I want everyone to stop using centimeter. How are we to convert to SI if, when we hear centimeter we think, "now how many inches is that"?
Try stop asking "how many inches is that".
Centimeter causes this problem because it is near the size of the inch. This makes it hard to stop using inches. People keep comparing centimeters to inches. Millimeter does not have this problem.
People who don't want to move away from inches will still convert whether it is cm or mm you try to use. This is a very bad reason for replacing a natural and simple prefix for height (cm) by a badly scaled and over-precise one (mm). Ultimately what you want to encourage is to start thinking in the new unit, and therefore you want to select the unit which will give you the easiest range of values to envisage. Do you really think trying to remember your height as 1740 mm is easier to envisage than 174 cm ?
Tom Wade
