On 1/23/2013 7:18 AM, Casper Bang wrote:
Brits still measure distances in miles, height in feet and inches
and weight in stone and lbs. The height and weight thing might be
changing with the current generation of schoolchildren, I'm not
sure, but miles look to be there to stay. If you want to
standardise things, shall we start with the spoken language and
leave the units until continental Europe uses English instead of
their local dialect? :)
Well, the empire is no more; so the UK too will have to conform.
English is already standardized as *the* international language and
indeed, things are flowing nicely between Italians, French and Danes
on this very list. I disagree that the language is more important to
standardize though, that's a red herring in the light of math and
science. Imagine if nobody agreed on the units of time...?!
Time is such a critical unit of measurement that it has eluded
decimalization.
We still use minutes and hours -- base 60 rather than base 10.
Similarly, while radians are used in scientific circles, common language
references to angles are in degrees.
The roots of these unit systems are positively ancient
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal), tracing back to the
Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC! Talk about your ancient, antiquated
"hill-billy" unit systems.
--
Jess Holle
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