Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-11-22, 17:13:
Growing up with the Imperial systems of measurement it is easy for me to visualize these units of measurement.
It is not so easy to visualize units of measurement in metric.
I often hear that excuse from Americans who defend their archaic units of measurement.
First of all, that still doesn't explain Fahrenheit. Celcius is much easier: zero degrees is the melting temperature of water, 100 degrees is the cooking temperature of water. How does it get easier to comprehend than that? (To be fair, if we really wanted to stick to the proper SI units worldwide, we'd all be using Kelvins instead.)
Secondly, is that really true? I can visualize a centimeter perfectly well, to be honest. Just as easily as I can visualize an inch.
Also, a meter is about the same as a yard (just a few inches more). Is that so hard to visualize instead?
And lastly, I get what you're trying to say: an inch is roughly like the top of your thumb, a foot is like, well, a foot, etc. But how much advantage does that really give you in the practical sense?
I'll hand you one thing, though: having distances and speeds in miles when driving on the highway does make it easy to roughly calculate your travel time in your head. Your average speed in the US is about 60mph, and there are also 60 minutes in an hour. So the distance to your destination as shown on the signs roughly corresponds with the number of minutes before you get there, provided that most of your route goes over highways and there isn't any traffic to slow you down.
But here's a counter argument: how quickly can you tell me how many inches there are in a mile? Without grabbing a calculator? I can immediately tell you how many centimeters there are in a kilometer: 100000 (one hundred thousand).
However, maybe we can compromise on at least one thing: let's meet each other half way when it comes to the date format. Let's all agree on year-month-day. Most significant first, least significant last, just like with numbers. Easier to sort in a computer table as well. And hey, the day will still come after the month, just as you folks are used too. 😉
One more thing: you're really missing out with your paper formats, such as US Letter, etc. The cool thing about A4 and such is the fact that the ratio is 1:√2 (one to the square root of two). What's so cool about that, you might ask? Well, when you fold it in two, you get a half-sized format with exactly the same ratio (A5). Fold it again, and you still have the same ratio (A6). Pretty cool. US Letter doesn't have that. As you start folding it, you start getting weirder and weirder ratios. Seriously, if you're going to adopt anything from the rest of the world, go for the A4 paper format. On the other hand, people are printing less and less these days (thankfully), so that might be less relevant an issue than it used to be. 😄