Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New to PSUB (measurement units)

[David Buchner <buchner@wcta.net>]

Uh-oh, here comes the feet vs. meters topic again...

On Sunday, October 19, 2003, at 07:09 PM, NeophyteSG@aol.com wrote:
> Agreed.  From an engineering calculations standpoint, I prefer using metric though conceptually I have to convert it back to inches, feet, pounds (or more accurately "slugs").  The numbers and units just crunch easier in metric.  From a practical standpoint, sometimes you just don't have that option.

I used to be a big, gung-ho, advocate of forcing a big switch to SI. You know: because it just "makes so much more sense" and is "more scientific." Also because it was more "PC" as in "the rest of the industrialized world has converted, why won't the US?" It just turned out to be impractical for me, because here everything is still sold and described in inches, feet, miles, etc.

I've had a new thought on this, which seems simple and obvious now but hadn't occurred to me before. And that's that, for people who use math and measurement all the time, a system of units constitutes almost a language -- and expecting somebody to change their system just because "everyone else is using this other one," is equivalent (in a sense) to insisting that everybody should ditch the language they grew up with, and switch to Esperanto.

Besides: I read a great line in a science fiction story, about being distrustful of anybody designing anything important, who would get hung up trying to divide by 12.