I'd dispute that. People carry out daily tasks unwittingly using mathematics
more than they think they do.
The word "unwittingly" is key there.
Sorry, you can't get away with it as easily as that. Your previous argument implied a more detached view than this. Maybe you should substitute the words "personal preference" for the word "best".
My personal preference is the same as "best" for me.
I prefer to drink orange juice to apple juice, thus orange juice is best for me. It cannot mean that orange juice "is the best" universally though.
Since we are on the subject of preference, obviously I prefer metric, but just because some of my peers try to talk imperial to me and sometimes expect me to do the same, I'll never concede it's "best for me" or anyone else.
I would never infer that, as for you - "metric" is best for you. The trouble is, you feel that its best for your peers - but life is not that rigid. It's not up to an individual or an organisation to dictate what is best for people. That does not imply that individuals or organisations shouldn't persuade people that another way is better though - that's just human, and, democratic.
People can habitually do things in a certain way but that doesn't mean it's the best way. It doesn't do any harm to listen to wiser alternatives.
I know imperial and metric. I do not see either as a "wiser alternative" to the other. I choose lbs over kg not out of ignorance or out of just habit but out of choice and preference. I admit that there is a degree of habit, but in the knowledge of having learned both systems I can personally claim that habit plays a small role. Here in the UK we've been told to go metric on various occasions, even getting the state and laws involved in "telling us what's best". This has been happening for decades yet people still choose to use imperial even when that choice becomes limited. If I were to be one-dimensional I could claim that that means imperial is "best" - however, I'm not one dimensional!
I'm not being emotional, merely trying to be rational.
'Rational' should allow opinion formation of individuals to dictate what's "best". Don't get me wrong, there is unfounded emotion in both "camps". I just wish we were all allowed choice a bit more - which would mean (in my opinion) a greater choice in america to use metric if one should want to and an end to enforced metrication in the lives of my fellow UK citizens/subjects.
