Chuck Harris <[email protected]> wrote: > Metric is purely arbitrary, as are all of the variants on the > English system.
They are not equally arbitrary. The metric system was constructed from the size and rate of rotation of the Earth and the density of water, plus some well-organized constant factors. (The relation between length, volume, and mass is elegantly simple.) Customary measures are based on artefacts whose size cannot be recovered if they are lost, with irregular subdividing factors and no commonality between the units for different physical dimensions. Tony. -- f.anthony.n.finch <[email protected]> http://dotat.at/ Fair Isle: West, veering northwest, 5 to 7, occasionally gale 8 at first. Rough or very rough, occasionally high. Squally showers. Moderate or good. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
