Posted on 09/19/2017 4:01:46 PM PDT by BBell
The proposal, conceived by a bunch of pointy-headed Parisian philosophes, sounded brilliant: A universal system of measurement, derived from decimal-based units and identified by a shared set of prefixes. It would end the era of merchants buying goods according to one unit, selling in another, and pocketing the ill-gotten profit. It would simplify scientific calculations and enable the free exchange of ideas around the world. It was an enlightened system for an enlightened time. If only the French scientists could persuade other countries to adopt it.
But pirates have a way of ruining even the best-laid plans.
In 1793, botanist and aristocrat Joseph Dombey set sail from Paris with two standards for the new "metric system": a rod that measured exactly a meter, and a copper cylinder called a "grave" that weighed precisely one kilogram. He was journeying all the way across the Atlantic to meet Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson - a fellow fan of base-ten systems who, Dombey hoped, would help persuade Congress to go metric.
Then a storm rolled in, knocking Dombey's ship off course. The unlucky academic was washed into the Caribbean - and straight into the clutches of British pirates. Technically, they were "privateers" because they were tacitly sanctioned by His Majesty's government so long as they only raided foreign ships. But it amounted to the same thing. The brigands took Dombey hostage and looted his equipment. The luckless scientist died in prison shortly after his capture; his belongings were auctioned off to the highest bidders.
France sent a second emissary to promote the metric system. But by the time the replacement arrived, America had a new secretary of state, Edmund Randolph, who apparently didn't care much for measurement. As the rest of the world adopted the metric system, the U.S. continued to bumble around with
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Objects are way easier to divide into 2 equal sized pieces than into 5.
Well NASA has gone metric. Around 2007 I believe.
It’s not human-scaled.
The gram is so little that the kilogram is the standard for mass (although it is used to weigh things). Even temperatures are a lot more human friendly with Fahrenheit degrees instead of Celsius/centigrade—too much of human life is spent below zero using it. The man who determined ideal human temperature used the Celsius scale, that’s why we think 98.6ºF is “normal”.
The only big advantage is conversions and except in school, how often does one convert miles to inches? And as stated above, it creates a false sense of precision.
And what, other than Muslim outreach, have they accomplished since?
I rest my case, lol.
The weight of gold is measured in troy ounces since the Middle Ages. Until gold starts being measured in kilograms and grams then I know that the metric system is pure BS. Otherwise it`s still an ounce of gold on all the world markets, not grams/kg`s.
Reuters:
“Spot gold was up 0.21 percent at $1,309.32 per ounce by 2:14p.m. EDT (1814 GMT), off the previous day’s low of $1,304.10”
Major repairs on my ‘66 bug required a 36mm socket (easily approximated by an English socket).
For me, major repairs usually involve 3/4” Drive tools. (and I usually am working on my <6000# GVW personal vehicles)
I mentioned when I worked for a surveyor we broke down everything in tenths. I remember the first time I say a surveying tape, in tenths. I was strange at first, a foot divided into tenths..
A mile is 1,000 strides (from Latin for 1,000).
A five mile walk per day gets you 5,000 strides or, in other words, the 10,000 steps that physiologists encourage us to take every day.
Not to mention a meter is a length decided on by a committee and not anything at all in the physical world. Nothing is a meter in length.
I was just a rod man, not a surveyor. Those guys did all the conversions.
“In your head”...
Base 10 systems of measurement don’t work well for people. Mathematically they’re nice, but functionally they suck. A base 60 or base 12 system would work much better built around human relatable base measurements. And thanks to modern calculators the argument for using base 10 math is pretty much dead.
Yes, we've only ever been a bunch of bumblers here in the United States. /s
Or be like the UK and mix them up.
They buy petrol in litres but measure fuel efficiency in miles per gallon...:^)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlpphT7n9s
That 36mm is for the hubs right? My buddy used do love bugs. I can’t remember how many pounds of pressure he said you needed to tighten the hubs up on the rear wheels but he said you need a cheater bar.
A lot easier to calculate than multiples of 12. Can always convert once you've gotten a final total.
Machining in America is also in tenths, and so far as I know, it has always been so.
This is just a bald lie:
“. A bushel of oats purchased in New Jersey contained 32 pounds of grain; but a merchant could then take his wares north to Connecticut, where a bushel was just 28 pounds, and turn a tidy profit.”
If a Bushel cost 32 cents in NJ then it would cost 28 cents in Connecticut.
People aren’t stupid with their money. (Well, not in general.)
Fun read though on Talk Like A Pirate Day.
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