Which is better, Metric or Imperial measurements?

[Kriswest]

It requires more numbers. I never got metric either

[Mr_Reasonable]

I use both measurement systems interchangeably. Some people say, “I want a quarter”, or “I want an ounce”, others come in and ask for it in grams. I give em what they want I got a scale with a little button that lets me change the unit of measure.

[Silhouette]

@tentative

What’s wrong with learning the simple conversions so that you can work in either system of measurement? An inch is 2.54 cm. What’s so difficult about that? Or, 25.54 mm = 1 inch. That doesn’t strain the brain too much, does it?

You know those conversions aren’t exact, right? It’s useful to know the approximate conversions for everyday use, but as soon as accuracy is needed, you’re in trouble.

And it strains my brain how 25.54mm can be 2.54cm.

[Flannel_Jesus]

@Silhouette

You know those conversions aren’t exact, right? It’s useful to know the approximate conversions for everyday use, but as soon as accuracy is needed, you’re in trouble.

I used to think that too.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch#Mode … ardisation
The current internationally accepted value for the imperial and US customary inch is exactly 25.4 millimetres.

[Silhouette]

@Flannel Jesus

@Silhouette

You know those conversions aren’t exact, right? It’s useful to know the approximate conversions for everyday use, but as soon as accuracy is needed, you’re in trouble.

I used to think that too.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch#Mode … ardisation
The current internationally accepted value for the imperial and US customary inch is exactly 25.4 millimetres.

Ah, so they tweaked it to fit in with the metric system…
How convenient.
Definitely says something about the overall preference for the metric system.

[Moreno]

@Maia

Metric is simple. You simply multply by factors of 10 to get the next one up. 10 mm make one cm, 100 cm make one metre, and 1000 metres make one km, and so on. A simpleton could understand it.

Imperial is much more complex, being much older. 12 inches make a foot, 3 feet make a yard, 1,760 yards make a mile, and so on. You need to be good at mental arithmetic to use it.

Perhaps it’s not surprising mathematical standards are falling, with kids no longer having to exercise their brains so much.

In UK schools, in general, only Metric is taught. In our school, however, they took a more practical approach, and deliberately taught us both, so we could easily judge and navigate a distance that was quoted to us in either, because in the real world Imperial is still used all the time. The same applies to weights and other measures.

Should we pick just one system and suppress the other, or continue using both for different purposes, a situation that is hugely more complicated than either on its own?

Imperial is better. It is more human and we are humans. I can understand scientists wanting the elegance and rigid efficiency of metric. But for us wee little humans in our social, floppy, clunking along encultured selves, imperial is cool, analogical, pretentiousless, relaxed, symbolic…I mean, why try to make wine bottle aesthetic or the shapes of cars.

We are not machines.

[Kriswest]

They killed metric here by teaching it too late in school. I was in jr. high when they introduced it to us. They should have taught it from the beginning of education. You are programmed to a system and then taught another one and yippee skippee puberty minds have to convert on cue. Yea that works well.

[Hobbes_Choice]

@Moreno

@Maia

Metric is simple. You simply multply by factors of 10 to get the next one up. 10 mm make one cm, 100 cm make one metre, and 1000 metres make one km, and so on. A simpleton could understand it.

Imperial is much more complex, being much older. 12 inches make a foot, 3 feet make a yard, 1,760 yards make a mile, and so on. You need to be good at mental arithmetic to use it.

Perhaps it’s not surprising mathematical standards are falling, with kids no longer having to exercise their brains so much.

In UK schools, in general, only Metric is taught. In our school, however, they took a more practical approach, and deliberately taught us both, so we could easily judge and navigate a distance that was quoted to us in either, because in the real world Imperial is still used all the time. The same applies to weights and other measures.

Should we pick just one system and suppress the other, or continue using both for different purposes, a situation that is hugely more complicated than either on its own?

Imperial is better. It is more human and we are humans.
We are not machines.

To err is human. What you don’t want with a measuring system is to err.

Metric is better by any serious criterion that I can think of. And it too is human. What other species would it be?
Whatever species invented Imperial - did they have 12 fingers and toes?

[Moreno]

@Hobbes Choice

To err is human. What you don’t want with a measuring system is to err.

No need to make errors with feet and quarts and all that.

Metric is better by any serious criterion that I can think of. And it too is human. What other species would it be?
Whatever species invented Imperial - did they have 12 fingers and toes?

No, cause then we’d probably have a metric in base 12. Anyway, I think you know what I meant by ‘human’.

I think my criterion is serious. I think imperial is a warmer system and it suits most of us better. And the US, for example, did just fine in all sorts of fields using non-metric compared to nations that used metric. And that was even in professional contexts.

I consider it a very low priority problem, if it even is one. There are so many things that actually need fixing, do not work and cause incredible harm. If I see those solved, I am willing to relook at the issue.

Right now I consider charm a valid criterion.