We usually use fractions, but sometimes we're forced to use decimals, usually when related to computers, since the usual fractions don't translate well to decimal.
You're saying that Americans preferentially use base-2 fractions (nearly) everywhere except on computers; on computers you preferentially use base-10, even though said computers are going to store the values as base-2?
That's the funniest thing I've heard all week.
I don't understand this comment at all. Most people are not computer programmers and therefore have no insight into how computers represent numbers. They just populate text fields in Excel, or whatever, with numbers. It's easier to use decimal points to do that than fractions.
When I'm not using computers or calculators, I do prefer American-style fractions over decimal point representations. Fractions are a lot easier for me to manipulate in my head. If I'm out in my garage, upside down, underneath a car, and trying to decide which drill bit to use, I don't have convenient access to the calculator on my cell phone or a pencil and paper, and reliable mental math is important. The fractions are easier, so that's what I want.
What's 3/16" in 64ths, while under your car?
(Imperial numbers copied from a website selling a set, metric from my memory of my 10-bit set. I doubt these sets are similar.)
12. You just double it, twice.
I'm British, and generally partial to metric units, but power-of-two fractions actually seem quite nice to me.
Thirds don’t fit neatly into binary nor do they fit neatly into decimal. This is what the comment refers to.