It seems like a weird point to bring up. How often do y’all convert your measurements? It’s not even a daily thing. If I’m measuring something, I either do it in inches, or feet, rarely yards. I’ve never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can’t imagine I’m unique in this. When I have needed to, it’s usually converting down (I.e. 1/3 of a foot), which imperial does handle better in more cases.
Like. I don’t care if we switch, I do mostly use metric personally, it just seems like a weird point to be the most common pro-metric argument when it’s also the one I’m least convinced by due to how metric is based off of base 10 numbering, which has so many problems with it.
Edit: After reading/responding a lot in the comments, it does seem like there’s a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries. I can’t quite put my finger on how, but it seems the difference is bigger than 1 mile = 1.6km
No, actually, I heard about the Brits decimalizing their currency, and thought it was an unfortunate choice. It was 20 shillings to a pound, 12 pence to a shilling, and I do actually, genuinely, unironicqlly think having 240 cents to a dollar is better than 100. 144 would be better, but 240 is still better than 100 imo
Gross
I’m very much an advocate for base 12, which would have 100 be 144 (12^2, same way 100 is 10^2)
You sure? Ok, you check your pocket and see that you have 5 half-pennies, 2 sixpence, 10 shillings, a crown, two florins, 3 half-crowns, and 3 pounds. Quickly, tell me, can you buy a 2 pound 15 shilling sandwich and a 1 pound 10 shillings drink? Which coins do you use for that?
Unless I’m missing a coin somewhere, no, you’d only have 3 pounds, 19 shillings, 2.5 pence.
Now, quickly, you have six dimes, a roll of quarters, seventeen pennies, and two rolls of nickels. Can you afford a $20 meal?
Quickly: No, a roll of quarters is $10. A roll of nickels won’t get you there.
Screw this, I’m going to quit counting and track down the joker who dumped all this coinage on me and box his ears with the nickel rolls.
Okay so lets use your numbers and buy s sanwitch and a drink from deli. Lets say the bread is $4,50 and the drink is $2,60.
So by conversion sanwich is $4 and ¢72 and the drink is $2 and ¢86 (86,4 is the accurate, but lets just round it)
So the total is $6 and ¢158. Then we need to convert it to the wholes and its $7 and ¢14.
In base hundred system the last conversion is just easier because you can do it just by moving a decimal. And i dont see any benefit in a system that makes that harder. And that is the reason why i think units like miles and feet are worse than metric.
Yes, in base 10 it does make the conversions easier, and we do use base 10. I don’t think we should, but we do, but also the money conversion is something that is a relatively daily occurrence, not something that doesn’t frequently happen like most distance conversions. While, yes, being 5 foot 8 inches is how we usually say people’s heights, we do regularly just… Not convert. TVs are sold as 55 inch, not as 1 yard, 1 foot, and 7 inches, same as the average female height isn’t 1 meter, 6 decimeters, 7 centimeters, and 5 millimeters in the US. It’s 167.5cm.
You asked why people bring conversions up when talking about metric system and i tried to explain it. When you are used to a system where you can do it, its jarring when people try to say system where it is impossible is better.
Both systems work in everyday use just as well, but one system is superior in those situations where you need to calculate something little different from the norm.
Personal example from last year was when person who owns a road with me and few others wanted to make it wider for heavy machinery (he is fellling lot of trees and he will get better price if the trucks collecting the logs can drive closer). It was really easy for me to calculate how many m² i would loose field and forest area when the road is widened because even if the amount road is widened is in cm and the lenght of the road is in km those numbers mix well. I could easily calculate everything accurately, while in feet and miles i think i would just had to questimate it.