The Metric System

[AndrewLewis]

You mean lumber? Because a 2x4 is actually 1.5"x3.5".

That was the joke.

[Dalton Clark]

Metric is a superior system by all accounts. It just takes some getting used to.

I still think the World should get together and go "alright, fuckos, xxxxx is the best language. We're all going to learn it, and just use that from now on." If you're a Vietnamese rice farmer, and you don't want to learn it fine, but if you want to work in science or politics or with anyone else in the world, you need to know it (like English nowadays).

Well luckily I just so happen to be an engineer by trade. I disagree that one system is "better" than another simply because it uses fancy multiples of 10. More useful in science and technology since it was adopted as the international standard? Sure. But better on a deep philosophical level? I would argue that measures are tools. The best tool for a job depends on the user. There is no tool that can be compared without accounting for the user's ability to use it.

[Culican]

The Gregorian calendar obviously needs to be changed, because what is leap year, anyway? We can do better than that!

As the Gregorian calendar was imposed by Pope Gregory XVIII in 1582, a time when the Roman Catholic Church had more than a little power, it may not have been a totally voluntary choice on the part of those who adopted it.

[Pawn]

Well luckily I just so happen to be an engineer by trade. I disagree that one system is "better" than another simply because it uses fancy multiples of 10. More useful in science and technology since it was adopted as the international standard? Sure. But better on a deep philosophical level? I would argue that measures are tools. The best tool for a job depends on the user. There is no tool that can be compared without accounting for the user's ability to use it.

I would second this assessment.

I would also add that the specificity of the unit to the task reduces potential error in practice. The metric system can be very easy to slip an order of magnitude with.

[Pluripotent]

As the Gregorian calendar was imposed by Pope Gregory XVIII in 1582, a time when the Roman Catholic Church had more than a little power, it may not have been a totally voluntary choice on the part of those who adopted it.

You may have skipped a bit of the history. But sure. Let's abolish it. Of course we have to start counting the years with the birth of our lord and Savior, Karl Marx. Years before then will be called BM, before Marx (but also, bowel movement - which serves to remind us that the past was so much excrement). We will have a perfect 10 day week and 4 weeks in a month with no leap year, and the days will be perfectly divided into 10 hours. Months will be named after the months of the 10 months of the French Republic Calendar. Clearly this is overdue.

[AndrewLewis]

I would argue that measures are tools. The best tool for a job depends on the user. There is no tool that can be compared without accounting for the user's ability to use it.

System of measures are, of course, just tools. Having a consistent tool (even a "suboptimal" one) is going to produce more reliable and controllable results than an inconsistent tool, especially when sharing tools.

I've used my height and body parts as measurement tools for sufficiently precise measurements, but that was at my house. It wasn't in an industrial setting where everyone needs to be on the same page.

[Pluripotent]

System of measures are, of course, just tools. Having a consistent tool (even a "suboptimal" one) is going to produce more reliable and controllable results than an inconsistent tool, especially when sharing tools.

I've used my height and body parts as measurement tools for sufficiently precise measurements, but that was at my house. It wasn't in an industrial setting where everyone needs to be on the same page.

If you are sharing tools in an industrial setting, first, I'm hoping that your tool is not suboptimal for the task, and second, I hope you are taking adequate precautions, because not everyone is going to be equally respectful of your tools, and some may not want to share. And you'll have to get regular testing to ensure that nothing has happened to your tools that might alter their effectiveness.

[BrooklynJerry]

How about when you, say, move something a cunt's hair?

[Crom]

On the general topic of measurement systems: I think there is no real rationale for a 7-day week, other than it tumbled down through from the beginning of recorded history/tradition/myth in Judaism.
There have been numerous other systems, but now the 7-day week is universally accepted.
Why ?
?

[Phill]

How about when you, say, move something a cunt's hair?

Bee's dick is far more accurate.

I live my life 402m at a time makes no sense to anyone.

If I ask for 102.362mm pistons to suit SBC with 144.78mm rods and 88.392mm crank the guy at Summit has no idea what I'm talking about.

I live in a metric country but I think it's important to be able to recognise and convert either way for rough calculation and use the correct system when it is required.