australia, we say "kay" to talk about kilometers.

I think that this Eminem dude should have been Australian all the way and name his song "13 kay". Way better than whatever it is in Imperial.

Is it true or false that the USA experience a slight decrease in productivity because of the Imperial system ? Not that I read it somewhere, but I'm just asking...

 

[Marla_Singer]

Most of the Frenchmen I know are so self-evidently not cool that it would be rude to ask them, just because it would be rubbing it in. I do have a gentle, kind side to me, y'know.

How many Frenchmen do you know ? I'm sure you're not able to mention anyone. Or maybe few dead men.

 

[mdwh]

A lot of irrational bias here in favour of, ultimately, a number system based simply on how many extremities you have on the end of your arms.

From an arithmetic viewpoint, 12 makes far more sense than 10 as a basis for a number system - its factors of 2,3,4 and 6 allow you to halve, third and quarter things with ease (essential for any truly sharing society...) and kicks into touch both base 10 and Cierdan's ludicrously stupid base 30.

The main advantage of metric is not about base 10 versus base 12, but rather that the same multiplier is used for each named unit (and furthermore, there is a consistent system of prefixes rather than having different names for different units). Base 10 was chosen simply to fit with our number system, but a system based around base 12 will still be closer to metric than imperial in my opinion, and such a base 12 system would still be a vast improvement over imperial.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

@mdwh. Pretty much right. I broadly agree with your analysis, though sadly not with your conclusion. If you replace "main advantage of metric" with "principle reason for the dullness of metric" then I think I'd be limited to minor petty quibbles (and we all know how out of character that would be for me...)

 

[sysyphus]

Actually, the main advantage of the metric system is that it is indeed a system, unlike Imperial which is merely an assortment of units.

That is, in metric there are 6 "base" units, the metre, kilogram, second, radian, coulomb and candela. All other units are combinations of these units, for example, the unit of force, the Newton, is simply 1 kg*m/s^2, the unit of pressure, the Pascal, is 1 N/m^2.

So when doing calculations, the units work themselves out.

Other than relating lb mass to lb force, you cannot do this in imperial, thus you must apply conversion factors when doing calculations.

 

[Irish Caesar]

The Kelvin is also a fundamental unit; I think there are seven.

But yes, the fact that the units are actually related to each other makes it much more convenient.

 

[sysyphus]

The Kelvin is also a fundamental unit; I think there are seven.

Ah! I knew I forgot one. Thanks.

 

[Eukaryote]

Metric is best because to convert to different units, it's alwalys multiply or divide by factors of 10.

Interesting facts: It is ten million meters from the equator to the north pole.
1 metre3 is a kilolitre, the weight of a millilitre of water is a gram.

 

[Perfection]

@sysphus 4 things...

1. The ampere is a base unit

2. The coulomb is derived unit (A*s)

3. Moles are also base units

4. Radians are not base units, they have special status in SI.

 

[Truronian]

4. Radians are not base units, they have special status in SI.

As do steradians.