On Sunday 02 October 2005 11:40, Philip S Hall wrote: > > I didn't see any responses to your comment. Somehow Pierre, I think your > > explanation went over the heads of the others who post there. Too much > > math. The non-metric users can't do math. It is part of being trained > > in imperial, that one is to be both bad at math and to hate it equally > > well. > > I don't know about the US but I'd lay money on it that there are plenty of > examples of mathematically competent people using non-metric measures. I've > heard mathematics teachers in the UK talk in imperial in everyday life even > though they teach metric in the classroom.
It's not impossible to calculate in non-metric measures, it's just more difficult, which means fewer people become competent at it. If I had picked the cross section in square points and calculated the mass in grains, I would have lost more people than I did with milligrams (though maybe not with micronewtons). Even those that measure their hair in inches take their MSM and silicon in milligrams. phma
