Posted on 02/20/2017 5:34:09 AM PST by C19fan
British manufacturers may once again be able to sell goods in pounds and ounces after the country has left the European Union, the Environment Secretary has hinted.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I’ve watched the proportions of buildings and vehicles get strange for some time now, and I blame the metric system. It’s arbitrarily forced into base ten because people who relate to numbers like the orderliness of it, no other reason. The scale and proportion produced by this system, however, are just wrong, they’re “off” somehow, just plodding and clunky. They don’t sing like the old measures and proportions. For all their seeming fusty archaicness (is that a word, lol?), I’ll take inches, feet and yards all day long over metric, to produce physically appealing forms, from autos to architecture. They’re human scale, they’ve arisen over millennia and have had staying power for a reason. They’re highly functional in day to day, real world usage, and produce things of beauty.
“Have you ever tired to buy a Whitworth nut in Grand Rapids Michigan on Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend?”
I’d have to think about that...but it does sound like a refreshing challenge!
The metric system was invented by French revolutionaries to get rid of anything that could be traced back to a king—like the length of his foot. So they contrived something like 1/10,000,000 the distance from pole to equator. Which turns out to be close, but not usably close to a yard, the distance from your nose to your outstretched hand (which is how cloth was measured). It is also just a bit too long for an average-sized man’s stride. Playing out line at sea using fathoms (distance between tips of fingers of outstretched arms is a whole lot easier than measuring line in meters.
Yes, the old system appears to be more chaotic, but measuring a horse’s height by using ‘hands’ (4 inches) just seems to work better than scaring said horse with a tape measure. While the metric system is great for the lab, it can be awkward in the real world. Fahrenheit offers us a whole lot fewer negative numbers in our lives than Celsius does.
It is interesting that the metric system has to be imposed by governments. It is rarely demanded by people who are ok using pounds, feet, etc.
Oh, yeah? I bet you are one of those weirdoes that thinks an E-Type is more beautiful than Hyundai Elantra or Mercedes GLK! Go figure!
Nothing arbitrary about the metric system. Temperature, length, and weight are all specifically defined.
I often forget these “common sense” measurements. Along with the ‘hour.’ No metric equivalent for minutes and seconds? Why not? How about longitude and latitude?
To a some degree, the drive to “metrification” was powered by the usual suspects - academia, MSM, liberals, etc. In other words, the smart people who know oh so much more than those of us out here in the real world.
(For the most part, people in labs who wanted to work in metric measurements, didn’t really care to force the rest of us to follow suit. What a nice tolerant conservative trait.)
Babylonian geometry and the concept that a chord equal to the radius of a circle can fill said circle with six equilateral triangles. By dividing those further, you end up with 360 isosceles triangles defining degrees of arc, which conveniently approximates the number of days in a year.
Certain Megalithic structures in Britain and Brittany reportedly demonstrate a 366 degree circle and a yard derived from that.
Just because something is defined, doesn’t mean that it is not arbitrary. Even if a meter is some fraction of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, the choice of that measurement is arbitrary. (Significantly, it has been changed over the years as the distance has been better measured.) Changing it to a fraction of the speed of light in a vacuum is the same. A kilogram? It is a measure of mass, not weight, but it is used most commonly for weight.
I don’t really care in some ways, I have a tool chest full of metric and inch tools. I just say let the market place determine what standard to use in which situations. Keep mandatory changes out of the mix.
And why are there 24 hours in a day?! Can't we have a 10 hour day?
Oh, great idea, that would be so much more efficient and precise. We'd only work 3.33 hours a day and would get paid so much more per hour, it'd be fantastic.
A definite step backwards!
***I remember when Jimmy Carter wanted to impose the metric system on the US.***
Ah yes., I remember it well. All the Lib “back-to-the-earth” magazines started printing all their how-to-do projects in metric.
I bought a yard light several years back. The large screws holding the light up to the wall were not metric, but they also were not standard. Had to use an adjustable wrench for them.
Hm...arbitrary? Details, please. The English system is horribly arbitrary and cumbersome. Would gladly trade it for metrics any day.
***The English know how to pour a pint.***
Was it in the book 1984 or BRAVE NEW WORLD in which some man in a pub was complaining about the measurement of beer under the new measuring system. He wanted his “pint” back.
Sure, there is an arbitrary aspect, but as you’ve pointed out, the meter was an attempt to define distance as something discrete, and not some local measurement, and from that, the standard for mass. The point is that there is a standard that isn’t as variable as “the length of a tall man’s stride” or the “three grains of barley, dry and round...”
I agree,. Base ten is not the answer, unless your attempting to “dumb down” a population. I have said for years that the American measurement system vs. metrics is an intelligence test, anyone who can count without their fingers and toes being consulted can deal just fine with cups, teaspoons, tablespoons etc, anyone who can’t isn’t using either system. A pint, a pound the whole place round has a better ring to it than anything the metrics system has to offer. Let’s face it, humans, calenders, circles, clocks and the earth itself are too organic to conform to the base ten.
It is interesting that the metric system has to be imposed by governments. It is rarely demanded by people who are ok using pounds, feet, etc.
...
All measurement systems are arbitrary, but the traditional system evolved over time to be people friendly. As I said before, it nicely incorporates highly composite numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_composite_number
And let’s face it, songs like “I Can See For Miles” sound a lot better than “I Can See For Kilometers”.
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