On 200707031046, Chris Wagner wrote: > The metric system was invented as a form of propaganda after the > French Revolution. It's claim of being "naturally based" and not > arbitrary and being easy to do certain math problems with was it's > selling point. However it's just as arbitrary as every other > measurement system ever invented. Without regarding the history of the metric system, the U.S. is under pressure from the rest of the world to adopt it. Like the rest of the world is under pressure to adopt the U.S.'s interpretation of terrorism and the U.K. to adopt right-side driving. That's the current selling point for the U.S. Also, the metric system (and to a larger extent, the SI system) has an arbitrary _base_ unit (ever heard of the one-meter-bar in Paris?). Compare to the imperial system, which tries to give meaning to many units in its system (e.g. one ``oil barrel'' is equal to 672 ``cups''). Moreover, the metric system goes hand in hand with SI-derived units, in which everything is also bound together using powers of ten, which fits the number of fingers on average hands, which is relevant in teaching scenarios. The imperial units seem chaotic compared to this. > It's claim of math friendliness sounds attractive but who really > benefits from this feature? It turns out only scientistish people > benefit. And therefore, the society as a whole. The Roman numerals were totally great for society -- that's why children can do calculations in their heads nowadays, that Greek scientists couldn't even do in writing, back then. Regards, skrewz.
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