On 12/13/11 6:37 AM, Reeves Paul wrote:
...and just what is 'less accurate' about pounds, feet, cubic yards etc?
The metric system (I use the term loosely) is ideal for those people who
cannot do mental arithmetic and can only shift decimal points. All
'imperial' measurements can be defined just as the metre, kilogramme (and
there is a dodgy one...)can be.
Remember that the metre is originally based on (very) inaccurate French
surveying techniques, a yard would do just as well.
But it wouldn't be a nice 10,000 km from pole to equator...
And besides that's the whole Britannia rules the waves so they get the
prime meridian and the French make good maps so they get the meter thing.
As a (somewhat
middle-aged) physicist I'm perfectly happy with either system - although the
imperial system is obviously better :-) . Just look what happened when NASA
tried to use metric measurements for that Mars probe......
Actually, when a contractor used U.S. Customary units in data that was
supposed to be delivered in Metric. NASA Deep Space Exploration has
been metric for decades. I'd have to go look at some old documents to
see if Mariner, Ranger, Voyager were inch/pound or metric. (Space
Shuttle and part of ISS are U.S. Customary (aka inch/pound) for legacy
manufacturing reasons..)
And does it really matter anyway?
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