Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Format units question
From: "Martin V. Howard" <marho@ida.liu.se>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 19:04:48 +0200

Glen M. Robinson wrote:
>
> The English system has its faults, but it is based on human
> experiences so it is easy to relate to.
>

So is any system.  You get used to things being of a certain distance,
weight or volume, regardless of this is in feet, micrograms, or cubic
lightyears.  In other words, our experience of using a measurment system
is the basis for our everyday understanding of it.

Still, the metric system is much simpler when converting between different
units, or when comparing sizes of things.  It is significantly easier to
know how 10ml relates to 10 litres, than how 10 fl. oz. relates to 10
quarts.  Why should we use a system that requires us to carry calculators
everywhere, even if calculators are commonplace?


M.

- -- 
Martin V. Howard, Application Systems Laboratory,     | 
Dept. of Comp. & Info. Sci., Linkoping University,    | Just DOHH it!
SE-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.  Tel +46 13 282 421,     +----------------+
Fax +46 13 142 231; marho@ida.liu.se; www.ida.liu.se/~marho