Quote:
Originally Posted by seifrob
The practicality of metric system lies, I believe, in the fact it is a system. Maybe not as intuitive for everyday life, but ideally suited for science.
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Ideally suited for science, yes, where nobody objects if you write numbers in scientific notation, rather than having to remember which stupid prefix to meter means what.
You also have to figure that, outside of science, measuring things in powers of ten is often awkward. Halves, quarters, and eights come more naturally. 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, which makes packaging much neater. Imagine trying to put 5-packs of drinks on a shelf :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
You don't need to go to the north pole all the way. Just far enough to measure by how much the position of the stars shifts. The French knew that too, obviously.
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Not quite as simple as all that. Quite aside from the fact that few people have precision astronomical gear, you have to figure that the Earth is not a perfect sphere, and Paris is not at sea level. Whereas
almost everyone has many people have a pair of legs, and can count :-)