On Friday 04 March 2005 12:31, Philip S Hall wrote: > So what it all boils down to is that you see the metric system as just one > system of measurement among many (imperial, other non-metric, metric, ...) > all of equal status. The one that is used is a matter of personal choice > rather like what clothes to wear or taste in food.
I quite disagree. The imperial system causes errors that the metric system does not. Surveyors use feet and decimals; builders use feet, inches, and binary fractions. It is easy to mistake 9 feet 8 inches for 9.8 feet (I've done it), and remembering the decimal equivalents in feet for all the binary fractions of inches is too big a burden for my mind. (Sixteenths and twelfths I can remember, but sixteenths of twelfths?) If both builders and surveyors worked in metric, builders would use millimeters and surveyors meters, and I'd just move the decimal point. Then there are acres. I can estimate the area of a lot in square feet in my head. (I have to estimate the area to catch the error of entering the corners in the wrong order.) But if the map lists acres, I am lost. In metric the map would list hectares, I'd compute square meters, and again I'd just move the decimal point. phma -- GCS/M d- s-: a+ C++ UL++++$ P+ L+++ E- W+++ N+ o? K? w-- O? M- V- Y++ PGP++ t- 5? X? R- !tv b++ DI !D G e++ h+>---- r- y>+++
