Let's Make Robots!

For those who use that 'imperial' measuring system

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Fractional vs decimal is not inherent to either the metric or imperial systems. It is fully possible to express something as being 0.678465645 inches long or something as being 4/9ths of a meter long.

In the end it doesn't matter where the unit is derived from its how easy it is to change between orders of magnitude.

When I want to know how many meters are in 1/3rd of a kilometer the basis of the meter doesn't even enter my head but the answer is immediately obvious. Can you tell me without hesitation how many yards are in 1/3rd of a mile? :)

How many millimeters are in 1/3 of a meter?

To me I just see that as 586.66666666666 with as many decimal points as you like. 

333.33333mm how many decimal places would you like? I should have said in a non fraction but anyhow ;)

I would like an exact answer, please.

All I will say is, we count using the base 10 system. Imperial uses a base (12)? system. Makes sense to measure in the same system you count with.

Both of your responses are great examples of why people who have used metric all their life really shouldn't be telling people who use imperial how much better metric is: you don't know of which you speak.  Those of us who have used imperial our whole lives know the system.  Imperial isn't base 12 or base anything. 

Personally, I think this whole argument is ridiculous and reeks of elitism.  Isn't it the Americans that always get criticized for telling the world how much better we are?  I see the opposite here. 

I saw both of my repsonses as great examples of discussing a topic. I took each point you mentioned and discussed it. 

I've been using imperial for the past few months in the design proccess for PopPet, as some of the components are sourced from the US. It has been farily easy though as I'm only sticking with inches. Knowing the system your whole life does not raise an argument for how good that system is. I infact tried to look at the systems with no bias in mind. Yes, imperial isn't really base 12, it's only base 12 for inches, then it changes to feet and changes again and so on. So not only does it not follow a standard, it's picks and chooses. 

Actually, as you'll see in the infographic, it's 99.9% of the world against US in this instance. Also, elitism and sensibility are two entirely different things.

Also, check both Yahmez's and PeteH's comments, I call fair unbias in their remarks.