Comment on inches plus coins equals metric system

Crow@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• TeenieBopper@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  10 isn’t the best base and I’m suck of pretending it is.

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  • Rinox@feddit.it ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Depends for what. Still better than random scales like 3, 12, 1760 and units that don’t mean anything like hundredweight, which isn’t even one hundred anything, unless it is because you live in another part of the world where the same word means a totally different thing.

    Fancy a pint?

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    • Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      12 is much better than 10 and I will die on this hill.

      If there was a vote to change everything to base 12 counting I would.

      How is 12 not better than 12?

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      • Rinox@feddit.it ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I don’t agree. It might sometimes be cool, but with a numerical system in base 10, having a unit system in base 12 becomes really hard to manage. Let’s take meters:

        1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm VS 1m = 12dm = 144cm = 1728mm

        How many mm is 15 dm in each system?

        To make a base 12 system work, you’d need to change the numerical system also, by adding two new digits, like we do for hexadecimal numbers, so you’d have …8-9-A-B-10, where A = 10 and B = 11 (in 10 base), so that 1m = 10dm = 100cm but in base 12.

        Anyway, good luck trying to pass that, I’ve seen people who can barely count on their fingers, let alone understand a new base 12 numerical system. And for what?

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  • DJKayDawg@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I would pick base 12. Which would you prefer?

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    • TeenieBopper@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Base 12 crew represent.

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    • Daxtron2@startrek.website ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      base 60 Babylonian gang where you at

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      • psud@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Base 60 has too many symbols for the digits

        Base 12 you only need two more symbols to follow 9

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    • EatYouWell@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Base 60

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    • JackRiddle@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Base six

      www.seximal.net

      Base 12 has some aweful divisions, like 1/5th and 1/7th

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    • pHr34kY@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Hexadecimal is always best.

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      • psud@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It doesn’t divide by 3

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  • DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    All the bases are 10

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    • psud@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      12 would have been a better base.

      The only thing going for 10 is that’s how many fingers you have if you can only count in ones

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      • sangriaferret@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        There are a total of twelve segments on the four fingers of each hand (thumb excluded) making it just as easy to count to 12.

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• Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Because a lot of imperial measurements revolved around being able to be divided by 4, and occasionally 3 at times.

  For instance the cooking unit of measurments are in 4’s or base 2 in a way (e.g 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups = 128 ounces)

  We still see 4s or 3s irl regardless of measurement system. Doughnuts are often prepared in dozens and virtually never in 10s. Do we walk around claiming why bakers hate 10 step counting?

  Time is the example of something designed around 3/4 and didn’t change. 60 is divisiable by both 4 (15) and 3 (20) and is not base 10, but people can accept that.

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  • bitwaba@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Time is the example of something designed around 3/4 and didn’t change. 60 is divisiable by both 4 (15) and 3 (20) and is not base 10, but people can accept that.

    The French tried decimal time for a few years…

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time

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• Zron@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why do you people feel the need to be able to convert between the thickness of a human hair and the distance between cities?

  Ah yes, this bolt is .000001 kilometers wide. That’s a very useful thing you guys did. Definitely need that in every day life.

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  • papalonian@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Stop, you’re making us Americans look even stupider.

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    • TheFrogThatFlies@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Let them be! I deserve a chuckle every now and then :)

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  • tuhriel@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah, that’s why nobody does it that way, but that strawman you got there looks mighty fine…

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• ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Using 12 and 16 makes for easier maths (pre-calculators). It’s easier to divide and get an integer. With easy access to calculators and highly precise measurements (especially digital systems) metric makes more sense and is easier to interpret quickly.

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• FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Because shut up. That’s why.

  Image

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• captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  16 is a power of two. Half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth.

  The main problem is they reduce the goddamn fraction. Let me have my 8/16th wrench.

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  • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Let me have my 8/16th wrench.

    If you start a new job in a garage you will absolutely be asked to go get one.

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    • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I always liked to send new guys to the parts crib for a spool of flight line. Sometimes they’d come back with safety wire.

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