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Comment by spiritplumber | Hacker News Reader

Metric system

The metric system is equivalent to web standards, which (almost) everyone agrees is good. His argument is like saying "we should only have one set of weighing scales or one type of tape-measure to measure metric things".

Web standards are like the metric system. Rendering engines are like measuring tools.

Other measurement systems definitely have their uses though. Many older measurements still exist due to them being easier to estimate with; e.g. an acre being the amount of land you could plow in a day.

And you'll never have the British drinking from litre glasses, I'm afraid. It's pints or nothing.

"an acre being the amount of land you could plow in a day" isn't that an extremely subjective way to measure something? And to almost everyone even modern farmer is that actually a good basis considering a modern farmer can most likely plow much more than an acre in a day with machinery?

Oh absolutely, if they updated it to be based on modern farming then everyone would have significantly less acreage :D

But you'll find that with most imperial measurements; they're based on physical objects or systems of measuring which make less sense today. One of my favourites being the traditional way of counting sheep in the north of England: http://www.fellpony.f9.co.uk/country/wool/count.htm (and here's a great explanation and song by the late Jake Thackeray: http://youtu.be/TiXINuf5nbI).

Sure, not from litre ones, there's too much binge drinking already :) But the half-a-litre glasses, common in metric countries, are a very close replacement to pints in terms of volume.

But not quite! ;) Somehow that extra 68.3ml makes all the difference.

Laws of Physics.

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