On Jul 6 , at 11:22 AM, Martin Vlietstra wrote:
> Those of us who are nimble with numbers will quickly spot that 850 feet is
> less than ¼ mile – a mile is 5280 feet, so a ¼ mile is greater than 1000
> feet, which in turn is greater than 850 feet.
Not everyone is so nimble with units. I doubt whether many people could figure
it out* (and even fewer would know the rule that shorter distances are alway
shown in feet, never in miles, and longer distances are shown in miles, never
in feet).
However, you really missed my point so I must not have expressed myself well.
Since I was writing to metric proponents, I just assumed that you would
understand that I meant that it would be SO much easier in metric regardless of
how "nimble with numbers" one is.
Using SI, the one distance would be about 250 m and the other would be 0.4 km.*
Now it is easy to see which is nearer, either
by recognizing 250 m as being 0.25 km and comparing 0.4 km with 0.25 km,
or
by recognizing that 0.4 km is 400 m and comparing 250 m with 400 m.
Regards,
Bill
* Of course, in a metric country they would probably use 400 m instead of 0.4
km in the first place, making it even easier.
