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To: Junior
We're strictly metric here at work in the biotech field.

Have to say, though, I have a real attachment to the messy standard measures of pounds, miles, gallons and such.
29 posted on 05/15/2006 11:06:07 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: mysterio

An emotional attachment? Sure, why not? I do too, despite having largely been educated since Canada's metric system changeover. Temperatures above freezing I still don't quite have a feel for in metric units. Of course, in Canada we used the original "standard" system before we changed to metric, not the American version of it. A pint is 20 oz, not 16. Talk about confusing, two systems of measure with different definitions for the same units.

In any case, I'm amazed that anyone who's worked or studied in science and/or engineering can deny the elegance of the metric system. So many things fall together nicely without needing arbitrary constants. A litre of water weighs a kilogram, exactly (OK, close enough, anyway - there's been some technical redefinition of the units over the years). A force of a Newton will accelerate a mass of a kilogram at exactly 1 m/s^2. A degree celsius and a degree Kelvin are exactly the same, and the distance between the boiling and freezing points of water is an easy to remember 100 degrees. I could go on but any of you have have studied this stuff know what I'm talking about - the units were designed to easily derive from one another - Watts, Joules, Newtons, Kilograms, metres, seconds, it all ties together. And it's all in nice neat powers of 10, no 12 of this in that, and 16 of this in the other, and 5280 of this in that, and so on.

Yeah, the Imperial/standard system is great for nostalgia and trivia questions, but it is far from the simplest, most logical system of measurements. To me it is as silly as the U.K.'s old system of money with all it's ha-pennies, pennies, farthings, thrupence, shillings, florins, half-crowns and so on. Why didn't the US (or Canada, or much of anywhere else for that matter) adopt that confusing mess instead of the simple decimal currency systems we do have?


59 posted on 05/15/2006 11:27:22 AM PDT by -YYZ-
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