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Comment by trgn | Hacker News Reader

How's the metric system superior? For science, sure.

But I find day2day use of measurements in inch/ft, e.g. in home renovation and architecture, way way easier than metric system.

I think it's the other way around. The adoption of the metric system was an ideological program from a very specific time. An enlightenment belief in a supreme rational order of things, military science transferred into the real world.

Metric system is cool, but it's not "better". Personally, I think it's worse and awkward for many use cases.

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Nonsense.

You have obviously never seriously used both systems. I use both everyday, and the Inch+ is still more familiar.

BUT metric is VASTLY superior and easier

Examples: Quickly subtract 5/8" of an inch from from 1' 5 25/32" or subtract 16mm from 452mm - which is easier?

Quickly add 3 tablespoons to 3/4 of a cup vs 44 ml added to 177 ml..

Hell, just measure something. That stock board is 8 feet 3/8 of an inch long and needs to be cut to 7'6" (or is it 78"). vs 2.448m cut to 1.98m, and even those would be more round numbers working with metric lumber & building.

Sorry, but the only reason you think it is awkward is that you don't use it regularly.

How much does 12.34 gallons of water weight?

Exactly. Another example:

How many feet is 74 inches? How many meters is 1234cm?

(How long did it take for you to do that math in each case?)

6ft 2inch.

So easy. So clean.

1234cm is the dumbest measurement ever. Once you find yourself working with those, you are either a scientist or you have adapted to the machine rather than have the machine adapt to you.

You didn't actually do the test.

It would still take you longer in your head to come up with 6ft 2inches (which is the wrong answer, btw, the right answer is 6.167 ft.), than it would to come up with 1.234 meters.

> Once you find yourself working with those, you are either a scientist or you have adapted to the machine rather than have the machine adapt to you.

This is a super weird comment for a programming-centric forum.

My point exactly. You constantly have to deal with those stupid fractions and decimals in metric system all the time.

Also - weight and volume relations have mostly scientific relevance. Not joe schmoe putting up out some drywall, or proportion door and window sizes.

It's not that you can't use metric system. It's just worse for a lot of day2day.

NO, in metric, I've never dealt with fractions.

It is ALL DECIMAL, which is the point.

It is in the "English" system that you have to deal with the fractions: the board is 8 feet 1 and 23/32 inches long. Now how long will it be when you cut off 5 3/8 inches from that?

If you can't more quickly subtract 137mm from 2482mm, you are either extremely unusual or insincere.

Why is inch/ft easier than cm/m? As long as we use base 10, it seems trivial that units that are based on it are easier to deal with. Don't you hate it when unit prices for the same type of product, say coffee, are sometimes printed in dollar per pound, other times in cents per oz? Multiplying by 16 in your head isn't exactly trivial. Then with cooking there is teaspoon, tablespoon, ounce, cup, quart, gallon... The fact that there are 12 inches in a foot, but 16 oz in a pound is just madness.

It's better because of network effects. More than 90 percent of the world uses it. They benefit from a consistent lexicon when communicating about measurements.

Nobody will ever convince anyone else that a centimeter is better or worse than an inch. Or a pound vs. a kilogram. It's a ridiculous discussion to have.

When the primary benefit of a choice is consistency, the outliers will always be able to argue that their system works for themselves. Which, unfortunately, misses the point.

> the outliers will always be able to argue that their system

Isn't that exactly the point. Why must people to adapt to the system, rather than have the system adapt to the people?

Metric system is a technocratic system. It has technocratic benefits. I value that a lot less than people, who, oh what a coincidence!, are already on the metric system.

> But I find day2day use of measurements in inch/ft, e.g. in home renovation and architecture, way way easier than metric system.

I’m gonna make an educated guess that you grew up using imperial units. There’s nothing more “natural” to imperial units. An inch is as arbitrary as a centimeter and a foot as arbitrary as a meter. You can eyeball them all equally accurately, but the imperials are gonna kick your ass when you’re converting.

How is measuring something in 3 1/16" better than 8mm? Conversely, how is that not worse?

You can measure from 1nm to 1Em using a simple decimal scale, while with imperial you have to handle conversion from twip to inches to foot to yard to mile to league, all using different scales.

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