On Thursday 15 March 2007, Les Mikesell wrote: > Dotan Cohen wrote: > > All American measurements are of these unusual division. The inch > > itself is 1/12 foot, which is 1/5280 of a mile. Maybe not arbitrary, > > but not very intuitive. > > Not to defend the US units, but hasn't the meter been redefined at least > 3 times? Which of the choices was a unit that relates to something > intuitive to a human? > I've worked a good deal with both, so am inclined to swap between Imperial and Metric according to which fits the situation best. The problem with metric is that we tend not to work in deci- and deca- units, so the gap between, for instance, mm and m is to great. An inch and a foot are convenient. 30 cm. feels unwieldy, and 1/2 metre is too big. My daughter and I make the men in the family wince because we tend to take measurements like 'four inches and two millimetres' :-) We're *very* accurate ;-) Anne
